The influence of social media can cause teenagers to want to change themselves for what society’s standards require of them. As social media becomes more permanent in younger and younger ages, it can cause self esteem issues and peer pressure.

Social media apps have many positive and negative effects on teenagers. Many influencers show inappropriate things on their platform which convince young developing brains to think it is ok because the people they look up to do it. But social media is not all negative. Many performers and influencers preach having a good mind set and keeping only positive energy in your life. There are many positives and negatives on and about social media but does one over power the other.

Most negative effects include cyberbullying, negative self body image, and being addicted to only what is online and not what is going on in the real world. Another negative effect that most do not seem to think about is that older people can prey on young adults and teens by cat fishing them and pretending to be younger than what they are. Social media can be very dangerous for anyone if they are not safe about who they talk to and what they post. 

Social media does offer many positive effects on teens, such as talking to friends that live far away, learning to think outside the box, and thinking creatively in all areas of life. This can include learning to make a small business, create or start a YouTube or TikTok page, and many other outlets. 

Social media means many things to different people and as it becomes more present in people’s lives, it is important to stay safe in what you do and post. There are many negative and positive effects on teens but with more social media presence, more teens can learn from what happens on these platforms and can help change the negatives to positives by choosing to spread positive messages. It is important to learn from the bad things that happen on social media and not contribute to it.