The Appalling Article We Read
This blog post is going to be a bit different than my normal one, because its going to be about my own experience with an article our ELA class was given to read. It just really set me off because of its clear unreliability and misuse of facts. The fact that it was used as a part of the curriculum still astounds me. I am also going to use this as a place to rant because when I sent a letter to my teacher and principal I had to be all nice. So yeah, enjoy.
What Happened?
On March 30, 2026, we were assigned an article from BuzzFeed News titled ‘Teens say social media isn’t as bad as you think.’ I know I was already a little skeptical. This was in our social media unit of ELA. Why we are learning about social media in ELA is a whole other issue entirely. Anyways, we read it independently and were told to take some notes and highlight bits of objective evidence on both the pros and cons of social media use in teens.
Why this article is so unbelievably bad:
So, it is bad on so many fronts. It completely misuses and presents evidence misleadingly. For example, it said “But the 743 teens Pew surveyed say it’s actually, well, good.” Now this is a problem for 2 main reasons. First, although Pew surveyed 743 teens, only 720 of those teens actually used social media and therefore applied. Second, of the 720, only 73% said it did not make them feel worse about their own life, only 53% felt as though they were not overwhelmed by all the drama and only 55% felt they did not have to post content that makes you look good to others. This is showing a clear misuse of data, a clear disregard for the truth, and makes the students viewing this article think much more positively about social media than they would if given the data. Additionally, it says things like “Still, the data shows that the effect of social media isn’t as worrisome as some parents might portray.” Their evidence is from teens themselves saying, in a nutshell, “it's great.” This is literally irrelevant. Just because I enjoy sugar and candy doesn’t mean I get it all the time. The article also says, “Teens now have enough self-awareness to know when it’s time to unplug.” Ummm, since when. They never provide any evidence for this, none. They just make this claim and move on. This article gives students a false idea as to what the harms social media has on teens and is going to pit teens against their parents because it not so subtly suggests that the parents are out of touch, out of date and don't know how social media works now. No, they are just going by the fact that hundreds of studies say that it’s destroying their teens brain. Like come on. Also, it reads like a blog. It is written like I write. Now I don’t have a problem with that, or I’d be a hypocrite. The difference is that BuzzFeed News is saying it is an actual news source; I’m not. I sure hope my blog will not be used for school purposes because that is not its purpose. I also have a problem with what my school put as the stated ‘Purpose for Reading.’ It was “To learn research on teens’ experience with social media to build an understanding of how it can have a positive impact on their lives.” Why, just why. Why do we need to build an understanding of how social media can be positive. In school! There is no need for this. There are no ‘multiple perspectives’ here. The evidence is clear, social media is not good for teens. Why are you trying to teach us otherwise. Anyways, this was just me ranting
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