Social Media To Blame For Low Self-Esteem In Young Women

Rachel Ehmke addresses the negative effects of social media in a strident, yet true, way. The use of social media among teens in America is 75 percent and out of that percentage 68 percent use Facebook more than any other site or app (Common Sense Media, as cited by Ramasubbu, 2016, p.1). According to Suren Ramasubbu in his article “Influence of Social Media on Teenagers”, Facebook is an outlet for depression, sexting, and cyberbullying (2016, p.1). Ehmke points these effects as well to support her opinion along with other effects like indirect communication, loss of experiences, the imposter syndrome, and stalking. It can be concluded that the reasons provided by Ehmke are valid reasons to prove why social media can affect a person negatively.

In the article “ Teenage Social Media Butterflies May Not Be Such A Bad Idea “ by Melissa Healy, social media isn’t as bad as you think. According to Amori Yee Mikami teenages are using social media to communicate with their friends and not strangers . Some adolescents count their parents as their friends on social networking sites. According to a L.A. psychology professor kaveri Subrahmanyam says children on and offline have the same relationship on social networking sites and in reality . Another thing Subrahmanyam said was that teens use social media in wayś that don't harm their well being. Some teens that struggle with depression or other type of behavior are most likely to be bully or harass, and also take online risks such as sexting

Social media itself is a huge danger to society. It causes many suicides within the world because of the cyberbullying and spreading of rumors. “Recent studies have shown that one out of four teens have been the victims of cyberbullying and one out of six have admitted to having cyberbullied someone” (Trautner 1). The internet and social media is supposed to be used to communicate with friends and for searching information, “Kids use technology different than their parents do. Sometimes it is hard for adults to understand that this can even be a possibility” (Trautner 1). It is not supposed to be used to bully someone, especially not to the point where the victim would think about suicide. “One of the statistics that has been highlighted within this news coverage is the threefold increase in the suicide rate for girls ages 10 to 14. The rates for girls in this age group increased from 0.5 to 1.5 per 100,000 during this time period. The increases for boys in this age group were not as high, climbing from 1.9 per 100,000 during 1999 to 2.6 per 100,000 in 2014” (Olsen

Social media influences a teenager's self-esteem because it can lower or boost their self-esteem. It can lower a teenager's self-esteem by having cyberbullies on the internet putting them down with their negative opinions of the teen which can also drive the teens to feel hurt, or discourgaed by letting others opinions get to them. Social media can boost a teenager’s self-esteem by having a lots of friends or followers, because they’ll feel cool and popular. It can also boost their self-esteem because if they post a selfie of themselves on social media and everybody is commenting on how pretty or how nice they look, they will feel

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.

On the contrary, social media is known as the utmost ways to communicate with others through precise emotional signs. The online communication takes various signals away. For example one of the signals is, over the phone, one can hear the change in a person’s tone, or the ominous/menacing pause that sends a message for one to back off. But, the jokes and snide comments aren’t the only problem, there is also a hostile behavior. An incident, was when Devon, a thirteen year old, asserted that a friend would claim that she spread out rumors about him. Devon even claimed that the boy is a quiet adolescent, but throughout the posts he would express himself by capitalize letters and punctuated by endless exclamation marks, the young teenager claimed she felt as in her friend was screaming in her face. Sometimes kids act differently on behind the screen meaning when being on a social website such as Facebook because they feel more secure to behave like that on a computer and not in person. One feels the powerful behind the computer screen and do not realize the actions they make towards the other

Research shows that over 80 percent of 10-year-old girls fear becoming “fat” (NYC). Young girls are not satisfied by their body image and it is causing many issues. Even though young girls may subject themselves to body image issues, social media destroys girl’s self-worth because of the fashion industry and prolonged time and use on social media.

Instagram has been introduced to the community around 6 years ago as a social networking app for sharing photos and videos from smartphones. Along with the growth of technology and the Internet, Instagram is now gradually become more and more popular in many social media websites, especially for teenagers. However, many types of research and studies state that Instagram may cause several negative effects on the individuals who use them usually. As the report “Instagram Is Killing Teen Girls’ Self-Esteem”, the author states that almost every girl teenager feels isolated and unsatisfied with what they have. Indeed, they often feel envious and have inferiorities when they see someone have a beautiful dress or living a luxury life (Kohli). Moreover, Instagram users often compare their lives to other people on social media and try to build the perfect platform on social media. If teenagers overuse Instagram for most of their time, it may lower the self-esteem of teenagers, damage the body image, lifestyles, or even affect the mental systems in life satisfaction.

Teens feel as if social media has more positive effect on their relationships. These positive effects include confidence building and can also make them more unhibited. According to source, The Upside of Selfies: Social Media Isn’t All Bad Kids, “One in five teens said social media makes them feel more confident, compared with 4% who said it makes them feel less so. When it comes to relationships with friends 52% of teens said social media has made them better versus just 4% who said it has negatively affected those relationships” (Wallace,1). With the data found in a survey taken by Common Sense Media group, more teens feel as if social media makes them more confident to make more friends rather than not. They will then, go out, find friends and try to connect with others to improve their overall relationship status with others. According to Kelly Wallace, ““On the whole, teens said they feel that social media has a more positive than negative impact on their social and emotional lives, they believe that social media helps their friendships, makes them feel more outgoing and gives them confidence” said Shira Lee Katz, Common Sense Media’s director of digital media” (Wallace,1). The director of Common Sense Media pulled information from her surveys and data and concluded that teens generally feel as if social media improves the relationships they have with other friends. When teens notice that social media improves relationships with friends, this feeling of accomplishment helps them come out of their shell which increases their confidence and encourages them to make more friends. For some people it’s difficult to make new friends, but social media is the starting point

Communication barriers are not the only issue that has been brought on by social media. Extensive social media use has also been known to affect a person’s self-esteem. Some individuals suffer from a low self-esteem and limit themselves to social media in hopes to create a different image of them. According to Charles Cooley, “The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another's mind" (Morine, 2009). For some teens and young adults, social media may help them open up and achieve a higher self-esteem. On the other hand, social media on other teens and young adults may have a completely opposite effect. In an article titled, Is Facebook Making Your Child Depressed, it is stated that social media websites such as Facebook “can create a skewed reality that makes teens feel alienated” (PR, 2012). When a person, that is not completely happy with their life, goes onto social media and reads all about other people enjoying a multitude of activities and enjoying their lives this could

Social media plays an immense role in the way that stereotypes about attractiveness is conveyed in regards to body image. As Gerbner and Gross wrote in 1976, the cultivation theory states that high frequency viewers of television are more susceptible to media messages and the belief that they are real and valid. The subjection to social media can cause an idealistic view amongst young girls and women alike. Among the mechanisms of human agency none is more central or pervasive than beliefs of personal efficacy (Bandura, 1997). This belief that these body types are achievable can lead to females being dissatisfied within their own skin. The result of the discontent can potentially lead to eating disorders. Body dissatisfaction occurs when views of the body are negative and involves a perceived discrepancy between a person 's assessment of their actual and ideal body (Cash and Szymanski, 1995 and Grogan, 2008). It is estimated that approximately 50% of adolescent girls report being unhappy with their bodies (Bearman, Presnell, & Martinez, 2006). Surveys have revealed that the exposure to social media can cause body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms’ and the concept that thin is “beautiful” amongst young girls and women (Botta 1999; Harrison and Hefner 2006; and Stice et al. 1994). With media influence, the question is the strength of the effect, studies indicate the effects are small in scale; they are likely to operate in accordance with particular differences in

One-way social media can be harmful to our mental health is that it often can lead to comparison and jealousy. An example of jealousy when using social media would be a group of friends who decided to hang out and left one friend out; the group of friends post about how much fun they had and the girl who was left alone ultimately ends up jealous. An example of comparison would be an overweight or an average sized girl scrolling through her Instagram timeline when she sees a picture of a super skinny girl, this could lead to the girl scrolling to compare herself negatively to the skinny girl. Comparison is a normal human response; most people compare themselves to others daily (Tanney). Most

Loneliness and social depression are additional effects of social networks. Teenagers live to compare. The questions of “Whose smarter/prettier/thinner/more fun?” always seem to be in mind and social networking sites are making this worse. With the ability to view others changed profile pictures, status updates, and check ins. These online destinations have also been reported increase cyber bullying, and the feeling of rejection, Aaron Smith states. For example when a girl sees her ex change relationship statues, yet she clearly has not moved on yet, seeing it right there knowing all their friends can see it, only caused harm and sadness that could have been avoided. Also teenagers who are naturally outgoing start losing the distinction between genuine friends and acquaintances. People are spending time maintaining relationships with

With the development of advances in technology, communication through social networking has risen immensely. Communicating is not only less complicated, it is also relatively inexpensive. “Many teens in relationships view social media as a place where they can feel more connected with the daily events in there significant other’s life, share emotional connections, and let their significant other know they care” (Lenhart, Anderson, and Smith). However, the ease of access to social networking has allowed many adolescents to become overly involved. Networking has the potential to influence adolescents both emotionally and physically which in turn may lead to negative behaviors. An article from procon.org stated, “The use of social networking sites is correlated with personality and brain disorders, such as the inability to have in-person conversations, a need for instant gratification, ADHD, and self-centered personalities, as well as addictive behaviors” (ProCon.org). Essentially, social networking has rising negative influences on teens because of increased cyber bullying, lack of respect for personal privacy, and its addictive qualities.

Most people think that peer pressure is one of the leading cause of low self-esteem ,we read about young adult going through teen issues such as bullying , fighting and many more other issues but in 2017 things have changed .Many teenagers are obsessed with social media sites such as Facebook, Snap chat, or even Instagram . these sites were either design for reconnection with lost family or friends to showing people bit a piece what you do on a day to day basis but now that’s not the case. Self -esteem is when an individual has confidence and satisfaction in themselves with the changes in how social media works in this day and age self-esteem is one of the issues it affects. Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and