Everyone has a necessity that they have in their daily lives. For some, it is family and friends or having a stable career to support themselves. For others, it is technology and always needing to have a smartphone or a laptop or some type of way to communicate and socialize with others to create links and connections. Society today is dependent on the use and availability of having a way to communicate easily through technology and social networks, especially in the teenage population. Social media has spread like a wildfire in recent years, and it will not be stopping anytime soon because of the growing industry that it has become. The way that people react on social media is very distinct and familiar because it is the way that most of us act in real life which is reflected on certain profiles and platforms. Our human behavior slowly change through time based on how much society uses social media and for how long it has been used, which causes for perceptions to be shaped differently in the eyes of others. The way that our behaviors can change can either be good or bad based on the types of things that one sees on certain media platforms. Social media causes us to have misconceptions about individuals in our lives which leads to certain negative actions dealing with alcohol and drug use that break social links and social norms in relationships.

Throughout the day, teenagers are constantly checking social media, because it is a natural habit that society has recently acquired in our daily routine. It is the first thing that many people do when they wake up in the morning, and the last thing they do before bed. Teenagers are the main users of social media because they were part of the generation in which technology blossomed and became a significant part of our lives. Although teenagers will be affected most by the outcomes of social media, anyone in the world who deals with technology and media on an everyday basis whether it be at their job or as a hobby will also be affected somehow because it will slowly become part of their daily routine. The main victims of social media are probably teenage girls, because there are so many beauty and social standards out there that these girls strive to follow. Even those who say they have not fallen under society’s norms of what is pretty and ugly, there are probably some of those who have looked at a certain Instagram page or seen a girl at school and wished to be like her. This type of thinking makes us have misconceptions of our lives because we get lost in how other people live and forget what is reality. For some, social media is the “portal into the rest of the world” which makes “it easier to tune out the people we do not agree with” and leads to us forgetting what is really important to us (Wortham).

Our social lives are created off of how we act in certain social environments which can vary based off who our audience is and the type of situation one is in (Meyrowitz). Society tends to get lost in other people’s lives which loses focus on what truly matters in reality. The friends and family that one has can determine the way that one acts in their social lives which can be directly seen on social networks (Christakis). As an individual, there are multiple traits that one acquires and depending on the types of relationships one has and how they are socially can determine their personality (Christakis). Each person creates clusters from the relationships they have and these clusters are directly correlated to social links (Christakis). The bigger a cluster is in a relationship, the stronger the link will be. Depending on the strength of a relationship, the effect of how a broken social trait can affect someone is dependent on how big of a cluster there was (Christakis). The audience one has and the type of environment one surrounds themselves in is all determined on what type of relationships they are a part of. 

As a society, we create self-images for ourselves which depicts how we want others to see us and in this process we get “lost in social media” (Hogg/Cooper). We are competitive with others and we show this by expressing “who we are” on social media. Every individual has their own way to pursue a perfect self-image by enhancing our appearance and personality and ensuring that they can maintain it (Hogg/Cooper). These changes in a person can cause unhealthy relationships to arise because they forget how they once were. “The study of social memory has blossomed during the last 20 years and has explored a variety of issues concerning how information from the social world is represented in memory and subsequently used in making judgements and guiding behavior” (Hogg/Cooper). Each person has an online processing already inside their brains which is known for making certain judgements (Hogg/Cooper). These are connected with primary effects in memory, which makes the correlation to “low recall-judgment” (Hogg/Cooper). A common term known as “first judgments” can come from online processing when a single person makes assumptions about someone based off of appearance or the way one acts. The cause of these judgements can be influenced by social media and what happens in real life based off of what has been implemented into our memory (Hogg/Cooper). The types of images and ideas that are tossed around through mass media is the source of socialization and communication. All people around the world can be connected based on similarities and differences, thanks to the help of mass media (Johnson/Rhodes). The way one portrays themselves through attitude and social issues can have the power to reflect the “depictions that the media delivers” upon others (Johnson/Rhodes).

Society as a whole makes certain inferences about individuals which can be traced back to memory related to content and bias (Hogg/Cooper). People are made into social targets that individuals can made assumptions about caused by these inferences. These inferences are made up of perceptions and stereotypes which are categorized and represented as social-judgement within an individual and a group. This categorization is created within social networks and puts “an effect on individuals by allowing them to believe that these judgements are nothing to be concerned with” (Hogg/Cooper). The self-image for oneself is enhanced and makes their thinking about others shift to a different view. A social target with “more emotion and motivation attached to self-knowledge” can be one who has a stronger personal connection to themselves than anyone else (Hogg/Cooper). Instagram and Facebook lets society enhance their self-image for positivity and self-esteem but doesn’t show individuals how their whole outlook can be altered, whether it’s for good or bad. Self-esteem serves to let people think positively, but also as a “resource that mitigates the implications of attitude-discrepant behavior” (Hogg/Cooper). Many teenagers today are in the mindset that society thinks of them based on how they come across on social media. Many young girls try to perfect their lives by making it seem as if they have everything in the world and are better than everyone else. Guys in particular are not as bad as girls, but some are still victims of perfecting a self-image and making them seem as if they were invincible. The self-indulgence from creating these social statuses can lead to depression and the downfall of self-esteem.

The spread of depression between teenagers in the past years have drastically increased, and part of the cause is the amount of social media use and what these kids see on it. Studies show that in college, students are more likely to drink alcohol and use drugs if they see other people doing it on their social media platforms. If someone posts pictures or posts about alcohol and drugs, then one is more likely to be effected by it in real life. Between college students who viewed mass media with alcohol related content versus those who didn’t, it showed that there was a greater influence on the norms of alcohol (Groth/Longo/Martin). Relationships between social media and alcohol use is explained by a social norms theory, stating that an individual is influenced by the actions of others even when the actions may or may not be accurate of perceptions that we perceived (Groth/Longo/Martin). Since many college students use social media, the social norms theory can be applied based on behavior and certain perceptions. These perceptions can be taken directly from the frequency of alcohol related content and images being posted on social media websites (Groth/Longo/Martin). 

Of all Facebook profiles, 60-85% report having alcohol related content (Groth/Longo/Martin). Even though many of these profiles can be portraying it in a positive way, it can still have a leading effect on individuals. Of these number reporting, only 29% are college students posting themselves consuming alcohol and 56% are postings of friends drinking (Groth/Longo/Martin). Based off of the social norms theory, these postings can be concerning because students are likely to overestimate the frequency with which their peers engage in such dangerous behavior and as a result may be more likely to take such risks themselves (Groth/Longo/Martin). These actions caused by peers can lead to long-term side effects that many of these college students do not realize are in effect once they pick up a drink and consume it. The overestimation of the “college scene” and how one portrays the college life can be dangerous, especially when put in risky situations.

Depression can also start at a young age, depending on when one may start getting into social media and technology. In today’s society, the age of when someone uses cell phones and is on social platforms is decreasing every year. There are five and six-year old’s that know how to use a smartphone, and kids as young as ten who are on social media every day. Our behaviors are reflected by what we see and do on social media. The use of social media at a young age can cause a long-term effect in ones later years causing one to become disconnected and faded from the real world (Johnson/Rhodes). This disconnection can cause anxiety and depression at a young age, taking in account what one looks at on social media can make this even worse. Social media portrays many bad ideas and thoughts to the younger generation, especially an emphasis on violence and how certain bad actions are “okay”.

There are children who are more vulnerable to violence seen on the media and become “less sensitive to the pain and suffering of others” which make them more likely to become “aggressive and harmful to others” and “accepting to violence” (Johnson/Rhodes). Children will imitate behaviors they observe not knowing if they are good or bad (Johnson/Rhodes). Video games also indicate violence which increases aggressive behavior, and leads to children arguing with authoritative figures the older they become. “The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reports that common themes in music videos include advocating and glamorizing abuse of drugs and alcohol; pictures and explicit lyrics presenting suicide as an ‘alternative’ or ‘solution’ to problems; sex which focuses on control, sadism, masochism, and incest; and violence towards women, in addition to graphic violence in general” (Johnson/Rhodes). The younger one is being exposed to these types of negative ways, the earlier one develops these ideas and uses them in their later years.

There are many ethical dilemmas being put into place with the question of privacy and what happens on social media. The audience that one has on a certain profile can be a lot bigger than one may think, even if it is set to private. Every online move that an individual makes leaves a cyber footprint, which is like a target for the outside to analyze (Jayson). Social media is slowly being used for academic research which is also raising questions towards ethical concerns. Private companies such as Google and Microsoft can collect vast amounts of information to study the patterns of everyday life (Jayson). Some people have found it beneficial for this data mining in their social media by helping with “women at risk of postpartum depression” and “to study how parents and kids interact” (Jayson). Even as this mining of huge digital data sets of collective behavior is on the rise, the word "caution" is coming from all sides.

Although there are many opinions towards the negative effects on social media and how it doesn’t benefit society, there are some who believe that it is more of a “portal than pitfall” (Klass). Although there are dangers, scientists are turning to understand social media as an important part of adolescence. Since social media is so vital in our lifestyles, people have looked at how they can use Facebook or Twitter to show patterns of depression and negative thoughts to help assist in understanding teenagers. Emails will be sent out to individuals if risky behaviors are detected, in hope to prevent a long-term consequence. Girls are more like to have a positive response to these warnings, whereas boys were less adamant towards removing certain content. The process of trying to help the younger generation is in play, and will hopefully grow in the future based on how much social media is spreading. A large part of this generation’s development is occurring while on the Internet and social media, which is become much more serious in the future since it is a growing industry. “Our children are using social media to accomplish the eternal goals of adolescent development, which include socializing with peers, investigating the world, trying on identities, and establishing independence” (Klass). Digital media is an amplifier, causing introverts to become extroverts and vice versa. People want to find all the positive outcomes from using social networks and media platforms, especially since it has such a bad rap. Social media should be viewed as a neutral idea, being neither negative nor positive (Klass).

The influence of social media and how much teenagers feel the need to create a certain self-image while creating perceptions and judgements about oneself causes for social links to break between individuals in society. While social media has its ups and downs, the way it effects human behavior and how one portrays themselves towards others shows the negative usages and how society does not regulate their use. Even though there are multiple benefits for using social networks such as targeting and helping depression with alcohol and drug related content and communicating between connections, it still raises a question on whether it has a positive outlook or a negative outlook in society. The ages of who uses social media are decreasing, which leads to future repercussions. The more one uses these platforms, the more they lose touch from the real world and do not realize who they truly are. The debate of whether or not social media is good for the world is still up for question, but the outcomes of society show a clear picture of certain opinions made by individuals.
