Teens, Multitasking, and Social Media Stress

Multitasking. Every person, especially teenagers, with a smartphone have done two, three, even four things at the same time. Even the writer of this entry is guilty of it - YouTube, Facebook, and Tumblr open alongside Blogger, and the television blaring in the room. Nowadays, multitasking is such a regular occurrence that it doesn't even seem like that big of a deal - but is it one of the problems with social media usage?

Any parent of a social media-savvy teenager knows just how important Facebook and Twitter are in this up and coming generation's lives. As a matter of fact, media use has increased 20% in the last ten years. Alongside that, multitasking has increased 119%. This is not only impressive, but it might be detrimental, too. 70% of the most multitasking media users have shown symptoms of depression. So are these revolutionary media systems actually bad for teenagers?

Along with social media, social media stress is becoming an up and coming thing. Typically, Facebook users post their best selfies, their happiest family pictures, and statuses of their best days. When you log onto Facebook, you only know your highs and lows and your friends' highs. On a bad day, social media can easily make it seem like that everyone is just better and more successful than you. This, obviously, has affected media users, especially teenagers, in negative ways.

Huffington Post has come out with a list of six ways for parents to help their teenagers with social media stress. Among these tips are the parents and family educated themselves about social media and multitasking, and how to limit teens' media usage throughout the day and at night. While these tips are extremely useful, it might be easier said than done when it comes to actually going through the step by step process. When people are so used to multitasking, it may be difficult to even realize you're multitasking. Nevertheless, the list is a good thing to keep in mind for parents who think that social media is affecting their kids in negative ways. The biggest suggestion would be that, as hard as this may be, a large effort should be made to teach kids that even if someone says their life is perfect on social media, that doesn't mean that it is. Everyone has good points and bad, but will only be willing to show the good.

Read the article here:
6 Ways to Help Your Teens Cope With Social Media Stress:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kristen-race-phd/6-ways-to-help-your-teens-cope-with-social-media-stress_b_4931490.html