The student news site of Wayland High School

Wayland Student Press

The student news site of Wayland High School

Wayland Student Press

The student news site of Wayland High School

Wayland Student Press

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News Brief: Schedule changes this week
March 26, 2024
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Zen & M’s: Technology use is becoming unhealthy

This week, Caitlin discusses social media's role in many of our lives, along with her opinion on the growing fad of technology dependence.

Technology may not seem like an obvious influence of bad health, but in today’s society, trust me, it is. I’m not saying that technology is inherently bad, because, it isn’t. But, technology has a lot of power, and as Uncle Ben would say, “With great power comes great responsibility.”

By observing WHS students, I’ve noticed that the younger you are, the more you use social media. That seems hard to believe because we seniors use social media a lot — most of us are constantly updating our Twitters or editing a new Instagram picture.

But, among the younger students, the Tumblr fad seems more prominent. Freshmen often walk into many of my different music rehearsals throughout the week chatting about the 1,000th or 5,000th follower they just reached.

This worries me.

I’m worried that so many students at school, many of whom are my friends, rely so heavily on the acknowledgement and perceived approval of 1,000 people they don’t actually know and probably will never know. And these followers are fickle; I was informed by one of my friends that you need to get a friend to Tumblr-sit if you go on a vacation without your computer because your followers will get bored and disappointed with you and “unfollow” you as a result.

If these followers were your real friends, you would say this situation is ridiculous. A real friend doesn’t drop you after a few days if you’re busy and have ceased to entertain them. You wouldn’t cater to that kind of emotional manipulation in real life, and it worries me that people allow this to happen on the Internet, and worse, depend on it.

This is a personal observation that disturbs me, but addiction to social media has been studied extensively and has been shown to lead to actual health problems. For one, social media keeps everybody, even me, awake for longer than we need to be. And if you are an avid reader of Zen & M’s (which I have no doubt you are), you know that sleep is top priority for a healthy lifestyle. But, worse than that, media can lead to body image issues and depression.

Often, people look at their Facebook news feed and see posts about wonderful things happening to other people or start comparing themselves to pictures their friends have posted. This can lead to self-esteem issues as well as depression. When you think about it, this problem seems inevitable in a society that compulsively checks its Facebook page as often as we do.

But, as I mentioned before, technology isn’t inherently bad. You’re not going to “catch” depression or self-esteem issues simply by logging onto your computer. What you can catch though, is yourself when you start with the negative comparisons or the obsessive need to harvest as many followers’ validations as possible. Enjoy the Internet. It is fun. But realize that you control your time and your happiness. It would behoove all of us to unplug for a few minutes a day and appreciate the real world and the real relationships around us.

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Zen & M’s: Technology use is becoming unhealthy