The United States has advanced and developed immensely throughout its history. The country has especially progressed in the aspect of technology. Computers and the internet are two major breakthroughs that have changed the lives of citizens forever and the way society functions. With the emergence of this advanced technology, arises the phenomenon of social media which has been widely adopted by the masses of society. Social media is a sphere of the internet, consisting of websites that make it possible for individuals to connect to others no matter how great the distance is between them. Social media is especially favored by the youth of the United States population, for they are usually the most avid users of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. According to a report by Common Sense Media, 75 percent of teenagers in America currently have profiles on social networking sites (Ramasubbu and Lakshmi). Due to the fact that teenagers in high school and college are very impressionable at their ages, the frequent use of social media, where they are exposed to all of their peers, must come with a number of effects. The use of social media provides adolescents in the United States with many benefits, which opposes the common misconception that online interactions have negative consequences.

The teenagers of this generation have grown up by different means than previous generations. Developing and forming connections with others in a world where social media is extremely prevalent has affected the way teenagers today interact and socialize. Many members of older generations scrutinize the methods in which the youth of today’s society keep in touch with each other because it is different from their own upbringing. Due to these haste judgments, the positive effects of social media use by adolescents go unnoticed and are not appreciated like they should be.  

Social media can affect the youth of the United States in a positive manner by improving their psychological well-being. Abraham Maslow is a notable psychologist most famous for his concept of a “hierarchy of needs,” which is a pyramid representing the needs that individuals seek to fulfill throughout their lives. A psychology instructor at the University of Manchester, Saul McLeod, describes this theory: 

“Maslow stated that people are motivated to achieve certain needs and that some needs take precedence over others. Our most basic need is for physical survival, and this will be the first thing that motivates our behavior. Once that level is fulfilled the next level up is what motivates us, and so on” (Simply Psychology). 

 After the satisfaction of safety and basic survival needs are met, the third set of needs that have to be fulfilled to keep advancing up the hierarchy are senses of belonging. Once the desire to belong to a group of people and to establish close relationships with others are fulfilled, it is only then that an individual can progress to achieving self-esteem. For a healthy psychological well-being, humans and especially teenagers have to satisfy their needs to belong to an entity outside of themselves. If individuals feel like they don’t belong to any outside group, or they feel socially isolated, they will experience a decrease in their emotional, mental, and even physical well-being. The phenomenon of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs expresses just how crucial it is to be a part of a social network and obtain connections with others. Social media allows teenagers to be in constant connection with their friends and peers in very easy and convenient ways. Always socially interacting with a group and receiving consistent attention from the people one associates with provides the sense of belongingness that one seeks to achieve. After the need to belong is fulfilled, one is then able to work towards higher levels of self-esteem, which adolescents struggle with at their age. Social media plays a role in bringing teenagers one step closer to having stronger self-esteems by providing them with social connections that bring a sense of inclusiveness.

The social network provided by social media sites positively impacts the lives of teenagers by broadening social connections. The human brain is designed for social connection. Social connection and interaction are what causes an individual’s nervous system to expand as they develop. If individuals do not experience this necessary contact with others, they will experience a lack of crucial development. Social connection is also required to maintain a healthy psychological, emotional, and even physical well-being. The internet and social media websites are major facilitators of this important social connection and communication between peers, which leads to the improved overall states of individuals. There have been studies done by Triandis et. al, and summarized by Richard Hock in his publication, Forty Studies That Changed Psychology: Explorations into the History of Psychological Research, that research differences in the overall health of collectivist and individualist societies in order to show the advantages of having a supportive social network. Individualist cultures place emphasis on personal achievement and individualistic aspects in society, which results in members feeling less emotional attachment to their groups (Hock 217). Collectivist cultures differ in the sense that value is placed on the welfare of the group as a whole and the individuality of each group member is of little importance. Members of a collectivist society experience stronger emotional attachments to the group they belong to, and therefore, they feel as though they always have a connection to this social support system. The weak emotional attachments that members of individualist societies face can lead to increased feelings of loneliness and not belonging. This is not as likely to occur for members of collectivist societies due to the stronger bonds of their relationships. Loneliness is correlated to detriments in physical health, illustrating how isolation can cause severe declines in the overall well-beings of humans. The research done by Triandis et. al expresses that members of collectivist cultures experienced less physical ailments like heart problems than members of individualist cultures (Hock 221). Triandis’s explanation for this relationship is that,” unpleasant and stressful live events often related to heart disease are more common in individualistic cultures where pressures are intense on solitary individuals to compete and achieve on their own. Along with these negative life events, individualistic social structures inherently offer less social cohesion and social support, which have been clearly demonstrated to reduce the effects of stress on health” (Hock 222). This study highlights the significance of having the presence of a social group, which social media sites make possible by connecting people and allowing them to be in constant interaction and communication with each other. This access to a social system leads to the healthy well-being of an individual and this can be viewed as a huge benefit for adolescents that use social media.  

Teenagers can experience an improvement in their self-esteem by using social media websites and receiving positive feedback online from their peers. When adolescents express themselves on their social media profiles by engaging in such activities as posting pictures of themselves, they often receive many positive comments from their peers. This reinforcement of love and appreciation from their companions positively influences teenagers. Dr. Patti Valkenburg and her colleagues at the University of Amsterdam conducted a study to explore the impact that networking sites have on the self-esteem and overall well-being of adolescents. The responses given by teenagers in the study indicate that social media has positive effects on adolescents. Through their studies, Valkenburg et. al found that” Most adolescents (78%) always or predominantly received positive feedback on their profiles. For these adolescents, the use of friend networking sites may be an effective vehicle for enhancing their self-esteem” (589). The results of this study provide statistical significance that adolescents often receive positive attention from their peers on social media and this plays a role in increasing their sense of self-esteem.

Another study performed by Priscilla Gitimu and Megan Sponcil as part of the Journal of Technology Research at Youngstown State University explored social media use among college students and how it impacted individuals’ self-concepts. The responses given by college students in this survey, too, showed that social media had positive effects on their sense of self. Gitimu and Sponcil demonstrate that,” The current study found that college students either believe that social media websites affect their self-esteem positively or neither positively or negatively” (10). This positive impact on the self-esteem and self-concept of adolescents makes it possible for them to perceive themselves in a more positive light, contributing to an overall healthier well-being. 

The common encouraging feedback that teenagers receive from their peers via social media websites can prove to have lasting positive effects on the individuals when described in sociological senses. When sociologists study media and culture, they acknowledge that culture has an impact on media whilst media has an impact on culture. Teenagers affect social media by the ways they utilize social networking websites and social media affects teenagers by impacting their self-concept and self-esteem. Adolescents often provide positive comments on their friends’ posts and this positive feedback enhances perception of self, self-esteem, and overall well-being. 

When individuals are consistently recognized and appreciated for their qualities by other people, they are more likely to perceive themselves in this way. Sociologist Dalton Conley explains in his textbook, You May Ask Yourself: An Introduction to Thinking Like a Sociologist, that the “labeling theory” is the belief that people are aware of how others view them and they incorporate this into their own self-identity (Glossary A-6). When teenagers are receiving positive comments from their associates through social media on a regular basis, they will start to believe these things about themselves and portray themselves in this positive light. If teenagers are constantly being appreciated and complimented, they will be more likely to perceive themselves in a more positive light, which will increase self-esteem levels. This concept can be very beneficial to an individual who has a lower sense of self-esteem and views themselves in a negative manner. Social media can function to appreciate, encourage, and support others, which can enhance one’s perception of themselves and their self-esteem. 

Social media use has proved to positively impact individuals at even the anatomical level. An article provided by the Association for Psychological Science describes a new study performed by Mirella Dapretto, a psychiatry and bio-behavioral science professor at the Semel Institute of Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA, and her colleagues. This study investigated the brain activity of teenagers as they used social media. When adolescents received “likes” on the photographs they posted, their brain scans showed high activity in the region of the brain that is “a part of the striatum called the nucleus accumbens, which is part of the brain’s reward circuitry” (Dapretto et. al). This study took an anatomical approach to show that humans physically experience feelings of reward, gratification, and happiness from interacting with and receiving positive feedback from their peers over social media. The conductors of this study note that, “The reward circuitry is thought to be particularly sensitive during adolescence,” which means it is greatly influenced during youth. It is beneficial for the reward circuitry of the brain to be consistently stimulated especially when it is so impressionable during adolescence. Social media use can physically make individuals feel good from a biological perspective, which has a clear positive impact on teenagers. 

Many critics of social media are the parents and grandparents of teenage users. The use of social media and technology is very foreign to these elder generations because they did not grow up in the presence of them. They witness their children and grandchildren’s avid use of technological devices in a negative light only and do not consider the positive aspects of social media. Along with the benefits of social media use, arises concerns about the negative effects avid use of social media can have on adolescents. Suren Ramasubbu, CEO of Mobicip, a corporation that creates parental controls and filters the internet on technological devices, focuses on the downsides that can be associated with social media. He devotes most of his time and efforts to hosting seminars in which he educates parents on the dangers that their young ones can face while using the internet and social media. Ramasubbu expresses that the negative aspects of frequenting social media websites include, ”The lack or difficulty in self-regulation and susceptibility to peer pressure makes adolescents vulnerable to such evils as Facebook depression, sexting, and cyberbullying, which are realistic threats” (Ramasubbu and Lakshmi). 

“Facebook depression” is the term used to describe negative feelings that are caused by frequent use of social media, which Ramasubbu attributes to the comparisons teenagers often make between their lives and the lives of others that they view online. However, when adolescents focus on social media as a source of connection, which is the main reason for using these social networking websites, they experience positive effects on their self-esteem. There are also 

policies that exist to regulate the harms of the internet. Since social media is a relatively new phenomenon, laws have been established to persecute people who bully others over the internet. Almost every social media website allows their users to remove and report harmful comments from their posts, choose the privacy levels of their profiles, choose who is allowed to follow their profiles and block unwanted users. Social media has many positive influences on teenagers when used in peaceful and positive ways. There can be some dangers associated with the internet and expression on social media, but laws exist on local and nationwide levels to control these possible hazards. 

Another criticism of social media use is that it makes people grow farther apart in reality because they can communicate over distances at the touch of a button. Stefana Broadbent, the director of Digital Anthropology in the Department of Anthropology at the University College London, would argue against this common misconception. Broadbent has spent a lot of time researching the role that technology plays in intimate relationships. She studied a range of couples that had to spend some distance away from each other throughout their day. In a Ted Talk given at the University of Oxford, she explained how her studies have shown the opposite of what is commonly assumed about technology use and relationships. She stated that communication over instant messaging or social media while couples are physically separated leads to stronger connections between them and an increase in intimacy. This instant communication that is so convenient and easily accessible to couples allows them to reinforce and strengthen their relationships when they are physically separated, which wasn’t possible years ago. Social media is a paradox that actually has the ability to bring people closer together while they are apart from each other. 

Another assumption made about social media use by teenagers is that it stops them from engaging in social interaction outside of the virtual realm. It is easy to see how this could be 

possible since most adolescents seem to be glued to their technological devices. However, these teenagers are constantly communicating with their peers and their handheld devices are their main agents of social engagement. Communicating over social media and messaging each other are how teenagers make plans to interact in reality. Dr. Yonghwan Kim and his colleagues at the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama studied the effects social media use had on college students’ social engagement. One finding of the study was that,” the more college students use social media and smartphones to interact with others, the more they participate in social activities. Social media and smartphones can provide a platform for college students to interact with others… Furthermore, they are encouraged to participate in school activities and social gatherings. Therefore…college students’ use of social media and smartphones has a positive impact on their social engagement” (Kim et. al 267-268). Social media helps teenagers maintain interpersonal relationships easily, which results in higher levels of communication and more social engagement in reality. Also contrary to popular belief, were reports from college students in previously mentioned Gitimu’s study. Survey results showed that,” most college students preferred to communicate face-to-face rather than over a computer. However, with friends and family living all over the world and having busy lives, communicating via a computer was a more convenient option” (Gitimu et. al 9). Social media use does not necessarily decrease the amount of time that adolescents spend socially interacting with their peers. It in fact just provides a simple method for teenagers to contact each other and interact socially as a result of this convenient communication. 

The use of social media is very prevalent in today’s society especially among adolescents. This phenomenon has caused a lot of controversy between generations. The use of social media and the internet can be associated with some dangers, but the benefits of social media definitely outweigh the cons. Social media has shown to facilitate social engagement, satisfy the psychological needs of belongingness, provide social support systems, build stronger relationships between people, improve self-esteem, and increase the overall well-being of individual. These are all incredibly positive impacts that social media has brought to the youth of society, which was not experienced decades ago. It would be hard to imagine life without social media today.
