Social Media plays an important role in Man’s Day to day informational needs,
moreover, it has its impact on Teenagers both positively and negatively. On a positive note,
social media has enabled Teenagers to enhance their social lives by making friends on social
platforms such as Facebook. social media have enabled teenagers to be UpToDate with events
happening around the globe. Teenagers have also been able to learn new skills which are helpful
in their lives, Entertainment, and self-expression. However social media has had a fair share of
negative effects on the lives of teenagers. Issues such as low self-esteem, depression, mental
illness, anxiety, and fatigue are some of the impacts that come along with the use of social media
by teenagers.
Social Media has helped teenagers create a social network. These networks in return
benefit teens by providing valuable support to help those who alienate themselves or those who
live with disabilities or chronic health conditions. In addition, social media has made Teenagers
appreciate and enjoy living around people living with disabilities, therefore they can strengthen
their relationship with society. The teenagers living with disabilities have been able to come out
courageously and confidently to fight for their rights and opportunities like other able people
through social media platforms. Compared to the past, today teenagers are more informed on
how to treat people living with disabilities through various social media platforms. Social media
has also provided teenagers with platforms for affirmative action campaigns against various
vices in society such as female genital mutilation (FGM), gender-based violence (GBV).
Through these campaigns, teenagers can learn and become good ambassadors in advocacy
against these vices.
Teens can broaden their knowledge of what is going on around the world through social
media. It enables them to know the common issues affecting society today such as climate
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change. By learning on social media, teenagers can apply their knowledge and skills to seek
solutions affecting them and their communities. Teenagers can learn and appreciate the different
perspectives of life in the world and build up knowledge of various ranges of topics. The world
today has become more united than in the past because people can learn and appreciate different
cultures, therefore there is peaceful coexistence and interaction. Through social media, teenagers
have been able to broaden their knowledge they can identify and discover their areas of interest
and apply them in an academic capacity (Akram et.al., 2017).
Through social media, platforms such as YouTube, teens can learn new skills and, in the
end, the teens grow and succeed in their talents and grow up to prosper in their careers and
studies (Asemah et.al.,2013). The use of social media as learning platforms has helped in the
fight against Covid-19 among school teenagers, it has helped to maintain social distance hence
reducing the chances of spreading the disease as learning continues (Hamilton et.al., 2020).
Social media has given health practitioners an avenue through which they can teach teenagers
about mental and reproductive health. Social media campaigns have been promoted to help
spread health promotion messages, create awareness, and influence attitudes towards healthy
living. All this has been possible by engaging the teenagers and therefore has helped address
disparities of health among the teenagers. (social hub & benefits, 2022)
Social media has provided a good platform where teenagers can entertain themselves and
express themselves as well. Teenagers use social media to listen to music, watch favorite movies,
follow their favorite football clubs and stars across the world. Teens also get to express
themselves as they interact with one another on social media across the globe. They can
communicate through their comments on posts on social media and they can be understood if
they are happy or unhappy about various aspects of their lives.
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On the other hand, Teenagers have experienced enough of the negative impacts of social
media. A good number of teenagers have suffered or are suffering from low self-esteem, this is
because most of them have been exposed to cyberbullying (Hamn et.al., 2015). Most of them
have been infringed on their rights by unknown people who have malicious intentions to siphon
money from the pockets of innocent people especially teens as they are easy targets. Once a
teenager is bullied, he or she loses the value of self-worthiness which affects a major aspect of
one’s life.
Mental illness is also another effect on the lives of teenagers. Teenagers are prone to
mental illness when they inappropriately use social media platforms. Some platforms are freely
open to everyone yet they deliver harmful content which is not to be consumed by young people.
These harmful contents become too much for teenagers to comprehend and may cause
psychological disorders to the teenagers (O’Reily, 2020). In addition, social media has become a
substitute for teens who have a problem with the social aspect of their lives. A majority of them
prefer or spend much of their time that should have been for interaction with their peers on social
media, therefore they develop anxiety which makes it hard for them to socialize which becomes
problematic in the long run. The anxiety, in the long run, builds up and later depression hits them
and begins to change their behavior (MGEKN et al., 2021).
It is important to understand that teenagers are growing and whatever they come across
on social media has either a positive impact or a negative impact on their lives. It is therefore
important for all stakeholders to note the importance of engaging teenagers and guiding them on
the proper ways of using social media for it to be more beneficial than harmful. Parents should
always be there for their teen children and ensure good custody of how their children use social
media, they should also regulate the time being spent on social media.
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Reference
Asemah, E. S., Okpanachi, R. A., & Edegoh, L. O. (2013). Influence of social media on
the academic performance of the undergraduate students of Kogi State University,
Anyigba, Nigeria. Research on Humanities and Social Sciences Vol, 3.
Akram, W., & Kumar, R. (2017). A study on positive and negative effects of social
media on society. International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering,
5(10), 351-354.
Michelle O’Reilly (2020) Social media and adolescent mental health: the good, the bad
and the ugly, Journal of Mental Health, 29:2, 200-206, DOI:
10.1080/09638237.2020.1714007
Amedie, J. (2015). The impact of social media on society.
Hamilton, J. L., Nesi, J., & Choukas-Bradley, S. (2020, April 29). Teens and social media
during the COVID-19 pandemic: Staying socially connected while physically
distant. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5stx4
hub, S., & benefits, S. (2022). Social media benefits for young people | Internet Matters.
Internet Matters. Retrieved 17 February 2022, from
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https://www.internetmatters.org/resources/social-media-advice-hub/social-media-
benefits/.
Hamm, M., Newton, A., Chisholm, A., Shulhan, J., Milne, A., & Sundar, P. et al. (2015).
Prevalence and Effect of Cyberbullying on Children and Young People. JAMA
Pediatrics, 169(8), 770. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2015.0944
MGEKN, I., M, I., & B, P. (2021). Social Media Use in UK Teens and their Perceived
Effects: A Survey of UK Teenagers’ Use of and Views on Social Media. Annals
Of Behavioral Neuroscience, 4(1), 314-320.
https://doi.org/10.18314/abne.v4i1.2108