Before you send that tweet, make sure your hashtag is just how you want it with the perfect selfie attached. With apps such as Twitter, Instagram and Vine, our future generation of teens are consumed daily by a 2.37X 4.87 inch screen. Hand held devices have taken over the world, but has it been for better or for worse?

There are a total of 645,750,000 active registered twitter users, 135,000 new users every day, 58 million tweets each day and 9,100 tweets sent every second according to online statistics, as of July 11th, 2014. That means that of the 7 billion people living on earth, 9.225% of people tweet their latest update every day. The iconic blue bird symbol is known by teenagers throughout the world. Communication is key, yet, what can really be said in 140 characters or less? That means grammar and spelling are sent out the window so that Sally can get her aggression out in a "subtweet" IN ALL CAPS. But regardless of how fun it is to “RT” the latest gossip or “FAV” your crush’s latest opinion, what are we getting out of twitter? Bullying? Distraction? Laziness? Mindless entertainment?

Twitter is a main source of information. From tweeting out links to websites, to filling masses of people in on key events, to mourning the loss of celebrities, it’s false to conclude that we would live in the same world we do without twitter. But that doesn’t make it OK to consume our daily lives. Teachers loose the attention of students in the matter of 3 clicks of a phone.


1. To open the phone









2. Let the blue bird open
3. To click “create the tweet”
Just like that, 1..2..3 they’re gone.

When I asked six high school seniors to describe twitter in a single phrase, they said: an escape, a connection between others, relatable (because everyone is involved with the site), complaints of the real world, entertaining and annoying. Even with these phrases, kids are constantly logged onto twitter.

Along with twitter, six second vines have shot random individuals to internet fame. With each day of Re-vine after re-vine, new ideas are thought up of how to entertain others in 6 seconds or less. Vines such as “I’m in me mums car” and the “Crack kid” have been remade hundreds of thousands of times, to just get yet another “like”. Our generation has become obsessed with how many likes they get on social media. Heck, boys under the age of 16 are going on tours around the United States to allow teenage girls to pay $200+ to say “hi” to their “idols”. Take Nash Grier, Matthew Espinosa, Cameron Dallas, Shawn Mendes, Jack and Jack and Hayes Grier, just to name a few. These boys decided to download an app, post a video of themselves that loops every 6 seconds, and now collectively have 27.2 million followers. These boys who were just your “average Joe” before Vine, are touring the US with body guards and are being begged by girls to “follow them”. Girls pray and pray to be noticed by their idol, and it has gone to such measures that girls physically self-harming all because of a boy from a small town. No matter if your idol follows, tweets or even notices you, the modern day teenager’s life revolves around a touch screen smart phone.

If America’s teenagers put their phone down to see the outside world, they would beg for their phone back so they could capture that perfect “Tumblr worthy” picture. But don’t forget about the Instagram filter along with that. So why is this? Why is it that a picture posted to social media is considered “boring” if not edited to the point of no return? Why do girls feel that a “selfie” is only acceptable if it is on #SelfieSunday? Our world has turned into a judgment filled, stereotypical bubble that cannot be popped until we escape from the hand held device currently glued to the palm of our hands. Forgetting about how may followers you have on twitter. Forgetting about how many re-vines your latest edit got. Forgetting about whether to choose Inkwell, Nashville, 1977 or Kelvin as your current filter. Forgetting it all. What is left? What is left for communication? What happened to a hand written letter or a phone call? If it is only 2014 and social media has already consumed our daily lives, do we really want to be around when 2041 hits. The image is terrifying. The one and only solution to prying ourselves away from brainwashing ourselves any further is as simple as hitting one button…Log off.