I wake up on a Saturday morning and grab my phone to scroll through my Instagram. I go from picture to picture double tapping some and then I see a picture from last night. People with red cups in their hands that can hide whatever drink that obviously isn't water. I go to look at the comments “Last night was so much fun.” “I can’t even remember what happened I had so much to drink.” My first response is I wish I was invited but my second is if I was in those pictures, and whatever college I apply to saw them, I would no longer be going to college. This is not the only problem we face. We’re bound to run into trouble on the internet but sometimes it’s unknown what kind.

A big risk we face is drug and alcohol use. Maybe we know some friends or classmates that we follow on social media. We can see everything they post, like selfies they take with their friends. But then on Friday and Saturday nights we get pictures and statuses galore.  At the age we are, our peers are very influential. What they think of us matters. So when we see them drinking or doing drugs on social media, we think is it really that bad if all these people are doing it. According to the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse teens who regularly visit social media sites are twice as likely to use marijuana, three times more likely to drink alcohol, and five times more likely to use tobacco. They also found that half of the teens who use social media have seen pictures of teens getting drunk or high, many before the age of 14. So to answer that, yes it is really bad even if all these other people are doing it. Colleges don’t care if everyone else does it, they care if the person applying is. One bad mistake made as a teen can ruin their future in all ways. That’s not the only risky thing that I’ve seen or heard about on social media.

Sexting is another big thing happening between teens. Maybe someone have never even heard the term sexting, but it’s taking pictures of oneself with little or no clothing on in a provocative manner. According to a CNN report fifteen percent of middle schoolers admitted to receiving inappropriate photos. Out of all the kids in the study the ones who received these pictures were fifty percent more distressed than all those in the study. This is a such a young age to be receiving these pictures and it’s also illegal. They use these pictures to get revenge on each other by posting them online whether it's after a breakup or just to get back at someone. They use these pictures as ammunition but sometimes it backfires they have to worry about sexual predators on the internet. Most don’t even know that it might be someone that they follow because most just let anyone follow them for the sole purpose of gaining followers.

Those are two crazy, scary things the media can do to us. But some more smaller effects that still harm us is just how much time we spend on social media. Common Sense Media reported that on an average day we spend a total of nine hours on social media; with tweens spending around six hours.  Nine hours is more than time than teens spend typically sleeping or talking to their parents or teachers. The report is based on a study done by Common Sense Media, based on a national sample of 2,600 people aged 8-18. That’s an insane amount of time spent on social media that I realized I’ve probably spent as well.

One of the biggest things that hurts the emotional and mental state is one I’ve dealt with before and probably many others; exclusion. There are different ways to be excluded but they all hurt just the same. Maybe they all take a group photo together and tag everyone but one person. Everyone else is going to get attention except for the person who may not even get a notification they were in a picture. People will also post pictures online and invite everyone except one person. This person will be scrolling on Instagram and see a picture of all their friends without them. Maybe they have a party but don’t invite one friend. Or if they did get invited to that party they don’t post any pictures of them being there. According to CNN half of teens felt purposely excluded online but more than one third say they purposely exclude others as well. Another of their studies found that most of the social conflict came from their friends.

Social media can seem more dangerous than we thought when taking in all these factors, but we don’t have to just stop using it all together. Maybe slowly stop going on the phone every time it dings or try to just set it down and go outside. Nowadays when walking down the street we look at all these faces down on their phones or even at a stoplight look over to find someone face down staring at a screen. I’m guilty of going on it more than I need to but I know some of the risks here are not worth it. If we shape up now our future will be a lot brighter.