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Social Media is Crippling Gen Z
The piece below is the winning collegiate essay in the Network of Enlightened Women’s 2025 essay contest.
When I was first allowed to have an Instagram account, my parents put strict boundaries around my app use: limited screen time, accountability in who I followed and who followed me, and specific standards on what I could or couldn’t post. It was fun to have an account, but I felt restrained. I couldn’t understand how something so fun could be as bad as my parents said.
Then, as I got older, the boundaries became hazy, and I discovered the darker side to social media. Short-form media allows for bite-sized information, but more significantly, it is resulting in decreased attention spans for undergraduates. As an undergraduate now, I wasn’t exposed to short-form content until around late elementary school to early middle school, and still, I struggle with focusing my attention after times of consuming short-form content. How much worse will things get for those younger than me?
The Left easily takes advantage of the younger generation’s propensity to be on social media by making short clips and claiming they represent truth.
