Why are teens so attached to their smartphones?

                                                                            

                                                                                             Click here to access the social networking section of the itunes app store

Social networking; simple as that.

With over 775,000 apps available in the iTunes app store, ask any teenager you see on their smart phone and chances are they all have the Facebook app.  Facebook is the most frequently downloaded app out of them all.

Think about it.  58% of kids ages 13-17 own smart phones.  The iTunes app store provides hundreds of social media apps, and better yet; free of charge. Just a click of a button away, teens can instantly download and access any form of social networking site they want to. A click of a button away, at any time and place. Simple as that.

With this being said, it is clear that social media is dominating the lives of teens. In fact, what are you doing right now? Ironic as it is, you are reading about social networking while on a social networking site.

Point proven.

Are you a teenager? If so, how many times a day do you check your Facebook, twitter, or instagram apps?

Are you a parent? Do you constantly see your kids, or any teens for that matter glued to their phones?

You may be thinking to yourself "Well, so what? I enjoy it." Of course you enjoy it. We all do. And that's the underlying problem.

Social media sites are an enjoyable, easily accessible way to keep in touch with friends and interact with the rest of the world.  You can do it all whether its posting your feelings on twitter, making statuses and adding photos on Facebook, uploading images to instagram, or finding new friends on apps such as tinder.

Nine out of ten teens use social media sites, and twenty-two percent those teenagers log on to Facebook ten times a day. Whether you are a victim or witness of this social media runoff, I'm sure you can agree that these statistics are skyrocketing. So take a step back, and think about it.

Will social media have a larger effect on this generation and future ones? Certainly. In fact, larger than active users may think.  Larger effects than anyone that presses their Facebook app when they are sitting around bored is even aware of.

The following posts will examine the effects of social media, and what impact its overuse has on some people, whether they know it or not.