The Relationship Between Teens Self-esteem and Social Media

The reality that teenagers live in these days is completely virtual. The issues our parents faced are not the problems we face today. Today, we have to deal with online bullies, online comparisons, and an online world. Social media is a tremendous part of teenagers everyday life, some don’t even know how to live without it. Social media has made it incredibly easy for teens to connect with the world and their family and friends. What I want to know is if social media is doing more harm than good when it comes to teens and their self esteem. The certain expectations that teenagers are supposed to meet when it comes to social media is disturbing. Teenagers try to please their online audiences so much that is believed that social media is now and always has been a negative impact on teenage self-esteem. The purpose of my research paper is to conclude if there is in fact a relationship between teens self-esteem and social media.

As teens we are so glued to our phones, that we don’t even realize the amount of time we spend on them. According to CNN teens on average spend about 9 hours of the day on their phones using some sort of social media (Wallace, 2015). Social media is now such a huge part of a teenagers life that according to Houston, Inglish, Knight, and Seo (2014), “the proportion of teens engaging in some form of social media usage has increased from 55 percent in 2006 to 83 percent in 2012” (pp.884). That study just shows the amount of power that social media has over a teenager. Being a teenager is hard as is with having to make friends, trying to fit in, and trying to find there place. When you put that all together it makes teens very venerable and easily impressionable.

There have been multiple studies that investigated the positive and negative aspects of social media. If you were to scroll through some of teenagers comments of pictures posted on Instagram you would be shocked. All of the online bullies teens deal with really can put a toll on their self-esteem. According to an article written by the Department of Psychology and Counseling at the University of Central Arkansas, “Low self-esteem was linked to victimization” when it came to bullying. Knowing that a picture they post can potentially attract bullies, teenagers pay close attention to their looks, outfits and even the background. Doing this shows that they could potentially have low self-esteem because to them everything is not up to par unless certain things are done and are perfected.

One of the main disadvantages of social media, is that teens are more likely to be venerable to body image concerns. When it comes to comparisons, that’s something we all as humans face but it hits a lot harder when it comes to teenagers. Due to the Instagram pages of celebrities and their glamourous looks and perfect bodies that teenagers most of the time always idolize and strive to look like. “Teenagers low self-esteem has been linked to social comparisons” (Sorbello, Paxton, Durkin, 2007, pp. 1096). Peter, Schouten, and Valkenburg (2006) said that “positive feedback on profiles enhanced adolescents social self-esteem and well-being, whereas negative feedback decreased their self-esteem and well-being” (pp. 584). Social media has been proven time and time again that when it comes to the body it’s one of the number one causes of teenagers low self-esteem, and yet little has been done to improve on this situation.

When it comes to body dissatisfaction and body image on social media, it can affect people in different ways. We all know that everyone is not the same and we don’t think the same so something that might affect one person is able to affect another person in a totally different way. When it comes to race we all experience and interpret things in our own way. One who might not agree with my thinking that social media affects teens self-esteem negatively would argue that since we all have our own way of thinking, we can’t just say that social media impacts teens negatively as a whole. We would have to realize that we can’t say it impacts teens as a whole negatively because in reality in doesn’t.

Social media can also affect a teenagers sense of belonginess which in turn also deals with their self-esteem. A teens sense of belonginess can decrease or increase based on their social media usage. When it comes to Instagram having followers and getting a certain amount of likes on pictures is what it’s all about. A persons amount of likes and followers can make it seem to them as if they have a better sense of belonginess. Being able to belong to someone or something is very important because as humans we are social beings, always needing to fit and belong to something. If someone has a small sense of belongingness they more likely have low self-esteem. Some might say that one who has many likes and followers on Instagram does indeed belong but that doesn’t mean you get exclude the feelings of those who don’t. Not only are teenagers self-esteem influenced by Instagram also “the level of life satisfaction was the lowest among addicted Instagram users” (Pantic, Blachino, Prezepiorka, 2015, pp. 703). The relationships formed, the type of reactions and the frequent amount of reactions also plays into the self-esteem of teenagers. If low amounts of reactions occur on a teens social media than it could possibly result in their low self-esteem.