Negative effects of Facebook on Teenagers

Nowadays Social media has expanded and it became very important to everyone. “There are 7.7 billion people in the world, with at least 3.5 billion online, which means that social media platforms are used by one in three people in the world, and more than two thirds of all the internet users. “(Ospina, 2019). Hence, it has changed the whole world, as it changed how people think, talk, behave and act. There are a lot of social media platforms such as Twitter, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, Facebook etc.… According to Ospina (2019) “With 2.3 billion users, Facebook is the most popular social media platform today.” Hence, Facebook has a huge negative impact on people.

Facebook is a powerful tool that can be very harmful for teenagers, as it is a method to spread information, which offers a broad range of choices and opinions. Facebook can grow many psychological disorder such as being anti social, anxious and depressed as teens choose to spend their time checking Facebook rather than going out. According to Ehmke (n.d) a survey that was made in which they asked teenagers between the age of 14-19 years in the UK how Facebook affected their health and wellbeing and found out that it increased their feelings of anxiety, loneliness and depression. Hence, too much Facebook is mentally unhealthy, as it gives the opportunity for people to judge everyone, spread rumors, get in politics and read different points of view which will cause a mental breakdown for the teens, not only that, but it also let to feeling unsatisfied with their own bodies, life and how they look.

People argued that Facebook is not harmful for the mental health as it let teenagers make new friends, let families and friends connect together, and learning new things. As Facebook is a huge platform that has many users so it is easy to meet new people and make new friendships, not only that, but it also let family members connect with each others easily. “Social Media and especially Facebook also gives teenagers the probability to develop their social circle and develop new friendships and develop awareness about society and the world.” (Akram & Kumar, 2017).

Some people claim that Facebook has positive impacts on teenagers, however it affects their mental health negatively. “Meanwhile, 17% of the respondents to the made survey, feel that Facebook harms relationships and result in less meaningful human interactions, not only that, but also some people think Facebook distorts reality and gives teens an unrealistic view of other people’s lives (15%), or that teens spend too much time on.” (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). Moreover, Facebook affects teenagers in a very negative way it makes them talk less offline, which means that it is very hard for them to socialize in real life, not only that but it also let them hate their life as they see other people happy pictures while which is most of the time fake. Facebook also opens the door for spreading rumors and bullying which affect the teenager’s mental health.

To conclude it all, no one can deny the importance of social media in our life as it became the place where people spend most of their time there, but not every important thing is good for our mental health. Facebook let teenager make new friends and let them connect with their families, but it also affects teenager’s life in a very negative way as they are living in an unrealistic world, which causes psychological disorder to the teenagers when they face real life or being exposed to any kind of bullying online. Many of the teenagers nowadays are anti social, and face anxiety and depression because of seeing others living a better life, or being bullied.

Habiba Muhamed

ID: 181122