In Sreedhar Potarazu’s online article “Is social media ruining our kids?”, he uses date collected from several studies to prove that it in fact is. With the results from surveys, he establishes the link between social media and depression. Sreedhar Potarazu mentions that “children are growing up now in a world where they expect immediate response, gratifications, and notification”. Potarazu states several options for parents to follow, he suggests a “structured social media” platform to monitor their kids’ online data, add courses, ease up on pressure, and pay more attention. He lists these solutions so parents can stop “fueling disaster” in regard to social media.
Sreedhar Potarazu’s article claiming the link between depression and social …show more content…
Working at a middle school, I deal with children from 11-14 year olds who face this daily. I see first-hand how the pressure of society and social media affects them, and how they react to it. There is an obvious distinction between “popular” and “unpopular” kids, and the stigma that comes with both. “Popular” kids are straight A-students, who are Varsity athletes, and have many friends. Whereas, the “unpopular kids” are kids who don’t make it to school until 5th period, fail every other class, and keep to themselves. The difference between both is almost impossible to try to minimize, now throw in social media and the difference becomes greater. We move from simply dealing with school popularity to social media popularity, and many kids can’t tell the difference. Children can’t vary between someone and the likes they have, and I’ve seen them treat people differently because of it. I’ve seen fights stemming from “liking” someone else’s girlfriend’s picture, as well as “unfriending” them on Facebook. I’ve witnessed a student become an outcast because of a Facebook post, and the difficult time he had gaining back his “popularity”. Middle school is a cruel world compared to that of elementary, and most kids are having conflicts trying to navigate it. Coupled with today’s society enforcing the need to have everything “put together” or at least appear for it to be, and kids, whose development is still in progress, can’t tell the
Sreedhar Potarazu’s article claiming the link between depression and social …show more content…
Working at a middle school, I deal with children from 11-14 year olds who face this daily. I see first-hand how the pressure of society and social media affects them, and how they react to it. There is an obvious distinction between “popular” and “unpopular” kids, and the stigma that comes with both. “Popular” kids are straight A-students, who are Varsity athletes, and have many friends. Whereas, the “unpopular kids” are kids who don’t make it to school until 5th period, fail every other class, and keep to themselves. The difference between both is almost impossible to try to minimize, now throw in social media and the difference becomes greater. We move from simply dealing with school popularity to social media popularity, and many kids can’t tell the difference. Children can’t vary between someone and the likes they have, and I’ve seen them treat people differently because of it. I’ve seen fights stemming from “liking” someone else’s girlfriend’s picture, as well as “unfriending” them on Facebook. I’ve witnessed a student become an outcast because of a Facebook post, and the difficult time he had gaining back his “popularity”. Middle school is a cruel world compared to that of elementary, and most kids are having conflicts trying to navigate it. Coupled with today’s society enforcing the need to have everything “put together” or at least appear for it to be, and kids, whose development is still in progress, can’t tell the