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Social media influence on adolescents
What influence does social media have on identity development of teenagers essays
The influence of social media on teenagers
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Every day, millions of people are judged based on body type, followers, likes, and comments. Social media has imprisoned the hearts of young adults. Adolescents are held captive in a virtual prison, chained to the idea of presenting a false utopia. Instead of presenting this falsely idyllic life, young people should band together to remove social media from day-to-day life. Social media has increased suicides and depression among teens, it has decreased self-worth among teens, and it has promoted over-sexualization among teens. Social media directly correlates with increased rates of suicide and depression among teenagers. “In 2015, 36 percent of all teens reported feeling desperately sad or hopeless, or thinking about, planning or attempting …show more content…
“It is not news that homophobia remains a constant threat against LGBTQ people, including apps like Instagram” (Joe Putignano Huffington Post). Although it is true that this generation of teenagers is more accepting and open about sexuality, sexuailty has also been exposed on a more global scale making gay, lesbian, transgender, or bisexual teens more susceptible to cyber-bullying for being a member of the LGBT community. The efforts online to promote a safe environment to be open about sexuality are not always enough to protect teens from trolls online who prey on this community. Many people are reluctant to be themselves online due to this discrimination. Social media has also lead to an outbreak of promiscuous online behavior. This behavior can be linked to social media through the constant subliminal messages throughout accounts promoting this incredulous online behavior. The Kardashian sisters all have had a tremendous influence throughout different social platforms. Kim and Kylie are most famous for their provocative photo shoots and selfies featured on media sites such as Instagram and Snapchat. These supposed role models are teaching young girls that it is socially acceptable to portray themselves in this manner online. Teenagers often feel pressured to post pictures of themselves in this disgusting manner in order to feel accepted on social media. “I want to live in a world where mothers to show their daughters the way by loving themselves, stretch marks, sagging skin, muffin tops, flaws and all, every day, right now so they transmit that self-love from womb to tomb. If they don’t set an example, who will? I want all of us to say to girls, your opinion of yourself is the only one that matters. You don’t need to be checking Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook posts to see if you measure up. Instead,
To begin, social media has created unrealistic standards for young people, especially females. Being bombarded by pictures of females wearing bikinis or minimal clothing that exemplifies their “perfect” bodies, squatting an unimaginable amount of weight at a gym while being gawked at by the opposite sex or of supermodels posing with some of life’s most desirable things has created a standard that many young people feel they need to live up to. If this standard isn’t reached, then it is assumed that they themselves are not living up to the norms or the “standards” and then therefore, they are not beautiful. The article Culture, Beauty and Therapeutic Alliance discusses the way in which females are bombarded with media messages star...
Studies also found that 6.4% had intentionally cut bruised or harmed themselves and that 8.1% had though about suicide and 1.3% had actually attempted suicide. This evidence shows that social media is bad for teens and preteens. If social media got banned then there would not be any sort of problem like this.
Britney Spears is the most notable example of this. The then seventeen-year-old donned a little school girl uniform complete with pigtails for her "Baby One More Time" video. However, that uniform blouse was tied up to reveal her mid-drift and her skirt was cut short. There are a wide variety of pictures of Britney Spears available, particularly on the web. It's quite disturbing to flip through these pictures and see one of Miss Spears standing next to a school bus smiling sweetly, then one of her in a tiny cheerleader outfit lying provocatively in the bed of a truck, and then one of her tearing her clothes off. Her early photographs painted her as "the girl next door" type. Even the cover to her first album was a picture of her completely clothed and smiling sweetly. Her photographs and videos then captured her as a school girl "sex kitten", making her appear younger, yet sexualizing her image with tiny tops and skirts.
Girls are being pressured to have the “perfect” image these days more than ever before. The reason behind it is because of all the magazines and models on social media. Women in magazines and on social media should stop being altered because it creates unrealistic expectations for girls, it lowers their self-esteem, and society’s standards adjust to those unrealistic ideas. Going through social media or a simple magazine impacts a girl so much nowadays. Seeing their favorite model with the “perfect” body makes them belief that that’s how they are supposed to look.
Social media is so popular that according to a recent article published by forbes.com, “72% of American adults are currently using social media sites; that figure has gone up 800% in just 8 years”(Olenski). Social networking was originally created to simply reconnect people with old high school pals, but in recent years it has evolved into a completely different operation. When social media first originated it was also intended for adult usage, which has in recent years expanded into the usage of all ages. Social media can create a negative affect on lives because it has been proven to be a dangerous addiction, for it takes away interpersonal relationships that are essential in life, and it has been proven to prevent people from being productive in life.
Besides cyberbullying, there are many other negative outcomes for American youth in the use of social media websites like Facebook. For example, many teens are using shorthand and abbreviations when writing or communicating online. Additionally, teens lose themselves in social media, ignore their surroundings and even become addicted to social media. Consequences of this include a rise in obesity, devaluation in family, lack of exercise and decrease in focus on school and homework. Adolescents that use social media more often than others are more prone to “narcissistic tendencies,” “anxiety, depression, and other psychological disorders” (Protalinski, 2011). American youth that share more online also display manic, aggressive and antisocial behaviors.
In today's society lots of people use social media ,especially teenagers. These days more teenagers use social media more than ever, in which 94% of teens who go online using a mobile device do so daily. Teens use multiple social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat which are the most popular among them. Social media can have a positive or negative impact of on a teen’s life, socially, physically, and mentally. In my opinion I believe that social media affects teens more positively than it does negatively.
One of the most concerning effects of social media is depression. When teens create an online identity, they are often displaying an unauthentic self. This “other” self is often what the person wants to be like. Having to jump from the online self to the real self can often lead to depression. In an article in the Huffington Post, Dr. Jim Taylor calls this Facebook depression. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that “Researchers have proposed a new phenomenon called “Facebook depression,” defined as depression that develops when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression.” (802). Facebook and other social media outlets create an almost high school-like environment outside of school where the teen has to strive for acceptance as well. Dr. Moreno tells the New York Times that ...
According to K. Nola Mokeyane, a professional writer who wants to pursue graduate studies in social work, “It's no secret that media has had an increasingly negative impact on the way teenage girls measure their personal image and beauty standards”. Social media such as Instagram, are mainly based on pictures of oneself and others. According to Joan Stern, an ABC news technology editor, there are about 150 million users on Instagram, this social app that is mainly based on followers, comments and likes on a picture. Instagram allows people to share their every moment through pictures and small captions, its like an ongoing documentary of ones life. This social app allows one to share and manipulate their photo through ‘filters’. This would give the impression that each and every user on instagram is judged based on their pictu...
The cons of social media can be very risky, especially when the youth of this society is partaking in it. Children and adolescents are now known for inappropriate content on social media sites or just simply not understanding the concepts of privacy. A nationwide issue that has been addressed is the action of cyberbullying. This action often leads to harmful circumstances such as suicide attempts, with some being successful. In just one state in the U.S., 1,491 high school students that were the “cyber bullies” were related to suicide attempts and about 4,693 students were rel...
There has been controversy as to whether parents should limit the use of social media by teenagers. Teenagers feel that there is no need to limit the use of their social media networking, but on the other hand parents should feel the need to limit their use and also keep track of their teen’s social networking. Social media has allowed to be connected with their peers, teens who post positive status are more likely to be involved in extracurricular activities, and to many teens putting up “selfies” is a self confidence boost; however, too much social media can affect students GPA in school, cyber bulling can affect social health. Social media networks can give out personal information.
One main issue seen within social media is over sexualization of women and teens. Young girls tend to look up to celebrities they see within magazines or social media, the issue with this is these celebrities are being digitally transformed to fit societies “norms”. These images put unrealistic thoughts in girls heads that they must look the same as the girls in magazines or other social media. This will cause them to take extreme measures to achieve their goal. Jessica Bennett, Newsweek: How our obsession with beauty is changing our kids, states that “ fourth graders are in the market for lush $50 haircuts; by the time they hit high school, $150 highlights are standard.
The correlation between the development of youth and social media has become blatant. Although few of the consequences are favorable, the majority have displayed a negative impact. The drive social media can implement on youth is exceptional. The pressure and strain social media can place on our youth is an enduring force which leads individuals to question themselves as a person and feel inclined to fit a norm expressed in media and social media of our society. The underlying force social media can play in the lives of the youth is astonishing and is a force that must be dealt with and controlled, for it not only holds the power to give an individual strength, but also to break them down.
According to the article, “10 Ways Social Media Affects Our Mental Problems,” Degreed claim that social media make us restless by “two-thirds admitted to having difficulty relaxing when unable to use their social media accounts.” Teenagers are always tired when they have to stay up late at night to catch up with all the news feed on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter that make them have no energy to go on the next day. Based on the newspaper, “Excessive Social Media Use Harms Children’s Mental Health,” by the Telegraph shows that “children who go on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more than three hours a day are more likely to have mental health problems.” Social media can lead to bullying that affects teenagers mental health issue and being stressed. Social media have now taken a part of human life and some are addicted to the point where they can’t even live without
We live in a world that has become addicted and dedicated toward social media and it is driving America’s youth into the ground. Teenagers and adults are so wrapped up in social media that is runs their lives every day. Constantly people are checking their phones for the latest on social networks. They have to see pictures, tweets, statuses, comments, likes, and the list goes on and on. Social media is becoming the focus point in the modern American society that it is beginning to control people’s social skills, communication skills, and their livelihood.