Argumentative Essay On Social Media

Do you have a teenager? Do they use social media? If so, you might be concerned about the time spent on social media. With the relatively recent creation of social media sites, this topic has seen some growth, with much controversy. The main reason this controversy exists, is due to parents concern on how safe and beneficial social media is for their kids’ wellbeing. Social media positively influences communication skills, personal relationships, and knowledge of recent events in teens.

Communication skills are seen to improve between teens with the use of social media. People have started using social media positively, and the danger of online predators has decreased significantly, helping teenagers develop communication skills. According

Teens build relationships while using social media, and when they are banned from using social media, those relationships don’t form. In a study done by Pew Research Center, Amanda Lenhart stated that social media plays an important aspect of adolescents’ lives, even if it isn’t only used for social interactions. The view on technology in teens’ lives is often of the time very negative, but as parents, it’s important to remember that by using using these tools, the teens are doing the important work of being an adolescent (Johnson). While it may seem like teens are just spending endless hours on their phones, they’re really just connecting to the rest of their generation, in the way best fit for them. When teens make new friends now, they have the easiest way to stay connected, thanks to social media. So by allowing them to connect and use social media, they build strong relationships with friends. That’s due to the new fact that while social interaction isn’t all that social media has, but the interaction aspect is a very important aspect of adolescents’ lives. That interaction of staying connected to peers from school, sports teams, vacations, etc., are all made possible by social media (Barnes). It’s really great to see two brand new friends that get along so well, but when one of them isn’t from the area, staying friends can become a hassle. That is unless both of them use

As a teenager, it’s also very important for them to understand what’s going on around them to some degree, rather than just knowing what’s going on with friends. According to an article titled “What Facebook and Twitter Mean for News,” it has been shown that around seventy percent of teens receive their digital news from social media sites, like Facebook and Twitter, rather than turing on the news channel or reading a newspaper (Chung). Here it’s shown that teens do get their news on social media, but what type of news? Well, according to the same article, social networking sites are the top news source for twenty-seven point eight percent of Americans, spreading information on breaking news faster than any other media. Over fifty percent of people in fact learn about breaking news on social media, and sixty-five percent of those reporters use Facebook or LinkedIn, with fifty-two percent using Twitter. Social media ranks above radio and other print publications, eighteen point eight percent and six percent respectively, but is a close second to newspapers, at twenty-eight point eight percent (Chung). These statistics go to prove that teens are actively seeing the news on social media, compared to the television or newspapers. More evident, is just how tied together social media and the news are, as the following quote shows. “Twitter and YouTube users reported the July 20,