Teenagers and social media
Psychology 2
An article for a magazine aimed at 16-18 year olds, presenting a social psychology perspective on how and why young people choose to depict themselves in particular ways on social media.
Social psychology studies about people’s thoughts, feelings and behaviors of a person. It is influenced by the reality, imagination and the presence of other people. It explains about human behaviors due to interactions of mental conditions and various social conditions. It acts as a bridge the gap between the sociology and psychology, in the past decades the two have been in strong collaboration to help human nature. The concept of social psychology is very important in the current digital generation where technology has changed our past inform of interaction and running of some programs at society and institution. This issues has largely affected young people in learning institution and more especially the youths in teen ages from 16 years to 18 year. ________notes that, there is need for the society leaders to sit and collaborate to shape the morals of the teenagers, technology has consumed the moral values in the teens children replacing them with poor confidence, loose of self-esteem, and unnecessary fear on petty matters.
Teenagers and social media
Teenagers are connected to the social media through smartphones, tables and other mobile devices. Also video gaming and computers contributes to connecting teenagers to the online world. Teens like connecting to famous and trending social media like Facebook, twitter, Instagram, snap chat and other social media platforms. They enjoying viewing and positing updates on frequent basis on entertain themselves and feel part of other peers in the social media. Mostly this youths posts what they are doing, where they are, what they eat, there family and their relationship status. To add on that the teens checks there status and tweets on frequent to see who has replied or commented on their status. Most of the teen measures the number of responses they have received from their recent posts and that to them they consider being popular as their livelihood which is contrary to the parents, guardians and other adults. According to studies made by __________he states that social media is linked to highest level of loneliness, depression and anxiety. It decreases the level of social skills. People who have grown up on digital are they can see the negative sides of the social media has on our children especially the teenagers and the entire population. Don't use plagiarised sources.Get your custom essay just from $11/page
Teens have used platform media as a method of exposing their lifestyles to their peer friends expecting more likes and comments as a form of acceptance. However this whole idea is destroying them and most of them struggle hard to fake their lives in the social media platforms. It has gone deeper to make them more sensitive on what type of clothes they wear and environment which they take photos from before uploading them for their friends to see. What is worrying our youths is something petty which adults regard it as useless matters that worries the digital generation. Also they have become very keen on what type of music they should listen to copying from what their peers are doing. This can be defined as an influence from the peers. According to __________he says, when what they say of share is not accepted it dismisses their self-image to the public or in presence of the peers. And when self-image of a person is dead then they are as good as themselves, since in the current generation people looks at self-image before they look at the rest you carry.
Teenagers post how they post and what they post because they see their friends posting. In some post you can find a youth posting very shameful photos of herself or a group of friends to expose or pass some message to her friends. As guardians we have lost way and if this continues in the future generation moral decay will be at a higher level. According to youths they feel what they do is very correct and its there stage to enjoy and mingle with their peers. various programs should be established to ensure the youths in the teen ages have enough education on how and what they post on social media, the relationship the create on the social media and the type of influence it can have to their lives.
Negative impacts
Social media is designed to share important and valuable information. Before we post in the media think critically about the message you want to share and the type of audience you are addressing and people in your circle. As yourself who are viewing my post? Does it have an educative aspect? What value will it add to the viewer? And can the idea be borrowed by a friend in my circle to be beneficial in their lives? Unfortunately this doesn’t apply to youth ages, they post what comes in their mind, the environment they are in and the emotions they feel at the present moment. It very disappointing when teenagers post pathetic and shameful information and expects more likes. Instagram is full of photos where people expose their family status, vacation images, relationship appreciation posts and selfies of them and their friends. It’s very funny that social media only shares the crazy and joyful images. A few posts and images shows the hardship people goes through, there failed relationships, there unsuccessful business or employment and how they look when they wake up. Social media makes people believe that life is a bed of roses where no one goes through hardship their entire life since the year begins until it ends.
Social media has damaged self-esteem of young people. Nobody wants to be associated with negative side of life in the social media, nobody wants to be seen as a failure in social media and this is frustration people in real life as much as they try to post fake details about themselves. Studies made by __________states that, social media is the dangerous place you can spend you entire life admiring fake life. The sites have lost the purpose they were created for and nowadays people are in competition to fake life to impress others. The idea is very common to teenagers and young people in their early twenties. People have been deceived on social media with type of sharing they see and post. Most of the users in the site are using lies to see how standard they are living. Another study done showed how many people confessed that they decided to be away from social media or visit there occasionally to avoid stress and damaging their mental health. Most of the people with experience on what the social media can do have moved from the site and focus on their lives in real world instead of working under pressure and stress based on the achievements they see on social media.
Valuing what you see in social media is very dangerous to a person social relationship and mental health. Social media is there to build fun with friendship and share important information and connect with people who are far away from us physically. Some people goes there to scroll an individual data to see your own sense and self-worth. There are just there to help we know more about our friends and distant relatives but they can’t help us in making decisions in life. Social media will only transform when people start valuing their self-worth and what image they portray to the outside world. It is very useless when people especially teenagers start valuing themselves based on what is posted on the media and the responses they receive. It’s very unhealthy to unsustainable.
Solutions
Social media is center of interaction of young people. The main purpose of the media is to build and enhance their relationship positively. It is useful when used appropriately to give teenagers knowledge and skilled learned from grown up people. It acts a tool of positive transformation for young people and supporting their lives to be better people in the future. However, everything has been altered, the purpose of the social media to help the teens has changed instead most of them follow peers and share useless things as a way of fitting their peers or friends class. The concept of transition process to the better works with few while majority from 16 year to 18 years follows the direction of the peers.
To handle this, there should be enough education program where the teens should be educated on the purpose of the social media and what it was created for. The site Is good when it is used effectively. We have seen investors and other business enterprises ad companies get returns through good advertisement in the media. They have received competent workers and potential consumers from the same site. Posting in the social media should be done with a purpose and goals, lack of knowledge and purpose is what makes the teenagers lose focus and shares what they think. To worsen they are controlled with the same social media, and judgment from friends. However in real life social media doesn’t come on table to add any value or helps us in making decisions. Unless if it is posted for business or education purpose.
In conclusion, Teenagers are connected to the social media through smartphones, tables and other mobile devices. Also video gaming and computers contributes to connecting teenagers to the online world. Teens like connecting to famous and trending social media like Facebook, twitter, Instagram, snap chat and other social media platforms. They enjoying viewing and positing updates on frequent basis on entertain themselves and feel part of other peers in the social media. Mostly this youths posts what they are doing, where they are, what they eat, there family and their relationship status. To add on that the teens checks there status and tweets on frequent to see who has replied or commented on their status. It’s very funny that social media only shares the crazy and joyful images. A few posts and images shows the hardship people goes through, there failed relationships, there unsuccessful business or employment and how they look when they wake up. Social media makes people believe that life is a bed of roses where no one goes through hardship their entire life since the year begins until
References
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