How does Instagram affect Teens?

Today’s teens are fond of Instagram for its simple and easy to navigate layout. From sharing pictures with their friends and family to making fun reels and stories, is easy and very popular on Instagram. Teens regard it, besides Snapchat, one of the most convenient ways to keep up with their friends.

A very common question arises here, does social media applications like Instagram affect teens in a dreadful way?

According to recent studies teens spend more than 7 hrs on Instagram, when they are not in school or sleeping, they are mostly glued to their phones, stalking people like celebrities and various other influencers. Studies also reveal that teens also buy instagram likes just to give their posts a boost.

While it is a good way to stay connected with their friends and keep up with the world, the excessive addiction to social media is not only exhausting but it can also take a toll on teens mental-health.

According to the UK's Royal Society for Public Health,mental-health of more than a 1,000 teens and youngsters is adversely affected because of social media apps. And social media addiction is one of the main causes behind anxiety, depression, online-bullying. It also leads to FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) in young teens.

Negative body image, body shaming, body dysmorphia, are other negative effects which are faced by many teen girls. “As studies and other researchers have suggested that the more social media young adults consume, the more likely they are to report depression or anxiety” says Stefanie Lopacinski.

What we see is not always true!

It is very easy to access the whole wide world, with just one tap on the phone. And so it is very easy for teens to compare themselves with others, there is constant struggle to keep up with their peers, they foster negative body images and disturb their sleeping schedule resulting in lack of interest in academics. However what they see on Instagram, is many times not a reflection of reality.

Teens often end up physically comparing them to other famous models, which is a big issue with Instagram and other social media platforms. They feel lesser and inferior because what they see in pictures and selfies is often manipulated with filters and editing tools. The constant comparison may lead to low self-esteem, body shaming, poor body image etc.

Lack of positive messages

In today’s generation, teens tend to keep themselves occupied after school hours by using social media applications, texting, scrolling, trolling, liking, sharing and what not! The fact that they do not use these applications in a healthy way, and the information they read and see, is not helping them in any way. There need to be more fitness and well-being influencers on instagram and other apps rather than fashion influencers, who divert teens in the wrong direction.

The problem with today’s teens is, they like and want everything to be aesthetic. They have the desire to look dazzling and also want their profiles to look captivating. Being aesthetically pleasing should not be the goal of one’s life. Teens and young adults need to focus on their future and their school grades, by that I do not intend to be forceful on teens, but they need to realize that social media apps were discovered to stay connected and be used as a source of recreation.

Teens also need to figure out the difference between being realistic in life, they must appreciate and embrace themselves for what they are, rather than comparing themselves to models, who are just promoting their business.

Also people and influencers who help their followers in embracing themselves. help and motivate them to stay fit, need more recognition on the social media platform.

Indirect and easy Communication

As technology and science are progressing with the time, it is easier to stay connected with people and keep in touch with peers and family. When social media didn’t exist, people still used to keep in touch with their friends by meeting and hanging out with them. But now the most popular trend is texting via Instagram.

When conversation doesn't happen in person, you don’t get to see what and how your words are affecting the person. For knowing a person and to connect them, requires more effort and direct communication in person, and when people are accustomed to texting, they feel that having a conversation in real time is too intense. Many such teens will grow up to be adults who are anxious about making a conversation in person (talking) with their own species,

which is the primary means of communication, i.e. talking. And for a fact social negotiations only get riskier as people get older and begin to navigate business relationships and employment.

Cyber-Bullying

With the benefits of easy and indirect communication there are all also it’s pros and cons, cyber-bullying is considered the most dangerous side-effect that comes from teens communicating indirectly. Teens sometimes say such things online, which they wouldn’t even in a million times conceptualize saying, to anyone’s face.

Studies say that girls, especially young teen girls are more vulnerable to the downside of social media. According to research, affinitive aggression is a side effect of insecurities and when one feels awful about one-self, they tend to put others down by posting harsh statements and comments.

Adolescents, with the looming social media, face few opportunities, and more traps than ever before. When teens scroll through their feeds and see how noteworthy everybody seems, it only adds to the pressure.

We worry about the impractical ideals that photoshopped magazine models give to today’s youth, but what happens when your own profile doesn’t really represent the person that you really are?

Peer acceptance is quite an important aspect for adolescents, and most of the time they care about image and status much more like politicians and big business men. Adding to it, teens today do get the polling data of how many ‘likes’ they get, which they consider to be important. And to them it is serious. Teenage girls first sort their pics out, and tend to post the best snap to get maximum likes. Even boys seek attention by revolting against other boys, they often gang up and bully other people.

Teenage years and the early twenties in particular are the years in which you are profoundly aware of the contrasts between how you appear to be and how you think you are. It is called the ‘imposter syndrome’ in psychology.

As you grow up and obtain more enigma, you begin to comprehend that you actually are good at some things, and then is the time when you see the gap hopefully narrowing. But if your deepest darkest fear is that you aren’t as good looking as you perceive yourself to be, and then you grow this need to look that good all the time, it’s enervating, and practically unjustifiable.

And everybody likes people who are confident. Self esteem comes from integrating who you actually are and accepting yourself the way you are. It gets harder to feel good about yourself, when you pretend to be someone you are not.

Stalking and being disregarded

Another big change that has come with technology and particularly in smart phones is that we are never really by ourselves. Teens update their status, share whatever they’re watching, taking note of, and reading, and have applications, allowing not only their friends to know their specific location on a map in the least time but also permitting strangers to view their location, even when a person is not trying to contact anyone he/she is still never out of reach of a text message. Which often results in youngsters to feel hyper connected with one another. The conversation never stops, and it seems like there’s always something new happening with someone.

Astonishingly it is yet easy to feel forsaken in the middle of all that hyper connection. Teens now know with bleak certainty, when they’re being disregarded. We all have smart-phones and we all acknowledge things pretty quickly, so when we twiddle one’s thumbs for a response but are left on a stand-by, the tranquillity is almost deafening. And such still treatment can be a prudent affront or just the wretched side effect of an online adolescent relationship that is intense during the initiation but then dissolves with time.

Even when the conversation doesn’t end, being in a constant state of hang-fire can yet exasperate uneasiness and anxiety. In this desperation they even spend money to buy instagram followers just to get recognised.

How to resolve the issue which is connected to teens and social media?

Parents can play an important role in saving the youth from the wrath of social media. They can initiate doing this by staying connected with their children, and by making them understand the pros and cons of social media. Parents must guide their children and tell them that everything they see on Instagram and other social media apps isn't always real.

Social media is a bit of both, a curse and a blessing.

Search This Blog

Instagram affect Teens

How does Instagram affect Teens?

Comments

Post a Comment