Social Media ≠ Real Life

The 21st century has seen a lot of changes when compared to previous centuries and the social media is one of the most remarkable things to happen in this century. Very few people can claim to not be affected by social media nowadays. Almost everyone has an account on one platform or the other while some people even have accounts on almost all platforms.  Social media just like life and almost everything in it has two sides, the good and the bad. It is left for us to seive the good and limit the bad sides. Raising children can be challenging because regardless of the values we wish to inculcate in the child, we can not entirely protect them from external influences. We can only do our best to limit it but that is at the expense of your time and energy. This is particularly the case where social media is involved because there's a lot going on at every given time. It's easy to assess a variety of information just by clicking a button and this could have varying effects on individuals based on personality differences and upbringing. The youth of these days are privy to a lot including depressing and uplifting news. So it depends on the individual. For example, it's easy to see the growth and success of "peers" on social media and hence one can begin to feel inadequate for not having achieved such status. One would also see news about people who have it worse despite their best efforts. There is also that possibility that the peer who seems to have achieved a lot is only pretending, living the "fake life". Everyone should realise that social media is not equal to real life. This would ensure that unnecessary pressure and expectations are avoided in our daily lives. The parent should be able to inculcate the right values into the child from cradle so that even in his absence, the childs values and morals would keep him in check regardless of what others are saying or posting. Also understanding displayed by the parents would also ensure that the child confides in them when he come across gray areas in life or social media. This would be the guiding principle even as an adult.