How Social Media Affects Teenagers

Document Type:Research Paper

Subject Area:English

Document 1

The increased social media popularity is attributed to among other factors, better access, and functionality as well as the flexibility of the SM technology. In as much as the rise of SM has made people especially teens more connected, research shows that it can have detrimental effects particularly on their mental health. Effects of Social Media on Teenagers Social media is very addictive. In recent years, social media has become an indispensable part of teenagers’ lives. SM networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, etc. The cognitive-behavioral model fronts that unusual SM sites usage comes as a result of maladaptive cognitions and is amplified by other environmental factors and eventually leads to addictive SM networking practices. Next, there is the social skill approach which suggests that the bizarre SM tendencies emanate from people lacking self-presentation skills.

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As a result, they tend to prefer virtual as opposed to face-to-face interactions ultimately leading to SM addiction (Griffiths, p. The other model is the socio-cognitive model which implies that an expectation of positive outcomes informs the out of ordinary usage of SM sites. Furthermore, this theory also indicates that internet self-efficacy, as well as a lack of internet self-regulation, can drive one to addictive SM behaviors. For a teenager growing up in today’s society, SM outlets such as Instagram, Snapchat, Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, etc. provide him/her with images and news that dominate all the aspects of his/her life. A common SM activity among teenagers is viewing other people’s SM profiles that in most cases are edited versions of the people’s lives.

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In most cases, these images depict the persons in question as being attractive and enjoying their lives whereas in most cases this is not usually the truth. These “fake” portrayals set impractical standards on what is considered to be beautiful or attractive in the society today. SM sites have also been criticized for glamorizing immoral behavior, for instance, drug and alcohol use (Moreno, Ton, Selkie, & Evans, p. The most notable impact of social media on teenagers is that it affects their mental health. To begin with, researchers have identified a nexus between depression and social media. In as much as there is still no cause-effect relationship between social media and depression, research has indicated a correlation between an increase in social media usage and an intensification of symptoms of depression characterized by loneliness and lack of social activity (Meyers, p.

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The other mental health issue is that SM usage is linked to causing anxiety among teenagers. Apart from failing to have real interactions with their peers, this isolation by teenagers will place them at risk of having inauthentic and shallow relationships. A majority of the teenagers today are now more comfortable interacting with their virtual friends as opposed to communicating and forging personal connections with one another. They, for instance, lack the opportunity to horn critical social skills such as reading body language, facial expressions, etc. This disconnect as a result of a lack of personal interactions is also linked to cyberbullying (Barr, p. The other issue is about privacy. Consequently, this makes it impossible for them to control a teen’s probable excess usage of social media.

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They might also be unaware of the aforesaid problems that are associated with excess usage of social media. By acquainting themselves with the issue, they can be able to understand what is going on in their teen’s world. The experts also suggest that parents should give extra attention to their teens to strengthen the bond with them. In line with that, parents should also help their teenagers build healthy self-esteem. Each time a teenager visits a hospital, a pediatrician should inquire from him/her on his/her social media practices. There are also tech companies such as Google and Apple that have put in place technology to monitor and control social media usage. According to Arynews, monitoring technology will help addicted teenagers to manage their social media usage (p.

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Conclusion Technology advancements have led to many landmark inventions over the years. Social media, for instance, transformed how people engage and interact. tv/en/teenagers-are-now-taking-steps-to-limit-social-media-use-study/>. Barr, Sabrina. Six ways social media negatively affects your mental health. 11 October 2018. 01 November 2018 <https://www. Chivers, Tom. The Truth about suspected link between social media and self-harm. 06 August 2018. 01 November 2018 <https://www. newscientist. html>. Ehmke, Rachel. How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers. 01 November 2018 <https://childmind. org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/>. Teenagers are losing sleep thanks to social media. 24 January 2018. 01 November 2018 <https://inews. co. uk/news/health/teenagers-losing-sleep-social-media/>. Pantic, Igor. "Online Social Networking and Mental Health. " Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking (2014): 652-657. Robinson, Jo, Eleanor Bailey and Sadhbh Byrne. Social media can be bad for youth mental health, but there are ways it can help.

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