Effects Of Social Media On Self Esteem

Throughout the past decade, numerous reports and tests have been conducted to see whether or not there has been a link between social media and low self-esteem. With the majority of adults and almost all millennials, social media has been on the rise. To some people, it's about sharing memories and connecting with families, but to others, it has turned into an addiction. After multiple hours a day mental changes might occur. A loss of self-esteem has been closely related to the fact of having an avid social life in a digital world.

Many people of all ages and from all over the world use social media on a daily basis. While many people of different ages use it, social media seems to influence the lifestyle of younger users, such as teenagers. Younger users of social media are usually more impressionable and more likely to be affected and influenced by online trends and standards, and because these users spend much more time on social media, they are more susceptible to create a habit of constantly checking their phones and becoming addicted. As people spend more time on the Internet and

Social media has been a topic of debate for years. Some people are strongly against any use of it while others like the instant connection it provides. A major concern over social media is the lasting effects it has on teenagers. Social media can affect teenagers through many ways including things like their self-esteem. Cyberbullying is a raging topic of discussion centered around teens social media use. It can also effect their people skills and create a lack of community involvement. Some parents think that watching what their children do on social media is an invasion of privacy but is your concern for their privacy greater than your concern for their safety? Social media poses a great danger to today’s children. It can affect many aspects of their lives.

Clarissa Silva article in the Huffington Post delves into social media’s impact on self-esteem. As a behavioral scientist, her interest in the matter relates to her field. She also gets the help of other experts Dr. Jennifer Rhodes, Natalia Lusinski, and Dr. Suzana Flores to help with her research. Silva states that “social media is linked to higher levels of loneliness, envy, anxiety, depression, narcissism and decreased social skills" (1). Then outlines her research findings using rhetorical appeals.

Social media is the way teens network. It includes applications such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram where individuals can connect, share photographs, and like others posts or images. These applications can be accessed through electronic devices such as iPads, phones, computers, etc. It is known to educate, engage, and impact individuals and their environment. The most well-known theory is that an individual can control what he/she sees, considers, or feels about a topic. To some degree this is valid. Nevertheless, does teenagers know that social media influence them in some way? Social networking is harming to a teens growth as it boosts their online identities, separates them from the universe of social connection, occupies their attention from television, and it also affects relationships. The 21st century has seen the internet change into a device that has made communication less severe and handier. This change occurred rapidly with thoughts of social networks that would allow the association of individuals in various nations. Teenagers, being the principle players of the online networks, has been caught *up in the blend of social networking as they have developed into a period where innovation has reformed the way individuals approach their day by day routines. However, because of the extreme measure of time spent on these sites, they are left to result in pessimistic consequences for their advancement.

As a direct result of the rapid advancement in technology over the past 50 years, the media has become ever-increasingly present in our everyday lives. The latest fashion editorials and the most exclusive celebrity selfies are always just a click away. Something so pervasive, however, should be intently studied and handled with extreme caution due to the vast influence it can have over its audience’s mind. Too much exposure to certain stimuli has previously been shown to affect cognition and behavior in adolescents. So why should media be any different? Social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat are becoming increasingly popular in this day and age. However, being fed a constant visual stream of models and celebrities with perfect faces and bodies cannot be very good for one’s self-esteem. For some time now, there has been an ongoing debate on whether media has an effect on self-esteem and if so, whether its effect is positive or negative. Consequently, in this report I will discuss and analyze several studies which address the topic of media and its impact on self-esteem.

Over 94% of American teenagers claim to access social media daily, today teenagers and social media tend to be the butt in everybody’s joke, but what are the effects of social media? Bethany Mota is a 21-year-old women who has been able to start her own fashion line at the age of 17 because of social media. Amanda Todd was just 16 when she decided to end her life, due to the fact that she was persecuted relentlessly on social media sites. Many young people get bullied or harassed through social media daily, while others are given amazing opportunities to express themselves and connect with others with the same passions as them. So, what is the impact of teenage participation in social media?

Technology has caused too many teenagers to spend number amounts of their time on social media sites. Spending too much time of your cell phone causes you to miss out on opportunities.

Social media has dramatically changed the world and the way we communicate with each other. We are now in the era of Google, Facebook, and Twitter. Anyone in the planet is just a click far from us and every information is handy in our smartphones. Social media has evolved as the tool that created a gigantic difference in the way individuals interact, promote their opinions, share thoughts, and even impact others. Especially teenagers and youths spend more time in social media than anyone else. According to the report by Pew Research Center published in 2015, 92% of teens go online daily including 24% who go online almost

Social media affects girls from a young age. If we were to take a look at Barbie, we would notice that, if she was real, she would be 5’9”, weigh about 110 pounds, have a bust of 39”, 18” waist, 33” hips, and

Approximately 14 million U.S. teenage girls don’t like how they look. The number of women who feel confident in their bodies is dwindling quickly and is being fueled by edited pictures they are comparing themselves to on social media. The Time magazine article “How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror” by Rachel Simmons tells of the risk for everyone to feel self-conscious about their bodies. However, those most at risk are teenage girls who spend a significant amount of time on any form of social media. In response to the article, I agree with the negative effects social media has on the body image of teenage girls because I have seen girls trying to change their bodies. I also see the effects logos and pathos have on the strength of the article and what would make it a stronger and more credible source for information on teen body image.

We are dictated by social media. It’s controlling. It’s possessive. Yet, we haven’t even paused to realize it because as teenagers we don’t know any differently. With teens as the subject of example, it is clear that social media has become a way of life. So now there is a debate. What exactly is it that social media does to us? Is the teenage generation the first product of a world run by social media? Most importantly, is this a positive or negative thing for us? There are many different things to consider. With all factors in mind, the biggest question of all comes to mind. Since it first emerged, what has social media truly changed about today’s teen generation?

In this day and age, social media has become an integral part of our lives. It has created a platform for people to share information instantly and communicate with people all around the world. Facebook is the most outstanding example of successful social media network. According to the first quarter 2015 earnings announcement by Facebook, the site has achieved 1.44 billion active users per month, and 65% of which are daily active users. Other social networking sites such as Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn are also a powerful means of communication. With such a large audience, social networking sites provide ample opportunities to acquire information, network, and connect with friends.

Various individuals long for a time when technology did not take over the world. For teenagers, it is difficult to imagine a life without the World Wide Web and its countless perks at their fingertips. Social media consumes young lives more than any other form of technological advancement. Social media has a few pros, but also its fair share of cons.

Social Media has a massive impact on a person’s self-presentation because of the different trends where everyone wants to fit in with society’s expectations of what we should look like. Celebrities are made to be our role models, however, magazines photoshop and make them more toned and a lot slimmer, which makes young people want to make their bodies more like theirs. This then leads to the modern generation becoming self-conscious because they feel they have to fit in and achieve an ideal self that fits in with those around them.