Do you remember when your parents would tell you that what you listened to or watched would influence the way you act? Did you think that they were silly and thought, “Oh, that will never happen to me!”?  

Guess what . . . it’s happening right now to you this very second as you’re reading this. Your phone, the media, and social media are taking over your life. There are apps that you can do everything on. 

Apps like Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter influence young people.  You get all your information from these sources because they speak “your language.” Twitter is where you come up with all your new phrases, and Instagram is where you get your new clothes.  

Get where the opening question came from? Your parents are always right, even when they’re not.   

Your phone: the magical device that your parents bought for you because “you just had to have one”. Communication is the number one way humanity functions; you don’t get human interaction through watching old Vine compilations on YouTube. Within the world that we live in today, so many kids are getting the back end of the stick with communication.  

The world that we live in is driven by how many likes or followers we have. This shows that people like us. As Sally Field said in her Emmy speech, “They like me! They really like me!” The satisfaction that you get from seeing that your photo on Instagram has 100+ likes on it makes you feel good about yourself. Most people think that likes equal emotion, but that is not the case. Twitter and Instagram do not give you the real human emotion or interaction that you need. Human interaction is key to success in the real world. Kids are going to have no idea what to expect on the other side of the screen.  

Teenagers are going into job interviews and have no idea that they must shake the hand of the manager that they are talking to because TV doesn’t show that side of getting the job, they just show that the person gets the job, the actor or actress is automatically hired.    

Social media has this way of captivating a person, specifically young people. The platforms that teens use now can be fun but dangerous at the same time such as Snapchat and Kik. Kids can develop bad habits from the things they see on social media. With social media comes consequences. If you’re not careful, you can become a part of something you never intended to.   

With all this being said, your phone and social media can also have benefits to your everyday life. Say you missed school today and have no other way to contact your friends in your classes other than Snapchat or Instagram. With the tap of an app, you have access to all your friends. Maybe your best friend of all time just moved all the way across the country. Without your phone, you would have no idea how they are doing or if you’ll ever see them again. Social media and your phone make these things possible.  

While there are still benefits to having a phone or having a social media platform, it is important to learn human interaction and communication skills. Communication comes with how you are made up as a person. You want to learn these skills now or you will be lost in the world we live in. Being a young adult in the world of social media is tough, but it also comes with tough things to deal with. Communication is one of those tough concepts that adults must go through.