A Teen's Take

POMEROY–Social media is horrible and a wonderful thing all at once. It allows us to stay connected with others from our past to our present. While we tweet, like, comment, and share, we are becoming more and more addicted to social media every day. Why is that? Why is it so addictive and time consuming?

This beautiful thing was initially created to keep us connected to friends and family far and near. It has benefitted us and made life easier by creating a venue to let everyone know what we have and what we are doing. Have we become robots? Or are robots controlling everything we think, say and do?

On problem I see is the last couple of generations don’t know how to converse with one another in-person. Instead, we spend our days on Tik Tok and really only talk through Snapchat or Instagram. When it comes to real-life, face-to-face discussions, we know absolutely nothing. Why is this? Why is it that we don’t take the time to learn how to converse? I think this skill is so far gone, that we should start encouraging teaching it in schools. Or at the very least, create a device-free zone where kids have to talk with words and interact in-person.

Pomeroy is super good about helping kids learn to speak in front of people through a program called “Student Led Presentations”. Teachers help us speak in front of groups of people, direct us on how to run a presentation and respond quickly to questions. We start it in the sixth grade and it is a wonderful thing, in my opinion. More schools should include it.

Yes, we use technology for things like this, but it’s the social media aspect of technology that is isolating us from one another and on some level, corrupting us. I hope we can find a way out of this situation.

I hope everyone had a wonderful week and please try to stay off your social media platforms as much as possible and see what life has to offer.