Impact of Social Media on Teens: Cyberbullying and Social Comparison

Teens will always been nervous of asking parents or other adults to seek advice in the fear of getting in trouble or being judged. However with the the thousands of friends on the new found social media reachable with the touch of a finger, teenagers will now often turn to their social networks in the hopes to seek to seek advice and solutions to their problems which at times could be quite bad then being naive and that is often misguided because they are unprotected and in an extremely vulnerable situation.

Cyberbullying the definition according to is when somebody uses a form of technology usually a phone or computer to send mean or threatening messages to or about another person with the intention of getting a reaction of hurting them to perhaps give the bully satisfaction or to make themselves feel better. It can come is any form including by texting the person directly or by saying it in a group chat or even posting about them online. Cyberbullying can be anonymous, which means people have a safety net so they won't get caught or get into trouble or be judged. The internet has a huge audience and so will also have a wide audience to their opinion, and can spread quickly in the hopes that other people will join in and agree with their opinion. As the targets to this form of bullying they almost get no stop to this constant abuse by their peers and even total strangers and as the targets they would probably feel as if they are unable can’t get away from the constant nonstop bullying that is plaguing their lives. For example if a classmate is bullying you at school, when you leave school and go home it’s over you can rest and recuperate and if things get really bab you can even change schools. But with cyberbullying there really is not an end to it. It can follow you home, and continue all night follow you to a different school and since this is on the internet if is almost impossible to erase. Strangers, even friends, are now able to cower behind their screens and say things they could never say to your face but with the safety of being anonymous they can say whatever they want behind a screen and a fake username.

It is now extremely common for teens, especially for young girls who don’t know better, to experience an extensive amount of pressure because of celebrities and their peers to appear “perfect” online. They now feel the need to appear to have perfect hair by putting unnatural colors into it or even burning their hair to get a completely straight or a curly look, to look skinny or fit by developing eating disorders as well as using photoshop and other app like it in order to look perfect and receive as many ‘likes’ and comments as possible or to have the perfect cliche can end up consuming the teens who don’t know any better. Not meeting these invisible standards of the perfect teen can cause thoughts such as self-loathing and self-doubt. Social comparison is another side effect of these invisible standards, jealousy can also end up resulting from this when they see their friends on social media appearing to be more popular or attractive or on a glamorous and expensive vacation which others may not be able to afford, which can trigger depressive feelings thinking that all of what they see on social media is real when in fact is probably not because they are also trying to live up to this unrealistic standard.