Social Media Childhood and Youth by

Social Media Childhood & Youth

annabeljudy13 — 2024-03-13 13:37:24 UTC

Representing oneself

annabeljudy13 — 2024-03-13 13:38:13 UTC

Social media allows adolescents to take control over how they are seen and perceived online. They can curate a look and an aesthetic to their page, selecting photos that they feel represent themselves. Van Dijck (2008) says that "photographs allow subjects some measure of control over their photographed appearance, inviting them to tweak and reshape their public and private identities". These photos also show the environment that they want to represent themselves and for others to understand about them. Self image then extends to what we do and what surrounds us and not just pictures of their bodies. Additionally, by exploring other aesthetics online, adolescents can better understand what they are naturally drawn to, outside of their parental influences. This can help youth feel more free and independent which is critical to growing into later adolescence.

Safe Spaces Online

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Online platforms open up room for youth to connect, espeically those who are in minority groups. Seven out of ten adolescent girls of color report encountering positive or identity-affirming content related to race across social media platforms, and overall a majority of adolescents report that social media helps them feel more accepted (58%) according to data found by Vogels, E., & Gelles-Watnick, R. (2023) Social media allows for youth to find more diverse groups which center around shared values, interests, and issues, which provides a sense of belonging. It can create a safe haven for children who feel misunderstood in their day to day lives. One participant in a Pew Research Center survey of U.S. teens ages 13 to 17 conducted April 14 to May 4, 2022 said “It connects me with the world, provides an outlet to learn things I otherwise wouldn’t have access to, and allows me to discover and explore interests.”

Cyberbullying and Harassment

annabeljudy13 — 2024-03-13 13:38:33 UTC

Cyberbullying and harassment is a large concern for children on social media sites and apps. Cyberbullying was recorded to affect 7% of children aged 11–13 years and 5.2% of 14–17 years old adolescents in a study done in Italy (Le Heuzey). Due to the open nature of social media, children find themselves more vulnerable to direct bullying that is more difficult for adults to detect.

Body Image

annabeljudy13 — 2024-03-13 13:38:48 UTC

Use of social media breeds comparison. By being flooded with posed and filtered images, many adolescents feel confused about what the ideal body is. To try and fit into this, people use filters or editing apps to modify their body (Márquez et al.) According to data found by the UK Mental Health Association 40% of teenagers said images on social media had caused them to worry about body image. Additionally 35% of those teenagers had restricted their diets at one point due to worrying about their body image. Unrealistic body standards promoted by social media have spiked eating disorders in adolescents, and in one US study, 44% of adolescent girls believed they were overweight and 60% were actively trying to lose weight even they were within normal weight ranges (Ozer).

Exploration

annabeljudy13 — 2024-03-13 13:39:15 UTC

Social media is one of the main sources of information that adolescents go to. Apps like Tiktok and Instagram are quickly replacing Google beucase younger people prefer the quick video responses and tailored algorithms. Dr. Sherry Turkle from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said that children ".. have a brain that is wired for what in psychology is called seeking behavior, the kind of thing that a Google search gives you, something new, something stimulating, something different” Places like Tiktok and Instagram are entertaining and are a way to collect new information.

Phone Addiction and Negative Mental Health

annabeljudy13 — 2024-03-13 13:39:47 UTC

More than 7% of youth have problematic social media use, indicated by symptoms of addiction to social media(Nagata). Smartphone addiction has been correlated with the 90% rise of mental health or addiction related emergency department access between 2010 and 2020 for adolescents between the ages of 14–21. (Chiu et al.) Social media use has also increased the phenomenon coined "FOMO" or "the fear of missing out." This creates more of a pull to continually interact with people online and avoiding ever feeling left out of the conversation(Bozzola et al.) A longitudinal cohort study of U.S. adolescents aged 12–15 (n=6,595) found that youths who spent more than three hours on social media per day faced double the risk of experiencing poor mental health represented by symptoms of depression and anxiety (Riehm et al.) In the UK and US it’s estimated out of the 91% of adolescents who use social media, 50% of them check their online accounts at least once per hour.

Creativity

annabeljudy13 — 2024-03-13 13:39:59 UTC

Social media also provides a platform for which youth and children can share their artwork, writing, and photography. 39 percent of teens electronically share original artistic creations up from 33 percent from 2004-2007, and one can deduce that the number has only grown from that point (Lemish). In a recent study, it was found that the most social and emotionally vulnerable teens 37% more likely to value creative expression through social media (Ito).

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Works Cited

Anderson, Monica, et al. “Connection, Creativity and Drama: Teen Life on Social Media in 2022.” Pew Research Center, 16 Nov. 2022, www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/11/16/connection-creativity-and-drama-teen-life-on-social-media-in-2022/.

Bozzola, Elena, et al. “Media Use during Adolescence: The Recommendations of the Italian Pediatric Society.” Italian Journal of Pediatrics, vol. 45, no. 1, Nov. 2019, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13052-019-0725-8.

Chiu, Maria, et al. “Deconstructing the Rise in Mental Health–Related ED Visits among Children and Youth in Ontario, Canada.” Health Affairs, vol. 39, no. 10, Oct. 2020, pp. 1728–36, https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2020.00232.

Ito, Mizuko. “Value the Creative and Social-Emotional Upsides of Social Media Suggests New Survey from Common Sense Media.” Parenting for a Digital Future, 14 Dec. 2018, blogs.lse.ac.uk/parenting4digitalfuture/2018/12/14/value-the-creative-and-social-emotional-upsides-of-social-media-suggests-new-survey-from-common-sense-media/.

Le Heuzey, M. -F . “Les Réseaux Sociaux, Les Enfants et Le Pédiatre.” Archives de Pédiatrie, vol. 19, no. 1, Jan. 2012, pp. 92–95, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.arcped.2011.10.016.

Lemish, Dafna. The Routledge International Handbook of Children, Adolescents and Media. Routledge, 2013, pp. 193–200.

Márquez, Israel, et al. “Teenagers as Curators: Digitally Mediated Curation of the Self on Instagram.” Journal of Youth Studies, vol. 26, no. 7, Mar. 2022, pp. 1–18, https://doi.org/10.1080/13676261.2022.2053670.

Mental Health Foundation. “Millions of Teenagers Worry about Body Image and Identify Social Media as a Key Cause – New Survey by the Mental Health Foundation.” Www.mentalhealth.org.uk, Mental Health Foundation, 15 May 2019, www.mentalhealth.org.uk/about-us/news/millions-teenagers-worry-about-body-image-and-identify-social-media-key-cause-new-survey-mental.

Morris, Anne M., and Debra K. Katzman. “The Impact of the Media on Eating Disorders in Children and Adolescents.” Paediatrics & Child Health, vol. 8, no. 5, 2003, pp. 287–89, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2792687/#b15-pch08287.

Moyer, Melinda Wenner. “Kids as Young as 8 Are Using Social Media More than Ever, Study Finds.” The New York Times, 24 Mar. 2022, www.nytimes.com/2022/03/24/well/family/child-social-media-use.html.

Nagata, Jason M. “New Findings from the Health Behaviour in School-Aged Children (HBSC) Survey: Social Media, Social Determinants, and Mental Health.” Journal of Adolescent Health, vol. 66, no. 6, June 2020, pp. S1–2, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2020.03.024.

Office of the Surgeon General (OSG). “Social Media Has Both Positive and Negative Impacts on Children and Adolescents.” Www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov, US Department of Health and Human Services, 2023, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK594763/.

Ozer, Elizabeth M. America's adolescents: Are they healthy?. National Adolescent Health Information Center, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Institute for Health Policy Studies, School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 2003.

Riehm, Kira E., et al. “Associations between Time Spent Using Social Media and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems among US Youth.” JAMA Psychiatry, vol. 76, no. 12, Sept. 2019, pp. 1266–73, https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2325.

TWHadmin. “Why Teens Are so Attracted to Social Media.” The White Hatter, 30 Aug. 2022, thewhitehatter.ca/why-teens-are-so-attracted-to-social-media/.

van Dijck, José. “Digital Photography: Communication, Identity, Memory.” Visual Communication, vol. 7, no. 1, Feb. 2008, pp. 57–76, https://doi.org/10.1177/1470357207084865.