The Role of Social Media in Influencing Children

RUNNING HEAD: SOCIAL MEDIA
THE INFLUENCE
OF SOCIAL MEDIA

SOCIAL MEDIA 1
THE ROLE OF WEB DESIGN OR SOCIAL MEDIA IN INFLUENCING CHILDREN
The essay reflects on ‘the role of social media in influencing children’. The Social
media is a powerful tool and pays a dominant role in our life. It allows individuals to connect
to digital world. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Whatsapp are some of the famous social
media among the population (Couldry, 2012). With the passing years, the usage of social
media has raised to a higher extent. There are 18 million active social media users in
Australia. The young population show higher degree of usage rate. In the year 2018, about
94% of the young population is uses social media. In the preceding years there will be
enhancement in number of active social media users in Australia (Hughes, 2019). The
increasing usage of these social platforms lays a direct impact on children. Focusing on the
essay, it includes the negative impact of the social media on children. The key objective of
the discussion is to develop arguments and present reasonable theoretical data to support
these arguments.
Social media disturbs the mental health of the children. They eagerly wait to receive
high number of likes and comments on their photos. In order to fulfil their petty wish of
higher likes, they alter their appearance and accept risky challenges on these sites. They have
developed their distinct and better identity on digital media. They lay efforts to maintain that
specific identity throughout the time (Fuchs, 2017). They wait eagerly to get a response
from another person. The high usage rate makes the children depressed when they were
ignored on social media. The ignorance and salient treatment act as strategic insult for them.
The constant state of waiting raises their anxiety level. They also develop sleeping and eating
disorder (O'Keeffe & Pearson, 2011). With the high degree of social media usage, they
lose their ability to sleep. ‘The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health’ conducted a study on
12000 teenagers belonging to the age group of 13 to 16 years. According to the response, it
was acknowledged that they develop high usage of Instagram, Facebook, Whatsapp and
Twitter. They stated that it usage fills anxiety in them. As per the research from teen boys and
girls, it was found that they are facing higher degree of psychological distress. It is
developing a social media addiction among them. The less number of likes develops a
negative self-reflection among them. They promptly refreshes page to get an early response
and achieve personal validation. The absence of gratification or satisfaction also raises their
loneliness. The ‘Royal Society of Public Health’ has also found that teen females are not
satisfied with their looks on social media. It lowers their self-esteem and enabling them to
manipulate their image on social media websites. Thus, the high usage causes poor sleep and

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it directly resulted in poor mental health. Therefore, it is laying a direct impact on the mental
wellbeing of the children (BBC, 2019).
The children are missing the real time interaction with high degree of social media
usage. The children devote their high amount of time in chatting on social media. They are
not competing their homework but rather busy in texting, trolling, scrolling and sharing posts
on these media. They update their status and share their feelings via this platform. They also
share their location on map at possible time (Korda & Itani, 2013). It makes the children
hyper connected with their peer groups. They fail to offer subsequent degree of attention to
their relationship beyond digital world. It develops a false sense of connection among the
teenagers. Their approach for relationship has limited to social media only. They found
themselves comfortable to share their views, ideas, and personal feeling via this platform. It
acts as a main hindrance for teenagers to initiate a real and face to face interaction with the
people. It is emerging as a replacement for building relationships (Quinlan, 2018).
According to the research conducted by ‘Pew Research Centre’, only 33% people are
involved in direct conversation while other 54% opt for social media to connect with their
peer group. The children are devoting higher time in usage of social media (Suliveres,
2014). As per the research from ‘Kaiser Family Foundation’, the teens (8 to 18 years) spent
about 7 hours a day by using social media. They are busy with the electronic media and are
not active in spending time with their family. They are losing interpersonal relationship and
touch with their family members and peer groups (Kff, 2018). Therefore, the research clearly
depicts that social media is limiting the real time interaction of the children.
Social media makes the children prone to cyber bullying. Cyber Bullying involves the
application of digital technology to delivery hurt people. It is the repetitive abusive
behaviour. It includes harassing, cyber stalking, impersonation, trolling intentionally. The
children are more vulnerable to these actions. This is because they are highly active and
attains less knowledge to deal with such form of hazardous practice. Girls are more likely to
be effected with cyber bullying. Facebook is one of the key social media platforms with
billions of active users (Wang, Nansel, & Iannotti, 2011). Therefore, it is excessively
used by bullies to harass the teens and young population. Children experienced emotional
issues, concentration and behavioural issues with their peer groups. They also develop the
physical symptoms of headache. A teen (14 year old) Australian girl named ‘Dolly Everett’
has experienced cyber bullying. She experiences taunts and envied by her own friends on
social media. It has disturbed her sleep and develops eating disorder in her. Her mother has