Have you ever been mesmerized, captivated, or even astonished by something posted on a social media network? Have you ever lost sight of time and found yourself staring at pointless pictures and status updates for hours at a time? Social media networks contribute numerous advantages in the area of communication; yet, they present many disadvantages to youthful high school students like myself. Social media networks, such as Face book and Twitter, provide a distracting environment and potentially damage the development of the human brain which is critical to students attaining knowledge daily. To prevent distractions and damage to the development of our brains, teens should limit the amount of time they spend social networking.

Social networking promotes procrastination. Practically all High school students check their social media networking sites first upon arrival at home. Being a junior in High school, I am particularly guilty of this. By doing this, students become so wrapped up in everything that society has posted, and disregard all the time wasted. By limiting students wasting time, they will have more efficient time management in the long run. Furthermore, social networking is affecting multiple students’ ability to score well on tests. According to Time magazine, “But a 2009 study found that when extraneous information was presented, participants who (on the basis of their answers to a study questionnaire) did a lot of media multitasking performed worse on a test than those who don't do much media multitasking.” Excessive social networking can be harmful to high school students who are taking college entry exams and more. Technology has only advanced since 2009, which concludes that the problem is worse today.

Students need to step up, manage the time they spend on social networking sites daily. This will essentially prevent procrastination and increase test scores.