The Heartbreaking Reality of Social Media

My Reaction to The Social Dilemma as a Middle School Leader.

By Lauren Glickert

 

The Social Dilemma is an impactful and eye-opening watch. The 2020 documentary-drama, directed by Jeff Orlowski, explores the dangerous impact of social media and online networking. It even includes tech experts sounding the alarm on their own creations. While the film highlights several meaningful and systemic changes, such as reuniting families and reconnecting friends, thanks to the rise of social media, the information is overwhelmingly somber, if not devastating.

One portion of the film that particularly resonated with me discusses the influence and negative effects of social media on younger generations. As a middle school leader, I have personally witnessed the culmination of the issues displayed in the film. It is truly heartbreaking.

 

A Heartbreaking Reality

I serve as a middle school YoungLife leader. While this is a beautiful ministry and the most fulfilling part of my life, I cannot neglect the deeply saddening components. A big–if not the biggest–part of middle schoolers’ lives is their presence on social media. It is easily a tool for comparison, bullying, and worse. The grip social media on their world is so strong that kids of today are entirely consumed by it.

One of the harmful effects highlighted in The Social Dilemma is what the film called “Snapchat dysmorphia.” This dysmorphia arises because of the idealized, edited filters created by Snapchat and other similar apps. The filters are leading young and susceptible users to develop a distorted perception of their own reflections.

I can attest to this reality. My middle school girls post religiously on Snapchat. Instead of seeing their bright, innocent faces, all I notice are filters, darkening the screen and blurring their young features.

The film discusses the business model of social media apps which revolves around keeping users engaged as long as possible. The film posed the question, “How much of your life can we [social media apps] get you to give to us?” The unsettling answer? Hours.

 

Adolescent Addiction

I often ask my middle schoolers about their screen time averages and compare them to my own embarrassingly high screen time. One of my girls shared that her screen time was a shocking seventeen hours a day for the weekend. She turned off her phone only to sleep.

This middle school girl is not an outlier. Outright addiction runs rampant in adolescents. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the average daily hours spent on mobile devices for 11-14-year-olds is an astounding nine hours.

The Social Dilemma also shares how the addiction created by our phones and social media offsets our pleasure and pain balance, leads to a dopamine deficit, and expedites both political polarization and a loss of touch with reality. Since Generation Z is the first generation to utilize social media in middle school and younger, the whole generation is more fragile, gentle, and depressed. The film claims that social media has caused suicide and depression rates to spike tremendously, specifically in young girls. Furthermore, rather than grow into playful, active kids, this electronically-addicted generation is notable for refusing to take risks, dropping driver’s license rates, and more.

 

A Revolution?

The digital revolution created an atmosphere that allowed, if not promoted, the groundwork for social media and electronic addiction. With the arrival of the World Wide Web, virtually everything became just one click away. Society may not have been ready for the arrival of this level of technological communication, but it nevertheless now prevails upon both the lowest and highest aspirations of humanity. The Social Dilemma agrees, sharing that the media and the Internet are a “simultaneous dystopia and utopia.”

While there are benefits from the mass utilization of social media, my middle schoolers are a testament to its dangers. They experience its danger every day, from hyper-mobilization to the incessant influence of social media and smartphones.

The Social Dilemma claims that the media is not ruining kids. It is merely confusing them. But I have to disagree.

My eyes were opened by The Social Dilemma to the horrors created by social media. However, until you create a meaningful relationship with a middle schooler who would rather stare at their phone than interact with their friends or formulate real relationships, who is bullied by their peers through rumors spread over Snapchat in milliseconds, who refuses to accept their true reflection because of the idolized standard of beauty created by filters, you will only scratch the surface of this issue.

Social Media is far from a utopia. It is not even a dilemma. It is heartbreaking.

 

About the Author

Lauren Glickert is a senior at Grove City College, double majoring in Political Science and Communications. In addition to serving as a marketing fellow for the Institute for Faith & Freedom, Lauren is a student ambassador for Concerned Women for America and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America.

On campus, Lauren engages in several student leadership opportunities such as acting as President for Grove City’s Young Women for America chapter and leading at Grove City Middle School as Young Life team leader. She also served on the Student Government Association, Orientation Board, Project Okello African Missions, Homecoming Committee, several mentorship programs, and is a member of Mortar Board National Honor Society and Pi Sigma Chi Political Science Honorary.

Lauren spent the summer before senior year interning at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C. and plans to move back to the Capitol post-grad to focus on public policy and justice issues. Lauren is passionate about American politics, human rights issues, and advocacy, and she is excited to see where her future leads.

 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed are those of the writer alone and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Grove City College, the Institute for Faith and Freedom, or their affiliates.

Cover Image: Photo by Becca Tapert on Unsplash