by Lucy Stevens, Junior

Social media is damaging to teenagers’ mental health and body image. While it may have communication benefits, the popularity of social media is causing teens many difficulties. As of 2019, there were over 3.484 billion users across all social media networks. Social media ranges from Snapchat, a social platform where friends can communicate through pictures, to Instagram, where adolescents can connect with their favorite artists, friends, and celebrities through collections of pictures, videos, and stories, or Twitter/X, where you can see celebrities or friends’ thoughts through posts of text. Social media exposes teens to a variety of edited, fake images, leading to constant comparison between themselves and celebrities who edit their images to appear better than they are. As teens spend hours each day scrolling mindlessly on social media, they are constantly fed these false, unattainable beauty standards. Constantly seeing these images can often lead teens to eating disorders and damaged mental health. Not only are they fed images of edited celebrities, but they are also exposed to images of people who have undergone notable body-altering surgeries, ranging anywhere from a nose job or Botox to people getting ribs removed to appear smaller. The desire of young teens to change their bodies opens a whole new niche on the internet, where people advise young teens on how to change their bodies and appear different online. 

Social media also allows teens to access direct messaging. So teens are quickly and easily accessed by anyone who can find their social media. While in some cases, this can be helpful for their friends or peers to contact them, it also allows strangers to be able to tell them directly bully or, more dangerously, manipulate the teen.

Social media also opens the doors for teenagers to be exposed to cyberbullying by strangers online. While this can come from another child online, they may not think before they speak, being separated by a screen from the victim, so the cyberbully won’t think before they act. This cyberbullying can also come from grown adults, and it would never be traceable. Social media allows people to hide behind fake names and ages. While this can apply to just being private about your name and age, this ability also opens the doors for people to pretend to be someone they are not on social media, causing dangerous consequences for children who may be overly trusting.

While you have the choice not to be on social media, teens often feel pressure from peers that social media will make them “fit in”. This pressure is all rooted in social media being the popular or cool thing to have or do. 

To help avoid the damage of social media on your teenager’s brain, you have the ability to set time limits to avoid mindless scrolling. You can also consciously be skeptical of people that you do not know in real life to make sure that you are not talking to someone who could manupulate you. By avoiding social media all together, you will be able to avoid body image issues and dangerous situations, all while becoming more centered with the real world.