Imagine the year 2000. Four years passed before Marc Zuckerberg turned Facebook into a social networking site from his college residence. Five years had passed since the founding of YouTube and six years before the first tweet. It was also years before the concept of spending 1,560 minutes a month on a solitary website like Facebook was even understandable (“Why Social Media”). Fast forward to the present day. Teens spend the school day waiting for the next time they can update their status. It's imperative for them to let their one thousand three hundred and sixty-one Twitter followers participate in their daily lives as it happens. The popularity of social networks is growing rapidly every day and has radically changed the way societies live. There are numerous ways to use this new medium of interaction, so it affects each individual differently, both in positive and negative aspects. Social media can be a platform for teenagers to express themselves; however, it also presents a new dimension of peer pressure and additional stress for today's teens. In Western civilizations, great value is placed on self-expression. After all, the First Amendment of the United States Bill of Rights is about freedom of speech and expression. Living in an individualistic society, such as that of the United States, places emphasis on the need to create an identity for oneself through the choices one makes. Aside from Twitter's limit of 2,400 tweets per day, there is no real set limit for teens to express themselves, take a stand on controversial topics, and make their voices heard. "After a Christian motivational speaker, who believes that 'dating girls know how to be quiet,' spoke at a high school in... middle of paper... about what helps human beings grow and develop as intelligent people. Every mistake made is documented on the Internet. This new stress inflicted through social media leaves teenagers at a learning disadvantage and with no room for error. Social media is not black and white negative, but as essentially neutral” (Klass 2). Social media can serve as an outlet for adolescents to express themselves, have a voice in society, and even discover fame and fortune part of peers who create the need to be noticed and accepted. Furthermore, it places a burden of stress on teenagers, as each of their online mistakes is recorded and could ultimately cost them a college acceptance letter. How you use social media influences its impact.