The negative effects of the social media

The things I’m concerned about at the moment are the negative effects of social media on
teenagers.

Let me explain why. Since I was a little kid, we have had warning presentations about the
influence of social media, and in the past few years not directly but I have read articles on this
subject. I, as a social media user teenage girl, have personal interest too, because I have
recognized that if I use for example Instagram more, I’m less satisfied with my body image
than the times I try to avoid using them. Furthermore, I realized that if I just have a few
minutes like I’m waiting for the bus at the bus stop, I’m more likely to take out my phone to
surf on Instagram than taking my book out.

A recent study found a relationship between social media usage and body image anxieties:
56% of women acknowledged that they feel the pressure for perfection of the social media
and 42% of women stated social media caused them to feel worse about their bodies. At the
University of Florida, scientists tested two groups of women. The first group had to just
browse on Facebook for 20 minutes, and the other group had to research rainforest cats for 20
minutes too. The survey found that the ones from the first group were more dissatisfied with
their body image. More and more researchers have found the fact that in the past few years
significantly increased the number of patients with eating disorders and bulimia.

I have two more concerns. Firstly, social media has a huge influence on our social
relationships. I have seen several groups of people who seemed to be in some kind of
relationship still they were just gazing at their phones. We cannot communicate well with
each other, in the past few months I identified that I have much more situations where I can't
speak fluently in Hungarian due to the words I couldn't remember. Secondly, a lot of people
think social media will guarantee them happiness because they see it on Instagram and
Facebook. They expect satisfaction from their real-life based on others online life, and when
they don't live like others on Instagram, they are more unsatisfied what can cause depression.

Thank you all very much for listening to me.