OPINION: Stop Snapchatting, Start Thinking
Finding Our Way Out Of A Social Media Epidemic
By Victor Lavigne
For the GPHN

In today’s world, being disconnected from the toxic sphere of social media means being part of the minority, especially among Millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996) and Gen Z’ers (’97-’12). Everyone seems to constantly be burying their faces in their smartphones either admiring doctored photos of unrealistic models, observing overly ecstatic influencers, or worse, arguing with someone whom they will never meet and have no fear in saying awful things about.
Social media is a breeding ground for unrealistic expectations, and an extreme lack of accountability that is essentially building a generation of people that have no idea how to actually communicate and are becoming antisocial cowards who only wish to hide behind a glass phone screen.
There are over 3.8 billion social media users across the globe … that’s roughly half the world’s population. Those users include plenty of teenagers, and many of them practically live on social media platforms. A 2018 Pew Research Center survey of nearly 750 teenagers 13 to 17-years-old found that 45 percent are online almost constantly. Fully 97 percent use a social media platform, such as YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Snapchat.
Even among the entire population — not just teens — the average person is spending over 2.5 hours a day on social media.
Before we get too far, I will admit that social media is one of the most incredible inventions of the modern world. It allows us to communicate around the globe and learn at an unprecedented rate. But with great power, comes great responsibility.
When it comes to teens, one of the most important skills they can have is being able to communicate. Communicating well requires people skills. That requires face-to-face interactions, being able to think quickly and defend your opinions. Social media doesn’t call for any of these qualities. A fired-up kid with little knowledge on a topic can shoot off a tweet, driven by emotion, then choose to ignore the responses and never truly have their thoughts challenged.
This sequence leads to radical opinions and harsh divisions, which shouldn’t be difficult to notice given our current political climate that has boiled over the last few years. Teens are being filled with unchallenged and unrealistic claims that are clouding their judgment and creating sometimes conceited and fragile young adults.
This opinion piece is not designed to promote the silencing of social media users, but rather to promote thinking. Social media, with all its influencing, has caused teens to stop thinking through situations and just listen to and elevate those who get the most “likes” and have the most followers. In other words, they’re being shown what to think, rather than being taught how to think.
Author Lance Cashion put it best, “we have extremely well-educated children who reject reality and truth based on personal preference.”
As I mentioned, social media can be a great tool for learning and opening up to events around the world, but it isn’t a replacement for actual thought — even though it is being treated as so.
The solution to this epidemic does not come by destroying social media, but rather taking it with a grain of salt. Teens and young adults need to be challenged in real life, not by some random person 1,000 miles away on Facebook. They need to have real discussions in their classrooms and with the people around them. Discussions and curriculums that don’t just show them what to think, but rather how to think and develop critical skills for communicating, otherwise, we will all become social media icons with little knowledge of real discussion.
Every time teens crawl onto social media platforms, they’re entering an unrealistic world with little responsibility. Little responsibility to promote thinking, and no realistic expectation of legitimate thought-provoking discussion. It’s time to think and talk, and dismiss that over-hyped tweet is everyone’s version of reality.
Victor Lavigne is a recent graduate of Metropolitan State University of Denver, where he majored in criminal justice with a minor in political science. He is pursuing a career in federal law enforcement and is currently interning with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms in Denver.