Dear Ms Samantha Taylor,

I just recently read your article about teenagers using social media too much. You disagree with the claims made about teenagers by these other individuals. I strongly disagree with you in the fact that these ideas about teenagers are wrong. Technology is sabotaging the minds of teenagers. Teenagers are unaware of how much time they spending on their phones or computers interacting with others. I feel the need to speak out and contribute to what is being reported about teenagers. This is because I want to inform teenagers about why they should spend less time socialising over the internet and more time socialising face-to-face.

Teenagers are afraid of socialising in person therefore hide behind their computer screens. This is due to the fact that they have spent most of their lives interacting over the internet making it seem impossible to express themselves in person. Jonathan Franzen believes that online socialising is causing a shallow culture and makes teenagers unable to socialise face to face. I completely agree. Most teenagers tend to become introvert because they do not get enough practice on real communication. Speaking through the internet isn’t good for shy people because it will only make them more shy and will make it harder for them to approach difficult situations such as communicating face to face. Teenager use social media to find new people to speak to. Most of the time they speak to the person online but would be too afraid to speak to the person face to face. Lack of real communication skills will start to kick in and there will be a sense of awkwardness.

Teenagers usually get into relationships online. Teenagers will be incapable of expressing emotions to their partner in front of them. It makes you ask yourself whether you’re in a meaningful relationship or not. Relationships lose all their romance when they’re based on social media. In addition teenagers get into relationships with people they do not know. They fall in love over the internet. This is bad and dangerous because you do not actually know who you are in a relationship with. The information your partner may have told you could be false. The pictures they send to you could be false (picture may not be them). The age they tell you could be false. Even the little things they tell you about themselves like their likes and dislikes and favourite colour could be false. You cannot 100% trust the person you’re in a relationship with because you’ve never met them or interacted with them in person. When speaking on-line, teenagers are unaware of what they do; spreading their personal information on-line may put them at serious risk. Broadcasting your phone number, what school you go to, where you live and your full name is extremely dangerous. People can get hold of your information and attempt to steal your identity.

As the writer Susan Greenfield’s states, “We could be raising a hedonistic generation…are in distinct danger of detaching themselves from what the rest of us would consider the real world.”. The word hedonistic tells us that teens seek pleasure by using the computer and going on social media. They’ve become addicted to social networking. Teenagers are ‘detaching’ themselves from ‘the real world’ because they are afraid. They are afraid of communicating face to face. They are in their comfort zone when speaking on-line because they are free to say anything they please without a physical reaction. Cyber bullying is more likely to happen to a person who gets bullied outside their house. These people being bullied that are socialising on-line are at risk of being bullied on-line. Since they’re afraid of speaking out in public or confronting their bullies, they try to speak out on-line because they have the opportunity to interact with new people. They then tend to go on and express themselves to these people and to seek sympathy. Cyber bullying could get to a stage where people are being depressed, having anxiety, severe isolation and in extreme unfortunate cases suicide. Being addicted to social media is not a good thing. There are a lot of dangers. Teenagers tend to use social media such as Facebook, Snapchat and Texting to interact. Social media has become a daily procedure for them. It has become a necessity. What they do not notice is that the more time they spend communicating with other people on-line, the harder they will find it to communicate with people face to face. Teenagers are less cautious of what they say to people on-line because they are not physically in front of them.

In conclusion I believe that teenagers should continue to be presented in this light. I feel it is needed to get the point across that spending too much time on social media is inadequate. I strongly urge teenagers to spend less time sitting at home going on social networking sites and more time going outside in public, trying to meet new people and communicating with others face to face.

Yours Sincerely,
Simeon Balogun