Youth for the most part feel social media is a positive outlet to interact and communicate with others. A small group of youth view social media as a waste of time. Others have mixed feelings on social media. Youth tend to enjoy connecting with friends and family but dislike how time consuming social media could be. It's useful when used correctly. However, social media platforms are often abused. Most of the youth see social media in a positive light. Alot of youth agree that social media is a useful tool to advance your skills and acquire income if used properly.

One of the youths' responses is that “social media is helpful but it becomes limited due to its user. Today's youth rather waste time on social media than use it to their benefit. If used properly, one could upgrade their lifestyle and many don't take advantage of this opportunity. Hence in my opinion, as there isn't any medium of education for our youth to learn on properly using social media, social media is negative and damaging.”

From these responses I noticed that youth are split down the middle with their opinion on social media. Most of the responses gathered have strong points as to why they feel the way they do about social media. A new question that sparked for me is what kind of social media platforms are most often abused.

Most of the youth feel that  healthy social media habits means that we don’t have  to use social media every minute or so, so we need to enjoy our lives with the people around us. Based on the answers we received, youth feel that we should have good communications and we don’t need to believe everything we see and if we limit the time we spend on our phones we can have a healthy social media life and  share our happiness  with the people that care about us. People responded that having boundaries around social media is used to improve people's mental health.

Some healthy habits that people reported are:

• Checking social media for news and not gossip
• Good communication with others
• A person should not be on social media all the time. They should not feel so obligated to check it every minute or two, to check it the second their eyes open in the morning, before they sleep, in the washrooms, while they eat etc etc. It should be used properly and not overused. Life should be enjoyed, not spent on the internet.
• Monitor time spent on it. Not believing everything you see. Using platforms to better educate yourself. Socialize with the right people. Behave and follow laws and policies. Using social media for no more than 3 hours.
• Social media habits can connect us to the other side of the world and connect with our families and friends back home!!
• Checking your phone as soon as you wake up. Instead of socializing at an event you go on your phone to check social media. Or getting stuck on an pack for time without realizing it
• Healthy social media habit is spending one hour on it and anther hour for the important things only so 2 hours in total

All of the youth find healthy social media useful. Some even feel that It decreases anxiety and allows them to be more productive. They find more time in the day for themselves and their daily tasks. Youth also feel they will have their priorities straight focusing on school and work. Gives you time to participate in real life experiences, and you realize whatever you see on social media is only highlights of somebody's life. Youth understand social media needs to be limited and has some negative effects on us. They also see that if used correctly you could adopt healthy social media habits that's good for the long run. One response was that  “excessively using social media creates a dependability on it, which is toxic as dependence on anything to achieve happiness is destructive.”

Something i noticed with responses on question #4 is that youth could all agree that social media is a useful tool, if used appropriately.

Some of the youth find that they need to fit in society and some need to buy things so they can post to portrait a healthy lifestyle so people don't judge them and the expectations they receive from others. The life that most people share on social media is not real but they only want people to see there is a certain side of life.  People responded that there is a need for people to be aware of this fake game of social media that puts pressure on people to be perfect. By only showing the positive, happy side of life it affects people’s mental health, some people say that the pressure on social media causes people get stressed out and overwhelmed.

“I don't experience any pressure as I believe I have controlled myself and understood that I am not obligated to anyone other than my family and I. Previously when I was not, it was much harder, I would see disturbing/depressing content of what is going on in this world, have other social issues, and this would negatively affect my mental health”.

We need to set limits on social media in order to set healthy boundaries and preserve our mental health.

All but two of the youth we engaged with have never experienced cyber bullying. However, some of the youth do sympathize with cyberbullying victims. Youth understand the severity of online bullying, and misconduct of social media platforms.

"I have quite a number of times growing up having said I had Instagram since I was in junior high but I’m lucky enough to have always had a good support system to help me get through it all at a young age."

"Yes, once upon time back when I was 15 years old I’ve decided to open a YouTube channel and start a new “happy” life in social media but as I posted my first video I heard a lot of words that hold me down and changed me, and to be honest because of these guys and these words I’ve closed my channel and the only video was on that channel was my first and last video.."