Are People On Social Media Too Much?
11/9/22
By: Carson Thomas
Do you find that your peers are always on social media? Or are you scrolling through social media all the time and it’s just so hard to stop? Maybe you feel like a 5 year old who gets sucked into paw patrol and then cries when your parents turn it off.Â
82 percent of the US population uses social media, and 20-29 year old women use social media the most out of anyone. However in 2022 the average teenager uses social media for 3.8 hours a day to 7.7 hours per day and this isn’t even including how much TV they watch or how many video games they play, this is a problem because doctors recommend no more than 2 hours of screen time per day. There are 4.59 Billion social media users worldwide but this isn’t necessarily a good thing because social media can distract teens and social media could even get people to think bad of themselves. Social media can also keep people up at night just scrolling thinking that they will watch just one more video but they never quit. “I think people use social media too much and that now some people don’t care about other people because they don’t have enough followers,” says Alder Hanson, a 6th grader at Edgewood Junior High School.Â
If you think about it, we really don’t need social media. It doesn’t benefit us in many ways. Sure it lets us see what our peers are out doing but we could just call our friends and tell them what we're doing or we could meet up with them in person. Besides, these methods are way more fun. It's like a free pass to go and see all of your friends and who doesn’t like that?
Although something positive about social media is that you can easily find places to shop or eat. And while you can get bullied on social media you can also get a lot of positivity and meet new people. And if you don’t use it too much most people won’t see a problem with it. However Social media is also very entertaining and using it produces dopamine which is what makes you feel good. This is also what makes people addicted to different things such as smoking, of course social media isn’t quite as strongly addicting as some of people's addictions but it is still not good for you. So just try to limit your screen time as much as you possibly can.
Contributor Bio: Carson Thomas is an 11 year old male who loves playing guitar, listening to metal, and eating burritos.