Walking through the hallways, students have a healthy conversation with friends. Although often times, they are motionless, looking towards the ground with a blank expression and wide eyes. Twitter, Facebook or Instagram are the alternative schedule on student’s minds during school.

Over the past many years, social media had its ups and downs. Most people admitted to ‘cyber-stalking‘ their crush, but one thing many teens didn’t take into account when they are on these sites is the destruction that they do. As students communicate more and more with their friends through Twitter, their physical relationships are increasingly absent.

That is not the only destructive thing social media inflicts on people. There are countless other ways in which it affects people. For example, social media sets false standards people.

“I think it’s kind of obvious how people judge people based on the amount of followers they have, or friends they have. Just because someone has a lot of tweets doesn’t necessarily depict how popular they are,” explained junior Jack Franz, member of Students for Social Justice Club.

Opinions differ from person to person on the effect social media has on people.

Junior Giorgina Ferrari said, “I suppose if people become absorbed in it it could start to have a negative effect on them but in my opinion, social media is a cool advantage in our world that allows us to be connected in ways we never were before.”

Another prominent negative effect of social media is cyber-bullying.  It has spread like wildfire from person to person on the web,  with 42 percent of American youth claiming to be a victim of cyber-bullying according to a 2010 CBS News report. However, cyber-bullying does not keep kids off social media sites.

“I believe that everyone has the right to communicate and express their thoughts, even though not everyone will agree on everything. No one should be able to restrict someone’s voice or restrict the information the have access to,” said Ferrari. “Even though I see things on social media that disgust me and I believe shouldn’t be thought by any human being, I still believe that everyone has the right to speak their mind, no matter how much I disagree with their thoughts. Bottom line is that so long as you are not harming another person’s physical or mental well-being, you have the right to have your opinions and thoughts and you have the right to express them.”

Most teens can agree that the reason that social media is so damaging is because they compare themselves to others.

“For me, Twitter and Instagram hurt people because [people] allow themselves to believe that other people’s lives are better than their own,” explained senior Emmy Smith. “Instagram would be a wonderful place to be if everybody was soundly confident.”

It is all about perspective. Everybody has their opinions about social media. Twitter affected many people last year when an anonymous creator made the account ‘Stillwater Anonymous’. It was made simply to put down students. The site was taken down by the school a few weeks later. Incidents like these are evidence that social media will never be a completely bully-proof place.