The Impact of a 'Social Life' on Problem Solving Among the Youth

Introduction

The term “social face” is linked to the ability to have effective social experiences. Social face among the youth is said to be expressed from one’s smile, their “coolness” and a good lifestyle, it is merely the projection of one’s social confidence, put into perspective. The conventional notion of identity has been extended by the growth of social media. In addition to real life identities, a lot of individuals now have online identities as well. This relationship between online and real identities is discussed in “Negative impact of social media on youth” essay as it can be difficult to manage as it can have a significant effect on the young people’s lives.

The expectation to be “perfect” is an inevitable reality for a lot of youths; whether it is being jealous of their peers who seem to be succeeding in life, or wishing to be one of the popular kids, at some point almost all youth have endured the feeling of being “less than.” Though this is nothing new in itself, the digital revolution specifically social media has significantly contributed significantly in bombarding the youth. Roughly 90% of youth use social media for the sole purpose of keeping up appearances and having constant updates on their peers lives.

Also, you will find that a lot of the youth often keep tabs on their peers whom they have never meet before or the popular Facebook or Instagram figures who because of their good looks, style and life, have accumulated thousands of followers. Unfortunately, a lot of this public figures have carefully curated their images; they certainly do not ever post bad photographs, there always wearing the best of the best clothing brands, moreover they never seem to be having an “off day” or in any way to be average. These social media icons have effectively managed to put out certain unattainable expectations formerly reserved in glamorous magazines for fashion models and has now turned into a constant obsession and addiction for the youth globally.

More often than not you find a lot of the young people spending a significant amount of their time scrolling down different online feeds. Being that already there are unobtainable standards set for the youth audiences but also those they have set for themselves, the idea of “fake it till you make it” is prevalent universally. This brings about the development of false personas among these youths, and it is what initiates what they display on their social media. Their online feeds only curate their lives as the best or most desirable, while they try and conceal the struggles, or filter out their normal everyday lives, an endless need to keep up appearances and impress the people who might come across your different feeds. It is evident that such portrayals on social media can cause distress as well as major risky online behavior amongst the youths.

Understanding the Role of Social Media and Its Impact on Youth and Problem Solving

Social media is another prominent factor within the society that has impacted the development of perceptions among the youth. Several studies on social media and youth have multiplied over the years, with most of the studies investigating whether more regular use of social media is correlated with enhancing their problem solving skills. As for most youths, engaging in different forms of social media has currently become a regular everyday practice. The everyday use of social media among the youth can have positive or negative effects on their lives, they can either gain favor from it or can be detrimental for its user. Social media has been depicted to appear like a fun tool for interactions among the youth however, it plays a significant role in influencing the youth as well as enhancing their development in numerous skills.

Unfortunately, since the youth is very much shifting to spending most of their time on social media, it has led to several questions regarding its effect as well as the influence on the youth’s. Similar issue infects everyone on social media; the very essence of it allows all of us to put up a false face, and for some it has negatively affected them, some at the risk of depression, low self- esteem as well as being disposed to feeling isolated or disconnected. One negative and its effect on the youth is the excessive addiction. Everyone is always glued to their electronic gadgets; more time is spent online in comparison to real life. First and last though is to go online, this automatically leads to an uncontrollable obsession of social media, which can be linked to the youth’s endless need to establish a “perfect” person illusion. Overall, there is the preoccupation of what people are posting or sharing online, the comments and likes which then leads to putting out anything on their online feeds just so they can get some kind of approval from complete strangers.

This has had a significant influence on the youth, because there are those who have had to put on false identities in order to feel like they belong or have a sense of confidence. A false picture has been painted by numerous individuals to the point that it becomes had to differentiate the truth and lies about peoples lives. Nonetheless, this has caused a struggle in a lot of youth’s identities. Since they can longer distinguish between what is real a fake, you will find that a lot of the youth sometimes getting into serious psychological problems like depression.

Additionally, because there is an endless need to compare others with themselves, there is very little room for youth to be productive in their everyday lives. Again since most youths time is spent scrolling down online social media feeds, it then becomes a big distractor, and takes them away from paying attention to more important aspects of their lives. This goes further into affecting the youth’s education, learning and improving of general skills. A lot of dependence arises from being less productive. Most youth rather than coming up with generative ways to earn a living or be successful in their lives, they opt to be dependent on those around them which ultimately gives room for laziness.

It is quite clear that it has also impaired the decision making abilities of some of the youth. Because of the unobtainable expectations of online personas, a lot of pressure comes along with it and makes it hard for the youth to make clear headed wise decisions for their well-being. They want to be seen as living a prestigious happy life even if it means that it costs their mental health.

Overall, there is a constant need for peer validation, and the manner in which a lot of the youth naturally equate themselves with others habitually forms the perfect formula for self-doubt. The whole idea of “perfection” depicted on social media is the biggest contributor to influencing the youth negatively, and in addition, it too sometimes leads them to hiding their feelings and insecurities rather than expressing it, they have then accepted to fake their happiness in order to “fit in” online.

Nonetheless, an imperative part of the youth’s psychological growth has depended on the ability to remain socially linked. A lot of the online platforms used by this youth have offered numerous positive experiences and opportunities to develop and learn various skills that help in creating a positive digital footprint in addition to staying connected with their peers. Having an online presence has seemed to be beneficial especially in being a voice for the youth. A lot of them use their online platforms to promote agendas or spread awareness on various dynamics of life.

The primary positive effect it has had on the youth is that they are still able to keep touch with global news or events which enables them to be participants of current affairs, and the news spreads much faster. They can share and voice their opinions or thoughts through their numerous online platforms and work towards making change to the current world affairs. Being that a large number of the youth have dominated social media, they have managed to generate awareness or promote agendas in different industry sectors. For instances, the use of hashtags to end police brutality or equality of sexes. This has positively influenced the youth to using social media as a tool for communicating their feelings and opinion as well as empowering themselves which has then bettered the manner in which society handles certain issues.

Clearly, such effective methods and techniques have impacted the youth’s way of thinking as well as improving their skills to solve problems that are in line with the needs of the working industry in the future.

The Effect of Social Media on Problem Solving

Individuals are known to engage in problem solving behavior before and after certain adversities. Social media helps this to be achieved on a broader scale. Certainly, social media has affected a lot of youth’s lives more so on others mainly because of the false identities put up online. It seems to have even impaired various cognitive processes such as problem solving skills. The youth are unable to detach from the false personas put online and this eventually distorts their reality and evidently impacts the manner in which they carry out their lives. Simply some cannot even accomplish set goals because of the limitless pressure to be perfect, a disregard of whether they are doing right by themselves as well as lateral mindset.

However, it is also evident that social media has had power in regards to enabling the youth to exert control over their environment, allowing the honing of problem solving. Social media situations or incidents has allowed for them to have a mechanism for identifying certain things, figuring out how to fix this supposed issues at hand as well as determining a course of action to tackle such situations or incidents.

Conclusion

Since the evolution of technology, the growth of social media has become a regular pattern for every youth, addiction and obsession has increased significantly due to the endless use of social media. Although the, new media has entrenched a significant predominant presence among the youth’s lives, it has also brought forth new challenges as well as opportunities. Being that a lot of precious time is spent on the social media platforms, then it is obvious that the detrimental effects will outweigh the positive however it has had its positive influence on some of the youth’s lives.

Ultimately, social media can be associated to learning through offering a promising learning environment for interactive engagement amongst the young people globally. Moreover, integrating social media to current teaching activities provides an informal learning setting which indeed can advance and facilitate learning delivery as well as provide opportunities for incorporation of social skills and interaction. Also by perfecting problem solving skills on social media allows for youth to communicate and employ information efficiently in order to accomplish goals that implicitly lead to developing further social skills.

All in all, everything about an individuals online persona should also be reflective to the offline person. Therefore, it is crucial for the youth to use their time and resources to achieve goals that will match them with their ideal self, instead of concentrating and putting limitless effort on building an ideal online persona. Eventually, by doing so, they give themselves a sense of satisfaction as they achieve their goals which in the end contribute to a path of self-actualization.

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