Social Media Affecting Teens

Some others view social media, such as Facebook, as a way to help those shy students break out of their shell. Parents have seen the way social media has helped their quiet and self-conscious kids become much more open to making new friends, even if they were made online. In the article “Antisocial Network” states how social media has indeed helping shy kids get better at communicating to people while breaking the shy barrier (Stout, 2010). The impersonal nature of texting and online communication made it so much easier for those kids to learn to be open towards others to get friends. On the other hand, this leads to those kids being more dependent on the likes and comments that they get leading them to change their personality. In the article “Social Media Affecting Teens” states, “young people feel socially supported by having large networks of online friends, and these are not necessarily friends they ever see face to face…many young people now derive personal support and affirmation from ‘likes’ and feedback on their postings.” (Huffington Post, 2014). Depending on those likes and comments turns those shy students into students who care about what others think of them instead of what they think about themselves.