Looking back, I don’t think I knew exactly what some of my friends were doing in high school. But that bubble of deniability doesn’t exist today. You know exactly what all of your friends, peers and acquaintances are doing in high school. Because they’re posting the photos to Facebook.
So, what is that doing to today’s kids? Bad news if you’re a Facebook supporter. A study has found that teens who use the social network are 5 times more likely to have used tobacco, 3 times more likely to have used alcohol and 2 times more likely to have used marijuana.
So, what’s going on here? Well, one theory is based on the stat that 40% of those involved in the study have seen pictures of peers “drunk, passed out or doing drugs” on social media sites. And 49% of those saw these photos at the age of 13 or under. By the age of 15, this percentage was 90%.
When you see your peers doing something, your expectations are adjusted. In the past, we may have just believed that no one was really doing drugs or having sex. Now, kids have photographic evidence of it. And apparently, it affects them.