Rouse students consider the pros and cons social media has during their teenage years. 

“It makes me happy and at the end of the day that’s all that matters because it’s an extension of real life me,” sophomore Jada Nichols said. “I use my account the way I want and I post what I want to post.”

Media and technology can be used to fill the time in students’ lives. Moments of periodic boredom throughout the day can now be spent on phones and other forms of technology, where students participate in trends, post, text and engage with the community.                           

“I think I spend about six hours on social media a day, probably more on the weekends,” Nichols said. 

There are different approaches to social media. Some use it more than others and some don’t use it at all. Platforms can also be used as a way to express themselves while others use it as a mask. Others think social media comes with being a teenager because it’s used by the majority of teens.

“I do think that it can be a reflection of someone, but I also think they can put up a front for themself and make themself look like something they’re not,” sophomore Brynlee Young said. “I think that I post me, truly me, and I think that my posts resonate with me. It lets me see the world in a different way than I see it, like giving me peoples opinions and letting me share mine.”

From the clothes you pick out to the different foods you try, social media influences you. Social media can be considered a form of marketing, as it sways you to buy, buy, buy.

“I’ll see something on insta and then buy it if I can afford it,” Nichols said. “It’s the reason my makeup collection is growing so much.”

Having social media has been proven to be distracting, thus some teachers take up phones. Getting sucked into the media can be time consuming. According to International Association for Relationship Research (IARR), “The results suggest that time displacement occurs at the cohort level, with in-person social interaction declining as digital media use increased, but not at the individual level, where in-person social interaction and social media use are positively correlated.”

“Social media is a hundred percent a distraction,” Nichols said. “The other day I made some noodles and left them on the counter for hours because I got caught up scrolling on tik tok and twitter.”

Although social media has some negatives, it  can also result in improved wellbeing. The complete case analysis suggested taking time for yourself. Breaks are a normal part of the social media process. Being on social media can be fun as much as it is draining. According to Mary Ann Liebert Inc., “First, limiting social media use to 10 minutes per app/day instead of limiting social media led to improvements in sleep quality, although the imputed analysis demonstrated no such relationship.”

“I think breaks are beneficial even if you’re not going through something,” Nichols said. “Just living life the easy way it was before social media can be peaceful.”