What is happening to our youth of today? Has social media and the likes of Facebook become the downfall of their time? I am here today to shed light on this situation. Although social media is the highlight in the life of teens today, there are multiple downfalls to the connection it gives us. Generation Z is defined as those that are born from the late 1990's through today, they are the ones destined for a life of greatness by going beyond the grasp that social media is creating. With all the technology at the palms of their hands they somehow fail to see the potential they have. They are stuck in the social media grasp of Facebook "likes" for popularity and sexting the opposite sex. Donna Freitas states in "What I'm Reading: Sex, Teens, and Social Media" is that "Social media is fostering a very unthinking and unfeeling culture; we are raising our kids to be performers." I intend to bring about the questions that are on all of our minds, "What is happening to the minds of our youth of today because if Social Media?" It is my intentions to bring to light the good and the bad of social media's effects on Generation Z, the good being that our youth can connect to society all over the world, the bad being the negative effects on their minds such as cyber bulling, depression, and depleting social skills.
Facebook is the ultimate popularity contest, between the struggle for "likes" and "shares" our teen's emotions are ranging wildly from "aggressive tendencies [to] depression" (Greenwood). In a survey by the Department of Labor seventy percent of teens use social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Not only has Facebook opened up a world of possibilities and allowed the user to interact with friends and people all over the world, it has opened up the darker side of users to cyber-bullying (Stout). I call upon you, the reader, to think back to your younger days.