Social media is given a lot of credit for connecting people and removing distances, which is true by the way, but the lesser known fact is that somehow it is involved in poisoning out future generation. Research scholars are of the view that there is a strong connection between drugs and social media. Here is how social networks change the mindset of teens and make them a drug addict.

Images of Drugs Tempt Teens to Try Them

Just like adults, teens also share their photos taking drugs on different social media platforms and most of these images give visitors the feeling that taking drug is something fun to do. The worse thing is that drugs is seen and portrayed as a symbol of freedom by some teens on social media. Social media promote drugs in such a way that even the person who hates taking drugs naturally starts feeling an urge to try them. It becomes very difficult to resist the temptation for taking drugs, especially when it’s portrayed as somewhat glamorous.

Celebrities Openly Share Their Images Taking Drugs

Celebrities are public property and they have a heavy responsibility on their shoulders as thousands and millions of people follow them. Unfortunately, most of the celebrities openly share pictures of themselves taking drugs, or their images are taken through a candid cam and circulated on the web. This is extremely irresponsible of them. They need to understand the evil they’re fanning and cut down on it.

Competition to get More Likes, Tweets and Followers

Every teen wants to look and feel cool to become prominent in his social circle and taking drugs is the easiest way to do so. It’s really sad that teens who take drugs are considered cool guys of the school, and they always remain in limelight. Of course, this popularity is measured on the number of likes, share, comments, retweets, etc. This is also a good way of attracting beautiful girls. When teens observe their friends getting a lot of likes and responses on sharing their experience with drugs or any picture taking drug, then they automatically gets attracted to this poison.

Let’s Check What Researchers Say

After comprehensive research, the current body of knowledge states that there exist a strong relation between social media networking and drug addiction among teens. Here is a summary of a few studies done in this regard.

• In a U.S. based survey, 75% of the teens admitted that they were inclined to use drugs after seeing the images of their friends partying and taking drugs.
• According to a survey done by National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, teens who spend time on different social media accounts are more likely to smoke, take drugs and use alcohol.
• David Tran in his study on social networking sites and drug abuse revealed that 66% of the total teens who were a part of his study admitted that drug-related content on social media created an uncontrollable desire in them to try drugs.

It’s highly suggested that you filter or monitor the social media accounts of teens in order to reduce their expose to content that could entice them into taking drugs.