Dear Samantha Taylor,

I recently read your article about teenagers use of social media and the effects it has on them. After reading your article I felt it was crucial that I write to you expressing my views and thoughts as I strongly disagree with your view in the article. I feel the quotes mentioned in your article about teenagers are correct as I am a 15 year old boy and I witness these things on a daily basis, in and out of school. One of the main things that I thought was very misleading was your article’s title. I felt this was very deceptive and didn’t really relate to the article. I strongly agree with Jonathan Franzen and the others who feel that teenagers are unaware and blind to the amount of time they spend on their computers and phones interacting with others. I feel that it is very important for me as a student to step out and talk about these issues that occur in our generation.

In this day and age teenagers are afraid of socializing face to face and cannot even sit with someone and have a decent conversation. This is due to the fact that they have spent most of their lives behind computer screens and phones, every time they have a conversation with someone it is over social media and rarely in person. It is on these grounds that I find myself agreeing with Jonathan Franzen when he says that “online socialising is causing a shallow culture and makes teenagers unable to socialise face to face”. I strongly agree with this statement and believe that this also has a knock on effect for students later on in life. The fact that younger teenagers cannot communicate face to face means that they tend to become introverted characters later on in life. This all stems from them not being able to talk and communicate with others from a young age.

In addition to the points made by Jonathan Franzen about teenagers being social inadequate, John Henley has explored the danger to the teenagers that are giving out their details and information online. John Henley suggested that teenager  “couldn’t care less about privacy “ and I strongly agree with the point made as nowadays as a young man I see and hear young males and females posting private things. For example mobile phone numbers are posted on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter. These are all very dangerous traits as it could lead to them being stalked or being target by an older adult. What I feel teenagers do not understand is that all off these things are very misleading as later on in life, if they were to be employed by someone and the employer saw all off this it could lead to them not getting the job. This is because they feel that the applicant does not make mature decisions. The fact that we as a generation are allowing our children to be this attached to social media is very bad. Personally  I think that it is not preparing us for the real world and the adult world as we will not be able to communicate and relate to others face to face on a natural speaking level as we would have spent all our life texting and behind a white screen.

Another key point that I found interesting that Samantha Taylor mentioned was when she said that    “We could be raising a hedonistic generation…are in distinct danger of detaching themselves from what the rest of us would consider the real world.” I strongly agreed with this point as I felt that this is what we were setting ourselves up for by leaving our children to be wild and free on social media. The reason why I say this is because if children are constantly on the internet and never socialising  with others face to face when they become older it would make them very introverted and they will fear theses type of situation which they could  be facing on a day to day basis as a grown man. Also I feel that if teenagers are constantly on their phones and screens it may affect the speech and may lead to them being verbally not as strong as their peers as they are never actually speaking verbally to anybody apart from typing on a computer screen.

Although I can understand how some teenagers are frustrated by this article and some of the points made in it, I do feel there are a small minority of teenagers who are very responsible and do take with what they do on social media and the things they post and share seriously. However I do feel the majority of teenagers and children are spending too much time on the internet and are very careless with what they do and post on it. If this was not to change I feel future generations  would become very introverted and would struggle in face to face modern day situations.