The Pitfalls of Social Media

Living Online: The Pitfalls of Social Media 

Today’s college students grew up largely interacting on social media as part of their day-to-day communications. They can hardly imagine life without Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. Yet, they now face increased demands from course requirements, navigating new relationships, and the need to focus on career development opportunities. 

While social media can be a way to connect, it can also quickly become a significant distraction for many college students. In addition, studies show social media as a contributing cause of increased anxiety and depression. Some of the most common concerns include: 

• Sleep deprivation that leads to poor attention and inadequate task completion; 
• Isolation from friends and family and a false sense of camaraderie; and/or 
• Anxiety and depression from viewing digitally altered social media posts. 

Spending more time engaging online and less face-to-face time serves as a contributing factor to feelings of inadequacy in comparison to others. If students primarily make connections with others through social media rather than face–to–face interactions for the sharing of thoughts and ideas, planning, team building and discussions, they run the risk of losing relationships and their identity, resulting from little or no personal contact. 

As they begin testing new freedoms, college students tend to document much of their activities on social media, which often includes photos of themselves partying, sexually explicit content, and documentation of other inappropriate behavior. Students and their parents of digital natives have been blindsided by this gradual erosion of our privacy and the devaluation of basic values. 

We know universities are checking online activities and social media accounts prior to making admissions decisions, and posts prior to admissions (and even after) can jeopardize a student’s enrollment status and future career. A number of students admitted to Harvard for fall 2017 had their admission offers revoked when inappropriate posts to a private Facebook group were discovered by the University’s administrators.  

Teaching children early and often about protecting their digital reputation and monitoring their online activity beginning in elementary school through high school and beyond is important. Just as you teach them about healthy eating and good manners, we must now teach them about healthy and appropriate online behavior. If you wait until college, it’s too late. 

Living their lives online can have serious consequences. Even the best and the brightest forget that nothing posted online is truly private. Social media can be a great tool for staying in touch with family and friends from home, but it is not a replacement for true connections.  

By // Dr. Lisa Strohman, JD, Ph.D.