Caroline Castle, Reporter
@ccastlecourant
In Connections class on January 4, students took a social media survey which asked questions like: “Do you have a system in place to manage social and technological distractions?” The assumption embedded in this question is that social media is a distraction. This survey is just one example of how adults think that social media is an unproductive, but according to CIO Magazine, jobs in social media pay more than the national average salary.
People like our parents and school administrators claim that social media is detrimental to our learning and takes the focus away from our academic and career goals because we are going on applications like Snapchat. However, these apps enable us to keep in touch with what is going on in the world. For example, on January 21 the Women’s March was taking place all over the world and Snapchat allowed people to upload pictures and share their opinions of it for the world to see. Additionally, huge newspaper businesses, like the Washington Post and Buzzfeed, have Snapchat stories, so clearly it is a way that major businesses anchored in news communicate to the world.
According to senior Abigail Ker, “There is always going to be a generational gap on the opinions of social media, the older generation tend to highlight the negative effects of it because they might not be as well educated on how it can be a positive thing.”
Our parents and teachers can make the negatives of social media outweigh the positives, but that is not completely accurate. Social media provides a unique way to promote yourself and the ideas that you have. Today, most businesses actually rely on social media to promote their businesses, so teenagers who are proficient with social media are setting themselves up for the future. Although social media can be a distraction in some circumstances, most of the students at NCHS are able to prioritize things over it and are able to use it in moderation.
The knowledge that teenagers are gaining from being on social media can help them in future jobs. Unlike our parents,the more exposure to social media we get now, the less training we will have to go through on how to use the social media that is required for the job.
So to all parents, teachers, and other members of generation X, think about how social media is beneficial to students’ future. And to students, remember how it can benefit you in your future jobs, so use it to your advantage.
