Taking a break from homework, I often find myself opening Instagram and scrolling through reels, or short-form, vertical content. One second, I could be watching an adorable clip of two dogs playing; another, I could be watching a highlight from the 2016 NBA Finals. Before I know it, an hour has passed. My homework remains undone, my brain foggy from the amount of information I’ve viewed. Valuable time that could’ve been used for valuable rest or productivity has effectively been stolen by these reels.
Although social media may seem fun, it is harmful for the already short attention span of teens and exacerbates external pressure. In each social media app, the negative impacts on teenagers outweigh the positive ones.
Instagram: reels and pressure to post
For me and many of my friends, most of our time is spent on Instagram reels. This time spent scrolling has decreased my attention span tremendously. I get tired of reading a book after the first page.
I usually can’t recall the reel I watched just before scrolling. Even if there are educational reels, I will eventually forget all of them, essentially gaining nothing from my hour-long session of scrolling but a headache.
Instagram posts are also overrated and potentially harmful. I often see many of my friends posting about them having a good time in Europe during breaks or hanging out with their friends while I sit on my bed at home. These posts pressure myself to be somewhere and also post something. It took me three years to realize that this pressure is completely unnecessary: Not going out and staying at home during break is completely normal, but Instagram has placed an incentive to also travel and share it online. Many teens have shared that Instagram has created unrealistic standards not only for body image but also the life they lead.
Snapchat: a lot of useless features
Snapchat seems fun to use, but in the end, it is just another waste of time. The snaps you send are automatically deleted after 24 hours unless you save them, so in the end, the pictures are forever forgotten and no memories are created.
There is also a “streak” feature: If you snap someone and they snap you back every day, a streak begins. Some people use the app just for streaks, often sending a picture of their wall or a black screen to keep a streak alive. Many people stress over having streaks with a large number of people or keeping a long streak with a friend, which makes no sense.
Snap Map is another feature where you can see where your friends are on a map or see when they are last active. Sometimes, I get annoyed when I send someone a snap an hour ago, but the map displays they were active five minutes ago. These features are all pointless and haven’t helped me in the slightest. In fact, they’re mostly harmful to friendships and attention spans.
TikTok: a creator’s platform aimed at addiction
TikTok is an app I used an enormous amount during the pandemic. Like Instagram reels, TikTok employs short videos and constant scrolling, diminishing your attention span and conditioning you to depend on instant gratification.
Creators also often split videos into multiple parts to increase engagement and thus profits, which wastes time by making users watch useless information in the first parts without showing the results.
Sometimes, I lose track of time and realize I am already on part 54 of a useless storytime, having gained nothing. Endless scrolling is easily addicting and very time consuming. Like reels, you won’t remember most videos.
Today, many TikToks are either AI-generated or contain fake news. I have seen many comments and videos spreading misinformation on true crime cases, where users purposely comment false stories about a specific case for attention, making their story extremely believable and end up gaining thousands of likes. Because TikTok is such a widely used platform, these videos are incredibly harmful and can have real world impacts.
Other videos containing AI-generated voices and deep fakes — really realistic videos of celebrities saying things they have never said before — can easily trick many viewers on the platform. Those deep fakes are even scarier in the political realm as we head into an election this November that will set the direction of the country.
While these apps can help you connect to your friends and greater society, the concept of social media is overrated. Spending too much time online can affect your attention span and waste your time. With the world becoming more and more reliant on the internet, social media is something that teenagers around the world need to claw back control of, whether that means setting a time limit or deleting the app entirely.
