SOCIAL MEDIA

SOCIAL MEDIA FOR TEENS

The development of the Internet is growing rapidly with the existence of various facilities or containers to connect to the internet such as mobile phones, laptops and modems as well as wi-fi networks. The interest of the community, especially teenagers, in using the internet is also increasing, both by using cellphones and computers. Social media is an online medium, with its users being able to easily participate, share, and create content including blogs, social networks, wikis, forums and virtual worlds. Blogs, social networks and wikis are the most common forms of social media used by people around the world.

Currently, social media has become an addiction for Indonesian people, especially teenagers. Today's teenagers are synonymous with smartphones in their hands for almost 24 hours. The social media that are most often used by teenagers are Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Line, and WhatsApp. Social media has its own advantages and interests for its users. Social media offers many conveniences that make teenagers feel at home in using it for a long time.

Social media has a negative impact and a positive impact on teenagers as the biggest users. The impact of social media is determined by the teenagers themselves in using social media. The positive impact of social media is that social media is very useful to strengthen communication, expand friendship networks around the world, and can be used as a means to seek information, insight, and knowledge for teenagers. In addition, social media can also motivate teenagers to develop themselves, for example using social media such as Facebook, Instagram, bloggers as a means of business and business promotion.

Social media also has a negative impact if we can't handle it properly. The negative impact of social media is that teenagers lose their direct communication skills, because they tend to rely on social media to communicate instead of communicating directly with those closest to them. Social media also makes teenagers become addicted and lazy to think. Usually, teenagers spend their free time using social media. This causes teenagers to spend more time playing on social media than studying and doing homework.

Social media will not be separated from its positive and negative effects, the impact depends on the users themselves. Although adolescence is a period that can be said to be very critical because it enters a transitional period of searching for identity. But teenagers can also limit themselves with good norms and morals. Character formation from an early age, including during adolescence, is very important for the future of the youth themselves and more broadly for the future of the nation. Teenagers as the nation's successors who have good, strong, and tough characters will certainly be able to make this country progress.