It has been said before and it will continue to be said over and over again as long as the sky is blue, earth is brown and grass is green that the purpose of social media websites is to bring people closer together and to turn the world into a global village – to cut back on hate and to make people hailing from all different parts of the world closer together, building a deep-rooted and personal sense of friendship and devotion between these various and very different groups of people.
But, quite unlike what the creators of such social media platforms had in mind, social media has turned from the quintessential global village into a war of followers. Even though Facebook Messenger is said to be one of the most downloaded apps from the App Store or Google Play, it is mostly being used to from people and to exchange racial slurs with people who according to you do not really make the cut to be worthy of being even virtually close to you.
Social Media and Teens
In the age of technology where being popular on social media is akin to winning the lottery, being on the top of social media ladder is everything. While this road is east for some to navigate, for others, it is a hell of a job. Things like these are what make a teen’s live potential hell on earth. But, unfortunately, things don’t end here.
Here is a list of a few things that add to the list of pressures that teens today have to face courtesy of social media.
War of followers/friends
Having less than 500 people following you on Twitter or Instagram or having shorter than 250 friends on Facebook is never good for any teen since such an occurrence is what, in teen language, makes you a loser and since the “cool” teens with literally thousand of friends and followers both on and off social media make them not want to share any close space with what they consider social losers both physically and virtually. This makes the aforementioned “losers”, “social pariahs” as well. Thus, teens in order to be socially relevant, at the very least in their own social circles, teens cannot be losers.
The Art of Documentation
While teens detest the documentation of their homework and assignments, documentation of things like what they had for breakfast and how they had coffee with their friends at the cute coffee shop around the corner from the school to a picture montage of the clothes and bikinis they are taking with themselves to cruise this year is of utmost importance. This creates a sense of jealousy amongst teens that do not have the resources or the time to make as many as 3 posts every hour and be able to generate thousands of likes on the social media profiles. This just adds to the list of pressures teens have to face every single day that adults are unaware of.
The Perfect Selfie
In late 2014, the world was taken over by a storm courtesy of the selfie craze or selfie culture. Taking selfies became such a huge thing that by 2015 the word, “Selfie” was able to make its very own debut into the Oxford Dictionary. But unfortunately, for those of us who can’t get a selfies right even by applying a thousand filters on it ain’t cut for social media stardom.
Cyber Grooming and Cyber-stalking
If that was bad, imagine being bullied by their peers online to start to contemplate committing a social suicide to in order to put an end to it all. Plus, it has been making it quite easy for the stalker to stalk, stalk, stalk as Taylor Swift would have out, is just icing on the pressure cake.
Catfishing
Remember that friend that was so kind and sweet and you felt like even though you have never met, you understand each other at a deeper level and when you go out to meet them they turn out to Freddie Kruger look alike minus the blades for hands? Yeah, it happens to teens on a daily basis now.
The Bottom Line
It might come as a surprise to most adults that when they were busy assuring that their children are having the best life they could, their teens are facing ailments and pressures they have never even contemplated. Thus, at times like the best thing that parents everywhere can do is make an effort to know their child. They can also invest in TOS parental monitoring software to truly understand what their teen is going through and to coach them accordingly and help them stay cool under pressure and become the best version of themselves they can possibly be.
