Steele 1

Peyton Steele

Ms. Lowe

Honors English II

11 December 2019

Teen Social Media Addiction On The Rise

One major problem in today's society is that teenagers have become overly obsessed and

addicted to social media platforms. Being attached to social media comes with many problems.

Teens brains are still growing and developing, and it has been shown to have a negative affect on

mental health. This generation has become so dependent on social media that it takes away from

face-to-face interaction along with direct person activities. Many people believe that that these

media platforms are a positive way to keep in touch and interact, but little do they know, it is

actually causing potential damage for them in the future.

Too much social media has also been proven to affect both physical and mental health.

According to (Editorial Team) the largest group of teens that are impacted are mostly young,

single females. This is simply because females​ are more applicable to improving advertising

message efficiency and content transference. Teenagers addiction to social media has worsened

because of the constant new technologies and apps coming out. Assuming that we do nothing to

stop this problem, ​more teenagers become addicted, which means more people developing

potential social skills problems. According to Tommy Landry, “Students were dumbfounded to

hear that we didn't even carry our phones with us 15-20 years ago.” Today, almost everyone has
 Steele 2

their phone on them twenty-four-seven. This shows how fast technology is advancing and how

much more it will be in our lives in the future.

One solution to social media addiction with teens is to add time limits on to their screen

time intake. “Paradigm Malibu Adolescent Treatment Center” states that parents can help the

problem by limiting teenagers screen time because it is only giving them a certain amount of

time. This is so that they are not able to be on social media ​interminable. Although in order to do

this, some apps may cost money but there are many cost-free options. Some advantages to this

solution are, it ​causes them to go do another activity, creates healthier eyes/brain, become more

aware of their surroundings, along with decreasing the chance of cyberbullying. However,

putting these limits on teenagers phones could cause them to feel left out, not always be able to

be in contact with others, and could possibly miss important events/announcements. Overall,

adding a screen time limit on teenagers technologies is a low cost and very effective way to limit

teenagers' use of social media.

In addition, another solution to teenagers social media addictions are to simply have them

participate in more hobbies and/or extra activities (ex. sports). Although, playing a sport or

engaging in new activities does cost money because you may have to buy new equipment and

materials required. By participating in something new, it is consuming time and giving teenagers

something to do rather than scrolling through social media. Advantages to this solution are that it

gives teens a chance to socialize more and meet new people, could gain joy from succeeding,

takes up time to practice, and possibly create an overall more fit/healthier teenager. On the other
 Steele 3

hand, this solution take time away from friends and family, has risk of possibly injuries, and

most likely costs money. Ultimately, having teenagers participate in new sports and activities is a

good time consumption and takes away time from potential time with social media.

This generation of teenagers is becoming, if not already addicted to social media. Which

is possibly leading to eating disorders, self-harming behaviors, and substance abuse. The two

possible solutions I stated were first, that parents can limit their child's screen time for how long

they have access to social media. Another solution is to have teens participate in more hobbies

and extra activities to consume time. I believe that parents putting screen time limits on social

media is the best solution. Although it could possibly cost money, there are many options that are

costless while still requiring them to do anything else but scroll through media platforms. Setting

these time limits does more than just taking up time, it also makes teens more aware of their

surroundings along with a healthier brain. Overall, if parents add screen time limits on their

children's social media apps, it can majorly decrease their possibility of addiction along with

breaking previous addictions to social media.

 Steele 4

Works cited

Malik, Suha, and Free N. Hess. “Why Teens Are Addicted to Social Media.” ​PediMom​,

13 Dec. 2018, pedimom.com/why-teens-are-addicted-to-social-media/.

Rudolph, Roger L, et al. “Young Female Users of Social Media and Internet Addiction.”

OMICS International​, OMICS International, 10 Feb. 2014,

www.omicsonline.org/open-access/young-female-users-of-social-media-and-internet-addiction-2

165-7912.1000177.php?aid=24229.

Team, Editorial. “10 Social Media Addiction Statistics Of 2019 [Infographic].” ​FameMass​,

30 Oct. 2019, famemass.com/social-media-addiction-statistics/.

“Teen Social Media Addiction.” ​Shepherd's Hill Academy​,

www.shepherdshillacademy.org/resources/teens-social-media-addiction/

“Teen Social Media Addiction Treatment.” ​Paradigm Malibu​, 10 Apr. 2019,

paradigmmalibu.com/teen-social-media-addiction-treatment/.