Introduction

Over the years, social media has become a great impact on today’s society. The need to post personal information to the public has become a habit, especially for teens around the ages of 13 to 17. For the past twenty years, social media has been a great source of entertainment and communication around the world. However, it has affected the way we behave and communicate with the real world.

The majority of people go on social media to explore, express themselves, grow their career, or connect with friends. When posting on social media or the internet in general, one contributes to what is called your “digital footprint” which tracks all your acts including posts, comments, and group chats. Now since social media is public to the world, a lot of people have the ability to cyberbully, which has resulted in dangerous and toxic situations.

The Psychology of Social Media

The field of social media psychology had first begun 10 to 15 years ago and directed the rise of social media. According to (“The Psychology of Social Media”) , it has shown results of affecting the brain’s decision-making and emotional processing functions. As shown in other cases, social media has become not only addictive, but it triggers more sadness, jealousy, delusions, comparisons, and safety issues.

The addiction of social media has affected the way we behave because as time progresses, social media becomes more active in our lives and we tend to ignore the world we actually live in. Teens oftenly post about themselves, friends, family, or people they don’t like. Because social media has the option of privatizing a person’s content, they have the freedom to cyberbully or talk behind someone’s back. On the other hand, the people seeing their private content have the authority of screenshotting the owner’s post and releasing it to their public or private audience which can cause drama that both audiences get to see.

Adults as well are very negative on social media. As time progresses, adults are required to work for a living. When thinking of the future, it’s best to be aware of what to post on social media/ According to the ("Social Intel") website, “48% of employers check up on current employees on social media.” The website also mentions that “74% of employers have decided not to hire a candidate based on inappropriate, discriminatory or unsafe content found online.” Because employers are allowed the authority of checking their employees' social media, they can determine whether a certain person is reliable or responsible enough for the job.

Positive Behavior on Social Media

Social media allows individuals the ability to create content revolving around their unique talents and characteristics. Social media is also used to spread positivity. For example, many teens have created foundations to stop bullying and bullying. In other cases, teens also create their foundations to support young kids in need.

A young teen named Joshua created his foundation called “Joshua’s Heart Foundation” to help support and donate for the hungry. They are located in North Miami Beach, Florida and were able to recruit more than 250,000 young volunteers who were able to help raise one million dollars. They fundraised a total of two million dollars to feed the hungry, three million dollars to help families that needed food, $200 thousand for clothes and toys, and 60 thousand for the teens they have recruited.

Negative Behavior on Social Media

Although social media has been full of positivity, negativity has also been shown on the internet. Teens and adults have the ability to cyberbully both to the public and privately on the internet. But what they do know is that we each have a digital footprint that tracks every little trace we leave on the internet. The many common mistakes people post towards others would be inappropriate comments, pictures, or statuses which are tracked on your digital footprint.

Many people tend to compare themselves to others. In the article, ("6 Ways Social Media Affects Our Mental Health") , it states, “We fall into the trap of comparing ourselves to others as we scroll through our feeds, and make judgements about how we measure up.” And in different cases, teens that are going through rough times are oftenly the kids that cyberbully. Because they are going through a rough patch, they feel the need to make someone else feel horrible in order to make themselves feel better. However in this case, the teen would be put through more stress especially if they get caught. Fast forward to the future: a person’s digital footprint may or may not be accounted for in a school application or future and present career.

For example, a record of ten students in the incoming Class of 2021 of Harvard had their admissions rescinded after creating a private Facebook group involving text messages of racist and inappropriate things. Harvard University has the policy of rescinding admissions in order to protect their students. In another case, the Madera County school official resigned after posting a picture of the Confederate flag with the caption of “I am proud to be white” according to the article (“Madera County school official resigns after posting picture of Confederate flag with ‘I am proud to be white’”). This act of behavior put Sara Wilkins in a bad position because anyone of the district would have felt racism being brought through the caption in which she decided to resign.