By Lily Taylor
They’re everywhere! Trends and live streams and celebrities, an endless void of doom scrolling. There is no doubt that every teenager has a phone, and that every teenager will have seen something like this because after all, it's easy to find, a click here and a swipe there and boom! You’re watching a makeup tutorial or liking a friend’s post. Easy peasy lemon squeezy. Or is it?
We wake up and scroll. We eat breakfast and scroll. We get dressed and guess what, we scroll. It’s part of a routine, a ritual that many people find amusing and enjoyable, but the fact that so many young people are seeing the perfect bodies and lives of people living on the other side of the world (that - let’s face it - are completely irrelevant to our lives) and cringing at the fact that they didn’t go to the gym yesterday, or buy that protein shake they saw in a bougie shop in Soho is damaging to society and young peoples’ mental health. We should realise that what we post can impact others and when someone sees that ab-mazing photo, they might feel negatively about themselves. Social media targets young people like this who would believe everything they see online and will believe that that picture is not photoshopped and will then look in the mirror and hate what they see. That should not happen. Growing up is a huge struggle alone, why should teenagers have to deal with the added pressure of others?
However, social media is a great way to keep up with friends. I saw my cousin met a kangaroo in Australia last summer, how cool is that! I liked it and commented, and just like that we were chatting, from different sides of the world. Young people deserve those opportunities, time out with friends, and a space to organise the weekend cinema trip to see Mean Girls. Okay, that might not be the main use of DMs, but come on - Mean Girls!! Chatting with a friend is a really helpful way to wind down after a long day and social media can be that link that holds the chain together, and maybe a morning scroll could be useful, finding out about the latest news or the sale at Zara.
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