By Lizzy Gordon
As the school bell rings the anxious students rush home excitedly, not because they have a boat load of homework, instead they are excited to check out a new notification on their Facebook account. Everyone has an addiction; social media is becoming one of the most common.
Teenagers tend to find themselves in constant contact with their friends, whether it be through the Facebook application on their phone, Tumblr or through texting between classes.
“Facebook makes it really easy to reconnect with friends who I’ve lost touch with,” junior Victoria Treiber said. “I’ve found old friends from elementary school. Being on this site helps me reconnect with them and see what they’ve been up to.”
With advancements in technology, peoples’ social skills continue to decline due to lack of face to face contact with one another. According to a study conducted by Cybersentinel, the average teenager spends 31 hours on the computer a week, roughly 5.5 hours a day.
Daily, most teens spend an average of two hours on YouTube; the other three and a half hours are spent on social networking sites such as Tumblr, Twitter, MySpace and Facebook. Students spend three hours a week on school related research.
According to CBS Minnesota, Facebook Depression exists.
Teenagers that suffer from this depression tend to feel disheartened when they log into Facebook and do not have notifications.
“Girls, especially, may have this depression when they see boys commenting on other girls profile pictures. Seeing that could lower their self esteem,” sophomore Madison Nagle said.
Depending on the way a person uses these sites makes the addiction either positive or negative. On a positive note, social media frees the minds of people who just want to be who they are, and say what they feel.
“[On Tumblr] I can express myself however I want to, and nobody will judge me because they are doing the same thing. Unlike on Facebook, where you have to worry about drama,” sophomore Meghan Asbury said.
Teachers have started to use the social media site, Twitter, to their advantage. This site can tweet reminders about what to bring to class the next day, project due dates and homework assignments.
“It’s smart for educators to use technology to deliver helpful information. I’m using ProgressBook to upload copies of what we did in class so that students always have access to my course work wherever there is Internet connection,” english teacher Jennifer Hilley said.
Having homework and due dates posted online can benefit students too, as long as they follow their teacher on Twitter. If teachers create Facebook pages, this could be helpful because almost every teenager has a Facebook.
“[Facebook helps me out because] I know stuff about school work that’s due the next day because I talk to my friends,” junior Kevin Lopez said.