Negative Effects Of Social Media On Teenagers

Bing! Chloe, Andie’s friend, texted her wanting to know if they can hang out later. They then proceed to talk about their day and all of the juicy middle school gossip going around. Most teenagers would concur that this is “the norm” nowadays. Teenagers find talking in person or on the phone too intimidating and as a result, find themselves challenged when trying to form new relationships.

The internet and social media have opened so many doors for our generation. Thousands of resources are at our fingertips that 30 years ago would seem impossible. However, this information can be more of a burden rather than a blessing. Scrolling through Instagram you will most likely find images of people with ‘perfect’ bodies in swimsuits. It is very easy to compare your body to these images and not feel confident about yourself. Now put yourself in a young teenager’s perspective, looking at all these images. Their main question might be “Why don’t I look like that?” This raises an issue for teenagers to be more likely to not be comfortable in their own skin, have lowered self-esteem, and body shame themselves. Another issue with social media is the anxiety that can come from it. Today it is apparent that most teenagers using social media platforms tend to be worrying about the color scheme of their profile, number of likes and how fast they show up, their following ratio, regulating the number of posts, the number of followers, number of retweets and many more anxieties. In a weird way, it can be easier to make fun of someone or bully someone behind a screen and not right to their face. This raises another version of bullying known as cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying is the most common online risk for teenagers and adolescence (O’Keeffe 801). Researchers have found signs of depression from the use of social media (802). From repeated and extended use of social media there has been 92% of teenagers ages 13-17 going online every day in the US, negative things are sure to come from that usage (Dunlop 35). As just mentioned, there are major negative effects of social media on adolescence, including cyber-bullying, anxiety, lowered self-esteem, and depression.

Person to person communication is a wonder which has existed since society started and it has developed in the course of recent years. Online social networking have picked up bewildering overall development and ubiquity, in which countless web clients are locked in, both in their relaxation time, and at work. Despite the fact that with time all eras now grasp the progressions online interpersonal interaction has realized, teens and youthful grown-ups are the most devotee clients of these destinations, and subsequently it influences the lives of the adolescent extraordinarily. It is inescapable to disregard the way that destinations, for example, Twitter, Facebook or Myspace have made it conceivable to visit with companions who live in inaccessible places and also impart pictures and features to them in only a single click. Despite the fact that Social Networking Sites are of extraordinary help in the young 's day by day, there are various negative impacts of it on the adolescent.

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?

I think Social media has a mostly Positive because you could talk and be entertain for adolescents.

According to a study from the Pew Research Center, 92% of American teens go online to post, like, comment, tweet, and re-tweet at least a hundred photos a day. Preadolescents between the ages of 9-15 primarily use social media websites as a portal to communicate with past friends, find new ones, and to post about their day. However, the use of these sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube etc. can put young kids at risk of being bullied online, stalked by predators and pedophiles, and subjected to inappropriate pictures and videos. The truth is today youths lack the basic understanding of the dangers that lurk within social media, and therefore should not be allowed to use them until they can fully comprehend all the risks attached to using these sites.

Social media has gone from a great way to stay connected with friends to an obsession that has caused anxiety and depression amongst teenagers. “Researchers have found evidence that people who overuse technology may develop similar brain chemistry and neural patterning to those who are addicted to substances” (FCD Prevention Works). A solution would be setting boundaries on your phone. One should take periodical breaks, turn off notifications, establish phone free zones, set aside certain times to check your phone, have a phone fast, and engage in real human contact. Teenagers’ dependency on social media has caused teens to lose touch with the world going on behind their phones and laptops. This dependency social media has caused social anxiety, depression and an unhealthy need for social media.

People use Smartphones and personal devices nowadays to communicate, get information, and be entertained. Gossip is easier to spread these days, because of facetiming, texting, and posting to social media. Information is at our fingertips when we use apps to set an alarm, read the news, and navigate to places. Entertainment travels with people everywhere, because phones and portable consoles show movies, help us play games, and keep us busy when we travel. As you can see, society has become too dependent with technology in their daily lives, because they’re always on it, it affects children negatively, and it can be a dangerous obsession.

There was a time when, if bullying occurred, it happened at school. Officials were able to handle it immediately because it was right there in the open. Now everyone has been invited into our homes via cell phones, computers, online games, and tablets. Do we really know what our teens are sharing via the internet? Do we know how they are being treated online? Probably not. Now bullying happens right under our noses and we know nothing about it.

“The influence of social media on adolescents and teenagers is of particular importance, not only because this specific group of children are developmentally vulnerable but also because they are amongst the heaviest users of social networking,” Suren Ramasubbu social media and internet use by teenagers is at an all time high, and many are concerned with the effects it is having on young people, especially their health (6). Technology is currently harming teens’ sleep, increasing their episodes of depression, and contributing to their obesity.

Most peers don’t like to agree on the fact that social media has one of the most negative

In the article there are many staggering facts about how often social media sites are used and what adolescents are using them for. The article estimates that 11-18-year olds spend up to 11 hours a day on the social media sites and exposed to media via electronics. It is estimated that approximately 73% of adolescents are on social networking sites whether they meet the age restriction or not. The young people’s parents are following the footsteps of them by starting to use the sits they see the adolescents on after the adolescents have started using it, this is a parallel to what was expected since these sites were originally adult oriented and created for an older audience. A majority of young people will wake up and check their social media profiles as well as check them again before going to bed at night.

Social media sites allow millions of people to interact with friends,family and anyone around the world. A large portion of social media users are teenagers; researchers and parents both believe that social media is having a multitude of possible effects on teenagers. This literature review will analyze research of the positive and negative effects social media are having on today’s impressionable youth. Much of the research focuses on the age range of 10-16 from well-to-do families and college students. Understanding the online environment that teenagers live in can help parents relate to their children and teach then about the dangers and benefits of being on the Internet.

Technology has grown bigger than ever and that just helps with the bullying and makes it easier. With the beginning of the internet, also chat rooms have started. AOL instant messenger (AIM) enhanced chat rooms, which are online communication programs that allow teenagers to spend as long as they would like talking with one-on-one, talk to others in private or even have a public chat. That activity further progressed and allowed the young adults to create specific group chat rooms. This specific type of technology advancement allowed the youth to get together and select specific friends and people to talk about the news about other people or anything gossip. The internet has become a big web of entryways into people’s understanding of actions

Some of the top benefits of social media over the years are that it is free to anyone, the content can get out to resources virtually immediately, and it can be delivered to a wide variety of people. For these reasons, communication through social media has become an extremely accessible and convenient way to communicate. It is also popular for those who need to be in contact with others. One example that comes to mind is a teenager who goes away on a trip to visit a friend or family. They can be hundreds of miles away but still talk to their parents as if they weren’t. Another example is a person who is shy and has a hard time making friends face-to-face, social media sites are a great way to meet people and build relationships.