Adolescents: Social Media Analysis

Communication is an ever-changing practice and the way that it is taking place in modern society is much different than what most are used to from the past. With the rise of social media over the past decade, adolescents have grown alongside these advancements, heavily relying on social media as a form of communication. As cited in Best, Manktelow, and Taylor’s (2014) work, Duggan and Brenner suggest that 83 percent of adolescents involve themselves with social media (2013). Additionally, what is not studied enough is how much of an impact this form of communication has on adolescents’ mental health outcomes. This essay will explore the question of if social media has a positive or negative impact on an adolescents’ mental health. Social media that is the most prominently mentioned …show more content…
Following, adolescents are creating fake identities for themselves and pretending to be somebody they are not on social media (Raney, 2015). Raney argues that this results in people struggling to validate who they truly are which in turn, causes negative mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety (2015). Concluding, Raney follows up by saying that social media also has positive benefits as well but the negative tend to weigh out the positive (2015). This is important in understanding social media and its effect on mental health outcomes because since adolescents are becoming so prone to the idea of striving for perfection, they are losing sight of their true self, leaving them with a confused identity. Adolescents are acknowledging the standard of conforming to be socially accepted in the social media world, which is really changing who they are and affecting their mental health outcomes negatively. Adolescents are continuously searching for the “perfect picture” to post on their social media accounts in order to feel positive reinforcement in