From an early age, you’re driven to stay away from social media. “You never know who you’re talking to” or how behind the screen it can be an eighty year old man waiting to kidnap you, so you should never talk to strangers online. The dangers of the internet have always been categorized by its anonymity, although that should not always be the focus of attention. 

Everyday things are posted online; stories, videos, posts, tweets, anything that can connect themselves to a sea of millions of users—and like the sea, there’s the unknown and the dangerous. 97% of teenagers own a phone or some sort of technology, and of that percentage, up to 92% of teenagers use their technology to document their lives on social media. Why is this a problem? Like most teenage infested communities, things are bound to get out of hand, from cyberbullying to “cancel culture” to the decline of their mental health and the loss of overall empathy.

“I think growing up online has killed a sense of empathy in people due to consuming content at a young age, especially gore content,” Adolfo Lopez-Torres (17) explained in an interview, “you get detached from what’s sensitive and you stop understanding right from wrong.” When asked about the empathy of teenagers online, many students had expressed that the loss had stemmed from their childhoods and the lack of restrictions on media. “Online, people are exposed to things they don’t really get,” Shae M. (17), “and it develops a false sense of understanding. However, it could be a good thing in some cases, with understanding LGBTQ+ or POC issues.” 

When it comes to lack of understanding, some believe teenagers tend to feel the need to enforce repercussions based on things they may not fully comprehend, such as cancel culture. During quarantine in 2020, it was evident that young users on social media would uncover or even just stumble across something that most of the time was offensive, using their platforms to speak out about it in hopes of larger content creators to do the same. 

From platforms such as TikTok to Twitter, it had become a controversy where teens would ‘dig’ up offensive remarks from creators and call them out, expecting to hold these creators accountable, only to be spiraled into an internet war of ‘being canceled.’ Creators would ‘lose their platforms’ or any sort of privilege they had earned ranging from sponsorships, jobs, scholarships, etc. “It’s okay to learn from a mistake,” counselor Denise Bohon sympathized,  “but you need to take responsibility for what you say and that it can still hurt someone no matter how long ago it was. Teenagers are not at fault for it.” 

It isn’t that cancel culture is necessarily a problem, however, it leads to a new world of cyberbullying and online harassment. “Bullying has definitely become more glorified now online,” Carlos Medina (17) spoke about how he views cyberbullying and harassment online. “You open up a comment section and no matter what kind of content there is, it’s always something negative or crazy messed up being said. It doesn’t even matter what it is. People being canceled at the moment get death threats and even regular people do too.” It was expressed by many how insults are thrown if you try to stick up for the right thing and how it feels endangering to be online in general with a new culture of online ‘doxxing.’ 

“I don’t think it’s mainly just teenagers,” Angel Quintana (18) discussed when asked about who exactly to blame for this environment and what should be done. “A good portion of them, yeah, but I think it’s mainly people who grew up in this era of technology. I think, in general, internet access needs to be reworked in a whole — too much internet leaves kids traumatized when none at all leaves them too ‘sheltered.’”

The dangers of the media platforms people use are still relevant and they still need to be discussed. As Denise Bohon told me: “People need to be educated in a new way, in a way that matters.” Information about social media in schools is outdated. For better or worse, few teenagers are very worried about a creepy old man behind the screen. They’re more worried about what to say next and how this will impact their entire social world. The pressure is stifling.