The Influence Of Mass Media On TeensSelf-Esteem

Self-esteem is a global evaluative dimension of the self and determines if you are satisfied with certain aspects of your life. For example, your appearance, your personality, your abilities and your relationship with others. The media is a powerful source of tool to manipulate adolescents that portrays unrealistic images that affect the way they feel about themselves. I believe that the social media does affect the self-esteem of adolescent’s due to self-image.

We live in an era ruled by social media, primarily when it comes to teenagers, social media is used for everything. From communicating with family and friends to being used as a news outlet, and even advertisement for business and companies. This article is titled “Social Media: What's Not to Like,” written by Alison Pearce Stevens. The topic of this essay is the effect social media can have on teenagers. Social media, on one hand, can be used as a great way to share with the world and boost teens’ self-esteem. On the other hand, social media can be used as a place for bullying, body shaming and can cause depression or even suicide in teens.

The great Malcom X said that “The media's the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that's power. Because they control the minds of the masses”. In today’s society, mass media plays a vital role and is a significant aspect in many people's lives. Mass media consists of the internet, television, news, music, game systems, radio, and the press; mass media is used everywhere and for everything. Specifically, in teenagers lives, mass media plays a significant role. Tennagers are in their grwoing stages and at this time everything that surrounds them influences them greatly. That being said, the media has a great impact on teens in regards to teen dating violence which has affected them physically, emotionally, and sexually. Furthermore, we have found that certain aspects of media are associated with high risks teen dating violence, specifically the time spent using it and the effects of the content in which teens are exposed to.

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

What are the negative effects of social media on young teens and the future generations? Elise White, the author of “Does the Media Negatively Affect Teenagers?”, explains the negative effects of media on teenagers, and she includes Sex, Violence, Money, and Body Image, as the major factors. She also says, “If a Teenager is responsible for a violent act, society is convinced that media/Video games is the main cause.” (Elise White 1). Out of all these negative factors, society believes that Body Image is the one that effects the most. An average fashion model is thinner than ninety eight percent of women. Advertisements only work to publicize their brand/products, such as; toothpastes, makeup, clothes, and so on. Young teens are exposed to such unrealistic image and are encouraged to place more importance on their appearance than a healthy life. This advertising pays for all forms of media, including movies, magazines, websites and phone applications. These advertisements lead to low self esteem and insecurity among teenagers. It can also lead to emotional and mental issues like depression if they do not achieve so called “Perfect bodies”. In today’s society, owning something that everyone has or is trending like, makeup, branded clothes, and fancy gadgets is considered to be “Cool” and socially acceptable. Violence and Sex are the other important negative factors, as teenagers are influenced by the movies and video games they watch and play. Music videos these days portray a very violent and sexual image and meaning, which impacts the way many teenagers

When analyzing the media, they are positive and negative socialization. Mass media being a broad platform that influences children through different outlets such as: newspapers, magazines, books, video games, and television. The media is one of the most vital component of shaping the way someone views themselves and how they think. Living in an advanced technological society where everything is at your fingertips can be impact your socialization. The media portrays celebrities as societies norms. The way a celebrity dresses, what they eat, their exercise routine,

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

With so many different forms of media, it is no wonder that the media affects society in so many ways, which is resulting in a change in the way people see themselves and others around them. The website dictionary.reference.com defines media as “a plural of medium; the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely.” This mainstream media is most prominent in North America. However, it is apparent in most countries. The pattern created is a steady increase in the popularity of media and its influence. This is coupled by an increase in teenage insecurities regarding

Social Media has a huge impact on a teens life since they are bombarded with the pressures of buying new devices and apps, thus affecting the way teens represent themselves on social media. In the article, It states how teens are driven to compete against each other by, trying to have best social media feed. “Parents wonder if their children’s constant use of Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat is healthy. Teenagers talk about the pressure to post the perfect photo or compete with the perfect lives their peers present on the Internet.” (Baltimore Sun, para. 2). The pressures of wanting to post the perfect pictures of their lives on social media, takes a toll on the teens when they are using it. Instead of posting what is true to that person, they are competing to have the best pictures and the most followers, which causes them to lose their true selves/identity.

Media is one of the four main agents of socialization. In an age where it is hard to escape, media has a huge impact upon the way a person views themself. The media has created an epitome of beauty that for most, is unattainable. People must be thin to truly be attractive, and it is best that they have clear skin. For women, they ideally must also be slightly curvy, while maintaining thin arms and legs and a flat stomach. For men the ideal is large amounts of muscle. Being constantly exposed to these standards is believed to lead to Depression, Anxiety, low self-esteem, and other issues. Studies have been done to learn whether or not media exposure does lead to these things.

With the development of modern technologies, millions of individuals are constantly connected with the digital world, where some individuals may correlate social media platforms as real life. However, it is reasonable to state that due to the vulnerability of teenagers and their difficult transformations, both mentally and physically, social media could have various influences on teenagers, that including low self-esteem. Erving Goffman's dramaturgical theory can help explain how one’s identity development is framed while on these social sites as well as while offline. Using collected data, qualitative methods have shown that such things like surveys that are randomly sampled can help approach this link between social media and an individual's sense of self. Although there were no significant relations identified, results indicate that social media platforms can possibly have a negative effect on individuals sense of self.

There are two types of media. There can be good media, and there can be bad media. One might also refer to the media as positive or negative. This paper will introduce some negative affects found as a result of children imitating and idolizing the media and the celebrities that go along with it. There are also positive results that come from the media; the media is not all bad. This paper will just focus on the bad affects I have found. The media spends billions of dollars to create advertisements that appeal to our youth. While those companies are just looking to make money and promote their products; they are doing so much more. Today's world is becoming more aware of the problems arising from negative media.

Although it is evident that the media itself is problematic in the nature it presents teens to adult audiences and the effects such has on teens, the issue has not gone without attempts to diminish it. Several works, such as the Canadian book, 10 Things We All Need to Know About Today’s Teens That Is, If We Care About Them, written by Reginald Biddy and James Penner expresses the need for all adults to truly comprehend teens and view them past what the media says they are. They come to infer, “A corrective to stereotypes is getting to know people personally. Who are the teenagers we actually know? What are those young females and males really like?”(Biddy and Penner). This being one of the many instances in which both men attempt to open adults to the possibility that all teens are not as they are claimed to be and suggest getting to know the teens in our communities better. This approach by both men speaks of the need for all individuals, adults and teens alike, to come together and communicate with one another, a seemingly simple act that we have lacked in society for decades that can break down the wall the media began to construct and adults have solidified . An alternative and quite ironic approach, are those by teens who use the media itself to speak their mind and offer their own attempts to diminish this discrimination themselves. Among such are Oelania P., a teenager from Brooklyn who wrote the article, Standing up to Stereotypes on Teen Ink, a website that offers

Media such as the internet, broadcasting, and publishing is a way to express opinions and keep up to date with the latest fashion trends. While these trends continue to go on, new trends are thought of, the trends may be a little tricky to keep up with even for celebrities. While the thought of being perfect for society, cause many adolescents to breakdown for following the false beliefs of society. Some people may use the media to be updated on important news. On the other hand, others believe the media is a horrible setting, resulting in adolescent to do whatever it takes to become just like them, poisoning their minds to become something they are not. The media produces bad influences for body image and messes with adolescents’ minds.

In the recent years, the prevalence of mass media has been undeniable. All over the world, youths have access to mass media through their smartphones, television sets and computers. In such a media-driven world, it is no surprise that mass media has come to play a substantial role in the attitudes and mindsets of youth. To a large extent, mass media does have the power to influence youth too much nowadays as seen through increasing consumerism, commercialised perceptions of beauty and loss of individuality. However, it is also true that the youth are not completely controlled by mass media as seen through innovative