Social media among each generation has become an increasingly popular part of everyday life and day-to-day expectations. According to a new study from Pew Research Center in 2015, “90% of teenagers report going online daily- including 24% who say they go online ‘almost constantly.’”

The increasing number of smart devices such as laptops, iPods and iPhones have played a major role in the growing popularity of social networking. Social media includes multiple sites such as Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and Snapchat.

Many students admit to using Snapchat, Twitter and Instagram the most. However, Facebook remains the most used social media site overall among teens.

With the increase of cell phone and online use, many people have become more upfront with their opinions and beliefs via social media sites. This has often lead to controversy, and teens tend to subconsciously base their own beliefs on what they see or hear online.

For example, politics play a huge role in trending topics on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook. Many teens will see posts or blogs on other accounts and begin to form opinions without factual evidence of why they agree or disagree with the post.

In November of 2016, a new president will be elected and appointed into office. Right now there are three popularized candidates running for office after Republican candidates Ted Cruz and John Kasich dropped out of the race. Representing the Republican party is Donald Trump, and representing the Democratic party are Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

On Twitter, teenagers will post memes or tweet about the candidates such as Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Many Rocklin High students, for example, retweet or post tweets ‘making fun’ of Donald Trump based on what they have seen or heard from other teenagers.

Among those who retweet those tweets and argue that they agree with Sanders’ campaign, very few teenagers can back their opinion with facts or evidence supporting their claims. Since the majority of their information comes from social media, they only know the popularized aspects of the candidate’s campaign.

“We just have these ideas of a person and what they stand for. And social media is throwing these ideas around and people aren’t always the most educated on things. So they will just form an opinion based on one thing they heard or what their parents think. Social media just gives you this kind of hazy view of what a political candidate is like,” says sophomore Brett Young.

Despite the negative association of social media, many positives exist. Social media gives exposure to differing opinions. People are given the chance through social media to hear what others believe and to see what candidates are about through their own personal tweets and pages.

The influence of social media is not always negative. For example, if a post or blog is able to persuade someone to believe something different than they once had, their original beliefs are not weak; they are just able to understand and inform themselves on a different way of thinking.

“I think social media, and all media, is biased in its own ways because that’s the way we’ve evolved as a society. I feel that social media is a good way to get information out quickly and easily, but I feel that people stating that it shouldn’t be involved is unfair because it’s our job to be informed and to what extent we believe that information is our own choice not the media forcing it on us,” says junior Kylie Fuji.

With the platform of controversy, people feel the need to always be arguing something online. Regardless of whether or not they have a strong opinion on the topic or evidence to support their claim, they continue to bring up controversial topics on social media.

People will always feel the need to take a stand on a controversy. However, without learning the evidence behind their stand, students and adults seem uneducated. Everyone has a voice and should treat it as their own rather than simply repeat what they have seen or heard online.