The Impact of Social Media on Teenagers: Should Parents Limit Access?

This essay explores the question of whether parents should limit their teenagers' use of social media, referencing research from Pew Research Center and Pediatrics. It highlights the addictive nature of social media, its potential harm to teenagers' psychological and physical health, and the privacy concerns it raises. The essay references studies indicating increased social media usage among teens and adults, along with associated problems. It acknowledges the need for parental guidance to protect teenagers from the adverse effects of excessive social media use, suggesting that limiting access is a necessary step.

Running head: TEENAGERS AND THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
Teenagers and the use of Social Media
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

1TEENAGERS AND THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
“Social media is addictive precisely because it gives us something which the real world lacks:
it gives us immediacy, direction, a sense of clarity and value as an individual.”
The above quoted lines of David Amerland from his famous work “The Social Media
Mind: How social media how social media is changing business, politics and science and
helps create a new world order” clearly outline the reason for the excessive use of the various
social media platform by the teenagers and others. Furthermore, in the opinion of Woody
Allen, “Technology has made us Gods even before we deserve to call ourselves human
beings”. This particular statement of the famous director speaks volumes about the ill effects
of the excessive over-reliance on the use of technology. Therefore, it is often seen that the
parents try to control the usage of the various social media platforms of their kids. It is to be
noted that this particular attitude is adopted by the parents in a bid to protect them from the ill
effects of the excessive usage of the various social media platforms (Sponcil and Priscilla
4:1). This paper intends to shed light on the question whether the parents should limit the
usage of the various social media platforms by their kids.
Madden, Mary, et al. "Teens, social media, and privacy." Pew Research Center 21
(2013): 2-86.
This particular article written by the authors Madden, Lenhart, Cortesi, Gasser,
Duggan, Smith and Beaton was published in the “Pew Research Center” in the year 2013.
This particular article intends to provide an overview of the usage of the various social media
platforms by the teenagers and also its ill effects. The article also raises the question of
privacy and how it is denied to the teenagers by the excessive usage of the various platforms
of the social media (Madden 21:2-86). The authors conducted a thorough research between
the years 2006 to 2012 to arrive at the conclusion that the teenagers in the present age are
sharing more amount of information over the various social media platforms than they used

2TEENAGERS AND THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
to do in the earlier times (Madden 21:2-86). According to the article, “24% of online teens
use Twitter, up from 16% in 2011. The typical (median) teen Facebook user has 300 friends,
while the typical teen Twitter user has 79 followers” (Madden 21:2-86). This might be a
reflection of various factors like the need to eradicate boredom, to connect with friends and
people from different parts of the world and others. However, it is often seen that there are
various ill effects associated with the process of the excessive usage of social media as well.
It is often see that the teenagers addicted to the social media are more likely to respond to the
positive experiences rather than the negative ones. However, it is seen that recent researches
suggest that the excessive usage of the social media have adverse effects on the psychology
as well as the physical health of the teenagers and adolescents as well. Therefore, the various
parents often try to curb the usage of social media of their children.
This particular research material can be used by the various people to create
awareness among the various parents and other people about the addictive as well as the ill
effects of the excessive usage of the various platforms related to the social media. Moreover,
this research can indicate that the excessive usage of the social media reduces the privacy in
the lives of teenagers which forms an important part of their lives. The present scenario
where most of the teenagers are addicted to the use of social media offers a very fertile
ground to prove the facts derived by these authors. It is to be noted that the results derived by
these authors can be synthesized with the other researches and their findings to create
awareness among the teenagers about the ill effects of the usage of social media. The most
important part of the research which has been selected is the fact that the research uses
statistics to prove the hypotheses which they state during the course of the article. This
particular article was written was Madden, Lenhart, Cortesi, Gasser, Duggan, Smith and
Beaton who have a part of the “Pew Internet Project” for a long time. It is to be noted that
there findings have raised much awareness about the ill effects of the usage of social media.

3TEENAGERS AND THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
The article states that “Teen Twitter use has grown significantly: 24% of online teens use
Twitter, up from 16% in 2011” and “74% of teen social media users have deleted people
from their network or friends list” (Madden 21:2-86). This article data clearly indicates the
increase in the usage of social media among the teens and also the problems which entails
with it. The only thing that is weak about the article is that the authors have restricted
themselves just to finding the ill-effects of the usage of social media and does not provide any
remedial measures.
Strasburger, Victor C., et al. "Children, adolescents, and the media." Pediatrics 132.5
(2013): 958-961.
This particular article written by Strasburger in the year 2013 and published in the
journal “Pediatrics” intends to give an overview of the harmful effects of the excessive usage
of the various platforms of the social media. According to the article there was a time when
the children used to be addicted to the media platform of television however in the recent
times the trend has changed and now they have become addicted to the various platforms
related to the social media (Strasburger 132: 958-961). As per a study conducted by the
“American Academy of Pediatrics”, “potential harmful effects of media messages and
images” has become a major problem for the various parents who are worried about the
physical as well as the metal well being of their children due to their excessive use of the
various platforms related to the social media (Bolton et al. 24: 245-267). Therefore, the
article suggests that the various schools, parents and others take into consideration these
factors and device appropriate strategies to counteract them.
It is significant to note that this particular article tries to evaluate the harmful effects
of the excessive usage of the social media and tries to provide effective solutions to them.
Therefore, it would not be too far-fetched to say that this particular research can be utilized

4TEENAGERS AND THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
by the various present day scholars as well as researchers to combat the harmful effects of the
excessive usage of the platforms related to the social media. It is to be noted that this
particular research can be synthesized with the current findings of other research to arrive at
better results. The most important fact about the research which has been chosen is that
unlike other researches which focus just on the harmful effects of the excessive usage of
social media this particular research provides some solutions as well about how to curb the
harmful effects of the excessive usage of social media. This particular article was written by
Strasburger, who is one of the most eminent pediatrics of the world at the moment. The
author states that “the average 8- to 10-year-old spends nearly 8 hours a day with a variety of
different media” and “teenagers 13 through 17 years of age sent an average of 3364 texts per
month” (Strasburger 132: 958-961). This particular data provided by the author can be
utilized for further researches. This particular data provided by the author means that the
present day teenagers are growing more reliant on the various forms of social media and
thereby losing touch with the physical world. The only weak point about the article is that the
article delves too much on the pediatric treatment and does not provide general solutions to
the problem concerned.
Perrin, Andrew. "Social media usage." Pew research center(2015).
This particular paper was written by Perrin in the year 2015 and published in the
“Pew Research Center”. This particular paper intends to provide an overview of the
increasing usage of the various platforms related to the social media and the way it is
affecting the lives of the teenagers and the adolescents as well. It is to be noted that according
to the author the usage of the social media has increased by almost 65% in the present times
and this is likely to affect not only the various teenagers but the adolescents as well (Lau 68:
286-291). According to the article the excessive usage of the various social media platforms
“has affected such things as work, politics and political deliberation, communications

5TEENAGERS AND THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
patterns around the globe, as well as the way people get and share information about health,
civic life, news consumption, communities, teenage life, parenting, dating and even people’s
level of stress” (Perrin 1-12).
It is to be noted that the findings of this particular article can be used for further
researches and also for evaluating the harmful effects which the excessive usage of social
media entails with itself. The findings of this particular research can be validated by using
data from the real life experiences. It is to be noted that the findings of this particular research
can be incorporated in other researches as well which try to study the harmful effects of the
excessive usage of social media. The most important fact about this particular research is that
the study gives an overview of the social media usage not only related to the teens but the
adults as well. This article was written by Perrin, one of the most eminent members of the
“Pew Research Center”. The specific data which can be used for further research are “nearly
two-thirds of American adults (65%) use social networking sites” and “young adults (ages 18
to 29) are the most likely to use social media – fully 90% do” (Perrin 1-12). This data
suggests that the use of the various platforms of social media is on the rise not only among
the teenagers as well as the adolescents. Therefore, along with the increased use of the social
media the harmful effects will also follow. The only thing which is weak about the research is
that the research covers only the problems related to the United States of America and does
not provide a broader worldwide perspective.
Therefore, from the above discussion it becomes that along with the increased use of
the various platforms of social media the problems related to the excessive use of social
media have also increased. Therefore, the parents need to limit the excessive use of social
media among the kids in a bid to protect them from its harmful effects.

6TEENAGERS AND THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA
References
Bolton, Ruth N., et al. "Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review
and research agenda." Journal of service management 24.3 (2013): 245-267.
Lau, Wilfred WF. "Effects of social media usage and social media multitasking on the
academic performance of university students." Computers in human behavior 68 (2017): 286-
291.
Madden, Mary, et al. "Teens, social media, and privacy." Pew Research Center 21 (2013): 2-
86.
Perrin, Andrew. "Social media usage." Pew research center(2015).
Sponcil, Megan, and Priscilla Gitimu. "Use of social media by college students: Relationship
to communication and self-concept." Journal of Technology Research 4 (2013): 1.
Strasburger, Victor C., et al. "Children, adolescents, and the media." Pediatrics 132.5 (2013):
958-961.