Social Media Influence: Impacts on Teenagers and Adolescents - Research Paper

Introduction

Social media influence refers to the things which result from utilizing social media platforms. These media sites are applications based on the internet, and they build on the technological and ideological foundations of individual websites (Chua & Chang, 2016). They help in information and content exchange, which gets generated by users. These platforms are digital and hence affect teenagers and adolescents adversely since these individuals are known to be internets biggest consumers. The influence gained from these social media platforms can either be positive or negative (Chua & Chang, 2016). It all depends on the content created and shared among these young ones. Some use websites to promote their studies by searching for learning materials. However, others generate or acquire materials that are of negative impact on their lives (Weinstein, 2018). These platforms get used daily to search for required data, watching movies, listen to songs, and play video games, among other uses.

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There are a variety of media influenced effects that have emanated. Some of the effects are negative, while others are positive. Media controlled impacts can be described as those things that result from the continuous use of the media (Bleakley et al., 2017). The period these effects takes may range from a short period after exposure to the message or a long time. The results can last for a few seconds, while others can even last for a lifetime. These effects may impact an individual, group, or entire society. The studies have shown that children and teenagers are the largest beneficiaries of social media (Bleakley et al., 2017). Two thirds of the teenagers and children are well versed with social media and the internet at large. On the contrary, these classes of individuals find it hard to control or manage shocks or adverse effects that arise from the usage of social media. Therefore, the development of various social media platforms has resulted in easy access to any kind of information, some of which are affecting the users negatively.

Research Problem/Problematic Issue

Social media over the years has been associated with both downside and upside influences on the younger generation. The pros and cons that result from these platforms' impact are of vital significance to the community. The positives of social media to teenagers include helping marginalized or isolated individuals to feel like a part of society. Facebook, snap-chat, Instagram, and Twitter, among others, could help adolescents dealing with mental health issues by introducing them to friends who may be going through a similar situation (O'Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2015). However, frequent use of these websites has been linked to several consequences like cyberbullying, alienation from society, negative body, and self-image, and also addiction, among others. It is also unhealthy since these teenagers spend little time doing real-world duties. It could make adolescents depressed or anxious since, according to research, too much social networking causes fight-or-flight mode of the nervous system. A lot of individuals like celebrities upload their information on these platforms, such as their expensive lifestyles. Adolescents watching such content begin to compare themselves to such people (Michikyan & Suarez-Orozco, 2016). Since their living conditions cannot match the ones displayed on social media, they could end up getting stressed and hence disorders like ADHD and teen anxieties in the long-term.

From a survey conducted on United States adolescents, it was found that between 2010 and 2015, suicides and depression symptoms had increased among this group of individuals (O'Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2015). It also got reported that rampant technology and increases in the use of social media could have been the cause accountable for these dynamics. These negative impacts were found to be more common in females. From a study by CNN, they found that too much screen time led to distressed teenagers, while those who spend less time checking Facebook and Twitter accounts had healthy mental states (Collins et al., 2017). Therefore, social media influences on adolescents are of a more negative impact than positive.

Development of Social Media

Keeping in touch with family and friends across long and short distances has always been a core future of human existence. There are a lot of solutions to this phenomenon, with the most creative means of communication generated being social media networking. The exposure to the internet, especially on teenagers and adolescents, began in recent years after in invention of the web and various platforms. Before the development of social media sites like Facebook, youtube, twitter, snapchat, WhatsApp, and Instagram, computers were used mainly for research, computations, and communication. In those days, the size of the computers was so large, to the extent that they could only be kept in offices (Bleakley et al., 2017). But with time, the mini-computers and micro-computers like smartphones were invented. Currently, almost every person has access to phones and the internet. The increased accessibility to the internet because of the improvements in the computer and technology industry has contributed to the high usage of social media platforms by children and teenagers. The attractive features from these platforms make them addictive to the children, resulting in severe adverse effects.

The development of these interaction sites has taken ages with Facebook and other platforms being the product of centuries work even though they seem to be new trends. Postal services in the 550 B.C are one of the earliest forms of social networking (Bleakley et al., 2017). The Telegraph was later invented in 1792 to enhance the delivery of messages over long distances (Bleakley et al., 2017). In 1865, pneumatic post, which used pressure tubes to transport capsules from one location to another got invented (Bleakley et al., 2017). However, the most basic and technological form of social media happened in 1890 and 1891 through the invention of the telephone and the radio, respectively. However, recently there was the discovery of more sophisticated versions of these inventions which enable instant communication over long distances.

Due to technological innovation in the 20th century, these media platforms began to change fast. In the 1940s, supercomputers got created. Other inventors like scientists and engineers tried to create a link between these machines hence the birth of the internet. Primitive email forms got generated, and some types of the internet like CompuServe also got developed. Home computers became a common thing, while social media also got sophisticated in 1980 (Bleakley et al., 2017). In 1997, Six Degrees got established, representing the first-ever social networking site (Bleakley et al., 2017). Its best features included allowing users to connect with potential friends and make their profiles. Blogging sites then got discovered in 1999, which led to the current social media sensation and popularity (Benn, 2017). Some sites like MySpace and Flickr came out in 2000, and from there, more of them got developed. The most popular began to get created in 2005 with YouTube as one of them, and later in 2006, twitter and Facebook had their breakthrough (Franchina & Coco, 2018). In today's world, the variety of these networking platforms and their likeness ranks with ease of casting. More keep getting innovated, and the trend is probably to continue with new ones getting differentiated features.

Types of Social Media

Social media can be categorized depending on usage and the mode of display or interaction among the users. The social media is an interactive web 2.0 application that is based on the internet (McHugh, Wisniewski, Rosson & Carroll, 2018). It contains user-generated content like photos, posts comments, texts, and any other kind of data that is generated through online interactions. Users can create profiles of ad identities that are kept and maintained by the organization. The social media can then link these profiles with those of other groups or individuals. Users can access social media platforms by desktops, smartphones, laptops, and other mobile devices. The social media networks can be classified under social networks, media sharing networks, Discussion forums, bookmarking and content creation networks, consumer review networks, among others.

The social networks include Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, and Twitter. These sites are used to interact and associate with other people. They are the kind of platforms utilized highly by teenagers and adolescents as they interact with friends across the globe. The media sharing networks, on the other hand, include Instagram, snapchat, and Youtube. They are utilized in the sharing of videos, pictures, photographs, and live videos. These sites are widely used by children as well as they are highly user-friendly. Teenagers and adolescents like sharing photos, watching various contents on youtube, and commenting about them. These platforms provide luxurious materials and interactive forums where users can say about the video or any content shared. These comments are accessible to other people. Therefore, the channels can be used to share, discuss, and provide opinions or news with other users. There are also discussion forums used to sharing and finding various types of information news and views. They include Reddit, Quora, and Digg. These social media platforms are mainly used by businesses to post products and converse with customers. However, to some extent, teenagers also utilize these kinds of social media to view and comments about these products. The effect of these types of social media is limited, as experts mainly use them. Examples of common social media platforms used by teenagers and adolescents are discussed below;

Youtube It is one of the most utilized social networking platforms. Its primary function is to share various videos and also act as a channel for social interaction. There is a lot of information uploaded on this website for consumer purposes. There is a lot of data uploaded here, which is meant to entertain various people of diverse interests. Almost all musicians end up uploading their music videos on youtube for advertising and as a means of business opportunity. Individuals can open their channels in this site through which they upload various contents of their liking. In this platform, some movies get watched for free. The website attracts millions of viewers due to its instant accessibility and affordable charges. Anyone who has a computer or Smartphone can have easy access to information on youtube. The features of this social media network are more advanced and highly preferred to those of olden video players.

Facebook

It is a social networking tool that has a lot of features for online users. It allows for photograph sharing, links posting, live chats, news watching, and short videos upload, among others. Its functionality has evolved over the years, and currently, one can make orders from various service providers registered on Facebook. People can share content publically or in selected groups. Information gets disclosed only to the specific audience targeted by the user may it be friends, family, or one person. On Facebook, data is private per the individual's requirements. Adolescents use this platform to connect with friends or make new ones. These teenagers spend most of their time serving on the internet. Facebook is one of those platforms which they use to socialize. They create personal accounts that get used to chat or view trending information's in terms of videos, images, or texts. When this site gets overly used, it c...