Title: Adolescents and Social Media
Headings: Adolescents and Social Media
Adolescents and Social Media
The Impact of Social Media Use on Development
The Risks of Social Media
The Benefits of Social Media
How a Marriage and Family Therapist can Help?
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Content: Yet this is new terrain for many parents raising a generation of children who only know a world with social media. This is especially critical as teens feel tremendous pressure to "fit in" with peers as they leave childhood and move toward adulthood. The Risks of Social Media
Mental Health – Adolescence is a time of social pressure, identity formation, and emotional ups and downs. For those that are able to seamlessly develop and maintain friend groups and a sense of belonging, social media is a point of connection and positivity. However, we know that peer rejection and lack of close friendships increases the risk of developing depression and low self-esteem. Research shows that some teens who are excessive users of social media are often bored, unhappy, and tend to get into more trouble than their peers. The emotional toll of social media on young women’s and girls’ self-image can be especially high. Cyberbullying – While bullying has been going on for many generations, tech savvy or otherwise, the prevalence of social media as the primary medium of communication opens up what can be an abyss of emotional distress for teens. This is a new level of bullying that has potentially fatal consequences. It is especially daunting for LGBTQ teens, as well as young women as they are most often the targets of this kind of bullying.