Advancement in technology, especially the emergence of social media, has affected the entire society and caused isolation with young people being the most affected population. Young people not only in the United States but across the world are the highest users of social media. A survey conducted teens reveals that at least 95% of teens own a smartphone or an Ipad and are active users of social media platforms. According to Ata, Ludden & Lally (2007), approximately 51% of adolescents within the age of 13 to 18 have at least one active social media platform. Facebook is the most used social media platform whereby users connect with friends across the globe and share relevant information. Social media has helped adolescents connect with friends and share information. Social media has made the world of these teenagers into a small village-like world. According to Christensen (2018), social media has grown exponentially, changing the nature of communication. However, the effect of social media among teenagers has been a constant cause of worry among parents. Uncontrolled and unmonitored use of social media leads to peer influence, especially on Facebook and Instagram hence skewing teens perception of people and the world.
Continuous use of social media leads to behavior changes, lack of concentration, mind-related effects, and other long-term effects on teenagers. Despite having been established to aid in communication and faster communication, misuse of social media by teenagers has made communication challenging and increased loneliness. Instead of bringing the youths together, the platforms distance the teens (Christensen, 2018). Facebook has a high potential of impacting the emotions and relationship of adolescents who continuously use the platform without close monitoring by the parents or guardian. Even with the current modernized world marred by technological advancement, there are still no provisions drawn on how adolescents can effectively use social media without any harm. In an attempt to delve into this issue, several types of research have been conducted to examine the effect of social media on adolescents. Across the paper, various impacts of social media among adolescents will be analyzed using literature from multiple studies.
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Literature Review
Research Questions
The literature review aims to answer the research question that social media has a significant effect on the adolescent’s relationships. The studies show how the videos, images, and other content gathered from social media affect adolescents, making them develop anxiety and stress, which affects their relationship (Ehmke, 2019). The studies selected are those that explore negative effects of social media on future relationships of teenagers and impact on personal life such as self-image . Therefore, the literature review focus on providing evidence from various sources on how social media affects adolescent’s relationship with social media and adolescents’ relationships as the two variables.
Methods
The research relied on information selected on the internet, where I used keywords and phrases to identify various articles. The search words and phrases used in choosing the sources include, "effect of social media on the adolescent relationship," "social media and interpersonal relationship," "effect of social media on adolescents," "influence of social media," “teens relationships” and "social media and teens." From a long list of sources identified, I selected 12 qualitative studies conducted between 2007 and 2019. The chosen keywords and phrases were used to find credible articles from various online databases with google scholar been a significant source. The materials used in the review are those screened for inclusion and proven to be applicable for the study.
Extraction of Data/Results and Analyzing Results
The materials selected were assessed, and appropriate data gathered for every source. The data recorded for analyzing study depends on the initial research questions and purpose. However, some sources provided valuable information on various design methods used by researchers ( Paré & Kitsiou, 2017) . The selected sources provided credible information on how adolescents relationship with their peers, parents, and siblings is affected by continuous use of social media.
Evidence or results from the selected studies were analyzed used narrative-analysis. Various studied explored different elements of the impact of social media in the adolescent's relationship; thus, the reviews were written as narrative analysis ( Paré & Kitsiou, 2017) . Results from twelve qualitative studies were analyzed to examine how various social media platforms influenced the adolescent's relationship. The effects of social media on adolescents’ relationships were analyzed based on symptoms like withdrawal, poor self-esteem, and aggressive behaviors, among others.
Findings from Literature Reviews
Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is an essential virtue in adolescence, which is profoundly affected by the uncontrolled use of social media. Continuous use of Facebook and Instagram brings peer influence and skew perception of others and self. As teens try to compare with online friends, they sometimes lose their self-esteem and confidence in the cybernetic world. One of the risks of using social media is losing one's self-esteem, which in turn can affect how often teenagers socialize with people. Teenagers tend to create an idolized image of their role models and want to be like them (“The Indian Express”, 2018). Behaviors like starvation and distorted eating pattern to have a specific body image are derived from social media. In a bid to find out the likely effect of social media on the eating behaviors and their bodily image, a team of three researchers including Ata, Lally, and Ludden takes a look at the issues from both an adolescent and youth’s overview (Ata, Ludden & Lally, 2007). During adolescent age, there are drastic changes in physical, cognitive, and physiological aspects which one has to cope and manage. Sometimes the effort of losing weight and dressing like online friends become fruitless, causing psychological torture and low-esteem, which is linked to body size and physical appearance.
Another research conducted by de Vries, Peter, de Graaf & Nikken (2016), reveal that adolescents who use social media sites are dissatisfied with their bodies. Social media have ruined most teens' eating habits and body image due to peer influence on the image of the body as they receive appearance-related feedback. Most teens turn to social media to find a solution to their changing body sizes and appearance while forgetting people are created differently. According to Ata et al. (2017), female adolescents using social media are more affected and lower their self-esteem compared to males. The self-esteem and psychology of adolescents are also affected by increased cases of bullying, racism, and hate speech on the internet. Research conducted by Oberst, Wegmann, Stodt, Brand & Chamarro (2017), shows that adolescents who are victims of bullying dissociate from colleagues and have to endure psychological torture. Also, most of these young people develop a fear of missing out (FOMO). Another research conducted by Ehmke (2019), provides similar findings that continuous use of social media by the youths cause anxiety and reduced self-esteem. Therefore, there is a need to come up with a solution to reduce social media pressure by regulating the content available for teenagers.
Difference between online and offline relationships
Various studies show a significant difference between online and offline relationships. Mesch & Talmud (2007) researched the quality of social relationship online and offline among adolescents. The social relationship is a two-way process resulting from a combination of proximity which offers opportunities for mutual exposure and shared social values. According to the study findings, online relationships tend to last few years, and maintaining them is strenuous compared to face to face friendship. When adolescents meet often and share their ideas and problems, the bond created us strong as opposed to internet relationship. Another study conducted by Anne & Odell (2014), shows that 75% of romantic relationships affect adolescents negatively with Facebook being the leading platform. The research proves that most of the social media platform affects adolescents’ relationships negatively leading a negative attitude towards relationships.
Impact of Social Media Addiction on Relationships
Many young people have become addicted to smartphones and computers as they surf and chat online leaving little or no time with their families. Today, there is a strained relationship, especially interpersonal communication between parents and their adolescents' children. Adolescents no longer depend on their parents and society for information and counseling; instead, they rush to social media to find solutions to their problems. Research conducted by Christensen (2018), shows that young people spend most of their time on social media and less time on interpersonal communication. The behavior results in a poor relationship with parents and other family members. As people spend more time on social media, the overall emotional well-being gets affected, leading to reduced attention and increased depression. The use of Social media has affected the relationship between adolescents and their parents or any other person close to them, resulting from a constant cause of emotional changes. According to Frison & Eggermont (2016), girls who use social media frequently develop a depressed mood, which affects their relationship with parents, peers, and other family members. According to Christensen, at least 35% of teenagers using social media actively, are likely to have a bad relationship with their family members (Christensen, 2018). Most of the teens portray a high level of emotional imbalance which affects cognitive development resulting in rebellious actions.
Impact of Social Media on Cognitive Development
According to Bryant (2018), continuous use of social media by teenagers affects cognitive development, which contributes to strained relationships with parents and other peers. Due to loneliness, most teens withdraw from society leading to strained relations. Additionally, teens who face victimization and rejection from online friends also find it difficult to manage relationships with their families and peers for fear of similar rejection. Another research conducted by the “Indian Express” reveals similar claims that the use of social media among teenagers will likely have effects on future relationships (“The Indian Express”, 2018). Teenagers will have difficulties in building and keeping relationships, especially spousal relationship. The research employs psychological concepts and survey data in justifying the claims.
Withdrawal from the Family and Society
It is the nature of every human being to yearn for connection and belonging. Young people have moved to social media to satisfy their connection and social support while ignoring face to face relationship with significant others in the society. According to Bonanno (2018), teens are using social media as a substitute for real interactions. The author terms social media as a virtual connection and criticizes social media for the decline in real social interactions. Although social media is popular, convenient, and the easiest way of connecting with people, it does not offer the best connection and support as that given by social interaction. Social media relationship fails to provide teenagers with emotional support, which is crucial during the adolescent stage. Reliance on social media by teens makes them lonelier due to lack of social support causing adverse mental effects. Richard (2013) study also underpins Bonanno (2018) findings concerning adverse effects associated with social media use among teens. Adolescents with smartphones tend to spend a lot of time on their phones than talking to each other even when they are close (Richard, 2013). Therefore, the quality of communication is adversely affected, and the relationship among the teenagers may deteriorate because they talk less to each other, and sometimes, they may not understand each other.
Conclusion
According to data collected, social media has an adverse effect on adolescents’ relationships. Study shows that adolescents who use social media reveal symptoms of withdrawal, poor self-esteem, and aggressive behaviors, among others. Social media platforms are highly addictive, leaving a long-term effect on users. Many young people cannot control the time spent on social media and content viewed hence the increasing cases of addiction, psychological torture, and withdrawal from society. The research shows a need for more research on interventions against the issue.
References
Anne, & Odell. (2014, February 26). Teens on social media's impact on relationships: Survey. Retrieved June 3, 2019, from www.netfamilynews.org/teens-on-social-medias-impact-on-relationships-survey
Ata, R. N., Ludden, A. B., & Lally, M. M. (2007). The effects of gender and family, friend, and media influences on eating behaviors and body image during adolescence. Journal of Youth and Adolescence , 36(8), 1024-1037. Retrieved from link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10964-006-9159-x
Bonanno, S. G. (2018, October 8). Social Media's Impact on Relationships. Retrieved from psychcentral.com/lib/social-medias-impact-on-relationships/
Bryant, A. (2018). The Effect of Social Media on the Physical, Social Emotional, and Cognitive Development of Adolescents. Retrieved from scholarworks.merrimack.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1036&context=honors_capstones
Christensen, S. P. (2018). Social Media Use and Its Impact on Relationships and Emotions. scholarsarchive.byu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=7927&context=etd
de Vries, D. A., Peter, J., de Graaf, H., & Nikken, P. (2016). Adolescents’ social network site use, peer appearance-related feedback, and body dissatisfaction: Testing a mediation model. Journal of youth and adolescence , 45 (1), 211-224.
Ehmke, R. (2019). How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers. Retrieved June 3, 2019, from childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/
Frison, E., & Eggermont, S. (2016). Exploring the relationships between different types of Facebook use, perceived online social support, and adolescents’ depressed mood. Social Science Computer Review , 34 (2), 153-171.
Mesch, G. S., & Talmud, I. (2007). Similarity and the quality of online and offline social relationships among adolescents in Israel. Journal of Research on Adolescence , 17(2), 455-465. Retrieved from onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2007.00529.x
Oberst, U., Wegmann, E., Stodt, B., Brand, M., & Chamarro, A. (2017). Negative consequences from heavy social networking in adolescents: The mediating role of fear of missing out. Journal of adolescence , 55 , 51-60.
Paré, G., & Kitsiou, S. (2017). Methods for Literature Reviews. In Handbook of eHealth Evaluation: An Evidence-based Approach [Internet] . University of Victoria.
Richard, J. (2013, May 12). How Does Social Media Affect Our Relationships?: Interpersonal Communication in the Digital Age - Communication in the Real World Blog. Retrieved from richardgjonesjr.squarespace.com/blog/2013/5/12/how-does-social-media-affect-our-relationships-interpersonal-9.html
The Indian Express. (2018, February 22). Social media use may affect teens' real life. indianexpress.com/article/technology/social/social-media-use-may-affect- teens-real-life-relationships-study-5074335/
