From youth to adulthood, social media has grown like a whirlwind in today’s culture. Nowadays everyone appearing to be a member of some social media site. Social media has its advantages and disadvantages. Those advantages and disadvantages are especially important when it comes to the influence of social media on teenagers. Platforms such as TikTok, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, might be lifesavers for kids who feel alone, especially LGBTQ teens. During the epidemic, social media also helped youth feel more connected and less lonely.
However, the influence of social media on youth can be extremely harmful to their mental health. It connects social media and teens inseparably. In addition, excessive use of the apps exposes kids to cyber bullying, body image concerns. It leads to computer addiction, as well as less time spent engaging in healthy, real-world activities. Most parents assume they know what their children post on social media. Pew Research Survey revealed that 70% of teenagers hide their online conduct from their parents.
However, social media appears to have had the greatest impact on the lives of teens. The world’s population is currently 7.5 billion, with 3.8 billion internet users and 2.8 billion social media users. Teenagers aged 13 to 19 make up 1.8 billion of the world’s population. With 500 million monthly active users, Instagram is the most popular social media platform. So far, Instagram users have posted over 40 billion photographs, with an average of 95 million photos and videos being shared each day. Snapchat is used by 166 million people every day. Adults use social media as well, although teens represent the mass of users.
More than 40% of Instagram’s users are under the age of 22, with over 22 million teenagers logging on each day. The aspects identified by Instagram as the most detrimental to teenagers appear to be at the platform’s heart, such as the pressure to look ideal and only post the finest moments, as well as the internal algorithms that regulate the “Explore” tab, which direct users to progressively dangerous content.
Instagram has a higher rate of social comparisons than other popular social media platforms with teenagers, such as TikTok and Snapchat.
