The below piece is the winning high school essay in the Network of Enlightened Women’s 2025 essay contest.

Social media is everywhere. It’s how we connect, how we learn about the world, and, for better or worse, how many of us form our opinions. It’s shaping the values, beliefs, and critical thinking skills of young people in ways we don’t fully understand yet. Like any new technology, it has its ups and downs — just like literacy did centuries ago, the internet did 30 years ago, and artificial intelligence is doing now. We’re still figuring out how to live with it, use it in a way that actually benefits us, and make sure it doesn’t control our lives.