Social networking sites do have a negative impact on teenagers’ lives because they are more vulnerable than others. Teenagers in today's society spend most of their time on social media such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. And at the rate that it is at now even more future teens are going to use social media in the future. From this it is obvious that if this many teens are using networking sites there are bound to be consequences. Teens nowadays find themselves with depression based on the fact that they base most of their personality on social media. Teens tend to question themselves often due to the fact that they are being brainwashed by things they see on these Social networking platforms. Teens interact more on social media than they do in real life.

 Social networking is the use of websites and applications to interact with other users, or to find people with similar interests of your own. In the Article/Op-ed by By Jonathan Haidt and Tobias Rose-Stockwell “THE DARK PSYCHOLOGY OF SOCIAL NETWORKS” it states that “A few right-wing social media platforms have enabled the most reviled ideology of the 20th century to draw in young men hungry for a sense of meaning and belonging and willing to give nazism a second chance.” In other words this OP-ED is saying that these right-wing social media platforms are feeding off young men’s hunger for meaning and they are using their vulnerable emotions against themselves to manipulate them into joining and believing their ideology. Teens are vulnerable to solitude, hunger for validation and they often question the meaning of life. And Ideologies like nazism look for these people to brainwash them. Have you seen someone go through this? 

I experienced people going through this during the pandemic in 2020. This was the time when everyone was using social media and when people were sad because of the lack of interaction and because of the lockdown. I gave many different websites a try but there was one in particular where a lot of people of all types of beliefs hangout and chat. One of my online friends also downloaded it and so we started talking there from time to time. Each time we talked there he always changed and started getting into politics which was unusual since all he played was video games. I ended up figuring out that he was manipulated into believing really crazy things. And since he was pretty active on that platform he was influenced to do the same thing just for the validation of random people online. Lucky, he changed back to a normal person when everything reopened and he had the chance to interact with others. 

“In every seed of good there is always a piece of bad.” -Marian Wright Edelman 

I believe that social networking sites are a handy tool that can be used right in the hands of a good person. But there is always someone who is going to be malicious out there. I believe that if you are a teenager you should try to not get too attached to social media due to the fact that it can do just as much harm as it can do good. They should use the time that they spend in social media and socialize with others in the real world which builds up confidence and lowers the chances of depression and it’s just a better way overall to socialize with others.