Social media, especially for teenagers, is a daily reality whether you love it, hate it, or tolerate it. It problems are frequently complicated, and there are typically no established correct remedies.
Social media is frequently promoted to prevent loneliness, but a large body of research indicates that it may have the opposite impact. Encouraging comparison with others may lead to self-doubt, leading to mental health issues, including stress and depression. The impact of social media on social esteem is discussed in this article.
What Are Some Of The Effects Of Social Media On Self Esteem?
Social media affects your self-esteem in various ways, some of which are as follows:
Craving Attention and Validation:
Being pleased when people like and comment on your posts is undoubtedly normal. It might even momentarily increase your self-confidence. But it’s important to consider how this can influence how much we value ourselves. Likes and comments are indicators of approval. We typically feel better as we receive more likes.
However, when this occurs, we prioritize the opinions of others over our own. Allowing others to judge your value is a definite way to lose self-assurance and feel inadequate. It would help if you always kept in mind that your opinion is far more valuable than anyone else’s.
Deceptive Approach towards Real Life:
People typically share happy and successful experiences, creating feeds that represent their ideal lives. When everyone appears to be enjoying the time of their lives, it fosters idealistic expectations that are impossible to uphold in day-to-day reality. Not to mention that pictures are frequently enhanced and even cleaned up to hide flaws in people.
However, problems start when you experience peer pressure to seem nice and get favors. Maintaining a flawless version of oneself can become more challenging, leading to frustrations and feelings of poor self-esteem, especially if your social media persona doesn’t match your real-life persona.
Reduces The Sense Of Happiness:
Even those who publish flawless images of their lives online experience internal challenges, yet skillfully crafted postings can hide life’s imperfect but inevitable moments. We risk engaging in an inappropriate amount of upward social comparison. The act of comparing oneself to others who appear superior when continually exposed to images of individuals at their best.
This has a detrimental effect on happiness and self-esteem. Additionally, individuals with poor self-esteem, in general, could believe that witnessing others living their best lives confirms that they aren’t doing well in contrast.
Weak Social Skills:
Regular updating and posting on social media platforms can give you the impression that you have sufficiently connected with people, albeit virtually. Real, face-to-face talks are completely different from those held online.
Online communication cannot replicate a person’s physical presence, tone, or body language. Social skills practice, which social media might impede, is less likely to occur when opportunities to interact with people in person are lost.
Low self-esteem and sleep
Sleep is one important thing that social media can replace. According to a recent study by pediatric researchers Scott, Biello, and Woods, who examined nearly 12,000 teenagers, more frequent social media usage was generally linked to less restful sleep. For instance, very high social media users were more likely than average users to report late sleep start, late wake times, and difficulty falling back asleep after waking up during the night.