Analyzing the Influence of Social Media on Teenagers' Development

This essay investigates the multifaceted influence of social media on contemporary teenagers. It begins by highlighting the prevalence of social media use among this demographic, particularly platforms like Facebook, and acknowledges both the benefits, such as enhanced social connections and technical skill development, and the risks. The essay delves into the negative consequences of excessive social media use, including cyberbullying, sexting, and the potential for mental health issues like depression and anxiety. It also examines how social media impacts teenagers' attention spans, mental health, and their ability to maintain real-life relationships. Furthermore, the essay discusses how social media helps teenagers to cope with the constantly changing nature of technology. The essay concludes by emphasizing the importance of parental awareness and guidance in helping teenagers navigate the online world responsibly and mitigate the negative impacts of social media. The essay draws on various research studies to support its arguments and provides a balanced perspective on this complex issue.

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FUNDAMENTALS OF COMMUNICATION STUDIES
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Introduction
The essay is prepared to discuss about the influence of using social media by the
teenagers of the present generation. The essay has focused on the how the social media
creates positive impact as well as negative impact on the teenagers of the present generation.
One of the most important things to be considered is that the social media impact on
teenagers, which has influenced making them developmentally vulnerable and because of
their heavy usage and remaining involved with the social networking sites most of the times
(Anderson & Jiang, 2018). Based on various evidences and report, it was found that more
than 75 percent of the teenagers have been involved with the social networks and one of the
major social networking tool used by them is the Facebook. The social networking websites
have enhanced the social relationships between the teenagers and even allowed them to
acquire technical skills, become habituated with the technological aspects, still there are
certain risks too. Due to the poor self-regulation and addiction to the social networks, most of
the teenagers have been vulnerable to issues that affected their health and mental conditions
and the major causes were depression, sexting, cyber bullying, etc (Wang, Chen & Liang,
2011). The topic is of utmost importance, because it is true to the fact considering both
positive as well as negative aspects revolving around the use of social networks by the
teenagers at present.
Body
It is true to the fact that using social networks has often been associated with the
emergence of aggressive behaviours among individuals and this has even allowed them to
directly threaten or provide unpleasant comments, which represented trolling on the social
networks. This often has led to trolling activities, which could demotivate individuals and at
the same time, made the teenagers disturbed and uncomfortable while positing any private

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messages in the public forum afterwards. The teenagers are often cyber bullied and even this
has been the cause of inflicting hatred towards people by posting comments on social
networks without respecting people’s background, culture, etc.
According to Hasinoff (2013), sexting has been another illegal actions that is common
among people who use the social networks nowadays. The sexting meant sending illegal
messages and pictures to another individual among the teenagers group associated with the
interactions within social media platforms. Often, teenagers are found to send explicit
pictures and inappropriate messages to their friends and individuals who have been interacted
with. This kind of pervasiveness of the use of internet and social networks has also resulted in
making the social media platform an open space for disclosure of information and even the
images get leaked, furthermore getting viral. Due to this, the teenagers often experience
personal trauma and humiliation by other individuals over the social networks, which has
resulted in judicial ramifications and even a major crime committed by teenagers nowadays
(Hasinoff, 2013). Not only these negative impacts, but also the social media influence has
caused limiting the size of offline social networks and made people remain closed within
home to interact with people remaining online on the social media platforms most of the
times.
Ahn (2011) showed evidences, which illustrated the fact that though social media
platforms have increased the scope for communication among the teenagers, still it has also
hindered the security measures, privacy and affected the mental health and wellbeing too.
The Facebook depression was caused due to emotional disturbances among the teenagers on
the social networking websites (Ahn, 2011). Best, Manktelow and Taylor (2014) also argued
that the brains are formed as networks that manage connection and thus the social networks
have made users happier and allowed them to gain social trust and higher level of
engagement. They have shared posts in the form of picture and messages, which has

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reinforced a sense of psychological satisfaction among them and facilitated the connection
among individuals, furthermore resulted in self actualisation and satisfaction (Best,
Manktelow and Taylor, 2014). In spite of these major benefits, still Wang, Chen & Liang
(2011) touted about how the higher usage of social networks by the teenagers has led to lack
of privacy and loss of confidential data and information, furthermore made them remain
disconnected from the reality. The vast amount of information shared online on the social
networks has also been the major causes of negative behaviours among the teenagers (Wang,
Chen & Liang, 2011). According to Anderson & Jiang (2018), adolescence is the time when
teenagers have the freedom to do things that they previously could not do and thus the parents
and caregivers must be cautious about keeping the behaviours and responses of teenagers
under control. Within the social networking domain, the parents should be knowledgeable
about the activities undertaken by the teenagers and make sure to monitor privacy settings
properly to ensure that the teenagers acquire healthy and sound behaviours effectively too
(Anderson & Jiang, 2018).
However, along with all the negative aspects of the social media effect on the
teenager from around the world, there are some very important factors that are helping the
teenagers to cope with the constantly chaging nature of the technology. Along with the
different negative aspects of social media. the children are also being helped by this in their
studies. While using social media for a long time they can develop their addiction to it but
also get too exposed in various news matters which enhance their political, social and
psychological development. Previously, the children did not feel interested in the political
issues published in the newspapers but now while using social media they do not have other
way to avoid such news which can enhance their maturity level and connect them with the
life away from their home and family. This also gives them the idea of community which has
closer connection with the understanding of the social factors to the teenagers.

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Dunbar (2016) has pointed out that the teenagers have been affected by the social
media in such a way that are affecting their brain. These are both positive as well as negative,
in this case media when the teenagers are getting likes for their posts, it is connecting there
brain’s reward center. This is one of the factors why the usage of social media among the
teenager are becoming constantly addicting. This process is affecting the teenagers to
enhance their desire for attention, social cognition and reward processing which may impact
in the work lives. Social media while beneficial in the small doses, maintaining the online
friendship on the contrary to the real life friends can have a negative impact on the mental
health. According to Van et al. (2015), the maintenance of the social media friend is not as
easy and effective as maintaining the real life friends. This is due to the fact that people
especially the teenagers tend to compare themselves with the others in the social media. This
can be damaging as the people try to present their best version online that means the
comparisons are not based on the reality.
In addition to this, the social media can also reduce the attention power of the people.
These relate to the actions or capabilities of the teeters to do multitasks at a time. These heavy
media multitasks have been distracted by the multiple streams of the media which they are
consuming. As the social media does not allow the students to keep themselves engaged in
the study but encourage to follow the styles, dresses, make ups, gadgets and other
materialistic gains of the others, this can create complexity in the minds of the teenagers and
they feel themselves deprived of all those they want. These engage the feeling of
dissatisfaction with lives and people tend to be unhappy. Lin, Spence and Lachlan (2016),
have pointed out that the social media is the reason why the teenagers feel addicted to
scrolling the news feeds without sleeping for needed hours. The ray emitted from the cell
phones affect the brain in such as wary that can lead to have damage in the permanent way.
The teenagers as addicted with these virtual world attractions remain awake for a long period

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of time that creates vicious cycle of wakefulness. Moreover, there are issues of phantom
vibration system which means that the nervous system is hypersensitive hence reacting even
when the phone is not vibrating, which is a form of hyper vigilance.
Conclusion:
Therefore it can be concluded that the effect of social media in the lives of the
teenagers have a long way of suffering. This affect the minds, brain, mental peace, study and
the nature of the people. Due to factors like sexting, sharing unexpected images and negative
communication can increase scope for social violence and teenagers often experience
personal trauma and humiliation by other individuals over the social networks, which has
resulted in judicial ramifications and even a major crime committed by teenagers nowadays.
Hence the addiction of social media need to be reduced if the teenagers want to be career
oriented and be successful in their lives.

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References
Ahn, J. (2011). The effect of social network sites on adolescents' social and academic
development: Current theories and controversies. Journal of the American Society for
information Science and Technology, 62(8), 1435-1445.
Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. (2018). Teens, social media & technology 2018. Washington, DC:
Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved June, 3, 2018.
Best, P., Manktelow, R. and Taylor, B., 2014. Online communication, social media and
adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review. Children and Youth Services
Review, 41, pp.27-36.
Dunbar, R.I., 2016. Do online social media cut through the constraints that limit the size of
offline social networks?. Royal Society Open Science, 3(1), p.150292.
Hasinoff, A. A. (2013). Sexting as media production: Rethinking social media and
sexuality. New Media & Society, 15(4), 449-465.
Lin, X., Spence, P. R., & Lachlan, K. A. (2016). Social media and credibility indicators: The
effect of influence cues. Computers in Human Behavior, 63, 264-271.
Van Der Schuur, W. A., Baumgartner, S. E., Sumter, S. R., & Valkenburg, P. M. (2015). The
consequences of media multitasking for youth: A review. Computers in Human
Behavior, 53, 204-215.
Wang, Q., Chen, W., & Liang, Y. (2011). The effects of social media on college students.