Social media addiction among youth

I came to realise that the prevalence this epidemic has in our society is getting out of hand. Majority of adolescents are now addicted to social media, which has affected them socially and academically. Although social media has in a lot of ways, contributed to the growth of this country and the development of our youths in all areas Studies have shown that social media has negatively impacted our youths in such a way that they are now experiencing the effects, such as internet harassment, exposure of privacy and consumption of harmful content such as; violence and pornography. It has also affected our academic performance, social life and family relations. To get out of the quagmire, we must first realise what some of the common precursors are and what can be done to stop the problem from its roots.

Children and adolescents now rely on social media to pass examination, they visit different website which they learn from and influence their lives negatively, they also use it to avoid responsibilities at home.

• Soldiers, herdsmen in gun duel in Benue

It is important to understand that imbalance in social media and psychological emotions may cause people to turn to social the media for satisfaction, especially in area such as communication, entertainment, information seeking or surveillance.

These are the major reasons children and adolescents relying so heavily on social media and it is extremely important to find means of controlling the ugly friend.

Parents and educators have enormous roles to play in this issue, as they are the ones to be blame if things go wrong.

I believe educating this group of people on the detrimental effect of social media can help tremendously in the fight to control it. If possible, to prevent and monitor this problem at an early stage, so that our children would be not exposed to the social media harassment.

Also, giving teenagers and adolescents alternative sources of information and different routes to satisfy their social and psychological needs curb this malaise.

If we curb the harmful effects of social media and internet addiction, curb on our children and our society, by taking necessary steps, we can benefit from the endless opportunities offered by the internet and social media.

Olateju Mariam

Ibadan, Oyo State.