Is Social Media Negatively Affecting Teens?

When teens see images of their friends or followers on social media, they might start comparing their lives to the ones they see on social media.This is interesting because these teens are trying to be someone they are not, even are adults, instead of being their unique selves.“Teenagers talk about the pressure to post the perfect photo or to compete with the perfect lives their friends present on the Internet,” say Source 1. One can see that social media is putting pressure among teens, on top of all the pressure of school and general

The effects of social media impact everyone differently. Some teens are not impacted at all, some are diagnosed with mental health disorders, and worse case scenario, some take their own lives. According to the Huffington Post, suicide rates for girls ages 15 to 19 have doubled since 2007 and has increased 30 percent for boys. An article written by David Luxton posted by Am J Public Health

More than half of our society is using some kind of social media. It is transforming the way many people live their lives. Many people around the world let it make life changing decisions for themselves. Visually oriented social media websites are particularly popular among teenagers. This type of platform can and does have a significant impact on teenage boys and girls body images. Most girls and boys prioritize certain body types as more appealing than others. The impact this has had on the development of poor body image as well as eating disorders are dramatic. Even though social expectations do not direct that woman and men change themselves, the media negatively affects body image; this often results in disorders and unrealistic expectations.

Rachel Simmons, author of Odd Girl Out and a leader development specialist at Smiths College, argues in her article “How Social Media Is a Toxic Mirror” that social media has become a way for teens to critique themselves and can create poor eating habits, leading to pro-anorexia due to the increase of “wellness” industries. It has long been understood

The most popular social media outlet Facebook has been linked to body image according to recent research. Several correlational studies have examined the relationship between social media usage and body image. Studies on pre-teenage girls and female high school students have found that Facebook users report more drive for thinness, internalization of the thin-ideal, and body surveillance, self-objectification, and appearance comparisons than do non-users (Fardouly and Vartanian). Teens that subject themselves to Facebook are influenced by the images that they see. These “ideal images” motivate teens to pursue ways of achieving these “ideal body images”.

Modern media such as T.V., films, and social medias (mainly Tumblr) frequently advertise a parade of skinny models and actresses. These appearances, more often than not, make teenage girls self conscious about their weight and physical appearance. Anorexia is most common around females, especially women. “47% of girls in the 5th-12th grade reported wanting to see weight loss because of magazine pictures.” Success and worth are often associated with being thin and/or skinny. Peer pressure plays major roles in a teenager’s environment and peer pressure may help fuel the desire to be “perfect”, and to be perfect, you have to be thin.

Social Media has been a cause to many detrimental effects in teens and will continue on in the future. Models show off their “unattainable” body and flaunt it, surely causing envy in women that can’t get that body no matter how much they try. Media has its own way in showing what we could be, but what we're not seemingly mocking us. Teens will try and copy that image no matter how unhealthy or bad their choices are. The National Eating Disorder Association (2006) reported that in the past 70 years national rates of eating incidences of all eating disorders have dramatically increased across the board. This controversy erupted once everybody saw how "skinny" was admired and strived for it. Media has depicted the perfect woman to be someone

Over the past several years’ social media, television, and other collective communication outlets have increasingly been displaying children, adolescents, and adults who are gender nonconforming. In films such as the 1999 Boys Don’t Cry and now the popular television show I am Cait, more attention has been given to those with the current diagnosis of Gender Dysphoria (GD) and/or those who define themselves as “transgendered” (Zuker et al., 2008). Despite this new attention, there is evidence that gender nonconforming individuals have existed in cultures in what would become the United States since the sixteenth century (Beemyn, 2014). However, the nomenclature, legislation, and societal understanding of those who are gender nonconforming have evolved in the United States, and the ways in which transgender identity has been formulated has greatly changed. These narratives reflect the political and larger societal understandings of gender and sex. In fact as a diagnostic classification, Gender Dysphoria (GD) remains a focus of much contemporary debate; as some critics argue that a formal diagnosis continues the history of pathologizing and stigmatizing groups that express variations from the norm (Zucker & Spitzer, 2005). The following paper will outline the development of the diagnostic classification of Gender Dysphoria, and discuss the history of the social, cultural, and legal understanding of gender nonconforming individuals.

The topic I chose for my research paper focuses on Social Media Marketing. Social Media is the biggest form of communication now a days. It hasn’t only changed the way people interact with each other, but also the way companies communicate. “What are companies doing to teenagers through technology?” Additionally, technology has become part of our everyday life and how we do things. Not only has social media made things easier for numerous people, but it has brought money to many hands.

1. Kids have a new vision of what they should compare their appearance and personalities to. They examine the features of their body, more than anything else in their lives. It is now a trend to eat less to achieve the physical standards that social media had put into children 's minds through advertisements on social networking sites. As shown when a study was taken of girls in the age group of fourteen to fifteen were asked about eating habits, weight loss, and overall physical being. The study concluded that because of social media trends cyberbullying increased and self-esteem decrease. “Two thirds of 15-year-old girls said they were ‘too fat’ and 14 percent said they’d had nothing to eat or drink for breakfast” (Cohen). These percentages represent that social media is creating a false physical standard in young girls, and even causing kids of a very young age to stop eating. The more this generations adolescents use and abuse social networking sites the more body shaming happens and physical appearance issues occur. These children want to be the norm at such an extent that they would physically starve themselves in order to reach the media 's standards.

Social media is one of the most common ways for people to communicate anywhere and at any time in modern society. Some people think that it is beneficial to have in society. Although, many people are starting to see negative effects arise from the use of social media as well. These negative effects are increasing and becoming more problematic every day. The disadvantages of social media far outweigh the advantages. Social media effects everyone in society, especially teenagers by negatively impacting their lives, face-to-face interactions, and mental health.

“Let go of who you think you are supposed to be and embrace who you are.” Brene Brown states in her book, The Gifts of Imperfection (2010). This book focuses on the importance of self-acceptance. This concept of self-acceptance is difficult for adult to live by, which means it is especially difficult for children grasp and wrap their heads around. At such a young age, the way human beings are supposed to look, act, and feel has been imbedded into our brains. Every day, we are faced with challenges that society and the media place in front of us. They tell us who we should be, what we should be, as well as how we should be. This leads individuals to live an unsatisfying life where we overthink everything and never truly feel good enough. This paper will focus on the negative effects that social media has on children and adolescence and how they view themselves. This paper will address how much influence social media has on children and the different issues that come from it. Different research shows that a majority of children and adolescence that engage in social media do have self-esteem and self-acceptance issues. Gender, race, class as well as other factors, may affect the severity of this problem that children and adolescence face. Another issue that is found with social media and children is that there is an increase chance that bullying from peers happen. Social media plays a big role in today’s world and it is something that is growing more and more each

Everyone knows that teens love going on social networking sites such as Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, or Instagram, but what some don’t know is that these sites can actually cause harm to them. Social media has been around since 1997, about 20 years. Social media is intended to help people stay caught up with their friends, and family, and also with what’s going on in the world today. Social media, however, is causing negative effects on today’s teens, such as, causing anxiety and depression, lowering self-esteem, and also affecting their brain development.

Mental issues such as loneliness, depression, and the feeling of being worthless have been around for so long, as long as the beginning of humankind. But in this time period, wealth and failures in life is not the main cause of these issues. Instead, the overuse of social media is the reason why sadness is occuring to most teens right now. Almost every teen in their house today are in their rooms lonely and alone while holding their phones trying to refresh if there’s a new post or uploads of people they follow. Social media gives most of the users the feeling of being isolated to the society because they felt like they are living in a fake world while looking through other people’s bio or account in their smartphones. According to

When Alexa was in high school, she remembers it as the worst years of her life. She never got her homework done causing bad grades, and she was always involved in drama over social media, leaving her feeling empty. Each and everyday she dreaded high school knowing social media was affecting her. Teens all over use social media, whether it is for pleasure or to see pictures from the latest sporting event. They use it to interact with one another and to see each other’s everyday lives. Overall, social media is bad for kids due to the increase in drama, it leads to depression and anxiety, and causes lack of productivity.