Social media has had a huge influence on children of all ages. There are many positives and negatives to social media. Starting with the positives, social media gives children the ability to connect with their friends and their family members as well. Social media turned into something very positive when the pandemic started. When the pandemic started, young children were able to play games with their friends and use Zoom to stay connected to their friends and family. This was extremely important for children to stay connected with their friends because it is essential for their age. At this young of an age, children need to be playing and interacting with other children because it is good for their growth. Social media was a huge way for children to stay connected with their friends and their family.
Although there are many positive impacts of social media on children, there are also many negative impacts of social media on children. One negative is that children are being exposed to potential false media that they may believe.
With this being said, this is a Media Literacy concern because parents and guardians need to make sure that their children are media literate and do not believe everything that they see on the internet and also on social media.
Another negative of social media on children is that it can cause mental health problems and lower the self-esteem of children. There are people and celebrities on social media that use photoshop to perfect their photos and when children see this, they begin to feel that they are not good enough. Celebrities should not be posting photoshopped photos because it is unrealistic and children should not feel that they need to look like them. Lastly, social media can have a negative impact on children because of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a form of bullying that happens on social media that can cause depression, anxiety, and more. There are many people that hide behind their phones and write mean comments and that can have a huge impact on many children. If social media was monitored, it will help all of these negatives that come from it and have a better impact on children.
In my opinion, social media has a big positive impact and a big negative impact on children in so many ways. I feel that when social media is used correctly, it is a great way to stay connected. If social media is not used correctly, then there are so many problems that can come out of it. Children, especially now, rely on social media for many things. The one issue that concerns me is if children become too reliant on social media and will not be able to interact with someone face to face. Children should be able to have a face to face conversation with someone and not be reliant on social media. Other than that and all of the negatives, I think social media is such a great way to stay connected and a great way for children to interact with their friends which is what they need.
