Isn’t it strange to think that not too long ago, no one would have known what you meant if you’d started a conversation by saying, “OMG! LOL you’ll never believe what happened today”? Over the last couple of decades, social media has embedded itself into the daily routine of our lives, and it’s hard to remember a time where we weren’t all walking around with our eyes glued to a screen. Social media has given individuals the ability to connect with other people on a global scale in a matter of seconds, and it’s had wide-reaching positive effects. However, if you look a little deeper past the obvious benefits, then it’s clear that social media has had some serious negative impacts. Social media has harmed our ability to communicate through its invalidation of real time human interaction, detrimental effect on our language, and distracting quality.

Social media has proven to be a large distraction to many, and to some, it’s become such a major part of their lives that they risk becoming dependent on it. According to an infographic discussing facts about teens and the media, teenagers spend 7 ½ hours per day looking at a screen. Each day, the combined number of Facebook users worldwide spend a total of 10.5 billion minutes, or 19,963 years on the website, not including mobile users. This much time spent looking at a screen leaves a small, if not non-existent, amount of time for teenagers to spend with other people in a place that isn’t online, which can come to impair conversational skills and social abilities, as well as keep people from being productive. I struggle with procrastination, and playing a game on my phone or looking at the latest picture that was posted can keep me distracted for hours at a time from doing homework.  Additionally, social media is addicting, and the idea of people becoming fully dependent on it isn’t as far-fetched as it sounds. The University of Maryland conducted a study in which it asked students to go 24 hours without using social media. Students reported that during this time, they felt “frantically craving, very anxious, extremely antsy, miserable, jittery, and crazy.” This goes to show that social media really can be like an addiction, and our constant use of it is only a way of feeding that addiction. Because it wastes copious amounts of time and serves as a distraction rather than a blessing, social media is indeed harmful.

In addition to being a distraction, social media is harming our language. A study conducted observing teenagers found that students who use “techspeak,” such as abbreviations and little to no punctuation, often have trouble switching back to traditional grammar when needed. Sixty four percent of teenagers admitted to using this kind of speech in the classroom on assignments. This deterioration of language and proper grammar caused by social media can seriously impair an individual’s future. Communications consultant, Michael C. Burton wrote that teachers are noticing an increase in punctuation errors, spelling mistakes, and inconsistent capitalization, all of which stem from similar mistakes found in Twitter or Facebook posts. He also included that English exams are being failed more often because students lack basic grammar skills. In other words, the effect that social media has on our language has caused students to perform worse in school. It also leads to poor communication and the possibility of others thinking that an individual can’t think clearly, express themselves well, or spell or punctuate correctly. This could end up harming someone’s chance to get into college or to get a job in the future. The ability to write correct, coherent sentences is an essential skill for people to know and by harming it, social media is hurting our very ability to communicate with one another.

Furthermore, social media takes away from the value of face-to-face communication and its multiple benefits for society. According to Sherry Turkle, psychologist and professor at M.I.T., because face-to-face conversations unravel more slowly than the rapid fire text messaging that seems to consume so many, it teaches patience, which in today’s society, is in clear decline. Studies show that the attention span of the average adult is approximately 8 seconds, or roughly one second lower than that of a goldfish. Only 35% of teenagers socialize with others in-person outside of school on a daily basis, and the average teenager sends about 60 texts a day. All of this accumulates to show that people are actively trading in a real time conversation for a short text to communicate how they’re feeling or what they want to talk about. Studies have shown that only about 7% of communication is actually verbal, and the rest is a combination of voice tone and body language, both of which are things that can’t be seen over text message. Even with the use of advanced apps such as Skype or FaceTime, there’s always the option to hang up and abruptly end the conversation, and this takes away from the real time experience of talking to someone and being forced to deal with consequences of what is said and with whatever else may come up along the way. This small, but important, component of communication is the reason that face-to-face conversations are ones that cannot be replicated through any current invention, for even with the modern advances of technology today, there is still no adequate replacement for conversations held in real time.

Some may believe that social media actually has the ability to help communication among each other, for it’s true that there are many benefits to the technology so widely used today. Social media can help people communicate from all over the world, especially when it comes to staying in touch with friends who might live far away, and it makes everyone more accessible. It also gives us control and more power over what we say, for we can think carefully about our response before answering a text or edit pictures to show ourselves to the world in the way that we want to be seen. Its ability to unite people with a common interest or for a common goal is almost inspirational, for it gives otherwise voiceless individuals a chance to be heard and to advocate for events or causes that would otherwise be hard to bring about, such as social reform or political changes.

However, though social media has its benefits, it still has the potential to harm our ability to communicate. Though it helps people living far away to stay in touch, it still is not an adequate replacement for face-to-face communication. It might even cause people to overlook the importance of real time communication since they find themselves “connected” through social media, and this can have negative impacts on their relationships in the future. The power it gives us over what we say can prove to be a curse disguised as a blessing, for it can form habits of overthinking and overanalyzing. In other words, when a time comes when there is a need to have a real, face-to-face conversation, it may be difficult for a frequent social media user to do so since they’re so used to being able to edit what they say before they say it. I’ve been involved in several conversations where I immediately want to take back something I said or wish that I’d thought a bit longer about it before opening my mouth. Social media allows me to contemplate before putting my opinion out into the world, or even change what I said, but by doing so, it takes away from that component of real-time conversations that can’t be replicated by anything else. The ability of social media to unite people for a common goal is unique and extremely valuable, but once again, this power can be abused, for the changes or messages that people are trying to get across are not always positive. There is no way to control what is being sent and to whom, which makes it easy for this high-efficiency form of communication to be used to organize harmful events, such as a meet-up at a local park for a fight. Also, online stalkers or criminals can easily access valuable, supposedly private information and use it to hurt or endanger others, and cyber bullying has also become more common as an effect of this new technology, since kids and teenagers are so much more accessible. While communication may be more efficient through social media, it’s because of this availability people have with each other that runs the risk of someone being harmed since the messages being put out can’t always be controlled. It’s true that social media has numerous incredibly beneficial components, but when taken into account the ease at which most of these are abused, they quickly end up in social media doing more harm than good.

Social media does have the ability to harm our communication, from causing a decrease in face-to-face communication to inhibiting our vocabulary to serving as a dangerous distraction. If we don’t do something, valuable and necessary skills for communication will disappear altogether, so for the sake of the future generations, we must act now. One way to do so would be to have spaces where any form of social media or technology is not allowed in order to give the opportunity for conversation, such as at the dinner table or living room. Additionally, to teach students the importance of knowing vocabulary and being able to write without using “text speak.” Though social media has the potential to transform our world into a better, more efficient environment, if we don’t place some restrictions on it, it may result in irreparable damage to our and the following generations’ ability to communicate.