East students express their opinions on social media

There is no denying that social media plays a role in the everyday lives of highschoolers all over the world. While social media has many positive effects, there are also downsides that come with these platforms. East students have many diverse opinions about the effects that social media has on their lives.

Gaby Matro, (‘23) said, “I am easily able to keep up with friends who I may not talk to as much. Especially this past year, social media has been a great way to communicate, but it’s not the same as seeing people face-to-face.”

Many East students agree that social media creates a false sense of reality.

Lisa Gorbati, (‘23) said, “Social media is a great way to interact with people online and can lead to many exciting opportunities. However, people try to make it look like their lives are perfect online when in reality, it is far from that.”

Julia Rosten, (‘24) said, “I think that social media can be detrimental if I overuse it. I try to limit my time on all my social media apps, even though it can be hard. I can easily lose track of time getting mesmerized as I scroll through my feed.”

Furthermore, East students agree that it is common for people to compare themselves to others because of social media.

Jesse Sklar (‘24), said, “You can see what others think of you, and you can start to judge yourself based off of the people you see online.”

Some East students feel grateful for social media, especially during the pandemic.

Max Gaffin, (‘22) said, “I like social media because it helps me connect with my peers in new ways and has helped greatly during the Pandemic. It is a great way to interact with people from all over the world and share new information from around my community.”

Tharunika Govindasamy, (‘22) said, “Social media is a bitter-sweet thing for me. I feel fortunate to have access to social media because it gives me an outlet to express myself, and it also helps me expand my knowledge. However, there are times when I wish I was born in an era where social media ceased to exist. Social media can be harmful to one’s mental health. One can’t help but compare their own reality to the romanized version portrayed in social media, which can be damaging.”

Max Becker, (‘22) said, “Social media has transformed how we communicate with each other in the past ten years and makes us all think very differently about the regular things we do in our lives. I think that it is a good thing that most people use in the right way.”

There are many useful purposes that social media plays a role in. However, many East students agree that social media should not replace forming connections and building relationships with the people in your life.