Abstract

This paper investigates the adverse effects social media can have on the development of adolescents regarding their personal identity and the link this has to communities. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok have become an integral part of the day-to-day lives of millions of adolescents. Social media facilitates communication and provides a platform for people to express themselves, whilst social media provides endless opportunities and positives it can also aid in worsening mental health, triggering body dysmorphic disorder, the curation of a false sense of identity and cyberbullying.

 

Conference Paper

Mental health involves emotional, psychological, and social well-being and impacts the way individuals think, feel and act (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2021).  People spend a significant portion of their lives on social media, and this can cause issues regarding mental health, studies have shown “…a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts”.

(Robinson & Smith, 2021). People who spend more time online are more likely to experience depression consequently presenting the negative link between social media and mental health (Karim et al., 2020). Depression can often cause individuals to struggle with leaving the house and this can increase isolation. Having social media can allow those struggling with mental health battles to seek help through online communities. It can also allow people to maintain relationships from home without complete alienation. Finding communities online in which others struggle from similar issues can often aid in some healing for individuals. Using social media has been proven to increase FOMO, feelings of inadequacy, dissatisfaction, and isolation (Robinson & Smith, 2021). These feelings can further develop into more serious mental health problems.

 

Individuals suffering from anxiety are “…excessively fearful, anxious, or avoidant of perceived threats in the environment (e.g., social situations or unfamiliar locations) or internal to oneself (e.g., unusual bodily sensations)” (Craske & Stein, 2016). Social media can aid in heightening anxiety in a few ways, notifications, comparison, and information online. Often people find it difficult to avoid checking social media if there are notifications, seeing the notifications begin to grow in amount can cause for people to feel anxious (West, 2021). Social media makes it extremely easy to compare to the lives of individuals and this can cause people to feel inadequately towards their own life. A large portion of the news spread on social media can be negative and whilst it is important to remain educated, people may be overwhelmed and feel anxious about current events (West, 2021). News is usually spread with the intent of reaching everyone, the constant flow of negative news can cause a lot of stress for some viewers (West, 2021). Networked adolescents can increase the experience of anxiety as it alienates teenagers from their communities. Social anxiety can make it extremely difficult for teenagers to be involved with communities. Online networking can reduce feelings of anxiety as the lack of in person presentation can make forming relationships online and joining communities easier for those struggling. It can be beneficial for some individuals to limit their content to view things in a different way, cut down on screentime or be more selective with the content they view in order to lessen the anxiety (West, 2021).

 

17-year-old social media user Scarlett Pourmatin states, “Sometimes I feel depressed about it. I definitely went through a phase where I was unhappy with my body because I was on social media so much” (Gollom, 2021). Illuding to the mental health struggles social media can cause for individuals at such a young age. Scarlett Pourmatin further detailed, “It just makes me compare my life to others and just think that their life is way better than mine…” (Gollom, 2021). Social media allows individuals to create an unhealthy comparison when seeing people promote their perfect, idealised lifestyle that is unfeasible for most can often lead people to feel worse about the way in which they live their own life. Furthermore, assessment of other people in relation to ourselves can cause individuals to scrutinise every insignificant aspect of themselves and make it seem significant and lead to extreme anxiety. The seemingly fast-paced, exciting lifestyle presented by influencers can instigate feelings of low self-esteem within adolescents as they perceive their life to be less exciting simply because they lead different lifestyles increasing feelings of isolation from online communities. Social media is a highlight reel in which influencers present only the best moments of their lives. This causes an unrealistic standard for comparison as people base their lack of self-worth on a few fleeting presented in front of them.

 

Viewing the beauty standard presented on social media can lead individuals to struggle with Body dysmorphic disorder, this unhealthy comparison between individuals and the beauty standard can lead adolescents to develop disordered eating. An eating disorder is a mental health disorder in which individuals develop an unhealthy relationship with food typically either anorexia nervosa or binge eating disorder (Healthdirect Australia, 2020). Social media communities express advocacy for those struggling with disordered eating and spread information to aid in helping those experiencing it. Social media presents the unrealistic ideals of beauty, diet culture, body shaming, weight loss and more, when regularly intaking this content it can form a link between social media and decreased self-worth and even lead to development of eating disorders (Is There a Link between Social Media and Eating Disorders?, 2019).

 

Adolescents is a transitional phase in which a teenager is developing into an adult and is when individuals are the most impressionable as they are trying to determine who they want to become (Merriam Webster, 2018). Social media has constructed a beauty standard in which adolescents compare themselves to, these unrealistic standards hinder the development of self-expression and identity in individuals and foster feelings of dysmorphia. Body dysmorphic disorder (BDD) is defined as, “a mental illness characterised by constant worrying over a perceived or slight defect in appearance” (Better Health Channel, 2012). Social media enables the false narrative presented by influencers of digitally altering images to promote an unrealistic beauty standard. These images can reinforce positivity within some however false normalcy for most will cause for adolescents to compare themselves to the ideology that beauty is this unattainable image being presented online. It was shown that adolescents who reduced their social media intake by half saw, “significant improvement in how they felt about both their weight and their overall appearance” (Goldfield, 2023). This statement emphasises the way in which social media causes for people to compare themselves with those who are labelled more desirable online. Teenagers have an average of 6-8 hours screentime, when consuming this magnitude of social media, it results in the internalisation of idealistic beauty standards subsequently leading to greater displeasure in body image (Goldfield, 2023). “Persons with BDD are often single, avoid dating, have a significant reduction in the quality of their relationships and have high levels of social isolation” (Didie et al., 2006). This emphasises the isolation and alienation experienced by those struggling with BDD. Avoiding social settings due to the severity of the disorder causes estrangement from communities and aids in curation of a false sense of self. A solution for lessening the severity of BDD could be deleting social media, lowering social media intake, or limiting what is shown on social media. Since adolescents are impressionable it is important that they can grow and develop whilst not basing self-worth on a romanticised, unattainable beauty standard.

Cyberbullying is increasingly common as social media and online forums become more accessible to each and every person. Cyberbullying is, “an aggressive, intentional act or behaviour that is carried out by a group or an individual, using electronic forms of contact, repeatedly and over time against a victim who cannot easily defend him or herself” (Moreno, 2014).  Individuals engage in cyberbullying for vastly different reasons, some partake in the act unknowingly through “electronic violence,” cyberbullying can also be the result of a child that is bored and finds humour in the act, whilst others participate with the purpose of targeting and hurting individuals intentionally (Kowalski, 2012). Common characteristics of bullies include insufficient grades, lacking self-esteem, depression, anxiety, and suicide (Moreno, 2014). The implications of these actions can result in the victim experiencing feelings of anger, anxiety, depression, and loneliness (Camacho et al., 2018). Further impacts can include worsening academics, substance abuse, isolation, self-harm, suicidal ideation as well as suicide (Camacho et al., 2018). Research has shown, “cyberbullying is also correlated with increased suicidal ideation among victims, who are almost twice as likely as non-victims to have attempted suicide” (Camacho et al., 2018).  It has been proven that “young adults aged 18 to 24 were more likely than other age groups to experience digital harassment and abuse” (Powell & Henry, n.d.). During this developmental period adolescents are the most likely age to experience digital harassment, and this can shape their future sense of sense and lead to feelings of inadequacy and a myriad of mental health concerns (Powell & Henry, n.d.). Networked adolescents can increase the experience of anxiety through cyberbullying as it alienates teenagers from their communities. Social media can be beneficial in this situation as it is very accessible to receive help online and reach out to communities online struggling with similar issues. This unition can aid in helping individuals feel less alone. By encouraging parents, guardians, or teachers to spread awareness and educate the youth on the topic can play a significant role in decreasing the amount of cyberbullying being committed (Moreno, 2014).

In many ways social media forms the way individuals perceive their identity and curates a false sense of self (Fox & Vendemia, 2016). Social media allows individuals to present themselves in the way they desire to be perceived, this selective self-presentation creates a false sense of identity (Fox & Vendemia, 2016). By displaying these images, they are presenting themselves in the best way possibly even if that means altering images. It is very easy for the persona being identified online to end up straying from their real-life identity that therefore creates a false sense of self (Fox & Vendemia, 2016). Editing and enhancing images online and being selective with posts can often lead other individuals to compare and feel lesser about themselves and their own lives.

 

Comparison to others creates feelings of inadequacy when not achieving those same unrealistic expectations in one’s own life (Monroe, 2019). The beauty standard curated online often consists of altered and photoshopped images in which people compare themselves, by trying to meet this naturally unattainable standard people often lose their sense of self in the process. In doing this it can also lead individuals to feel the need to alter and fabricate their own lives therefore losing their sense of identity in order to fit the standard, idealised lifestyle online (Monroe, 2019). By curating standards and positively reinforcing stereotypes people often succumb to pressures and conform to stereotypes that aren’t reflective of who they truly identify as (Ross, 2019). Anonymity refers to when, “…someone’s name is not given or known” (Cambridge Dictionary, 2019). Anonymity creates a shield of comfort for people to do things they wouldn’t in real life. Social media promotes the curation of a false identity rather than authenticity and displaying one’s true identity. Adolescents is the most crucial time for development of identity and social media encourages individuals to form an identity based on how they want to be perceived and how influencers present themselves online rather than expressing their true identity. Forming false identity can lead individuals to stray from communities in which they relate to and leave them feeling alienated from society.  True identity is developed unknowingly through experiences in life that are significant and therefore help shape people into who they grow to be. By allowing individuals to remain anonymous online they cultivate a false sense of identity and trial different personality traits or express different behaviours they wouldn’t normally in real life (Dominic, 2021).

 

It is essential to understand the significant impacts social media can cause on adolescents during the developmental stage of life in which they are experiencing as they cannot grasp the true severity of the situation themselves. By exposing social media to the youth, they are subject to change as social media can cause prominent impacts on hindering or facilitate negative development in adolescents. Mental health issues can be developed as a result of exposure to social media. By seeing individuals portraying their best self-online feelings of dysphoria and inadequacy can often be produced. Cyberbullying is extremely accessible and prevalent within today’s society and being bullied can leave a significant imprint on individuals and shape their identity. Social media makes it extremely easy for the youth to adapt a false sense of identity and lose track of themselves. It is important for awareness to be spread in order for adolescents to proceed with caution and develop into their best self without the adverse effects of social media.

References

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Atkinson_2058452_Conference Paper