Positive or negative impact on children's mental health?

Writing Prompt and Photo assignment 

Does social media have a negative or positive impact on  children’s mental health? Be specific and cite examples in your response.  

            I think social media is more negative than positive to children's mental health but it all really depends. Its all depending on children's  behavior once with a device. In this generation, technology is what keeps people going. Whether to keep track of the news or to be reminded of what to do in a special event. Our lives revolve around our devices. Our goal is to try to keep it balanced but we don't. We do the opposite of that. Everything we do, is based on our phones. There are iPhones, iPods, samsung, galaxy notes etc. All these devices help us with so much, and its clearly amazing how much information such small devices can hold and give information to us! We learn so much from technology and it really does benefit us in many ways as well as it being bad for us. Despite the bad things would you really ever be able to live without your phones?
          Now, lets think deeply into the negatives of our devices. Do you remember the last time you sat in the living room with your family and had no devices or technology whatsoever to ruin "family time"? I certainly do not remember at all! Especially since there's a tv in my house and since they're always too tired to do anything, all they do after work is sit on the couch and watch their shows. Nowadays, family time is sitting in different rooms of the house and having our eyes glued onto our phones, and why? whats so bad about being with the family once in a while. Most teens are usually locked in their room doing their stuff or because they think they're too cool for family. Like my older siblings, when i was younger all they did was be locked in their room only coming out to use the washroom or to eat. They would always be on their phones talking to people l and never had time for the family. Thats why having a computer, tv, phone and much more in their room does not help at all who would leave all that just to talk to people you see every day?
           Another negative thing that our phones bring to us is health. We are so lazy nowadays eating and eating but not doing exercise to burn that all off. I honestly give props to the people that commit to exercise and don't give up so easily because it is so hard to have time for our health since we think 30 minutes daily will make us skip so much of the news feed on Facebook or Instagram or even Snapchat; any social media. All we do is rely on our phones for everything whether its from Bruce Jenner's new decision or watching the latest episode. The closest thing that makes us even consider eating healthier and loosing weight is seeing other people on our news feed being in shape and thats just not even worth it because it just brings our self esteem lower and we end up doing nothing about it. We are getting so obsessed that we don't even want to admit that using our devices irresponsibly is not helping us at all yet we continue doing it. Nowadays kids are getting their first device at 2 years of age, seriously? I got my iPod at 13 years of age and older people say they got theirs at 16 or older. Kids are getting them too young and at such a young age they begin getting trapped in the "Device world" too early in their lives and

thats not good for their growth. They are supposed to grow active not lazy that will cause obesity. They have to run,  jump, be hyper, eat healthy, in order to properly grow. Thats why children are getting older faster because they think they want to be independent when they are clearly babies and don't know what independent is. Next thing we know, babies are going to be born with their devices in their hands texting other babies.

             My last negative would be Distraction. Our phones are the blame of our distractions- No let me rephrase that; We allow our phones to distract us.We are always distracted! Doing homework- Distracted, doing chores- Distracted, cleaning house- distracted, going over to friends house- Distracted, someone dying- Distracted, its bed time- Distracted. We are supposed to do things at our 100% best and thats the exact opposite of what we do. We start caring less about our obligations that we forget that we have a life to attend to. The new way people talk with each other is sitting in the same room but texting it all out, yeah thats so much cooler! no. This is  ending up so bad that even our parents are doing it. Adults can't even control themselves either. And thats what makes me wonder if they can't control themselves, why criticize us? Anyways, every time I go out with my family to someones house, first thing they do is ask each other for their names on WhatApp, and they end up coming to us (the younger ones) asking how to work their phones. Then as soon as we get home they start texting people and when I tell them they are overdoing their usage of their phones, I get my iPod taken away. You see how its not only affecting children but adults too! Imagine us in the future, making food four our kids by going on an app. No communication whatsoever. No people walking their dogs since they can virtually do it. Its all just sad and scary!
           But don't get me wrong. Our phones also have so many positives for example they help us research without us having to go all the way to the library. We can talk to people or family members that we don't live close to, we get reminded of certain things; birthdays, shopping list anything! Basically having a gadget with us makes our lives so much easier it helps us find loopholes to things. Is it awesome? YES does it benefit our health? NO. We should get off our lazy butts and do something that will actually benefit us or at least something more active. I really do think social media does negatively affect children's mental health but its not because of technology, its because of the immature usage of the device, if we made good choices with it it wouldn't affect us at all. Before we controlled our devices, now, they control us.