Jalin McConnell McConnell 1

Professor Garrett

English Comp.

2 May 2021
Type. Send. Tweet. Snap. Share. Filter. Edit. Delete. Over 75% of teens between the

ages of thirteen and seventeen have at least one social media account. So for a large majority of

teenagers, that is their daily cycle while using whatever platform they are on. This is a normal

day to day thing to most teens; it is pretty rare to find a teenager who doesn’t use social media

daily. It is almost impossible to find a teenager who doesn’t have any type of social media

account either. But yet, no one bats an eye, because it is just “normal.” The thing is though,

there is a high chance that these teenagers and even older bystanders don’t truly know the effects

that social media can have on teenagers, mentally and physically.

Social media didn’t become a thing until the 2000’s, as it easily got more popular over

the short period of time. It began with the social media platform called MySpace. MySpace hit

a million active viewers each month by 2004, and when other platforms came out their

popularity only grew even more than that from there (Ortiz-Ospina). In just 2018, Facebook was

shown to have over 2.26 billion active users, and the numbers have only gone up since then. A

study was done to see just how many young adults use social media in 2011, and over 3.1 million

of Facebook users were year years old or younger. What makes that so interesting is the fact that

in 1998 the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act passed (COPPA) making the minimum age

limit for any social media platform thirteen years of age (FTC). Social media has only gotten

more and more popular overtime, especially to young adults and teenagers.

A huge effect social media has on teenagers is damaging their mental health.

Researchers even say that social media is more associated with depression than just how much

screen time teenagers spend online (Guiton). Meaning, teenagers are less likely to have
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depression caused by the Internet by just simply being online, there is more of a connection with

them using their screen time to be on social media. There are multiple reasonings behind why

social media plays such a big role in being a cause for teenagers to get depression, so it is

impossible to just pinpoint just one. But some of them include loneliness, not feeling included,

feeling as if said person does not meet the standards social media presents, etc. With this comes

a domino effect by also adding possible anxiety into the mixture. Over 81% of teenagers use

social media in the United States, and it has been shown that those same platforms put them at

high risk for anxiety (Sperling). Teenagers often feel pressure to be online at all times so that

they don’t miss anything. They feel like they need to respond quickly to comments, texts, and

see posts as soon as possible that they don’t miss out. They also feel the need to look perfect in

all of their pictures that way they get enough likes or comments to make them satisfied. It all

creates constant anxiety that ties with the usage of social media platforms.

This flows into another thing social media causes to have teenagers, which is

unreasonable standards. It is very rare to see a picture on social media that doesn’t have a filter

on it or hasn’t been photoshopped yet. And this has caused a cycle of thinking for teenagers to

feel that they need to look just as good as those images that aren’t even realistic. One in every

three girls in the United States feel pressure to be as perfect as the females they see on social

media (Mohamad). This can be females from advertisements, famous people they follow, or

even just their peers who have also learned how to use filters and other photo editing tools. It

makes them feel like they need to have a filter or use photoshop in order to meet the standards of

their peers on whatever platform they are using, rather than just using a normal, natural photo. It

doesn’t stop at just feeling the need to look good on social media. This is because it can make
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teenagers feel like the only way they do look good is with filters and such. Which can cause

them to not feel comfortable in their own, natural skin in their day to day life.

Teenagers also don’t typically get nearly as much accomplished when they have access to

social media versus when they don’t, and it can give them a sense of guilt. Social media can be

so addicting and hard to put down once picked up, so it is easy to get distracted by it and not get

anything out of it or be productive at all. According to Robbie Schneider with Francision Health,

when on social media people tend to get to “Engaging in meaningless social media activities that

produce feelings of wasted time and guilt.” When the time teenagers could have spent doing

something productive is spent on social media for hours at a time, teenagers tend to fall into a

downward spiral of feeling guilty for not doing anything and feeling upset at themselves. This

ends up resulting in them still not doing anything and doing this cycle over again.

Social media has shown to affect teenagers’ performances in the classroom. Social media

is a huge distraction when it comes to kids and their academics. According to Teacher Boards,

social media can affect teenagers in the classroom “when it comes to concentration in the

classroom, timekeeping, and conscientiousness” (Teacher Boards). This is shown to be because

the students cannot keep their eyes off of their accounts to pay attention in class, or simply

because they would rather choose to simply spend their time on social media rather than actually

doing their classwork. When compared to students in class who either don’t have their phone at

school or engage in social media, these students’ school performances typically outshine those

who use social media multiple times for hours at a time each day.

Sadly, social media platforms aren’t only used to stay connected with friends and family.

It is also a place where a good majority of bullying takes place. Out of the teenagers in the
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United States who have a social media platform, 59% of them reported that they have been

bullied on social media in some shape or form (Pew Research Center). And that is only the ones

who reported it, over half of teenagers who have social media did actually report getting bullied,

but the number only goes up for the ones who stayed silent. Social media is a place where

teenagers get bullied by having false rumors made about them, being name called, being

threatened, made fun of over their appearance, and so much more. Suicide rates have jumped

from the amount of people who have experienced some sort of bullying from social media.

From 2007 to 2017, teen suicide rates have jumped 56% and became the second leading cause of

death of teenagers in the U.S. (CBS News). Several parents and statistics show that these

numbers and sudden jump in rates correlate with social media and when it really started to get

popular. Social media became a place to be meaner than in person for the simple reason that it

wasn’t in person, it was behind a screen. As it grew in popularity, bullying became a natural

thing to happen there.

There is a lot of research on social media also being linked with teenagers struggling to

sleep. Spending a lot of time looking at any type of screen can cause sleep deprivation, but

social media specifically can cause it by itself. This can be for several reasons, but one of them

being social media’s ability to just get a person’s mind overthinking. According to Mclaren

Hospital, “But when you're trying to get quality sleep, too much information can keep your mind

racing. You might be emotionally charged by something you just read or saw. Or the content you

see is just too interesting, and you have a hard time putting your gadget away.” So when

someone is in bed and decides to just take one last scroll on Facebook or Instagram, it rarely is

just a “one last scroll” and causes a domino effect of seeing new things, looking them up, and
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seeing the next shocking or new thing on social media. Causing especially young, curious

teenagers to stay up to see what else could be online that they might have missed.

Another way social media keeps teenagers sleep deprived is by sleeping so close to the

phone that said person can hear the notifications for the apps going off. The flashing lights,

noises, vibrating, etc are all things signaling that something new happened on social media which

makes the person curious. And once they look at one notification, they feel the need to look at

them all that way they don’t miss out. It is a downward spiral that leads to the same result every

time; waking up the next day having little to no sleep. And there are obvious effects that will hit

in the domino effect of not getting enough sleep due to social media. It wouldn’t be an issue

hearing the notifications if the temptation to look at them immediately wasn’t so strong in

teenagers, but it is. This leads into the next piece that comes linked with social media and

teenagers.

Then there is something that is jokingly talked about, but statistics have shown that it

could possibly need to be taken more seriously; being addicted to social media. It is overlooked

just how many teenagers are truly addicted to their social media accounts, but the signs are all

there. Checking social media as soon as they wake up, feeling anxious when unable to check

social media, constantly seeing how popular they’re posts have become, and it even gets so bad

that some people think they heard or felt their phone buzz when it really didn’t just because they

want an excuse to check social media. Over 51% of teenagers admitted that they use social

media every single day, and over 25% of them admitted that they check more than one social

media network a day multiple times a day (Gordon). This addiction is something that is typically

overlooked because people do not think of it as a harmful addiction, but the facts have shown
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otherwise. Not to mention, the addiction can get so bad that teenagers begin to stop doing things

that they once enjoyed to do before because they feel as if they will miss out on too much online

if they take the time to themselves.

The addiction of social media doesn’t always just affect the one individual who is

consistently on the internet, but it can affect those around them. According to research and

surveys, when social media is in the picture siblings and child-parent relations tend to barely

have any interaction with each other, or when they do it is in a negative way (Ekern). So the

only times these family members communicate is when they are arguing or it is a dry

conversation; there is not an actual connection or friendship between them because the need to

try to connect with followers outweighs actually connecting with those in person, or even in

those who live in the same home. So the only connection that these teenagers are mainly getting

to other people is through a screen. Family doesn’t even speak as much as someone messages on

social media. Rephrased, people who share the same bathroom do not speak unless for basic

information or to argue. But the followers on social media get along with the person posting, so

everyone doesn’t question it.

Social media also can have a major influence on teenagers and youth. Social media is a

place where people get to act like whatever version of themselves that they want. They can post

them partying, doing drugs, etc while looking like they are having the time of their life because

that is what they allow to be revealed to the people following them, when in reality that typically

isn’t the case. They just make their lives look perfect so everyone else thinks that it is, when the

majority of people who seem the happiest are really struggling. The poster reveals only the good

things to the followers. By posting these things while seeming happy it is presented to other
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teenagers’ minds that it is “normal” and fun to live like them, which makes other teenagers

engage in that behavior (Raising Children Network). But teenagers see these people online

doing these things that could potentially hurt them but they get in their head that in order to fit in

or be like these people that they have to smoke, drink, or whatever behavior that they are

replicating. This can also be a form of peer pressure as the majority of teens are known for

partying and such people who wouldn’t typically do that type of thing can feel pressured into

doing so that way they don’t seem “boring” or “lame” on social media.

Due to the initial intentions of social media being to bring people closer together and to

stay connected, some people don’t see the amount of damage it has actually caused and

continues to cause. Some people believe that social media is spreading more positive things

around the internet than negative things, and although social media was meant to keep up to date

on family and friends while also having a way to communicate, it has turned into something else

as it continues to grow. Parents of teenagers who don’t see the issues with social media typically

don’t see the problems because they were around when social media was only meant to send

messages to friends and family and post updates and pictures to see, so they don’t imagine what

it is really like today as this new generation made it into something totally different. And

teenagers who don’t see the problem are usually the ones who are doing the better thing by not

having social media as a part of their daily life. Anyone who has social media and can see what

teenagers do and the effects it causes on them could see how damaging it really is to a teenage

mind.

There are possible ways to help resolve, or at least better, some of the problems that

social media causes. One of these ways is to have screen limits. This is where at certain times,
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for potentially hours at a time, the said person would not have access to their apps like social

media. Some phones can manually actually set times where it will automatically not let the

person with the phone access chosen apps from a period of time to a different certain time. But

if that isn’t the case with the phone in question, then it comes down to the discipline of knowing

that is it time to take a break from social media. Or even parents simply setting these restrictions

on their teenagers. Another effective way to help social media not hold so much power over

teenagers is by parents having designated times/places where social media, or even phones in

general, are not to be used. Whether it is at the dinner table, or just for certain periods

throughout the day. This can solve many problems like the relationship between family

members, the addiction, and even the influence. The amount of things these simple resolutions

would solve or at least help solve all fall into the place right behind the last thing. The more

teenagers that don’t see social media as a necessity the less power it will hold over them, and the

other benefits just roll right along with the initial ones these restrictions can cause.

Overall, there are multiple damaging effects that social media can have on teenagers all

across the country, and the majority have experienced at least one of them. Social media can

cause teeangers’ mental health to go down hill, have unreasonable standards, potentially get

bullied, have a negative influence, get addicted to the platform(s), and so many other effects.

Although social media wasn’t intended to have such negative consequences, when it became

such a vital part of teenagers lives the damage coming wasn’t far behind. And the statistics show

that it will more than likely only get worse over time with these effects, unless the screen

restrictions and boundaries are put in place to help turn around the effects made. If changes are
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made to try and reduce the amount of teenegers affected, then people can see the true change in

social media’s atmosphere.

Works Cited

Anderson, Monica. “A Majority of Teens Have Experienced Some Form of

Cyberbullying.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, 27 Sept. 2018,

www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/09/27/a-majority-of-teens-have-experienced-

some-form-of-cyberbullying.

HON Associates. “Media Influence on Teenagers: Social Media, Movies, YouTube and

Apps.” Raising Children Network, 17 Nov. 2019, raisingchildren.net.au/pre-

teens/entertainment-technology/media/media-influence-on-teens.

“How Social Media Negatively Affects the Teen Brain.” Verywell Family, 2019,

www.verywellfamily.com/ways-social-media-affects-teen-mental-health-

4144769.

McLean Hospital. “The Social Dilemma: Social Media and Your Mental Health.” Social

Media, 10 Feb. 2021, www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-

affecting-your-mental-health.

Professionals from McLaren Health Care. “How Social Media May Be Causing Sleep

Deprivation.” McLaren Health Care, 9 Sept. 2015,

www.mclaren.org/main/blog/how-social-media-may-be-causing-sleep-

deprivation-145.
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Schneider, Robbie. “Social Media Use: How Is It Affecting Teens?” Franciscan Health,

15 Aug. 2019, www.franciscanhealth.org/community/blog/social-media-use-how-

is-it-affecting-teens.

TeacherBoards. “The Effects of Social Media in Student Teens.” TeacherBoards

Community, 13 Apr. 2018, www.teacherboards.co.uk/community/the-effects-of-

social-media-in-student-teens/#:%7E:text=Digital%20media%20has%20become

%20a,person’s%20day%20to%20day%20routine.&text=On%20an%20academic

%20level%2C%20social,classroom%2C%20timekeeping%2C%20and

%20conscientiousness.

“The Rise of Social Media.” Our World in Data, ourworldindata.org/rise-of-social-

media#:%7E:text=Social%20media%20started%20in%20the,%2C%20by

%20platform%2C%20since%202004. Accessed 2 May 2021.

Writers at Debating Communities and Networks XI. “Faking Faces: Instagram’s Role in

Propagating Unrealistic Beauty Standards,.” Debating Communities and

Networks XI, 14 May 2020,

networkconference.netstudies.org/2020Curtin/2020/05/14/faking-faces-

instagrams-role-in-propagating-unrealistic-beauty-standards.