Finding your identity as a teenager is one of the hardest things anyone will have to go through. For most, the journey is long and painful. However, this generation is the first to have social media play a incredibly huge role in the process and I am not quite sure if it is a good one.

The enormous amount of pressure social media can give a teen is incredible. You have so many things you are expected to be constantly checking up on, expectations are so unrealistic and nothing is off limits. Eventually something has to give and often, it ends up being one’s self.

I know for a fact that kids everyday are finding more and more ways to distract themselves from who they really are. Because our society is so focused on the tangible things, drugs and alcohol fit the bill perfectly.

With alcohol and drugs becoming more accessible and acceptable by the minute and teens not having the proper judgement to decide right from wrong, the problem is almost inevitable. Teens have the constant pressure to be perfect and some see drugs and alcohol as that one moment of the day when the pressure simply disappears.

As a teen who is still finding her self identity and where she fits in the world, decisions are hard to make and are often made on a whim. I don’t always have time to rationally think everything through and make the best decision. I often end up making the decision that benefits everyone else more than myself, like most kids. So now kids like myself have reached an age where drugs and alcohol is more socially acceptable and we are completely vulnerable to making rash decisions.