Today’s youth versus social media

Bornali Nath Dowerah

(The writer can be reached at bornali.nd9@gmail.com)

Since late nineties youth have been following a popular fashion which becomes common after some time. Compared to today’s youths variety of trends are crowding the market created and generated by the social media supported by digital technology. Rarely few exist without a WhatsApp, an FB or an Insta account. In fact, the lighter part is TikToking with filmy dialogues and songs in variegated moods and expressions. The point here is “Like”, “Follow”, “Comment”, “Share” and “Subscribe” are everyday terms used by anybody. Nevertheless, YouTubing can be a constructive and productive process but the question is where are today’s youths heading for? The positive flow about social media is the instant awareness of the happenings around the globe. Besides, employment opportunities are also being created for unemployed youths. This further enables youths to set up networks and connections with friends and family without physical meetings. According to a recent BBC news report despite remaining up-to-date there is also a tendency to get socially isolated. The declining face-to-face interactions have led to social isolation causing emotional, physical and psychological issues among youths. Due to this fact, today’s youths are susceptible to depression, anxiety and the like. This makes a negative impact on the academic performance of students further degrading their morale. A major problem is an education in social platforms which spread wrong information, devaluing people’s sentiments, tarnishing images of people and such others. They aggravate more hatred, enmity and revengeful attitudes resulting in fissures, intolerance and indifference. Youngsters are often found on social sites chatting, texting and gaming. This is unfortunate that every hour, one student commits suicide in India, according to 2015 data (the latest available) from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB). Two cross-sectional surveys of American and German university students, respectively, found that students who spent more time on the social media platform like Facebook were more likely to endorse feeling envy or sense that others in their social network were better off than they were. A common behaviour is noticed among adolescent, which is incidentally the term “FOMO” — fear of missing out. This is defined as “a pervasive apprehension that others might be having rewarding experiences from which one is absent,” which has heightened the peer stress related to Facebook use. A simple instance is a quantity of “likes” and “followers” has begun to cling to youth’s sense of pride and joy nowadays. A survey of middle and high school students made in Ontario showed that the thoughts of suicidal plans and attempts have been found significantly higher among those who had experienced cyberbullying. A recent study of senior high school adolescent students in Taiwan found that classified internet-addicted youths had a significantly increased risk of having newly emerged self-harm or suicidal behaviour as evaluated a year later. Another recent empirical field study using experience sampling in 304 youth participants showed that even the mere presence of phones on a table caused to have lower enjoyment during social interactions compared with those who were randomized to putting their phone away. Phone use was also found to predict distraction, which in turn predicted greater boredom and mood swings. In this regard, youths engaged in mitigating potential harms from social media, a prohibitionist approach would be counterproductive. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, online relationships are part of typical adolescent development. So for today’s youths, who have not known a world without social media, digital interactions are the norm, and the potential benefits of online access to productive mental health information that includes media literacy, creativity, self-expression, and generates sense of belongingness and responsibility; indulges in civic engagement and talking therapies that serves as a healing process. An observational study showed that spending more than a few hours per week using electronic media imbibed negatively with self-reported happiness, life satisfaction and self-esteem, whereas time spent on non-screen activities like in-person social interactions, sports, cultural participation, print media, home tasks, religious services correlated positively with mental well-being among adolescents. It is essential to identify how self-harm behaviour among adolescent youths is romanticized and normalized in the social media platform. Cognitive control, monitoring socio-emotional behaviour and academic performance contribute towards safeguarding the interests of youths whose privacy is invaded by social media. It is likely, this addiction is making them crippled by body, mind and spirit because their innate productivity is obstructed. It is high time today’s youth was guided to navigate the challenges brought about by use of smartphones and social media, protect themselves from harm and use social media such that it protects their mental health, against a backdrop of policy initiatives aimed at addressing the socio-economic and environmental factors that underpin family well-being and nurture youth resilience. Another longitudinal study involving 2286 adolescents in Europe, magnitude of internet use, in general, had a negative impact on mental health, but the most robust effects came from the consequences — in particular, lack of sleep from internet use had a notable adverse effect on mental health on 4-month follow-up based on measures from a validated depression, anxiety and stress scale. Encouraging parents to be proactively involved in limiting their wards’ use of smartphones and social media may be helpful provided they spend more time and interactive sessions with their teenage children. This method also is suggestive of parents harnessing their own presence in the social media platform. Youth and their families can be encouraged to set boundaries for smartphone and social media use. It is not about barging into the private spaces of youths but vigilance on their behaviour and performance can be legitimized as a mark of concern and safety so that they don’t fall prey to any criminal and unethical acts. Valuing humanity and social awareness add to a long-term consortium. It’s necessary to balance the personal and public growths with morality at its base rather than political or emotional grounds. If the creativity of the youths are motivated, monitored and manoeuvred to skills development this generation can create more wonders. This process can be initiated by indoctrinating the management of time. Besides, interests and skills can be sculpted according to individual choices. Above all, the potential youths of today cannot be robbed off their potentialities to injudicious use of social media.