Today, social media is growing faster than the education we have about it. Many of us, even college students, do not fully understand how to use it safely and responsibly. This lack of understanding can lead to serious problems, including privacy and safety issues, exposure to misinformation and effects on mental health and self-esteem.

One big issue is that many people don’t realize how easily their personal information can be tracked or shared online. Some users overshare private details, talk to strangers or fall for scams without knowing the risks.

My mom is a teacher and vice principal at a middle school in New Brunswick, Canada. Almost every week, she deals with cases about social media bullying or students getting scammed.

A few weeks ago, she had a case where one of her sixth-grade students claimed that an eighth-grade student was bullying her on social media, telling her to kill herself. After further investigation by the police, they discovered that the sixth-grade student had actually hacked the other student’s Snapchat account and was sending those messages to herself. This is just one example of how people don’t really understand how social media works and how easily someone can access your personal information.

Most of the time, my mom tells me that parents don’t even know how their kids are being scammed or bullied because they think that the kids know how to properly use social media. In this case, the parents didn’t understand what was going on and the parents of the sixth-grade students were shocked to find out their daughter could do something like that.

Misinformation is another big issue. It’s hard to tell what’s true and what’s fake online. False information spreads quickly and can change the way people think or act. Even college students don’t always check if something is real before sharing it. We need to learn how to fact-check and think carefully before believing what we see on social media.

Social media also affects mental health. It creates pressure to look perfect and get more likes and followers. Many teens compare themselves to others and feel like they aren’t good enough. Cyberbullying and hurtful comments make things worse.

As a teen myself, I often come across very rude comments on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat and other social media platforms. These comments are often body-shaming, bullying, harassment, racism and other harmful things.

Sometimes, the effects are tragic — when I was a sophomore in high school, a boy from another school we used to play sports against took his own life on Oct. 29, 2022 in Caraquet, New Brunswick because of sextortion. It made the news for months, and they’re still reporting on his story and how it not only affected him but also many other teenagers around the world.

In the reports, people say that if he had known there was a way to track down the people who were extorting him, maybe he wouldn’t have taken his own life — but he didn’t.

As much as teen or college students might think that they know what they are doing online, there is still so much they have to learn.

That’s why we need to start teaching about social media safety early, but also keep talking about it as we get older. Even in college, we need to keep learning how to protect our privacy, avoid scams and use social media in healthy ways.

Social media can be fun and helpful, but only if we know how to use it wisely. Education is the key to keeping everyone safe online.

Some people say that our generation already knows how to use social media safely because we’ve grown up with it. But just knowing how to post, like or scroll doesn’t mean we understand the deeper effects it can have on our lives. Using it a lot isn’t the same as using it responsibly.

In the end, social media isn’t going anywhere, so it’s important that we all learn how to use it the right way. It’s important to keep teaching and learning about social media and its privacy and safety issues, exposure to misinformation, and effects on mental health and self-esteem.

May Boudreau is a first-year double majoring in journalism and broadcasting. She is also a member of the women’s soccer team.