Weighing Pros and Cons of Social Media For Adolescents

By Nishka Chaube

“We are in the age of the internet” is a common saying that gets more credible the further advancements humanity makes. With Gen Z (12-28 years old approximately) being the first generation to have been raised while the internet had become mainstream, it is inevitable that the younger end of the spectrum are arguably more impacted by the connection and entertainment that it provides. An inseparable part of the internet is, without a doubt, social media, with its ultra-paced scrolling mechanism and opportunities for major income. These days, it is difficult to locate one person who does not have some form of it installed on their phone, whether it be an instant messaging platform such as WhatsApp or an endless spiral of clips like TikTok. Usually, opinions are split into a clean line. Those who believe in social media and its advantageous properties, and those who don’t. Both sides have valid points to consider, and so this article aims to bring together collective studies and common sense, and to then create an overall opinion on whether social media is a more beneficial tool for our youth, or a detrimental demon disguised as a flashy like button. I wanted to construct a comprehensive essay that encompasses this debate once and for all, especially since this is a topic that piques my interest. As a digital native myself, and as a member of Gen Z (arguably on the younger spectrum), I see first-hand the impact that social media has on the peers around me. From parasocial relationships to body dysmorphia, to personal expression to global representation, this article will focus specifically on younger demographics, namely adolescents. Finally, its structure will follow a negative aspect, and a study, positive aspect, study, because otherwise there would be innumerable considerations, and for the sake of an informative and engaging piece. In the end, an opinionated conclusion of my viewpoint based on my research will be shared.  

Firstly, a major aspect of the social media dilemma is the influence it so tightly holds over teenager’s judgements, beliefs, moods, attention spans, opinions, self-images, and behavior to name just a few. Everyone is aware of the fact that short reels that bombard the eyes with over-stimulating, mind-numbing stimuli lead to shortened attention spans. And everyone knows that ultra-fit, unrealistic beauty influencers, or fitness gurus severely deteriorate self-esteem. What’s lesser known however, is other complications, a major one being desensitization. It is when individuals who are online are so used to consuming content that can carry a huge plethora of emotional power (be it anger, wonder, depression, or longing) that their real lives seem to lack that color that they view online. A dull feeling that seeps through everyday tasks, which can make basic duties seem demotivating and treacherous.  

In fact, a study conducted of 264 teenagers (average age 14.9 years old) found that exposure to marijuana and alcohol content, whether it be produced by influencers or peers, led them to feel that substance use was more socially acceptable and widely conceived as more normal, rather than that everyone does it. This challenges a common assumption that influence doesn’t affect a teenager merely by repetition of the behavior, rather it changes perceptions of what is publicly accepted. 

However, to provide a balanced argumentative, positive effects of influence are also taken into consideration. While its ability for creative expression and hobby-sharing with others around the world is a well-known positive, another lesser acknowledged benefit is its ability for diverse role modelling. Due to social media access being present all around the world, influencers with unique ethnicities, cultural contexts, neurodivergence, disabilities, sexualities, and abilities often emanate positivity and confidence, displaying that positivity is not tied to past narrow standards of beauty, success, and backgrounds. This challenges stereotypical thoughts that may have been shared with them due to their bringing-up. To make this thought process clearer, imagine that a teenager has grown up in a culture that puts heavy stress on their academic achievements, so much so that their entire value is decided based on their prowess. Now, if they view an influencer that may not have performed exceptionally but is still content and has a high satisfaction overall with life, they may feel relieved of some stress and this will therefore be beneficial for their wellbeing. 

A study that supports these findings is a 2022 McKinsey & Company report that found that over half of the Gen Z respondents (16,000 individuals) across 26 different countries reported positive effects from social media use – one of these effects being their enhanced inclusivity ability due to them being exposed early on (from social media) to a plethora of unique influencers. They also found that this generation places a never-before-seen emphasis on identity and cultural preservation. This strongly supports the idea that social media can be beneficial when the content being consumed is not manipulative, harmful, or unrepresentative. It also gives teenagers a chance to ‘see themselves’ in influencers around the world, relating and connecting experiences with them.  

From a purely developmental point of view, it is scientifically proven that teenagers are extra sensitive to emotions and reward, because areas like the amygdala (that control emotions) develop at a faster rate than the prefrontal cortex, which oversees making logical decisions. The next subtopic will focus on emotional memory. 

So, what is emotional memory? 

It is the ability to recall past experiences that correlate strongly with emotions making them much more vivid, believable, and therefore easier to remember than miscellaneous events that are devoid of any feelings. A common way social media platforms intentionally utilize, and in a way, manipulate the fact that teenagers have enhanced emotional memory is through the use of sounds and realizing for example, when teenagers hear a melancholy and depressing melody (or anyone for that matter, it is just that this behavior is more prevalent in teenagers and young people), it triggers a stored memory ingrained in the back of their mind. Other examples include using sudden silence or beat drops. Another instance is the use of colors, as warm tones often evoke nostalgia, serenity and comfort, cold tones connote isolation, depression, loneliness, and bright neon or flashing lights can evoke excitement and a mood of hyper-activity. 

While there are other cases concerning deliberate toggling of specific factors, the more instances your brain connects to a sound, image, color, text, or any other stimuli, the stronger the neural connection becomes, and the memory pathway. This is the main reason scrolling feels addictive or comforting, and why many people find themselves starting one short reel, and then hours later realizing the extent of their doom-scrolling. Spiraling into the abyss of never-ending content. A study found that adolescents with weaker emotional intelligence and less memory pathways (neural connections) forged by emotions, as well as less emotional-regulation capabilities were more likely to use social media problematically (such as a coping mechanism or indulging in parasocial relationships with influencers). This means they are more vulnerable to emotional trigger manipulation, and creators leveraging and changing teenagers’ moods as well as modifying memories and changing which memories the teenager perceives to be more or less important. This therefore becomes more influential in future behaviors and decision making. The study was called Adolescent Social Media Use and Emotional Intelligence, which further analyzed 25 other studies. 

However, not all is controlling and manipulative in the world of emotional memory. For instance, if teenagers are regularly interacting with content that shows other people displaying their feelings, whether they be vulnerable and raw or fake and orchestrated, this aids memory in teens and helps in understanding of them. This can lead to an increase in empathy because emotional memory links experiences to real emotions, not just events. In conclusion, young people are more likely to validate other feelings, know how to respond and mitigate the issue, and internalize prosocial values such as compassion and kindness, which is a crucial skill in the real world where emotions often get tangled up in the intricate plethora of complexities. A study that positively supports the claims stated above was conducted by Helen G. M. Vossen and Patti M. Valkenburg (longitudinal) followed 942 Dutch adolescents aged 10-14 over one year showed that social media use was linked with an increase in both cognitive empathy (understanding others’ feelings) and affective empathy (sharing others' emotions).  

The third major aspect of social media that readily features and impacts the young demographic is Self-Identity and Expression. A major drawback of this is the fact that many teenagers end up chasing likes and followers on their posts, subconsciously or consciously linking it to their social image. Due to the addictive nature of reward engagement, it provides a validation of some sort especially when in real-life teenagers may be lacking healthy recognition, which before long can cause self-esteem issues and a harmful cycle of posting, check likes, and can cause them to derive highs or lows based on the performance of certain posts. Comparison between their friends and other young adults can further fuel the stress and need to out-perform other videos, also known as upwards comparison. It can be hard to pinpoint whether a teen is posting for self-expression or for peer validation, and research links heavy reliance on approval to depressive symptoms and contributes to the global epidemic of silent body dysmorphia that devastates so many individuals. For example, let's assume that a teen, X, has recently created a new Instagram account. They plan to base it on their artworks and masterpieces they create. Overtime, they share two or three posts and gradually see their account garnering traction and receiving compliments. While they scroll on the platform, however, they see other influencers doing low-effort dance videos or lip-syncing audios gaining hundreds of thousands of likes more, and X begins to doubt whether her ability is truly what they thought it was. Viewing other artists with higher statistics and better performance on their videos highly demotivates X, and as a result they lose interest in content creation altogether, while doubting their artistic motivation. Soon, they become hooked on the platform’s addictive scrolling mechanism, and lose interest in art. Psychologically, this can cause the brain to link self-worth to social approval, a depreciative and damaging mindset to have, unlike anything a normal teenager should ever have to experience.  

According to a 2016 study published in Journal of Adolescence, Volume 51, with a sample consisting of 467 teenagers aged 11-17, measured overall social media usage, nighttime-specific utilization, emotional investment in social media, and outcomes measured include sleep quality, self-esteem, anxiety levels and depression markers. Besides finding out that those who used social media closer to bedtime and for extended periods of time reported lower self-esteem, another crucial and alarming finding was that the emotional investment aspect, which is how much teens cared about social media, had a strong association with their mood, attitude and lower self-esteem compared to just time-spent. Nighttime usage may reflect how teens have developed a habit of seeking validation right before they sleep as well and translates into a real psychological risk for teenagers globally. 

The flip side is also true. Receiving positive feedback through the use of rewarding mechanisms reinforces a sense of value, and constructive criticism provides an opportunity for growth and improvements to tweak in a specific interest. Common platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube to name a few permit independent content creation, allowing teens to understand how to use modern and relevant tools for expression and communication, helping them explore new skills and imaginative ideas, pushing the boundaries between a mundane life and exciting opportunities. In addition, youth is a period in which self-discovery is key, and young adults find what suits them best. Testing different forms of expression online helps provide an experimental environment in a way while still maintaining fame and publicity, which often leads to finding like-minded peers who share similar thought processes and passions. This inclusive feeling and the fact that teens feel like they belong to a community boosts happiness and improves their stability amidst an ever-changing phase of their lives.  

A study titled Adolescents' Social Media Posting, Social Support, and the Development of Self‑esteem was a 2 yearlong longitudinal study that found, among numerous other results, that teens who actively shared on social media and already had a steady inflow of support from close friends went on to receive greater social support from those very friends. The study emphasized that self-expression through posting can increase exponentially a teens social community, especially if that support already existed to a certain extent before the initialization of social media, illustrating the need for connection and how easily social media makes it readily available to adolescents. 

The last aspect that will then subsequently lead to the conclusion is Safety, and for this particular topic I thought it would be interesting to provide a real-life example instead of another study. A case of when a teenager's safety was compromised was the Megan Meier Case in 2006. Megan was 13 years old who committed suicide after being emotionally overwhelmed by a user on My Space by the name of Josh Evans. He emotionally groomed her by complimenting her and flirting with her, gaining her trust. Suddenly, after weeks of seemingly harmless texting, Josh took a hostile turn and started to send cruel messages that no young adult should ever have to hear, let alone a 13-year-old. For example, he once said, “The world would be a better place with you gone.” Once the truth came out, it was revealed that Josh never existed and was a fake account created by an adult to manipulate her feelings after a friendship issue.

 This case exemplifies that cyber-bullying has real-world consequences and that crimes are much easier to commit online where social stigmas and lack of insecurities or social pressure naturally loosen due to the fact that predators and cyber criminals are aware that tracing them is harder than if they were to commit physical crimes.  

However, social media doesn’t have to just cause tragedy and instill fear in parents' hearts. The McCain Institute launched a campaign in 2020 which aimed to strengthen teen online safety by empowering both parents and teens, which was doubly effective because it promoted increased communication between both conflicting sides, and shattering stereotypical norms about social media. The campaign, called R.E.A.L. Friends Don’t Campaign, uses influencers, platforms, public arts and other tools to advocate for digital literacy and spreads awareness against common traps such as grooming, identity thefts, exploitation, and online harassment. Outlining frameworks for a safer cyberspace for all, the campaign shows that with the right intention, social media is an effective tool that can cater to a global stage in terms of reinforcing safety norms and help teens recognize danger, leading to safe choices online. 

In conclusion, my opinion on social media and whether it has proved to be more detrimental or advantageous is mixed. While initially I had a solid knowledge of cases around the world that involved people near my age being harmed and suffering by predators and cyber criminals, I also was aware that most people in my school can’t seem to go 5 seconds without a phone in their hand. However, I must admit that researching about verified studies and writing them in metered verse has proven to demand critical thinking skills and has forced me to articulate my thoughts into words with as less biases as possible. Definitely after my research I am more aware of the fact that social media has a plethora of benefits I may not have necessarily been aware of, but I still feel as if social media slightly teeters towards being more problematic so long as stricter regulations and stringent rules are not enforced properly. Whose responsibility is it? Platforms. Influencers. Content Creators. All of these people and more collectively will contribute to whether the future of this and the upcoming generations are in safe hands. After all, while expression and identity are beautiful concepts that deserved to be recognized as well as communication, in my opinion they should come second after safety. The fact that deaths occur simply because rules are not set in stone is a chilling and depressing thought. Not just deaths though. Also grooming, rapes, exploitations, harassing, kidnapping and the list goes on. This is the truth. And only once this is fixed, only once this becomes the priority, will all the bountiful, beautiful benefits social media has to offer become truly worthwhile.

By Nishka Chaube