Body Image Of Teenagers Negatively Affected By Social Media

Retweets and likes, how the common teenager is graded by day by day. Spending more and more time talking to a person behind another screen rather than face to face. Teens are sharing more information and contacting via screens more than ever. Ninety-three percent of teens have a Facebook account (Maureen), and 71 percent of teens have multiple social media accounts (“Teens’ Social Media”). Teens wellness, brains, and self justification are continuously being deteriorated by a teen’s scrolling and streaming. Body image, health, and personal awareness, are all negatively affected by social media. The body image of teens is negatively affected by the use of social media. In this day and age the ability to change the way you look has become

According to the 2011 National Survey teens who use social media are more likely to use and abuse alcohol, tobacco, and drugs (“National Teen Survey”). Along with that abuse, social media can cause eating disorders. Although eating disorders may not be directly caused by social media, it is the starting cause or the platform to create eating disorders. Social media has given pro-anorexia and pro-bulimia campaigns a platform to develop and recruit adolescents (“Is Social Media”). Eating disorders are prospiring due to the message that is unsheltered to teens (Rojas). Since the creation of social media, eating disorders in children fifteen and under have been trending upward (“Is Social Media”). With phrases like “pretty girls don’t eat” and “skip dinner, be thinner” it is hard for teens not to be pulled into the ‘magic’ world of eating disorders (Rojas). Sleep is also affected by social media. On average adolescents sleep seven and a half hours per night much less than the growing body needs (Udorie). During sleep important brain activity occurs including filing memories and preserve skills (Harrison, 144). Without this needed down time the brain soes not have the ability to do those necesary tasks. Likewise,this lack of sleep can cause fatigue, depression, an increase in perceptiveness to viruses, flu, and gastroenteritis. Teens also are so deeply connected to social media accounts so they wake up in the middle of

Smiling depression, a depression in which a person is depressed, but does not appear to be so, has been a continuous issue with social media users (Sunstrum). All over social media there is the pressure to be perfect, this pressure can cause great health defects to a person. Namely, this pressure can turn people towards the world of depression. Correspondingly, many people who have gone through the stages of depression through social media have chosen to delete their accounts (Sunstrum). Social media can also cause stress and self esteem issues. Girls are likely to stress over social media two times a week (Udorie). The ability to be close to anyone you want has the ability to stress anyone out (Ehmuke). Social media’s ability to allow yourself to turn off yourself and turn on someone else it makes you feel self conscience about you when you are out of the social media bubble (Ehmuke). Finally, social media affects the brain. The stress of having a social media and phone nearby makes your brain focus on that instead of the work that is being done which tires out the brain (Harrison, 154). Social media also effects the plasticity of the brain and hurts growth and change of the brain (Susie). Social media can also diminish happiness (Dockterman) and long term studies show that consistent use of social media can produce negative effects to mental health in adulthood (“Media, Body Image). Thus meaning that these