Is the beauty of a female determined by her weight? How much is self-worth, worth? How much is shared on social media? Is it too much? Young women today can not handle peer pressure in the right ways, which leads to making bad decisions. Females are more likely to be addicted to, and also negatively affected by, social media than males. Females, especially young teens, will question their looks and self-worth, they will put a lot of information on social media for validation, and say things to other females to make themselves feel better and less insecure. Ladies sometimes can not deal with stress, pressure, or anything that causes negative energy in their lives. They will go to social media for support. Younger females will take social media very serious they will have arguments with others, they will post explicit pictures, and spend a lot of their time on social media apps such as Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, etc. Social media negatively impacts teen girls causing mental health issues, self-identity problems, and destruction on their reputation and relationships.
Cyberbullying can impact teen females mentally causing them to have mental issues. Females can be bullied and feel insecure because of how they look. In a survey conducted by “ ‘The Royal Society for Public Health, results reveal that many social platforms produced feelings of depression and many other mental health issues” (qtd. Ehmke 2). Depression can come from many things such as insecurity, Cyberbullying, and relationships. Cyberbullying is an enormous reason for depression. Cyberbullying, a leading cause of depression, can take many forms such as making insults, making others feel insecure, and making threats.“ A teenager's reputation can be ruined swiftly, which can cause depression and also suicide” (Halin 4). Females blocking and ignoring hatred and ignorance to discern that no one is perfect will help plenty.
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Young females are addicted to social media, which is interfering with a sufficient amount of things in their lives from school, work, and free time. Females can be addicted to multiple things dealing with social media, from appearance to what young ladies think or post on social media. Females can be so addicted to social media that they will forget who they are, females will also come up with a fake personality and try to live up to it. “Young Females will feel pressure to do countless actions because of social media, such as make new statuses, post and check socials, and other social media interactions” ( qtd. Shepherd’s Hill Academy 3 ). When females are addicted to social media, they are constantly using their cell phones during class and throughout a lot of free time, they have. Having a social media addiction can have a prodigious effect on the attention span of someone. A female could be doing homework and get a notification on their technology, which creates a loss of focus. Her attention would then pivot for the next hour instead of doing the homework she was assigned. Social media addiction does not have a positive effect on females lives and the things they may need to complete and accomplish.
Memory can also suffer a significant decline as a result of overstimulation due to social media addictions. Young ladies can be so focused on social media that they forget to do things they are supposed to. Also, they will get trapped into posting, updating, texting, and many other things because of social media, they will forget what they were told to do and what they had to do before being on social media. This will cause lower grades and a strain on her education. “‘Distractive multitasking’ on social media sites leads to a lower grade-point average and poorer overall academic performance.’’ ( Marone 1). Social media causes females to try to remember and process more than she can. She will end up forgetting the more important things she has to do. “And when you try to store many things in your working memory, you get less good at processing information” ( brainstorm 10 ).
Social media can cause ladies to question their self-esteem. Females feel that they have to go to social media for validation and to be accepted. If all females see the “perfect” girl which goes along with the beauty standards, that will make them feel low and they will try to compare themselves to other females. They may even try to change themselves to how social media perceives beauty or to “beauty standards” set by social media. Self-esteem will often decline because of how they feel regarding their looks and their life. Girls go to other girl’s pages to compare how someone else is doing in life and then they feel like they are not doing well. Ladies tend to feel discouraged like they are not good enough or as good as the next person. “ Proven in a study women had an increase in anxiety, depression, body dissatisfaction and other strains in their mental health after shown a picture of the ideal body depicted by the media” (Gaffney 16). Females feeling that they are not good enough or not beautiful enough, because of something they see on the internet can feel bad and cause even more issues for themselves. Self-esteem can make or break a person, social media is slowly breaking females, especially if they do not fit into “standards” or if their life is not as great as they want it to be.
Self-identity can be a complicated thing when dealing with social media. Females who are trying their best to find their identity can have a huge struggle with this due to social media. They try to get validation and social media itself will even change their identity. Some females who are supporters or included in LGBTQ are sometimes afraid to be themselves because of social media, having to live a lie behind a screen or account. Having to feel like she has to be someone that she is not can cause an enormous amount of mental and emotional pain. Females that are trying to figure out what they want to become in life or who they are meant to be, can be changed just because of one simple post or message. Also, social media is a way to show a different person than who you are, they try to act “cooler”, like a rebel, someone everyone would want to hang out with and be friends with. Social media can take an enormous toll on a female who is going through puberty or high school, maybe even college, and females who are trying to figure themselves out or even come to what they are and want to be. Seeing people bash others on social media for not being perfect, which no one is, will affect how a female perceives herself. Everyone makes mistakes or has flaws. Beyonce, Rihanna, Katy Perry, and Lady Gaga all have flaws, but seeing how everyone will talk down on someone because they think they are less will make females feel like they can not be who they want. They will not be able to embrace what they believe and will not be open about their life.
Social media has an impact on identity. Young girls who do not know exactly who they are at the time will go to social media to figure it out. Girls may reconstruct themselves into something that everyone likes instead of what they want to be themselves. “Individuals develop a sense of self from creating an impression they wish to give to others” (Manago 2008). Social media can trick young minds into unnecessary habits, women will start to feel like changing because they are not good enough how they are. Self-identity issues can have an enormous influence on how someone feels, sees, and thinks about themselves and also what they ultimately see in the mirror. What a girl identifies as can change, what she likes can change. Not all females will, but most will start to question what they like and who they are as a person.
Peer pressure on females will cause a lot of damage in a girl’s life. Females feel pressured to do many things they do not want to do. Yes, they should know right from wrong and that they do not have to do what others want, but some want to be accepted. They want to have friends or to get some type of attention. Peer pressure from others can make a lot of negative things happen from social media such as bullying, explicit pictures, drama, drugs, etc.
Females may feel pressured to have drama that they do not want or need. When someone is friends with another person he or she might try to tell them negative accusations about that person. They will feel the need to stick up for them or just tag along with the problems. Rumors and jealousy mostly start drama because a lot of girls are insecure and instead of bringing another female up they want to pull them down. Lies will change a lot of ladies lives and relationships. Being bullied, brought down, talked about, and lied to could hurt someone. They will feel like the only way to escape pain is drugs. When girls feel worthless or less than themselves, they will try anyway to get attention and positive things said about them, which would also lead to negative comments said about them.
Pictures, especially explicit pictures, can follow someone throughout their life. Girls might feel like that is the only way to get a positive statement said about them, but do not think about the consequences. Yes, some do post or send explicit pictures because they are low and do not care but it will still affect their future. Being exposed and getting bullied about these types of pictures will tear a person apart more than they already were. Even if they posted the pictures themselves, everyone seeing their body and knowing that they posted it, will not have positive effects. Boys will start to think the female is easy, try to harass her, and give her insults. Females will also say insults or pick on someone about their body.
Females will honestly do anything for acceptance from other people. They will post, bully, fight, anything that will get them the attention they want. They will not care who they hurt or whose life it is affecting. If a female wants to be friends with a certain friend group and she knows they do not like a certain person or they do things she does not, she will start to dislike the person and do everything they do because she wants to fit in.
In the visual above you can see that bullying and rumors are the biggest problems with social media. Next is a Lack of relationships, unrealistic views, and addiction. Last is Peer pressure, other mental health issues, and drama. A lack of relationships will have a gigantic impact on a girl’s life, friendships, and relationships with her parents and friends. This will be strained, especially if all they are focused on is social media instead of the bond with people and having actual conversations in person. Rumors and bullying are the biggest problems with social media because everyone gets bullied somehow and has rumors said about them even celebrities (such as Beyonce, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Chris Brown, etc). In other words, everything a female deals with is affected by social media. Social media overall has negative outcomes. There are positive effects but the negative effects out way these and are not beneficial to females. They should limit themselves to social media and find healthy relationships and habits.
Work Cited
- Though distracted by social media, students are still listening. Social Sciences. American Psychological Society. https://phys.org/news/2018-04-distracted-social-media-students.html. Published April 13, 2018. Accessed 12 Nov 2018.
- Anderson, Monica and Jiang, JingJing. “Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018”. Pew Research Center Internet & Technology. http://www.pewinternet.org/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/. 31 May 2018. Washington, Dc. Accessed Nov 12, 2018.
- How the internet affects personal identity. Applied Social Psychology. https://sites.psu.edu/aspsy/2018/03/16/how-the-internet-effects-personal-identity/ . Pennsylvania. Accessed Nov 12, 2018.
- Ehmke, Rachel. “How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers.” Child Mind Institute, Child Mind Institute, 23 Oct. 2018, childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/. New York, NY. Accessed 12 Nov 2018.
- “Teen Social Media Addiction – Shepherds Hill Academy.” Shepherds Hill Academy, Shepherds Hill Academy, www.shepherdshillacademy.org/resources/teens-social-media-addiction/. Accessed 12 Nov 2018.
- Gaffney, Katelyn J., 'Negative affects that Social Media causes on Body Imaging' (2017). Undergraduate Honors College Theses. 13. https://digitalcommons.liu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1017&context=post_honors_theses . Accessed 12 Nov 2018.
- Jeff Nalin. Social Media and Teen Depression: The Two Go Hand-In-Hand. Anxiety and Depression Association of America. Nov 2017. https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/consumer/social-media-and-teen-depression-two-go-hand. Accessed 12 Nov 2018.
- Spending More Time on Social Media May Affect Short-Term Memory. Brain Storm. http://brainstrom.org/spending-more-time-on-social-media-may-effect-short-term-memory/ 22 Sep 2018. Accessed 12 Nov 2018.
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