I am a procrastinator. I used to not be, but that has not been since 6th grade, when I was finally allowed to get a Facebook page. As long as I was friends with my mom, I was allowed to have one, and since I was one of the first people in my class to get one, I felt invincible. When I was in 6th grade, this was also the year the IPhone 3GS came out, and my mom had one. I thought that it was so cool that my mom had the best phone on the market, but a couple of weeks later, kids in my grade started getting them. 11 year-old kids now had access to calling, texting and all different sorts of apps that were becoming popular. At the time, I only felt jealously that I did not have one and it was all that I wanted. However, looking back at it now, I realize that this was the turning point when technology first took over my life. Throughout middle school, new ways of communication were discovered in my class, from Gmail to Facebook to Instagram to Snapchat. Kids were dying for attention, stirring up drama or posting funny things trying to have the most followers and gain the most likes. This continued into high school, classmates posting scandalous photos, photos at parties and on beaches, each trying to get the most likes and appear the “coolest”. This pressure even drove one of my closest friends to anorexia and she ended up in the hospital. I have seen first-hand just how far teenagers are willing to push themselves physically and mentally to strive for online perfection. Social media has forced teenagers to mature much earlier than they should be and this immense urge to grow up quickly takes a toll on one’s body. Teenagers are being negatively affected by social media because it forces them to believe that they are inferior to others and promotes bad physical habits that are detrimental to both their mental and physical health.

Many people believe that social media is mainly a mental game, however it also physically affects teenagers because the two are closely correlated. On applications such as Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, normal teenagers have access to the accounts of models, celebrities and fitness trainers whose jobs are to work out and look the way they do (Simmons, “How Social Media is a Toxic Mirror”). Many teenagers believe that this look in unattainable, which can ruin their self-esteem when they compare themselves to 25-year-old actors who are playing 16-year-old characters for a TV show or movie. This pushes a teenager to believe they have to obtain this “perfect” body image and companies see this problem, and instead of addressing it, they create apps that allow people to modify their body. These Photoshop apps make it easy for people to alter their body in order to create the “ideal” or “perfect” selves (Simmons).  Teenagers now more than ever are being overwhelmed with dieting and workout tips that promise to make them lose weight fast and train like a model at home. However, these “tips” are doing more harm than good as teens take the advice as a way to change themselves to extremes that can risk their health and alter their life forever. The constant hatred and guilt that many teenagers feel about themselves in not healthy, and the ways that they are trying to change themselves is not healthy either.  Not only do regular teenagers feel like pressure to look like models online, but the “Instagram moguls” feel just as much pressure to constantly stay perfect. 

In fact, one popular Australian teenager made headlines two years ago for revealing what was really behind her Instagram photos. Essena O’Neill had nearly 600,000 followers on Instagram, 250,000 followers on Tumblr, around 60,000 followers on Snapchat, and could make up to $2,000 from a brand for one Instagram post (Schlossberg, BI). O’Neill then changed many of her Instagram captions with new ones saying things such as “Took over 100 in similar poses trying to make my stomach look good. Would have hardly eaten that day” and “A 15-year-old girl that calorie restricts and excessively exercises… is not goals.” (O’Neill). The fact that these models can get paid for selling certain items online makes teens believe that they should be wearing, eating or drinking whatever these people are promoting. Essena’s confessions show the obscene measures that teenagers are taking to try and achieve the perfect body, gain more followers and become more popular. Teens do this because actions such as an Instagram like or a reaction on Facebook are what they believe will make them happy. However, if a teenager does not have this body or does not have a huge social media following, it can also leave them with a low self-esteem that can lead to depression or other mental health issues.

Depression is not a new disorder and has been researched long before social media sites like Facebook and Instagram were invented. However, a new type of depression, categorized as “Facebook Depression” is when specifically, a teenager develops depression that has been trigged through a social media site (Ramasubbu, “Influence of Social Media on Teenagers”). In fact, multiple studies, such as one from the University of Michigan have shown that there is a direct correlation between the amount of time spent of Facebook the unhappier and lower self-esteem a teenager has (Peek 2). This same study also found that the more time people spent face-to-face with peers, the more satisfied they were with life and had better self-confidence. Social Media allows teenagers to block themselves off from the rest of the world and allows them to put up walls and limit their social interaction. Instead of taking this seriously, teenagers are creating memes and joking online about how anti-social they are, thinking it is funny instead of addressing how it, destroying the way people communicate now and how future generations will communicate. 

Even though these teens joke about their lack of communication skills, it seems like teenagers are either consciously or unconsciously realizing just how detrimental social media sites are to their self-esteem. The Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health conducted a study on 10,000 teenagers and found that those who use social media for at least two hours a day are more likely to rate their mental health as “fair” or “poor”. Depression is one of the most widespread mental side-effects of social media, whether it is occasionally feeling down or one is clinically diagnosed. Some of these triggers of “Facebook Depression” can be prevented if teenagers become aware of the ways they are using social media.

There are two different ways that most teenagers can actively spend time on social media: passively or actively. The first way teenagers spend too much time on social media is through passive use. Passive users prefer to lurk in the background of the internet and obsessively look at other people’s profiles; aka “stalking” (Whitley, HWSMIHYTH). Passive use is much more serious than active use because instead of feeling pressure from others to constantly post creative content, passive users feel inferior to those who they follow and it “can lead to envy and resentment” (Whitley). Often times, this envy and resentment is a result of “FOMO” or “fear of missing out” when teenagers are online and see that their friends are all hanging out without them. When a teenager sees this online, they become paranoid as to why they are not there or what they are missing out on. This feeling can also lead to confusion and paranoia, making the teen wonder what they did to not receive an invitation to hang out with their friends. Active use are the teenagers who regularly post pictures, videos, statuses and are constantly commenting and liking other peoples’ posts as well (Whitley). Essena O’Neill is the perfect example of this type of social media use, since she was so active and gained a massive following, she felt the pressure to keep her followers by posting obscenely staged photos that tried to make her look “candid” and cool”. This pressure is what she revealed was the cause of her poor mental health and obsession with her body and image.

Teenagers are so desperate for attention on social media, that there have become a set of rules the everyone knows about, but no one talks about. These rules include things like only posting pictures at certain times of the day, when one knows that people are active on social media which will increase one’s amount of likes. Remember that some of one’s followers might be in a different time zone, and wait a few hours to tag friends in the picture because then the photos will reappear on people’s timeline later on, so more people can like the photos (Schacter, “Me, Myselfie and I”). Though no one cares to admit it, even I have fallen susceptible to these rules, and usually upload my photos at a popular time of night when I know people are on their social media accounts, trying to maximize my likes. 

To say that this new century has been called the “digital era” would be an understatement. With the new advances in readily available technology such as tablets and smart phones, it is easier than ever for anyone to get online, especially for teenagers. A 2015 study conducted by The Canadian Centre for Addiction and Mental Health showed that an average of 80% of teenagers have at least one social media account and over half of those who do are actively using them for over two hours a day. To the even more extreme, 11% of teenagers reported that they were on social media sites for over five hours a day. The longer teenagers are exposed to these social media sites, the more susceptible they are to passive use, which is detrimental to their mental health. In fact, people who heavily use social media are three times more likely to be depressed than those who are not constantly monitoring their accounts (Whitley). Since there is no one to fully monitor all of a teen’s online activity, teenagers tend to throw privacy out the window, oversharing information about themselves online that anyone can see. Teenagers also have total control over their online choices, which allows a teenager to portray themselves however they want online, no matter how similar or different it is from their normal selves. This can be very dangerous, but some believe that this is beneficial to a teenager.

The overuse of social media leads to depression and anger; however, some doctors believe that an active use of social media can benefit a teenager and even older generations as well. In fact, one study suggests that those who are healthily active on Facebook tend to outlive those who are inactive online. This is especially true for elderly people, who are just now being introduced to the internet. These generations are able to connect with old friends and rekindle friendships with people they have not spoken to in years. This makes them feel more youthful, gives them a better support system and can keeps them social, which is something that not all elderly people keep up with. Some of the categories that Facebook users outlived non-users in was death from mental-illness, dementia as well as many diseases and infections (Hobbs et al.). 

However, the study also says that there is no difference in mortality when it comes to things such as drug overdoses and suicides, which is how most teenagers who become depressed because of social media typically choose to end their lives. Also, the study was conducted based off of what Facebook users they could match to registered California voters, which was only 63% of Facebook users who claimed to live in California, which is not an accurate sample size, as California is a very small part of all Facebook users as well as the population around the world. Likewise, it is entirely possible that being a Facebook user has nothing to do with the age that one will pass away at. Hobbs, Burke and Christakis emphasized that social media interaction is about quality and not quantity, which is why some people who are famous on Instagram, often feel alone since they have such massive followings, but they don’t truly feel engaged. 

The internet and technology has changed the world for the better. News now travels faster, we can communicate with anyone in the world in seconds, and Facetiming my friends and family when I am homesick or need something instantly makes me feel better. However, the consequences often outweigh the benefits. Cyber-bullying, depression and paranoia are just some of the many disadvantages of being able to post a picture or an opinion online. Three year-olds now know more about an IPad than they do about playing outside, because giving a child technology is just a quick fix for a parent when their child is fussy. The age that children are now receiving cell-phones is dropping at an alarming rate; my 4-year-younger sister got an IPhone two years earlier than when I had received my first Motorola Razor. The earlier on we expose children to social media, the earlier they are going to believe that they need to start looking and acting a certain way. This can harm their self-confidence so much that by the time they do reach their teenage years, they will believe that something is wrong with them if they do not look like others online. 

One way we can combat the problem of teenagers’ overuse of social media and self-esteem starts at home. The more a parent believes in their child and shows them love and affection, the more confident they will be. Teenagers often resort to social media to make themselves feel happy if there is an absence of it in their real lives. However, the Child Development Institute recommends different ways to give a teenager confidence. They say to “use praise to point out positive character traits” (https://childdevelopmentinfo.com). It is important to praise a child and a teenager’s personality and not just looks, because if a teenager believes that they are smart, or kind, or charitable, that confidence will help them navigate the world of social media in a safe and healthy way. 

The world we live in today is very different from a world ten years ago, and teenagers aged 13-18 are the first generation that are growing up in the digital world. Parents are having a hard time helping their children navigate social media, because they do not really understand the pressure teens feel since they use social media in an entirely different way. Parents get excited if they get a like or a comment, and teenagers do too. However, if a teenager looks at other people’s profiles and sees that they are not getting as much traffic on their page as their peers, that is when self-confidence begins to drop, jealously sets in and the determination to better themselves online in any way possible sets in. Social media affects teens in psychically and psychologically damaging ways. Poor mental health, attempts at a perfect body, and the pressure to “fit in” in real life and online can be way too much for one person to handle. Teenagers need to learn the serious responsibility that comes with having a social media account, and society as a whole needs to combat the faults of social media now, so it does not affect future generations in the same way. 
