Since the late 90’s and early 2000’s, social media has blown up across the world. It has taken over the majority of peoples lives and no one can seem to escape the grip it has on everyone, especially teens.

The teens of todays age are the first generation to have grown up around social media throughout (almost) the entirety of their lives. Every teen is accustomed to it because they have known no different. Social media has been beneficial for most generations (to a certain extent) but there are more and more issues on the rise because of it as the days go by.

Social media started out as a way to help people create online communities, share ideas, send messages and create other content for people across the globe. Teens have grabbed ahold of this and now use it as their main source of communication through apps such as iMessage, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and many other apps. Since social media was created for this purpose there should be no problem…but there is.

Social media has created controversy concerning mental health, addiction, danger and many other things. Teens have been using social media so much to the point that they have detached from the real world and are caught up in the virtual reality side of it. Mental health has declined tremendously over the last 20-25 years because a portal has been opened to cyber-bullying, addiction, negativity and much more. Danger is also a huge factor regarding social media due to the ability of reaching out to strangers and not knowing the intentions behind them.

In the end, social media was created with the purpose of connecting people across the world but quickly turned into an unfavorable place to be that is able to be seen in everyone’s everyday lives.