Imagine the only thing that mattered in your life was the amount of followers or likes you had on your social media page. That if you did not look like the models online, you would hate yourself for it. Social Media is a way for teenagers to express themselves. Little do they know, that behind the screen lies a bitter world, waiting to suck them in. Teenagers do not act like themselves online because they are feeling pressure by others. Social media influences teenagers emotions by making them feel depressed, altering perspectives on their bodies, and lowering their confidence and feelings of acceptance.

First, social media influences teenagers emotions because it causes them to become depressed. There have been many cases where a teen has felt like being on social media caused them to feel worse about themselves. Stephanie Mihalas, who works at the David Geffen School of Medicine at University of California at Los Angeles, said “Becoming wrapped up in social media can create a negative cycle” (Theobald). When children are spending most of their time on social media, they can start to have negative thoughts and feelings. Not getting enough likes, or views may cause them to feel worse about themselves. Teens feel that not fitting in is mostly due to how they look or act on social media, and this is a major cause of their unhappy emotions. Stephanie had also stated that,“Social media can actually become a root of unhealthy emotions” (Theobald). When checking their media every second they can become more and more depressed or stressed which overtime can become very unhealthy for them.  A recent study shows, “...the impact of social media on women could include an increase in negative or obsessive thoughts about appearance” (Weiner).Women and Girls feel like they should look a certain way, to feel happier and more accepted. Many people have said that social media is a stress reliever on others. Also, it is a way to make people happier, and feel better about themselves. However, it is proven that Social Media is a main cause of depression, and that consuming it for a long period of time can lead to unhealthy emotions. Many teens are feeling more depressed due to the amount of time they are spending on social media. Clearly, children should spend less time online because it makes them depressed.

Next, social media alters teen perspectives, causing them to hate their bodies. Kelsey, a teen that suffered through depression  because of social media, says that the bullying she was subjected to was only based off of her body type, and made her  feel awful about who she was. She was seen as chubbier than others, so the bullies  pointed out that imperfection. She tried to change exactly how she looked to stop the comments  (Roxby). The people Kelsey had known had started to bully her based off of her body type. She was seen as different because she fit the category of skinny  like the other girls online did. They wanted to show Kelsey she was not like the “perfect” models all over Instagram or Twitter. Kelsey also says “the answer to body anxiety is to showcase a more diverse range of bodies in the media because there is not just one way to be healthy or one ideal look” (Roxby). She is stating that we see the type of perfect body is someone who is skinny, but she wants more people to be confident in themselves to be able to post whatever type of body they have. Kelsey sees social media as something that hurts people’s body images, and the time period people are on social media makes them more likely to hate their body images Meaning how long they spend looking at others, make them dislike themselves even more. (Roxby). Teenagers may try different techniques to make themselves skinnier, which can impact their health and even their lives. People have said that looking at fit and healthy bodies could motivate them to workout more, and help them live a healthier lifestyle. However, teenagers may work themselves out to a point where they are not even healthy, and skinny. They may want to try to be skinnier, which could cause major issues in their lifestyles. Many teenagers feel that when they are looking at skinny people on social media they become self conscious of how their body looks, and it gives them body image issues, which have major consequences

Lastly, children feel that social media lowers their confidence, and making them feel less accepted. Claire Mysko who is an award winning author, and specializes in body images explains “There is this feeling of wanting to be accepted… It is a universal feeling, but when you get in the space of being on social media, a lot of it is based on feedback and the idea of collecting “likes”. This can serve as a catalyst for more insecurity” (Weiner). Teenagers feel that if they do not post the right picture, or if they do not tweet the right tweet, they will be bullied for it. Kid’s feel as if they will not be accepted due to how they look in their pictures, or how many likes they will receive on a certain picture. Kassondra Granata stated, “A new report in the United Kingdom finds that social media is the biggest contributor to the large decrease of confidence in teenage girls” (Granata). These girls wanna be perfect like everyone else."Researchers have suggested that the decline in girls’ confidence and self-esteem could be directly linked to their online activity,"(Granata).When girls spend too much time Online, they may be lowering their confidence right there and then. They can be the one’s to cause this type of depressed or lowered self-esteem they are facing. People say that putting inspirational quotes on their social media pages, will help others feel better in themselves, and feel more confident. But this is not the case, many times people will be bullied online for something that they posted. Teenagers confidence is dropped, and they feel like they have no one to talk to anymore due to what others say about them. The amount of time one spends online can be the main cause of their lowered self-esteem and lowered confidence.

    As aforementioned, Social Media is a necessity in many people’s lives, but it is one of the main causes for teenagers depression, body image issues, and lowered confidence. We want teens to be confident in who they are, not who others want them to be. Since they are at an age where they go through a lot of changes, going online to see pictures of others or not getting enough likes may make them feel worse. Technology is taking over our world, and it is used constantly everyday. Depression from social media is something that is occurring NOW, and if we do not stop it, the future children will never learn how to be themselves. Post uplifting images and quotes online, by doing this we can not only make modern teenagers feel confident, but we can make the future children self-assured too.