Social media has become an important platform for teens in this century, where teens can socialize with other people of different ages, countries, races, and cultures, but it also can be a dangerous place if teens do not use it properly. A hypothesis was formed of this topic, in which researchers believed that social media can have a positive, and negative impact on teen’s mental, physical, and emotional health. The research was conducted over searching articles on the internet, on sources of total confidence like Google Scholar and ProQuest, an interview with an expert, and a survey. And finally, after gathering information and analyzing it, the investigators were able to formulate a conclusion about the effects that social media can cause to teens. Review of the Literature Social media has become a huge thing among teens in this century. There are several platforms on the internet that teens can use as social media like Facebook, Instagram, Snap chat, Twitter. The most popular online platforms among teens are YouTube, Instagram, and Snap chat; Facebook is no longer the dominant online platform for teens, just only for lower income teens. And there are many ways teen can access to social media, like smartphone, tablets, I pad, laptops or desktops, the majority of teens in America (95%) access to social media through a smartphone, 88% access to social media through a laptop or desktop, where they can get it at home, school, or a library. According to Pew Research Center, 35.5% of teens in America spend ten or more hours on social media, 38.7% of teens spend six to eight hours, and 22.6% of teens spend three to five hours. There are many types of post on social media that may interest teens are dating life, posting everything about their significant other; personal life, teens like to share what they do on their daily life; entertainment, posting funny videos or memes; and tutorials, like how to prepare food, to do makeup over, or how to draw something. The positive impacts that social media gives to teens is to stay connected with their friends and family, talk to each other, through social media it is easier to communicate with friends or family, with a message or video chat. Make comments on groups of their interest, sharing their opinion with others, making social connections, and expressing who they really are without feeling insecure; 1 in 4 teens say social media is very important to them for expressing themselves. Another impact is searching for positive content, and trustful information, social media is a good tool that teens can use for school, it can be useful for surveys, gather information for their homework, projects, or assignment, or interviewing experts. There are also social media networks that can help students to improve in their classes. In the negative impact of social media, teens can be victims of cyberbullying. There are two damaging forms of harassment: trolling and cyber mob. Online trolling is someone who post insulting messages to damage people because of their race, sex, body type or gender identity, it may be as simple as writing “you are a fool”, and it can cause psychological damage to teens. Cybermob is a group of people who terrorize people on social media by posting insulting messages, or false information. By being bullied on social media can lead teens to depression, and most of the time is because they believed everything their aggressors say, and they start to compare themselves with other teens, and get psychological disorders, and finally commit suicide. Another negative impact is the time teens spend on their phone because of social media. Teens spend an average of six to eight hours on social media because they are looking to distract themselves from school or from home, sometimes they are looking on the dark side of social media, that is basically where all the negative content is, and the problem with teens is that they do not measure their time spending on social media, they stay up late at night and lose hours of sleep. Some of the cause that social media can be a dangerous place is because of the poor experience of some teens who do not have, or do not spend too much time on social media, they can be influenced by friends to search for inappropriate content that can cause community censorship, they believe everything that is post online, and they do not bother checking if the resources are credible. Teens are motivated to use social media to stay connected with family and friends to stay up to date with news and current events of their interest, to find entertainment content, to share their personal life through photos or videos with family and friends to share their opinion on groups about topics they are interested in, to meet new people, and make new friends, or to find products online to buy or sell. Most teens mixed their personal life with social media because they think that everything depends on how many likes they had, they care more about what people say or thinks instead of what they feel, they compare themselves with others, trying to copy the lifestyle of others, and they believe everything that is posted online without hesitation. Mixing personal life with social media can result in bad consequences, teens spend too much time on their phones because they refuse to leave their phone, just because they wanted to update or stay in touch with their followers, creating an addiction towards their phones. Methods The methods for trying to answer the questions were searching on the internet, in platforms where the information is clear and verified by an expert, like Proquest, and Google Scholar. Where just typing the questions in the search bar gives a lot of articles with excellent information about how social media affects teens, then just looking into the articles to decide which one gives the best information, clarifies all doubts, and explains it with details. Also, another method for gathering information was interviewing Dr. Dake, psychologist of Mira Mesa High School. Dr. Dake was a fundamental piece for this investigation because all the information that he provided was proof that all the data that were collected was right. He also clarified doubtful information, and gave his own version of what social media does with his students. And the last method was a survey for students from Mira Mesa High School; students have to answer 10 closed questions to compare and confirm these answers with the data that were gathered, who responded the survey showed the same information and data as in the other methods. Results The results for this investigation were according to expectations, most of the results show that social media has both sides, negative and positive. But it depends on the perspective and the use of the person. In the good side, social media can be used as a tool for school where students can ask a question or respond surveys for assignments, projects, or homework, communicate with their classmates or teachers in a fast, and secure way, search for truthful information, interview experts, and there are even social media sites where students can practice and take quizzes to improve in their class and academic performance. In a student's daily life, social media is used to share ideas, opinions, and thoughts about certain topics of their interest. It can help to improve social skills to communicate with others, to gather confidence with friends or parents, and meet new people around the world. On the negative side of social media, most teens use it as an excuse or a distraction for not doing homework, leaving behind their academic performance and just focusing on social media. Teens spend the majority of the time on social media, approximately six to eight hours daily. Spending this amount of time cannot only affect teen’s mental health, it also can affect their social life, for example, spending too much time on social media make teens talk less to their parents or friends, and not talking to them can make teen feel like their parents do not have enough time for them, or they simply do not understand them. Not talking to their parents means not being able to express their feelings, thoughts, and ideas with confidence, not being able to express feelings, thoughts, or ideas freely can produce psychological disorder that can cause depression, and finally, lead to drugs or alcohol, or even suicide. Other problems that social media can cause to teens is cyber bullying, here two people in cyber bullying, the one who does the bullying and the one who receives it. Discussion The hypothesis of this investigation was correct, all the data reveals that social media has two sides that can affect teens’ mental, physical, and emotional life. Social media can be compared as a double-edge weapon, where the two sides of social media can affect teens. There are more negative things on social media that can affect teens, it can be a dangerous place if teens search for inappropriate content and if they spend too much time online every day. But also, social media can be a good platform where teens can learn and experience new things, gather new skills, and also use it as a tool for their benefit. Teen need to remember the negative and positive side of social media, so they can be aware on what is happening online, because social media can be a real problem, if teens use it to search for only negative content, they need to learn what are the consequences of using social media for negative things, learn how to manage time, so they do not neglect their studies, and to know what they can post or not. And on the other side, teens can view social media as a tool for communication, where they can talk with literally everyone in the world, to search and gather for every kind of information, the topic that they are interested in or for scholar assignments, and to express with confidence who they really are. In conclusion, social media is a platform that depends much on the point of view of teens, whether they see it as a negative or positive, so that they can prevent big issues and can be used properly
