The positive effect of social media on youths

The Positive Effects of Social Media On Teens

Teens today, falling under Generation Z, aren’t your typical millennials. Born during the smartphone era, this generation is actually the first real digital cohort.

Teenagers — or “screenagers,” as they’re being called now — have never known a time without WiFi or social media, and the existence of both is now dismissed as nothing but a fact of life. Certainly not a technological revolution, as older generations saw it.

Because of this, they don’t seem to go through that “oversharing” phase most millennials do. They see social media more as a way to connect with othersthan as a way to just broadcast their own lives. It’s also very possible that they’ve seen the mistakes their older generation committed, especially back when social media was new and exciting.

In short, they get all the benefits of social media, but fewer of the negative effects. Let’s take a break from the negativity and look at the various ways social media is enriching your teen’s life.

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Teens are More Informed About Current Events

Social media has truly made the world smaller. A short scroll through their feeds and teens today are be able to see what’s happening in their neighborhood or any country around the world.

So, social media can make teens more informed citizens of the country. This is important because by hearing from all parties about the problems the world or the country is facing, they’ll learn how to form their own opinions at an early age. This is more than most members of previous generations can say for themselves.

Social Media Helps Develop Social Awareness and Empathy

Social awareness includes consciousness of the hardships and difficulties people in different societies are facing. Social media is full of posts that encourage this awareness. It’s not uncommon at all to see posts that advocate for those in need.

Take, for example, the time last year when someone stole this homeless man’s violin, and a social media user photographed him and posted it on Facebook, with the caption “in the hope that a good Samaritan has a violin to give.”

The story went viral and help poured in.

Exposure to these kinds of posts can help your teen develop compassion and empathy. Did you know that there is also a study that links virtual empathy to real-world empathy? Despite the complaints from many people about how technology makes us care less about other people, some research actually shows the opposite.

If you ever want your posts to go viral, by the way, running a Followers campaign and then buying social media Followers may be a good way to get there. If you buy a huge number of followers, you’ll naturally attract more users who want to see why you have such a large audience. People like following those who are popular and influential. You’ll appear to be both when you have many followers, even if they’re not all real.

While there are some cheap companies out there, you can easily buy high-quality Instagram Followersthat will improve your social proof. Those high-quality bought followers look as real as any authentic follower.

It Can Improve Social Skills

While socialization on social media is very different than face-to-face interaction in real-life, teens develop social skills from using social platforms. They learn to connect with people they otherwise would never not contact.

In fact, studies show that social media can positively impact friendships. People develop a closer relationship with their friends and family, and sometimes, those they don’t even know.

This is what Matthew experienced when he opened an account on Instagram. He’s the teenage son of a medical professional, who was himself suffering from depression.

He received kind words and support not just from friends and family but even from strangers on the platform. Social media helped him not only to recover from depression and anxiety but also to share a message of hope with other teens like him.

Matthew used Instagram to connect with others like him and found support on the platform.

Image credit: CNN

Gets Teens Up to Speed with Technology

There’s no doubt about it, the use of social media makes our teens tech-savvy in a way most of their parents never will be. Technological advances and habitual use of the latest gadgets are becoming the norm.

Kids today can more easily grasp complex ideas in technology than earlier generations, and they’re more comfortable with revolutionary tech and concepts.

It Enhances Creativity

Technology enhances creativity in a variety of ways. Social media, in particular, makes it easy for teens to meet other people, read about other people’s views, and learn new insights from real people around the world.

Social media also provides an easier way for teens to pick apart ideas or collaborate with others.

On Instagram, for example, teens can discover photography techniques and encourage each other to take up photography as a hobby. Pictures of beautifully arranged food can inspire young people to become chefs. Instagram is certainly an ideal platform for creative teens, where they can find a wealth of content around almost any interest they might have.

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Being Social Increases Self-confidence

Social media makes us feel good about ourselves. Those feelings come out as narcissistic tendencies in some people while they translate to true self-esteem for some.

While self-esteem is different from self-confidence, they are very similar. Self-esteem is based on self-worth while self-confidence is based on abilities, although those two concepts are linked. Still, it seems that because people identify with every bit of information they put in their profile, they tend to develop better self-confidence.

Indeed, people tend to get obsessed with the number of likes, comments, shares, and followers, and see them as signs of approval. So, your teen may feel good about online approval and draw self-confidence and self-esteem from it.

Image credit: DNA India

If you have a shy or introverted teenager, social media is also the perfect platform for him to develop self-confidence because it provides a less threatening method of communication. So, if your teen wants to have legions of followers or thousands of likes on Instagram, for example, know that it can help in building his confidence.

Incidentally, if you want to expand your reach on Instagram, you can add buying Instagram Followers to your strategies. Buying followers is like buying credibility, and that is how you’ll gain real followers. With your bought followers you’ll appear more popular, and this will encourage people to check out your account and follow as well.

Helps Teens Develop Trust and Build Closer Relationships with Friends

A study has found that internet and social media use affects trust, and that people online are more than twice as likely to feel that people can be trusted, compared to people offline. They found that on Facebook in particular, users are more trusting and that they have closer relationships.

This shows how social media has the potential to add meaning to your teen’s life by helping them develop closer friendships and have more faith in people.

Teens: Generation Sensible on Social Media

Perhaps because teens today are more likely to be raised by a generation obsessed with safety — Generation X parents who only want BPA-free products, organic wooden baby toys, breast milk, pureed vegetable baby foods, etc. — they seem more cautious and wiser online.

Teens use social media a lot, but more because they want to stay in touch with their friends and family than anything else. The result is that they seem to benefit more from social media than their elder generations.

Will this trend continue into the latter parts of their lives, and for later generations too? Nobody can say, and only time will tell. But social media is here to stay, so we most definitely better learn to live with it.