The Today and Tomorrow: Teens and Social Media

How many hours of the day do you spend on the internet; surfing, checking Facebook, Twitter, or any other form of media? I know for myself, it can be 30+ minutes per day!


So let's talk about a younger age group. How many minutes per day are teens (ages 10-18) spending online? What does their future look like in terms of media and social interactions?

According to Rachel Ehmke's article, Teens and Social Media, from the Child Mind Institute, "Teens are masters at keeping themselves occupied in the hours after school until way past bedtime. When they're not doing their homework (and when they are) they're online and on their phones, texting, sharing, trolling, scrolling, you name it."

They do this to receive recognition and maintain their image (Click HERE to watch YouTube video or scroll down).

She discusses how this development is shifting teen communication. Instead of face-to-face interactions, teens are spending more time texting and interacting in less confrontational ways. Her article has three sections; Cyberbullying and the imposter syndrome, Stalking (and being ignored), and What should parents do.

Each section discusses the mental implications of being in a world where social media drives our social interactions, but I want to take it further than just social media.

Social media is just the tip of the iceberg and just the beginning of a whole new form of social interaction, virtual interaction. In a virtual space teens, and adults, are able to create a whole new image.

Today, research shows that kids develop low self-esteem through the use of electronic communication because it removes the risks involved with making and maintaining friendships. In a virtual world, that risk could be removed even more.

1) Perfection will take on a whole new meaning, teens will no longer need to feel comfortable with their own bodies because they can create new ones. They can feel comfortable in a virtual body that they have complete control over, a body that is perfect.

How might acceptance change?

2)  With virtual avatars, social interactions can be just as abruptly ended, as texting, by logging out.

3) Variables can be accounted for and controlled in virtual worlds, so the concept of an unknown would become non existent.

Do We Live in a Virtual World?

According the the Wall Street Journal, Facebook recently bought the company Oculus for $2 billion. Oculus specializes in immersive virtual reality products. Their most recent product, Oculus Rift, has been receiving a lot of hype since Facebook's purchase and seems to have high expectations of where this technology could lead.

Although the Oculus Rift seems like a great technological advancement, what problems may it present in the future? As of right now, Oculus created the goggles for video gaming; like Halo, Call of Duty, and other action games with high action movement.

 From where I stand that seems to be only the beginning of the Oculus Rift. With an ever increasing amount of teens participating in online communities like Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, and more. I believe that with technology, like the Oculus VR, teens will be given an ever greater ability to immerse themselves within virtual reality. I see a problem with this.

How many hours of the day, do we, do I, spend on social networking sites? Probably more than most of us can count. Imagine how much more time could be spent in a realm not displayed in 2D but in 3D! Other than the knowledge that it is not real, the experience is convincing and forgetting about reality is just a hop, skip, and a jump away.

Please jump into the world of virtual space with me and share your own thoughts and ideas of where this technology may take us. Beam us up, Scotty!