Are social networks really helping young people?

In my opinion, there is actually more cons that pros about social networks when it comes to teenagers. The biggest problem is that young people do not know how to use them properly or, at least, in a balanced way. As I see it, in general, they are addicted to their smartphone, constantly checking it to see if they have new messages or likes in social networks. There are moments that we live through the device, and we do not enjoy things “in real life”. You can see people watching some kind of show or performance and instead of watching it directly to keep a memory of it they are continuously recording, or people hanging out in a café and actually not talking to each other, but completely absorbed in their devices. This cause people to spend less time interacting face-to-face and can lead to stress and offline relationship problems. Social networking sites also entice people to waste time and because of that, students who are heavy social media users tend to have lower grades. They also facilitate bullying, which is already a big problem “offline”.

On the other hand, the spread of internet and new gadgets has provided us easy access to lots of information. We can check whenever we want any doubt we could have on google or the Wikipedia, we are constantly informed of news, and of course we are also in permanent touch with our friends or family. For instance, on Friday, when the terrible attacks of Paris happened, you could check in Facebook if your friends that lived near the zone were safe. Easy access of information means culture, and well used can mean a big academic benefit. Social networking sites and internet in general also offer teachers a platform to upload content that students can benefit from, as in the case of sakai in our university.

To sum up, being techno-lover of the social media and new generation gadgets can mean an advantage in culture and awareness of what is happening in the world if used correctly, but using them in a bad way can lead to addiction and make people to lose interest on school and important matters and, in some way, “disconnect” from the real world.