WHAT HIGH SCHOOL WOULD BE LIKE WITHOUT SOCIAL MEDIA

It may be hard to imagine a life where a person cannot like Instagram posts, tap through Snapchat stories or scroll their For You pages on TikTok. So while different trends like the Snapchat dog filter and the once popular lip-syncing app Musical.ly, which merged with TikTok, are not as prevalent as they once were, teens are used to social media being a factor in their everyday life.

According to an article released in 2022 by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan think tank that informs the public, 54% of teenagers say it would be hard to give up social media.

That number may be startling to some, but who could blame today’s teens for thinking that way?

Today, teens and children are known for their heavy use of technolo gy and social media, with some young children labeled as “iPad kids” by Tik Tok users. Technology and social media are all high schoolers know, and it has become the standard, as teens today are the first generation that cannot re member a time before the internet.

According to the Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit organization focusing on clin ical practice, education and research, “Social media allows teens to create online identities, communicate with others and build social networks. These networks can provide teens with valu able support.”

Junior Alex Nelson recognizes those values, as social media has im pacted him in positive ways.

“I have gained a lot of friends from social media and learned a lot more about myself,” Nelson said. “It gives me more perspective on the world be cause sometimes [it feels like] people live under rocks. Obviously, people are not going to know everything, but with social media, [you] can sometimes learn things you other- wise would not have known.” With the benefits social media has to offer, the drawbacks also have to be considered. The fear of missing out (FoMO) that social media can induce is one example of a negative aspect.

According to PsychCentral, an independent mental health information and news website, teens are most susceptible to FoMO, and leaving FoMO unaddressed can lead to low self-esteem, anxiety, depression and lives. However, some users still take staged photos, defeating the purpose of the app.

On social media platforms like Instagram, users can follow anyone they want, and that can lead to comparing themselves to other people. While people have always compared themselves to others, recently the average person seems to aspire to look or live like their favorite Instagram, Twitter or TikTok creator who shares their life

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post because I [enjoy seeing people’s lives],” junior Gianna Walgren said. “I think high school would have a lot less drama if there were no social media, but it might be boring. I could give it up, but I would probably develop FoMO because nothing happens in my life, so sometimes I feed off others’ experiences.”

Similarly, while an individual can communicate with others in different ways online than they can in person, that also opens up the possibility of bullying, ing to the Mayo Clinic, “Social media use can also negatively affect teens, distracting them, disrupting their sleep and exposing them to bullying, rumor spreading, unrealistic views of other people’s lives and peer pressure.”

Math teacher Maya Grantcharov recognizes how students are easily distracted by what is on their phones, causing their learning to be disrupted.

“I think [social media] is causing students now to not focus on one thing consistently and to not do things with [complete] effort. When you divide your attention up and try to do [too many] things at once, you cannot be productive,” Grantcharov said. “Let’s say you can listen to the teacher and think about something, but if you go on your phone to check social media, suddenly, there is some drama going on, and your mind immediately goes there. Now, you are [not focusing] on whatever work you were doing

A student may not typically see bullying in person in ways that are so often portrayed in movies, where a stereotypical jock picks on a nerd, for example. But social media has encouraged bullying to spread to other platforms that didn’t even exist in many of the popular and stereotypical high school movies of the past. While high school has never been exactly like the movies, without social media, would bullying, rumor spreading, lack of sleep and image problems go away or at least become less common?

Visualizing a world without Instagram feeds and Twitter threads might seem impossible, but at one point, it was the standard.

“When I was a student, I was paying attention in school. Time was not divided between learning and looking at a phone. There were no cell phones in my high school, and we did not even use calculators,” Grantcharov said. “Young people [today] have a hard time paying attention because someone will text them, and they will say, ‘Who’s texting me? I have to check my phone.’ Without social media, students could talk to each other and have a normal conversation.”

Even though giving up social media is possible and even easy for those who rarely use it, giving it up can be difficult for anyone who believes social media has impacted them positively.

“I would be okay with giving up social media, but it would be hard because I have a lot of friends online. Not having social media would make me upset because I would lose that part of my life, and I don’t want [that],” Nelson said.

High schoolers today deal with both the real and virtual worlds presented through social media. While it may be all they have known, it is not everything, as teens before have lived without it. But by occasionally going back to the so-called good old days, one may find out what high school was like without social media, when people interacted without using screens.