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Perfect on the Outside, Distorted Within: The Falsehood of Social Media Among Teens

Sidney Brockenborough

UWRT 1103-H04

December 4, 2019
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Sidney Brockenborough

Instructor: Malcolm Campbell

UWRT 1103-H04

December 4, 2019

Perfect on the Outside, Distorted Within: The Falsehood of Social Media Among Teens

As she scrolls through her Instagram feed, 16-year-old Sasha says, “Look. See: pretty

coffee, pretty girl, cute cat, beach trip. It’s all like that. Everyone looks like they’re having the

best day ever, all the time” (qtd. in Jacobson). Sasha is a junior in high school, and she remarks

that viewing social media “makes you feel like everyone has it together but you” (qtd. in

Jacobson). She and her friend Jacob agree that “constant exposure to social media has an impact

on how they view their peers and themselves” and “even the knowledge that these images mask

serious problems doesn’t seem to alleviate the pressure they cause” (Jacobson). The feelings of

Sasha and Jacob are not exclusive to them but familiar to numerous adolescents across the

United States.

Since 2007, the advancement of technology holds influence in the lives of the majority of

individuals in the United States. (Szwedo) As the prevalence of technology grew, psychological

researchers began to track the correlations between the cognitive behavior of adolescence in

relation to their time spent using technology. A 2017 study conducted by researchers at the

Association for Psychological Science (APS) reveals that more than half of one million children

in grades eight through twelve have increased in students demonstrating higher levels of

depressive symptoms. According to Jean Twenge, a researcher for APS, the number of depressed

students increased by 33 percent from 2010 to 2015. The astonishing rise in depression in
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adolescence should not be a light consideration. According to Ian McInroy, author of “Mental

Health Top of Mind,” the rise of depression among adolescents “likely relates to the challenging

developmental stage of adolescence, which includes transition in the school environment,

physical growth and development, maturity and relationships, and a time of exploration,

self-discovery, and experimentation.” At such a critical moment in an adolescent’s life,

neglecting their mental health would be a disservice to the potential of children in this age group.

Because of the vast amount of changes that these young people are experiencing, the quality of

their mental health could be the determining factor for if a child thrives as an adolescent or

experiences this stage of life with difficulty and stress due to depression.

Along with social media, adolescents become vulnerable to the fallacies that internet

users curate and post on public profiles. Because the Pew Research Center found that 92 percent

of teens and adults owned smartphones by 2015, educators and parents must be aware of the

susceptibility for their children to fall into depression and anxiety that stems from what

adolescents view on social media. (Lenhart)

By identifying the rise of depression and anxiety among adolescents, parents and

educators can aid their children with the proper tools to combat the struggles of poor

self-identity, and the parents can help decide how their children will navigate social media and

technology healthily and positively. As researchers attempt to discover why the correlation

between social media and depression exists, I wish to uncover how deep exposure to the

technology impacts adolescents socially in Western Culture.

The mental health of adolescents is important for their transition into adulthood as well as

their wellbeing concerning their success. When poor mental health overcomes an individual, that
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person may encounter difficulties when navigating through life. Although there are no long term

studies to track individuals that experience negative developmental growth as a result of social

media use, the correlation between poor mental health and social media continues to persist and

should increase give enough of an incentive for researchers to uncover the reasons for poor

mental health being associated with social media usage.

Throughout a child’s social experiences, they receive multiple messages concerning body

image, personal success, fulfillment, wealth, and how they ought to form their identity as an

individual. By way of social media, these messages of identity transfer faster and more

effectively than the positive messages that many parents try to instill in their children. In her

article “Social Media and Self Doubt”, Rae Jacobson writes that “with social media, teens can

curate their lives, and the resulting feeds read like highlight reels, showing only the best and

most enviable moments while concealing efforts, struggles, and the merely ordinary aspects of

day-to-day life.” Those portrayals only hurt other adolescents’ perceptions of themselves.

Jacobson emphasizes that there is an unspoken demand for adolescents to conform to a

“perfect” standard that emerges from the fabrications on social media. By this, adolescents

become more adept at masking their depression and anxiety until they begin to display

maladaptive behaviors such as the inability to socialize with others, complete schoolwork, get

out of bed, or follow set rules. At this point, adolescents have begun to hold themselves to the

standard of appearances and “fulfilling” and are more likely to trap themselves in a cycle of

leading a double life online. Jacobson even remarks that several individuals portray a positive

and inspirational profile yet hide behind a curtain of emotional struggle because they have

become accustomed to upholding a sunny disposition on social media. Adolescents trap

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themselves in a world of flawlessness when they attach themselves close to social media instead

of attuning themselves to reality.

Adolescents begin to take issue when adults suggest that they stop using social media to

eliminate the crisis of teens finding their identity online. BBC Future’s Kelly Oakes writes in

“The Complicated Truth About Social Media and Body Image” that “giving up social media

altogether is probably too big of an ask for most people – especially while the long term effects

of using it are still unclear.” Some sort of balance must be lacking in the lives of adolescents.

The issue concerns a balance between the kind of content that adolescents are viewing and the

amount of time they spend on social media. Both are factors in the rise of depression and anxiety

among teens, but many parents attribute the issue to the amount of time usage indefinitely. By

acknowledging the amount of time spent on social media as well as the content viewed,

adolescents can curate the right amount of balance for themselves on social media.

The study of social media impacts has a long way to go in terms of identifying reliable

solutions to individual cases of depression and anxiety found in adolescents; however, I would

like to know how young individuals can avoid this rise in depression while battling the challenge

of growing up in a generation that is driven by media and technology.

Some institutions like the Child Mind Institute exists to study the lives of children

regarding mental health and learning disorders. Since its establishment, its researchers monitor

the behaviors and interactions of young people, including school, trauma, mindfulness, and

anxiety. The Child Mind Institute serves families by identifying issues that may occur among

children, including media and technology usage. The organization has not been able to provide

concrete solutions to the prevailing issue of social media among adolescents. Also, the Child
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Mind Institute does not have enough information to come to any definite conclusion about social

media and mental health correlations because the issue has only been studied for two decades.

Researchers can make reliable conclusions based on the data they have collected; however,

technology continues to change and progress meaning that discoveries are likely to appear while

studying the impacts of social media on teens. Recently, Instagram decided to remove its feature

that informs viewers about the amount of like their followers receive. A change like this will

most likely be monitored over time to see if individuals that use Instagram have a smaller

concentration of depressed and anxious individuals.

Though I concede that social media research is incomplete and must have a further

analysis done, I insist that social media and mental health researchers are providing solutions that

result in short term success for compliant individuals. Rae Jacobson also includes that the parents

of children must be active and diligent in “taking social media seriously, encouraging children to

think outside the (crop) box, modeling a healthy response to failure, praising (and showing)

effort, going on ‘social holidays’, and trusting people, not pictures.” Jacobson reminds parents

that they must convey their love to their children for them to feel “safe and healthy when they are

on their own.”

Parent involvement has proven to be a crucial part of the developmental stages of

adolescents regarding social media. When parents choose not to address the fallacies on the

internet, it is doubtful that another individual will address the issue to the adolescent and have a

significant impact on the child because adolescents are in a developmental stage that longs for

independence. Their self-reliance can make it difficult for others to make an impression on their

future steps regarding social media. Many parents may not know where to start when it comes to
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“interfering” with their child’s social endeavors, and they may be unaware of how influential

social media may be on their children. Some parents may benefit from using social networking

outlets that their children use or utilizing applications like Screen Time which allows parents to

keep track of the amount of time their children spend on their devices. These methods are not

meant to be intrusive, but to an adolescent, it may appear that way. Parents always have the

option to check on their children and ask how they are doing without an ulterior motive to give a

lecture on technology usage.

Others like Kelly Oakes, writer of “The Complicated Truth About Social Media and

Body Image,” suggest to “take a break and engage in other activities that have nothing to do with

appearance and comparing yourself to other people,” and remove the selfish aspects out of social

media viewing. When individuals become consumed with their appearance, they end up only

thinking about themselves and forget about using social media to network with others and to

interact with other people and their lives. To adolescents that refuse to give up on social media,

Oakes proposes to “think critically about who you follow – and, if you find yourself facing an

endless stream of appearance-focussed photos next time you scroll, add some nature or travel

into the mix.”

In my experience of viewing social media, I find it to be difficult for individuals that

want to stay knowledgeable about the lives of others while retaining self-worth in the process of

viewing. Social media seems to be the immediate way to remain aware of the state of

acquaintances and associates rather than keeping up with friends. Moving forward, I would like

to see the study of reactions to social media content from individuals that are better

acquaintances in comparison to individuals that the users do not know as well. I would also like
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to know how adults can protect children from the negative impacts of media while still allowing

children the benefits of growing up with accessibility to technology. I hope to find more

information about creating a balance for adolescents on the internet so that they can have good

mental health and have connections with their peers online.

For adolescents like Sasha and Jacob, educators and teachers must convey the importance

of reality instead of falling into the trap of social media fabrications. No one is truthfully having

the best day ever, and the perfect life on social media is unrealistic because perfection is

determined by a person’s perception, people can easily create a false impression of what their

lives are like, and people normally choose to share the highlights of their lives rather than the

pessimistic details of how their day actually plays out. Sometimes, individuals on social media

are not faking at all. They just choose to share the positive aspects of their lives like the majority

of people on social media. Most viewers that struggle with depression and anxiety while using

social media may need to change their perception of the other individuals online and view them

as ordinary people and not objectify their lives by trying to compete with the image the other

users are portraying.

By opening themselves up to reality, they can alleviate the pressures of social media and

become free to navigate the world without the fanciful pressures on social media. In the end, the

two teens could take Oakes’ advice and fill their social media feed with “inspiring landscapes,

delicious food, and cute dogs.” As an adolescent, societal pressures online make it difficult to

find a proper self-identity which results in depression and anxiety; however, removing the

pressure of unrealistic social media feed it “might just help you remember there’s more to life

than what you look like” (Jacobson).

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Works Cited

Jacobson, Rae. “Social Media and Self-Doubt” ​Media and Tech,​ Child Mind

Institute, 2019. Blog Post, ​https://childmind.org/article/social-media-an

d-self-doubt/​, Accessed 11 Oct. 2019.

Lenhart, Amanda. “Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015.” ​Pew Research Center:

Internet, Science & Tech,​ Pew Research Center, 1 Feb. 2016,

www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/04/09/teens-social-media-technology-2015/​,

Accessed 2 Nov. 2019.

Mcinroy, Ian. “Mental Health Top of Mind.” ​Barrie Examiner: Ontario Canada, 1​ 5 Nov. 2017.

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=n

ews/16830014ED1D3D78&f=basic​. ​News Bank Incorporated,​ 2019, ​Accessed 17 Oct.

2019.

Oakes, Kelly. “The Complicated Truth About Social Media and Body Image” ​BBC Future,​

BBC,

11 Mar 2019. ​https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190311-how-social-me

ia-affects-body-image​, Accessed 25 Sep. 2019.

Szwedo, D. E., A. Y. Mikami, & J. P. Allen. (2012). “Social Networking Site Use Predicts

Changes in Young Adults’ Psychological Adjustment” ​Wiley Online Library: Journal of

Research on Adolescence,​ 22(3), 453–466.

http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532-7795.2012.00788.x​, Accessed 15 Oct. 2019

Twenge, Jean M., et al. “Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and
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Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media

Screen Time.” ​Clinical Psychological Science​, vol. 6, no. 1, Jan. 2018, pp. 3–17,

https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376​, Accessed 24 Oct. 2019