Effects of Social Media on Young Adults Looking at the average Millennial, one would see him toting all his smart devices and would wonder if Millennials are ever disconnected – from technology or from each other. The Millennial Generation, more than any other generation, feels the need to be constantly linked to each other. For young American adults aged 18-32, technology is their life; virtual reality has come to supersede physical reality. In what seems like every second of every day, teenagers can be found on their computers, tablets, and cell phones, searching though pages of social media. In fact, statistics prove that they are: an average teenager has 201 Facebook friends and 73% of teenagers are on at least one social network
There are 30 million messages sent through Facebook every 20 minutes (Statistics Brain). While it may seem like a generation with a constant link to each other, brought on by the enormous quantity of messages sent between them, would have a excessive feeling of togetherness and an abundant number of fulfilling relationship, ironically, it is speculated these messages do not serve the same quality connection that one gets from an interpersonal conversation. A lack of interpersonal conversation ultimately leaves them feeling unhappy. There have been studies that prove the increased levels of Internet use have been associated with higher levels of depression and loneliness (Kersting). These online conversations do not provide people with the person to person bond that humans require to feel successful, but are more along the lines of shallow exchanges that include messages such as, ‘sup?’ that would only require the simplest of responses, ‘nothing, u?’. With this being the primary type of communication that they use, young people are unable to see the flaws that come from this type of interaction and how it will lead them to be dissatisfied if it continues to be the majority of how they communicate. The young adults have not learned the proper way to connect with other people nor have they used different conversational skills, or had to deal with different possibly complicated interpersonal situations, and they do not know how to get to know a