A good strategy for teens to stay connected is to use it as a self-esteem booster. With guidance from you, social media can have a positive effect on your kids. If you teach them how to quiet the digital noise, your teen can
turn online
interactions into a limitless source of personal confidence and development.
While social media may help to cultivate friendships and reduce loneliness, evidence suggests that
excessive use negatively impacts self-esteem and life satisfaction
. It’s also linked to an increase in mental health problems and suicidality (though not yet conclusively).
During this developmental period, adolescents’ self-esteem is likely to be affected by the feedback they receive online through social media sites (Burrows, 2017). …
Positive feedback received online has been shown to enhance self-esteem
, and negative feedback has been shown to have the reverse effect (Valkenburg, 2017).
However, multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. Social media
may promote negative experiences
such as: Inadequacy about your life or appearance.
Networking on social media allows you to connect with others, building new relationships and strengthening established one.
Getting “likes” and other positive feedback boosts moods
and increases self confidence.
Studies have shown that increased use of social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Tiktok is leading to
depression, anxiety, and loneliness
. The COVID-19 pandemic has not only pushed more people to the platforms but has also caused people to spend unusual amounts of time cruising their feeds.
Social media has the
ability to both capture and scatter your attention
. … Not only does this lead to poorer cognitive performance, but it shrinks parts of the brain associated with maintaining attention.
However, multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. Social media may promote negative experiences such as:
Inadequacy about your life or appearance
.
While social media is sometimes touted to combat loneliness, a significant body of research suggests it may have the opposite effect. … By triggering comparison with others,
it can raise doubts about self-worth
, potentially leading to mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
- You reach large audiences. …
- You have a direct connection with your audience. …
- You can create organic content. …
- You have access to paid advertising services. …
- You build your brand. …
- You drive traffic to your website. …
- You can evaluate your performance.
- The battle for likes. …
- Challenge your unhelpful thoughts. …
- Comparing yourself to others. …
- False images. …
- You’re more than how you look. …
- Switch off for a while. …
- Take some control of your newsfeed. …
- Cyberbullying.
| Pros Cons | Put yourself out there in a good way Posting inappropriate statuses/pictures | Connect with students in other educational systems Making people feel bad about themselves | Make new friends/communicate or connect with old friends/family Cyberbullying |
|---|
Good social media
experiences don’t outweigh bad ones
for young adults. (Reuters Health) – For young adults, the adverse effect of negative social media experiences on mental health outweigh any potential benefits of positive experiences, a study of university students suggests.
- cyberbullying (bullying using digital technology)
- invasion of privacy.
- identity theft.
- your child seeing offensive images and messages.
- the presence of strangers who may be there to ‘groom’ other members.
Social media use has also been associated with
cyber bullying and cyber abuse
by anonymous users online, which leads to problems of self-esteem, privacy ,etc. Most studies have shown that, social media’s violent games result in increase in violent tendencies and behaviours in children.
