BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

The effects of the online world

By Olivia Mankarious, age 16 and Emma Mankarious, age 15 | March 27, 2024

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PLUG IN TO REALITY Sisters Olivia and Emma Mankarious, who attend Memorial High School, started to notice the negative impact of the online world when their younger sister joined social media platforms. Olivia and Emma encourage others to power off phones when they're with family or friends and focus on being present.

Our generation was raised with smartphones. For many of us, they were in our hands before or during middle school.

Social media, the foundation of our daily lives, has both positive and negative effects on teens today. On one hand, it serves as a powerful and expansive tool for establishing connections, maintaining friendships across distances, and allowing friends and classmates to stay up-to-date on each other’s lives. The ability to share experiences, photos, and thoughts fosters a sense of community and furthers the relationship amongst friends. However, the constant exposure to curated and often unrealistic versions of one’s lives on platforms such as Instagram and TikTok more often than not generates unattainable standards and rids one of a feeling of belonging.

The saddest part about all of this is that, the majority of the time, we don’t realize the negative toll these platforms take on our mental and physical health. It wasn’t until our younger sister began to enter social media platforms that we realized its negative effects. Unfortunately, the online world is impossible to avoid; it’s necessary, but also not great for the youth of our community. We watched as she became engrossed in her following count, her appearance, and online image. This prompted discussions with friends on how being online has affected them.

When asked about their screen time daily average, the overwhelming majority reported that they spent over five hours a day on their phones, with the largest chunk of that time being spent on some form of social media (majority responded with TikTok being their #1). After getting to know what platforms our friends were spending the most time on, we asked if they had noticed any negative effects. More than one person brought up the unfortunate reality that the more time they spent on social media, the worse their mental health, confidence, and even grades got.

To try and help solve this ever-present dilemma, we have both agreed to power off cell phones when we ae with our family or friends and focus on being present. We encourage others – teens or adults – to join us.

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