Teens and Social Media: Benefits and Challenges - Essay Sample

Introduction

In the U.S, nearly all teens are engaged in social media platforms. A survey done by the Pew Research Center discovered that social media is a ubiquitous platform that affects the lives of adolescents (Duncan, 2014). From this perspective, many parents, educators and teens must realize that the benefit of social media should be to assist the youth make friends, share ideas and thoughts, pursue interesting areas and to develop communication skills. The most popular platforms used by teens are Instagram, Youtube and Snapchat (Hur & Gupta, 2013). Of the total number survey from Pew Research Center added that the remaining numbers are glued to Facebook. The essay will elaborate more on the negative impact of social media on the adolescent.

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Every technological development comes with a good side and a bad side. In particular social media harms teens in various ways. A report done by the GlobalWebIndex showed that individuals between the ages of 16-24 spend a minimum of three hours on multiple social media platforms daily (Hur & Gupta, 2013). The same survey added those groups that spend more than the mentioned time were prone to higher risks of mental health challenges like internalizing problems.

Social media, in other words, can have a serious mental health problem and the well-being of the users. A research done by the National Institute of Mental health revealed that the lifetime prevalence on mental conditions among the teens could make them prone to a permanent mental impairment condition (Sadiq, 2018). Teachers, parents and children, in this case, need to be educated on the impact of social media use by teens and adolescent especial they metal health risk they pose to their lives.

The Impact of Social Media on the Mental Health of the Adolescent

The activity engaged by young people on social media significantly mirrors how they live in the physical world. Teenagers and children navigate through social media platforms to strengthen existing friendship, navigate new relationships and sometimes to end or minimizing them. Whether in the real world or online, young people develop bad behaviour either directed to them, someone else or causes something else (Sadiq, 2018). What matters is how they respond to bad behaviour because they can learn important life skills.

A report done by the Pew Research centre discovered that one out of six adolescent experience more than one form of abusive character. The data showed that 42% begin calling people names, 32% spread false rumours, 25% check unsolicited explicit pictures and 21% have their whereabouts and activities monitored by someone else (Duncan, 2014). The remaining sixteen and seven per cent are threatened or receive explicit images shared by anonymous people.

The results also showed that 90% of adolescent believe there is online harassment, while 63% think it's a major threat. Also, as much as teens know that social media affects their lives, either positive or negative, they continue to be connected to the digital world (Duncan, 2014). Others know that social media increases rumour-mongering and bullying. Some believe that it makes relationships meaningless, while others feel social media can bring psychological issues.

Social Media and the Physical Health of Adolescents

It is easy to overlook the adverse effect of social media but very hard to assume what it can do to the human body. The effects caused to the human body are not as obvious as mental cases. However, the more technology advances, the more the side effects become deviant. First, it is a fact that the digital screen on phones and computers affects the retina of the eye if the child spends more time looking at them (Garett, Liu & Young, 2016). As a result, it physically affects the teens in that it deteriorates their self-esteem and self-image.

Social media also forms the ideal body life and style that perceived by everyone. In other words, adolescents go through a lot of pressure trying to look like someone else. But, it instead encourages diseases like bulimia and anorexia. Social media platforms like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook make teens earn approval for their physical loos by comparing themselves to the ones seen on the internet (Simone, Hooper, Eisenberg & Neumark-Sztainer, 2019). Due to this, most of them end up admiring and do nothing to their bodies.

Long stays on social media platforms make the youth to be inactive in physical activities. Most of them end up developing bad eating behaviours, and as a result, they end up gaining a lot of weight (Simone et al., 2019). One study discovered that girls that loved linking their self-image to pictures on the internet got disappointed. It was also interesting that girls developed bad eating behaviour than boys due to body image disturbance. Most youth also end up being obese because of spending long hours on social media platforms.

The General Well-Being of Teens That Use Social Media Platforms

It is quite interesting how young adults believe that using social media does not bring any negative effect on them. Research done on the same revealed that there is a relationship between the amount of happiness and smartphone use (Dash, 2019). Teens that used the platforms mostly were unhappy as compared to those that spend time with others or reading magazines. Similarly, many experts advise children to avoid watching their phones for one hour before going to bed to avoid tiredness during waking hours. According to the National Sleep Foundation, the retinas in the eyes sense dark and light environments and then signal the brains the times of sleep and waking up (Edwards, 2014). Considering the time someone has taken on their phone, light exposure ends up affecting the lifestyle of the teen.

Conclusion

The adolescence stage is a time to take the first flight out by spreading their wings into the world. As seen, social media has more harm than good. In most circumstance, the adolescent and parents don't know the effects of using such platforms until they see the results. For instance, teen change how they talk to people, get frustrated because of what they see in the media and become less friendly with people in the real world. Even though social media can develop social and communication skills to the youth, the dangers overcome the benefits.

Caregivers and parents, in this case, must play a vital role in these procedures. In the social networking domain, it means that parents must become educators concerning the disadvantaged and advantaged of social media, the reasons of joining the social media platforms and the adverse effects it can bring to their lives. Parents must become aware of monitoring the privacy setting of their children. When children reach the adolescence stage, parents should have open discussions on the etiquettes and protocols of social media. In the long run, good healthy behaviour and digital citizenship will be developed in the child.

References

Dash, N. (2019). Relationship between Smartphone Use and Dry Eye Symptoms in Children. Delhi Journal of Ophthalmology, 30(2), 78-99. DOI: 10.7869/djo.498

Duncan, M. (2014). Pew Internet and American Life Project. Encyclopedia of Social Media and Politics, 112-212. DOI: 10.4135/9781452244723.n399

Edwards, D. K. (2014). Light-dark Adaptation, and 'Glow', in Abnormal Moth Eyes without Pigment. National Sleep Foundation, 20(4), 621-622. DOI: 10.1038/202621a0

Garett, R., Liu, S., & Young, S. D. (2016). The relationship between social media use and sleep quality among undergraduate students. Information, Communication & Society, 21(2), 163-173. DOI: 10.1080/1369118x.2016.1266374

Hur, J., & Gupta, M. (2013). Growing up in the Web of Social Networking: Adolescent Development and Social Media. Adolescent Psychiatry, 3(3), 233-244. DOI: 10.2174/2210676611303030004

Sadiq, K. (2018). Social media - The antisocial media, its challenges and its impact on mental health. Journal of Neurology & Neurophysiology, 09, 133-154. DOI: 10.4172/2155-9562-c12-093

Simone, M., Hooper, L., Eisenberg, M. E., & Neumark-Sztainer, D. (2019). Unhealthy weight control behaviours and substance use among adolescent girls: The harms of weight stigma. Social Science & Medicine, 233, 64-70. DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2019.05.047