Millennials, Social Media and Friendship

Millennials, Social Media and Friendship

Social network sites have become a popular site for the millennial to interact and make new friends globally. The old-school ways of making new friends have faded for the millennial. Social media is undermining the ability of this generation to communicate and thus dehumanizing the significant role of the community, which involves physical, social interaction. A study by Peterson (2019) as proven that millennial generation can hardly complete a basic task. Most of them are lazy and spoilt such that they can only engage in simple activities. A big number also spends most time glued to their smartphones other than engaging in other social activities. The content found in social media sites is designed t attract the young generation more than the older group. Petersen (2019) also stated that even the grown-up adults still behave like feckless teens, and even when they are facing systemic challenges. The older generation was so active in household chores, taking care of themselves, and taking part in their usual responsibilities. They would also spare time and visit their friends and relatives to know about their well being. However, with the millennial, a simple text on the phone is enough to know how the other person is doing, mindless if they will admit to their current situation. Others have stuck on social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and most of the interactions take place in these sites.

Discussion

Facebook, for example, has over 60 million active users with an average of 200,000 new registrations daily. Millennial generation prefers using these sites other than interacting on other social grounds. The new technology has made the millennials a self-indulgent creation. They love and embrace the cultural shifts that have come with the new technology and very adaptive to associated changes. The young generation loves to claim social media and the augmented interactive reality and their own. They embrace new ideas and are quick to handle social and cultural engagements that separate them from the past. The youths use social media sites to post their everyday activities, meet new friends, and expose themselves to the other side of the world. However, these sites have a significant impact on young adults. Young people have let the content that emerges from social media to take control of their recognition for its effect on humanity in the future. The Millenials have been caught up in the world of instant gratification and an abrupt change and this makes them less disciplined (Hendriks, 2018). For example, a child will fail to tackle her homework on time just o watch some clips on social networks. The ability to keep in contact with a thousand acquaintances on Facebook and Instagram weakens the ability to keep the many relationships right in front of us. For this reason, a big percent of the millennial generation are less interactive on social ground. The close relationship between parents and children has also changed among this group. The youths are living in an imaginary world, whereby they think they can get anything immediately without having to struggle (Petersen, 2019). Since they cannot set limits on how they use the technology, most of them end up affected in a negative way.

Instagram is the leading social networking app and a major cause of mental health among young people, followed by Snapchat and Facebook. This is according to research by the public health royal society in the UK. The survey has found that this photo-sharing app had a negative influence on the body image among the young generation, sleep, and social anxiety. Youngsters aged between 14 to 25 fear missing out in these updates, however on the other side, the site is decisive when it comes to creating a platform for self-identity and self-expression. The main aim of creating social platforms was to help young people connect more efficiently; however, the public health report states that it is fuelling mental health issues. Instagram draws youngsters from comparing themselves with filtered, unreal, photoshopped, exaggerated versions of reality. Young women feel their bodies are not in good shape after seeing photoshopped body shapes and filtered faces on social media sites. Others have managed to photoshop themselves in classic, high-class places making their teen feel unsuccessful. It is hard to convince the public that these images have been altered; however, this can be achieved through equipping young people with tools and knowledge which can enable them to navigate through social media sites in a way that promotes a good state of mind. According to Laci Green, a professional YouTuber, and a health Blogger, the knowledge surrounding mental health problems among the digital era is an informational imperative for the youngsters.

Instagram and Facebook platforms are the curated versions of the people we interact with, and form an imaginative world around us, secluding us from reality. Socializing behind the screen can be a unique way of isolating ourselves from the real world and hiding mental issues from the public (Education Journal, 2017). YouTube is the only platform that facilitated a positive impact on the mental health of the young according to study. The mental health report has also stated that it is not about what the digital generation sees on social media but how they engage with each other. Most of the recent activities on social media have proven to facilitate social anxiety. For example, the issue of cyber-bullying is the most trending problem among the teen. Cyber-bullying among the young has been reported as one major cause of psychological distress and suicide. Most people who spend more than two hours on social networking platforms daily are likely to report mental health-related issuer according to the report. A group of ten teenagers admitted that social media is more addictive as compared to cigarettes and beer, and the introduction of heavy usage pop-up is not enough to control the rate of usage. According to the head of the UK’s Psychiatrists Royal College, Simon Wessely, demonizing social media is not a solution to the issue. Instead, an education-based approach can do.

Social media has also affected the young generation’s morals, exposing them to pornographic materials and drug abuse. It’s becoming even harder to control the content displayed in these sites since the trend is too high before the team responsible takes the action of blocking it. Social media is also related to the high rate of alcohol consumption among the young generation. The youth frequently post alcohol-related posts on these sites, and this poses an influence on their peers. It is evident that such posts promote high rates of drinking. According to research by Hendriks, Van den Putte, and Gebhardt 2017, alcohol-related posts form a big percentage of the posts on social media sites. These include posts where alcohol is visible in the background, textual and commercial alcohol-related posts, and captions of drunken people and drinking games. The biggest number of posts was that of captions of alcohol in the background. Positive association of alcohol consumption is displayed more as compared to the negative association, and this leads to the underestimation of the impacts of alcohol drinking (Hendriks, 2017). The generation we are in does not care about how their post will impact others, and instead, they post for self-satisfaction. The culture of socialites has diverted our self-perception of role models. For example, a young lady will go on a diet in order to resemble a specific socialite. Our dress-code is also controlled by what we see on social media, especially from our socialite models. The same way people emulate media socialites, the more they get distracted and influenced by their behavior. For example, a youngster will begin drinking after seeing the post of his/her social media role model drinking. The same case happens to smokers and other drug users.

Conclusion

Millennials are less likely to tag on the long-established trajectories, especially when it comes to career, marriage, and social interaction. In the last decade, Millenials were mostly teenagers and were used to describe the issues surrounding young people. Today a significant percentage of them are already in adulthood, and the impact is being felt. According to Petersen (2019), the millennium generation is having a hard time coping with adulthood, especially with the current state of the economy. Even a millennial that wasn’t brought up privileged has been affected by the societal shifts that shape the current generation. It has become so hard for them to take over their responsibilities (Petersen, 2019).  For example, the issue of intensive parenting, this is being used to describe the standard means of maximizing children’s play. Today, the school system is handling some of the daycare responsibilities. Children are going to school as early as the age of two in the name of the pre-pre school. This attitude makes the majority feel overburdened by responsibilities and thus leading to the high rate of depression among them.