Social media comes in various online-based channels and apps for communication, content sharing, and virtual community engagement. Social media accounts for the most significant percentage of digital media that has become an essential medium for interaction, entertainment, and self-expression in teenagers today. Kolhar et al. offer an insight into how social media contributes to teenagers’ lives, ranging from their mental health to school work and social networks. While social media has multiple advantages, like improving communication and providing information and social support, it also causes adverse effects on teens. This writing discloses how being on social media can be a blessing on one hand. Still, on the other, its adverse effects on teens’ emotional health, academics, and personal relationships must be considered. This essay aims to determine how social media affects teenagers’ mental health, academic progress, and interpersonal relations by answering three main questions: What influence does social media have on teenagers’ psyche? How does it affect the academic performance of teenagers? What impact does social media have on teenagers’ interaction with each other? I am so happy that I saw that students spend more time using social media regarding general welfare and daily routine.
While the popularity of social networking sites (SNS) among teenagers has been connected with concerns such as low body image and self-confidence, specific negative issues as a result of their online presence can potentially prevail. Social media, which portrays carefully constructed profiles, mainly creates a comparison culture, which affects feelings of insufficiency among teenagers (Pop et al.). The demand that social media platforms fill in the unrealistic beauty ideals constantly displayed there contributes to the worsening of these conditions. Research shows a strong link between negativity about one’s body among teens and social media use, especially about the sites they visit and how often they get on them. Promptly, teens say they do not feel good about themselves as much and have a lousy self-esteem compared to how they are online.
Adolescent depression and other forms of mental health disorders have grown parallel to the usage of social media platforms, including but not limited to the same example given (Vidal et al.). The people Black girls in the urban space may face emotional abuse from cyber-bullying and many other forms of offense, as well as the addictive traits of seeking social acceptance and “FOMO” (fear of missing out), all adding up lead to **dealing with** higher levels of anxiety and depression. Teenage anxiety conditions are commonly associated with social media platform users’ addiction, which many researchers have discovered, and I have had to deal with the severity.
Social networking apps influence teenagers’ sleep habits and, at large, their physical and emotional wellness. The screen time overdose, and in particular, before sleep, is detrimental to the regulation of the internal clock and the development of sleep disorders (van den Eijnden et al.). Adolescents who are on social media for many hours report having higher levels of sleep issues, such as difficulty in getting to sleep, insomnia, fatigue, and many other problems during the day. Research shows that parental rules about internet regulation and smartphone usage before bedtime can play a crucial role in lowering probable adverse consequences social media has on sleep and sleep quality, especially among users less likely to be involved. Regardless of the degree of social media involvement, the rule-setting parents constitute less of an obstacle in preventing sleep problems for more engaged users, thus indicating a complicated connection between social media use and sleep hygiene.
With social media as the leading contributor to a decrease in academic performance, a lack of focus, which is the cause of distraction, is one of the main reasons. The study by Siebers et al. (346) reveals that teenagers’ emotional issues escalate if they spend more time on social media sites and for extended periods than most of their peers. It is distracting because new online stimuli are always at your fingertips. This distraction may make it extremely hard for students to focus on academic work (Siebers et al. 345).
The dropout of grades and motivation in studies among teenagers are the repercussions of social media, which are just as serious, if not more severe. Adolescents who make use of social media more than their reading or studying associates to the previous one may sometimes be seen spending a large amount of time on these pages, which, in most cases, does not create any academic value or other developmental practices. Through constant stimulation, social media’s addictiveness intensifies procrastination, so end-of-term activities often come last or even fall behind until the last minute. Consequently, a prominent autumn in academic performance is seen among frequent social media users, and their declining educational targets manifest in the form of weaker grades and lack of academic motivation.
Social media management as a tool to reach out to online resources likewise contributes to academic cheating among teens. The level of copying an assignment or purchasing an essay from an online platform becomes equally high due to the availability of course materials with minimal effort and time. As a result, the number of plagiarism and related cases of the use of online sources among students who depend highly on social media for academic purposes intensifies. We thus vie with the trend of academic dishonesty, as manifested by plagiarism, disguised copying, and cheating, which poses a severe threat to academic integrity and distorts the educational process with the disadvantages of individual student learning outcomes and the overall academic community.
It can be seen that the difference between teenagers’ use of social media and their ability to have face-to-face communication is relatively high in that while they can do the former, they lack the skills necessary for the latter. My generation spends more time on online conversations than face-to-face interactions, finding everything online more accessible and more comfortable (Astuti et al. 446). The lack of such diversity, however, creates intervals where individuals miss an opportunity for empathy development and comprehension of social cues, significant factors of successful interpersonal communication. Students of these findings demonstrate that the presence of social media negatively impacts human interaction between teenagers. Thus, less involvement in group actions and physical relationships among teens who mainly communicate passively through social media is a common thing in their lives.
Social media usage not only pushes family ties to the breaking point but also makes people retreat to virtual forms of communication while burying the traditional family bonding culture that would otherwise survive. While social media consumption more often takes away the quality of family time spent by different family members, it will compel each member to get involved in different digital worlds (Astuti et al. 44). There could be arguments developing due to restrictions of parents on social media which eventually will magnify the adversity between parent and child during family gatherings or conversations. The interaction between social networks and family time brings difficulties through lack of communication and hinders the development of deep and close relations among family members.
Forming connections towards depth is another influence of social media on teenagers’ interpersonal relationships. The lack of emotion that often occurs in online friendships results more from the number of acquaintances rather than the quality of connection, despite the depth of emotion being far less than what we know from real-world connections. Therefore, teenagers devoting their time to engaging in social media platforms can earn numerous online followers but need more true friendships with real feelings and understanding stake. Surveys show the absence of deep or chance meetings among those who use social media intensively, showing the influence of digital networks on genuine personal communication.
The influence of social media on teenagers is diverse, penetrating all aspects of their lives and transforming their way of thinking, perceiving, and treating others. Social media significantly affects mental health and cognitive processes, thus being the most prominent factor determining how adolescents develop. Social media significantly influences how teenagers develop their social relationships. This emergence of a new type of communication amongst many adolescents will have many implications on social dynamics and communication patterns. With the growing influence of social networks, addressing the complicated intertwinement of online platforms and the maturation process becomes more critical. Promoting digital literacy and secure use among teens should be made available to reduce the possible adverse effects of excessive media exorcism and encourage healthier online interactions. Through cultivating awareness and comprehension of social media effects, teenagers will be prepared to take on the digital path successfully and establish online and offline bonds more appropriately.
Kolhar, Manjur, Raisa Nazir Ahmed Kazi, and Abdalla Alameen. “Effect of social media use on learning, social interactions, and sleep duration among university students.” Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences 28.4 (2021): 2216-2222. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sjbs.2021.01.010
Pop, Lavinia Maria, Magdalena Iorga, and Raluca Iurcov. “Body-esteem, self-esteem and loneliness among social media young users.” International journal of environmental research and public health 19.9 (2022): 5064. https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/9/5064
Vidal, Carol, et al. “Social media use and depression in adolescents: a scoping review.” International review of psychiatry (Abingdon, England) vol. 32,3 2020: 235–253. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7392374/
van den Eijnden, Regina J J M et al. “Social Media Use and Adolescents’ Sleep: A Longitudinal Study on the Protective Role of Parental Rules Regarding Internet Use before Sleep.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health vol. 18,3 1346. 2 Feb. 2021. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7907989/
Siebers, Teun, et al. “Social media and distraction: An experience sampling study among adolescents.” Media Psychology 25.3 2022: 343–366. https://doi.org/10.1080/15213269.2021.1959350
Astuti, Maharsi Widya, Riny Jefri, and Lely Novia. “The Impacts Of Social Media On The Youth’s Interpersonal Communication.” Jurnal Humanipreneur 2.1 (2023): 41-46. https://doi.org/10.53091/hum.v2i1.30