The Impact of Social Media on Youth: Problems, Analysis, and Solutions

Xayitova Mehribon

Introduction

The 21st century is the era of information technologies and digital communication. The Internet and social media have rapidly become an integral part of human life. Nowadays, young people spend a significant part of their day in the virtual space. This has a substantial impact on their thinking, worldview, and behavior. Therefore, the influence of social media on youth is not only a pedagogical and psychological issue but also a socially significant problem.

Main Part

1. Positive Effects of Social Media

Modern social platforms create vast opportunities for young people. Primarily, they serve as a rapid source of information. Youth can stay informed about global events, learn scientific and popular knowledge, and broaden their intellectual horizons.

Moreover, social media:

expands access to distance learning;

helps learn foreign languages;

provides a platform for creative expression;

offers exposure to different professional fields.

Especially during the pandemic, social media and online platforms became a crucial component of the education system, demonstrating their positive potential.

2. Negative Effects and Risk Factors

At the same time, social media has negative aspects that significantly affect youth consciousness. One major problem is time mismanagement — many young people spend hours consuming unproductive content.

Another critical issue is exposure to false or harmful information. Not all online content is reliable, and the inability to differentiate can lead to poor decision-making.

Additionally:

excessive immersion in virtual life;

mental stress from comparing oneself with others;

cyberbullying;

weakening real-life communication skills

are widely observed.

Psychological studies show that social media addiction can lead to decreased attention span, disrupted sleep patterns, and increased stress levels.

3. The Role of Social Environment in Shaping Youth

From a scientific perspective, adolescence is a crucial stage in personality formation. At this age, values, attitudes, and social positions are established. Social media plays a strong external influence in this process.

If young people engage with useful, educational, and informative content, it positively affects their development. Conversely, shallow or harmful content negatively impacts their mindset. Therefore, social media can be considered a double-edged sword.

4. Solutions and Recommendations

Addressing this issue requires a comprehensive approach. First, it is essential to develop information literacy among youth. Every young person must be able to critically evaluate the information encountered online.

The following measures can be effective:

parental guidance and proper supervision;

incorporating media literacy education in schools and universities;

promoting quality and beneficial content;

organizing meaningful leisure activities for youth.

Additionally, involving young people in sports, reading, and creative activities can reduce social media over-dependence.

Conclusion

In conclusion, social media is a vital component of modern society that strongly influences youth. Using its positive potential wisely while minimizing its negative effects is a pressing contemporary task.

The key points are:

 fostering independent thinking in youth;

 developing the ability to distinguish reliable information;

 maintaining a balance between virtual and real-life activities.

Addressing these challenges is the responsibility of each member of society.

MY DEAR MOTHER

My dear mother, you are my happiness,

The highest throne in my life.

You are my existence, my dignity,

The endless strength in my world.

Because you are here, my luck arrives,

The feelings in my heart overflow.

Because you are here, my fortune smiles,

The half-moons of my life become full.

When I am ill, you are always by my side,

Day and night, you care endlessly.

You pray for my happiness from the Creator,

You wish only good fortune for us.

I’m so grateful you are in my life,

You are a spring of never-ending love.

A beautiful gift from the Creator,

The most important reason I live.

Uzbekistan

 SLIGHT IMPRESSION!

You came to my world and disappeared

Next moment; I thought several times 

That first look with a slight impression 

Why does it make my heart so restless 

You’re smiling back with sweet glances

I don’t know what you are waiting for

Am I the one whom you trust so much

Why I have this feeling time and again

The buds of rosy lips have blossomed

Is it due to the passion of your heart?

 WITHOUT ANY REASON!

In search of faithfulness in this world 

I got to know I was in wrong address 

And my life hasn’t become complete 

My shortcomings were ignored though

I was punished without any reason

If I live on I feel like torturing myself 

And I go out fetching God in her heart

The person this heart sincerely seeks

There is always a mystery in the air

My days & nights are upset without you.

UPSET WITH ME!

Your craziness and airiness won’t kill me

Your being upset with me rather troubles 

Why so stubborn and arrogant you are 

I have the companionship only with you

It’s well tested & proven thousand times

Can sacrifice life & break relationships

Have been waiting for your sweet smile

Can stand anything but your indifference 

I know not if I am worthy of your love 

But I can’t do sans you, trust me or not.

MARK OF BLEMISH!

We will flow in the air, cloud and rain

As you’re my rain and I’m your cloud 

If I’m not yours, I won’t be anyone else’s 

Know not why the world is jealous of us

It’s not mark of blemish but kohl of love

An illness in accordance to this world 

But the ones in love know it as divinity 

The twist of love and life has brought us

I’m deep darkness and you’re my dawn

A lost traveller, I’m yours and you’re mine

It may be infatuation if love is one-sided

But ours is love for each other, isn’t it?

Sahitya Ratnakar Dr Prasana Kumar Dalai.

(DOB 07/06/1973) is a passionate Indian Author-cum- bilingual poet while a tremendous Asst Professor of English by profession in the Ganjam district of Odisha. He is an accomplished source of inspiration for young generation of India. His free verse on Romantic and melancholic poems appreciated by everyone. He belongs to a small typical village Nandiagada of Ganjam District,the state of Odisha.After schooling he studied intermediate and Graduated in Kabisurjya Baladev vigyan Mahavidyalaya then M A in English from Berhampur University PhD in language and literature and D. Litt from Colombian poetic house from South America.

He promotes his specific writings around the world literature and trades with multiple stems that are related to current issues based on his observation and experiences that needs urgent attention. He is an award-winning writer who has achieved various laurels from the circle of writing worldwide. His free verse poems not only inspire young readers but also the ready of current time. His poetic symbol is right now inspiring others, some of which are appreciated by laurels of India and across the world. Many of his poems been translated in different Indian languages and got global appreciation. Lots of well wishes for his upcoming writings and success in future.

He is an award-winning poet author of many best seller books. Recently he was awarded Rabindra nath Tagore and Gujarat Sahitya Academy for the year 2022 from Motivational Strips. Jaidev Puraskar from Kavita Minar Badamba Cuttack A gold medal from world union of poets France & winner Of Rahim Karims world literary prize 2023.The government of Odisha Higher Education Department appointed him as a president to Governing body of Padmashree Dr Ghanashyam Mishra Sanskrit Degree College, Kabisurjyanagar. Winner of ” HYPERPOEM ” GUNIESS WORLD RECORD 2023.Recently he was awarded at the SABDA literary Festival at Assam. Highest literary honour from Peru contributing world literature 2024.Prestigious Cesar Vellejo award 2024 & Highest literary honour from Peru. Director at Samrat Educational charitable Trust Berhampur, Ganjam Odisha.

Vicedomini of the World Union of Poets, Italy. UHE awarded him the prestigious Golden Eagle award for his contributions to world literature in 2025.

Completed 257 epistolary poems with American poet Kristy Raines.

Bharat Seva Ratna National award 2025, International Glory award from Manam Foundation Hyderabad Telengana. On the eve of the 1979 Independence Day celebration he earned the Rashtra Ratna award & Maa Bharati Seva Sammana. In 2025 he received a doctorate in Humanity and Literature from Theophany University in Haiti with UNESCO, AEADO and the leaders of Autonomy International. The Prince of Crimea and the Golden Horde from the House of Genghis Khan gave him the prestigious title of “Honorary Bey.”

Received Sahitya Ratnakar from New Delhi 2025, Honorary Doctorate from RMF University collaborated with east and west university Florida United States of America on the eve of International Peace Day. Prestigious THE CONDOR OF ANDES from UHE Mexico 2025. PRESTIGIOUS DOCTORATE from VICTORIA UNIVERSITY OF CULTURE AND WORLD PEACE 2025. Nominated for Padmashree 2025. Three-time Gold from the world Union of Poets France. Doctorate from Theophany university Haiti contribution for the world literature 2025. SAHITYA RATNAKAR from New Delhi. Dr. Mayadhar Mansigh Saraswat Samman 2025. Doctorate in Gandhian Philosophy, Peace and Humanity 2025.

Doctorate from Victoria University for Peace 2026. UHE of Peru appointed him as a World Ambassador for Peace and Justice 2026.Valiant of the Nation Award 2026 on the eve of the 129th birthday commemoration for Subash Chandra Bose.

INTERNATIONAL BOOKS

1.Psalm of the Soul 2. Rise of New Dawn 3. Secret Of Torment 4. Everything I Never Told You. 5.Vision Of Life National Library Kolkata 6.100 Shadows of Dream 7. Timeless Anguish 8. Voice of Silence 9.I Cross my Heart from East to West and epistolary poetry with Kristy Raines, published in USA.

Mother, Please Do Not Call Me Your Child

I left my classes and hurried home,
For I missed my paradise so much.
With longing in my eyes I opened the door,
But found my mother in the cotton fields.

I entered the house and spread the table,
My stomach was empty, I prepared some food.
If I did not return for dinner,
My mother would wait with hardened bread.

I called her once in between,
She could not answer, I could not reach her.
After some time from an unknown number,
My phone began to ring.

I picked up and said hello,
It was my mother, and I was stunned.
While I sat in a cool and quiet room,
My mother was picking cotton in the heat.

Her legs ache, her body is weak,
Her delicate hands are wounded and cracked.
The pains and sorrows that trouble my mother,
Let them come to me, but do not hurt her.

Her hair has turned white, wrinkles mark her face,
Yet even so, she remains my paradise.
While her peers wear fine silk and satin,
My mother’s head is never free from hardship.

My goal is to build a beautiful life for you,
One that suits only you and your comfort.
But if from now on I remain a burden to you,
Mother, please do not call me your child.

—————————————————————————————-

as another soul dies

dense fog, trash night

animals plotting in the

sewer

i didn’t have a murder/suicide

right after giving birth on my

bingo card

humans, the world’s most

dangerous animal

and here i thought opposable

thumbs elevated us

it actually only made it easier

to hold and shoot a gun

watch the money during the war

someone is always getting rich

as another soul dies

a woman asked me tonight why

i don’t have any children

i laughed, told her i never had

a death wish that strong that i

needed to have someone else

do it

she’s still trying to figure

that one out

been raining for almost 24

straight hours

these are the nights on the farm

i would listen to it hit the metal

roof

and then wonder which room

will need a bucket

——————————————————————————-

in a lonesome alley

a howling wind

caught out in

a pouring rain

a homeless man

told me once

pour a tall glass

of whiskey and

saw off a shotgun

and see which

hits your lips

first

he died of cancer

in a lonesome

alley years ago

it was the

whiskey

my friend

the whiskey

————————————————————

life is a video game

somewhere in the distance

i can hear my father saying

he went to vietnam to die

of course, he grew up poor

now, a generation with the

bravery of being out of range

life is a video game

just the weapons naturally

have human consequences

the innocent always die first

almost biblical it feels

why the stupid have to start

wars in the first place is a

completely different poem

this is about the ignorance

the unwillingness to

understand culture

to want the entire world

to bend the knee to the rich

and this is where some fuck

will remind me he nearly died

for my free speech

and i will thank him for that

and then explain the hypocrisy

of him wanting to take it away

———————————————————-

a little extra cash

bent spoon daydreams

the holy ghost needs

a little extra cash

light up a cigarette

under a no smoking

sign

listen to an old black

man play the saxophone

like jazz was just beginning

thumb through the pages

of on the road like you

have already lived it

a lady asks you to step

outside

she locks the door behind

you

they take cancer seriously

around here i guess

up two blocks is an

old bookstore

place where you found

old gregory corso books

for less than a dollar

place is now a clothing

boutique

light another cigarette

time passes all of us by

at least once

—————————————————————-

that clings to you better

one of those nights

where you hope to

fuck the pain away

depravity, a long

lost soul that clings

to you better than

any invisible friend

ever did

they never tell you

if you hate yourself

long enough, you’ll

never remember to

love anyone else

this is where the

dramatic music

comes in and our

hero disappoints

all of us yet again

dying alone is a

process that takes

way longer than

it appears on

television

a tall glass of

scotch

drunken showers

at three in the

morning is my

latest trick to

steal a few

hours of sleep

old enough that

the dreams are

now just waves

and flowers

meant for

a grave

J.J. Campbell (1976 – ?) is old enough to know where the bodies are buried. The three- time Best of The Net nominee and two-time Pushcart Prize nominee lives with his disabled mother in Ohio. He’s been widely published over the years, most recently at Yellow Mama, The Rye Whiskey Review, Night Owl Narrative, Disturb the Universe Magazine and The Beatnik Cowboy. His latest book, to live your dreams, published by Whiskey City Press, is available on Amazon.com. for more info on the book, go here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/245883678-to-live-your-dreams.

Señor Despaïr

Against a Hopeless Time

A Poem by Christopher Bernard

3. The Angel

I waited for the old man

to answer, but all I heard was waves,

suddenly distant, as though withdrawing with

    the tide.

Then I saw a dim glow above the horizon

and watched as it grew stronger, felt my shadow

deepen with the appearance of the light.

The sky grew dull and stretched with cloud ribbons

and flattened out. The sea looked like pewter.

Then an edge of startling brightness

appeared beneath the scrambled glow,

and the sun edged upward, red and gold.

I turned to look at the old man,

but there was no one there. I was alone on the beach.

Had he walked away in disgust at my last speech?

Had he given up on someone so incorrigibly naive?

Had he even been there at all? No, he’d been there,

of that I was sure. Perhaps he had thrown himself

back into the sea from which he had come.

I watched as the sun rose like a head or like an eye

staring across a world that was all sky.

And a form broke from the sun and the far

calling of the waves. Nebulous as fog or cloud,

it seemed to step toward me over sand

brilliant and slippery as glass,

and I saw behind it a throng

of brilliant, smiling – were they angels? –

misty and fragrant as the breeze

that lifted from the sea.

The glowing form seemed to speak,

and it was the voice inside me,

bright and soft as an angel’s,

or as I would imagine an angel’s.

“Know this,” it spoke, as if close to my ear,

almost a whisper, and I strained to hear.

“Know this: we are perpetual creation.

Know this: we are the infinite world.

Time wee enter to work out the possible,

which knows no end and no beginning.

Know this: your task on earth

is to build possibility.

Know this: we are nature,

nature is ourselves.

Just as you are nature,

nature is you.

You are our hands and eyes

as we are yours in all that is.

The power of evil and good

is in your eyes and hands.

The ultimately beautiful is the ultimately real.

Know this: You are free. So: choose.”

And the smile of the diaphonous glowing figure

burned my face.

Suddenly the throng of angels,

and the sea and the shore and the sky

rang, like all the bells in all the cities

of the earth.

Though how could that be? How could any of this

    be?

And I was surrounded by the flocking and singing of

    many birds.

And the waves glittered before me,

and I heard enchanting laughter.

And the air smelled of shells and brine and roses

and smoke, perfume, wine, and brandy and

     apples.

And a crab made mock with a clam, and a blade of

    grass

traced in the dunes the outline of the loveliest of girls

to the dip of a breeze and a turn of a sun ray. And a

    falcon

traded mysteries with a dove. And wind

swept up the sand in a glory of wind devils

swirling in shapes of Carmen, Venus, Tamara,

formed in a moment, in the next cast back

to sand and wind. And whiteness throned in clouds

    above,

and wind and galleons moved across the blueness

    like a sea,

a moment hoped for, lost, here, once, forever.

And the sun as it rose opened and filled the sky

for a moment that passed like a breath

with a beauty that was infinite

and a love that was for all time.

_____ Christopher Bernard’s most recent collection of poems is titled The Beauty of Matter, “A Pagan’s Verses for a Mystic Idler.” Señor Despaïr will appear in book form from Real Magazine Productions,

HUMANITARIAN LAPSE

On 2/28/26, US forces bombed the girls’ school

Shajarah Tayyebeh in Minab, Iran. 

Remodeled building, painted pink and blue.

An aerial view shows playground, fields for sports. 

A fence prevents kids roaming down the road

where they would find a naval base in use.

One morning, with no warning, skies light up.

A tomahawk demolishes the school.

When people rush to help—a second strike.

Called “double tap,” it maximizes death. 

Amid the mess—crushed desks, backpacks, and blood—

disheveled shapes, rooms full of little girls.

A few moan softly. Most lie very still.

By-products of the goal: lethality. *

Death toll rises to 175—

mostly kids. Another 100 wounded.

Children are off-limits, cries UNESCO.

Outcries come from countries round the world. 

“Whoops!” the US Army says, “Bad intel.

No one verified outdated tips.

Assumed that this was still a naval base.

Rush job—the boss demands results. He’s new.”

So all you grieving families, take heart. 

Your daughter’s death was just an accident.

Clerical error. though they’re just as dead.

And USA, once trusted—now Archvillain! 

* Pete Hegseth vowed that US forces would engage in

“maximum lethality, not tepid legality.”  — CNN 3/2026

Copyright 3/2026                Patricia Doyne