Social Media Platforms Are Targeting Younger Audiences, Impacting the Lives of Teens and Children
Fri Oct 22 2021 00:00:00 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
Sophie Suzuki Shih
Social media platforms start to target younger audiences, greatly impacting the lives of teens and children
Buzz. Buzz. Buzz. Unable to resist the temptation, Lina Ago, an 8th grade student reluctantly turns on her phone to check her never-ending notifications. 15 snaps and 100 missed messages keeps her glued to the screen as her surroundings begin to evaporate, leaving just Lina and her phone. As online platforms have become increasingly dominant in the entertainment industry, social media consumption among teenagers has rapidly increased.
Social media has been around for 24 years, with the first ever official platform being Sixdegrees.com, launched in 1997. People on Sixdegrees were able to create profiles and connect with other users. Soon after, in 1999, the first blogging sites were created, and in 2006, Facebook and Twitter were released (The Complete History of Social Media, smallbiztrends.com). Mainly young adults used social media when it was at its early stages, but recently, platforms such as Tik Tok and Instagram have been targeting a younger audience, and usage among young teens and even children has risen significantly.
These online platforms are designed to be addicting, and are programmed to keep people on the app for as long as possible. For example, Instagram and Tik Tok get users to keep scrolling through an endless stream of short clips, while Netflix and Youtube include features that automatically play the next video. Students from M4-03 spend an average of two to three hours a day on social media. “I get sucked into it, I just keep scrolling and can’t stop unless someone tells me to,” explains Sisu Alter. Similarly, many other students interviewed state they feel they are spending too much time online.
Social media consumes so much of the students’ daily lives. One student reports, “I always end up feeling like I’ve wasted time, I could’ve used my time more productively.” A 2018 British study links social media use with delayed and disrupted sleep, which can lead to memory loss, poor academic performance, and an increased risk of anxiety and depression.
Social media can also distort peoples’ views on appearance and reality, creating unrealistic beauty standards and falsely demonstrating how people should look or act. This can highlight insecurities, especially in teens who are undergoing rapid changes during adolescence. “I realized that I was constantly comparing myself to the people on Tik Tok and the high standards,” expressed one of the M4 students, who subsequently deleted social media after realizing its bad influence.
Finally, social media can increase the opportunity for negative interactions. Many teenagers are victims of cyberbullying. Because you can remain anonymous online, it’s easier to get away with bad behavior, and many people take advantage of this anonymity to bully others. “I think cyberbullying is a problem and many people get affected by it,” states Lydia Shorman. Fifty nine percent of teens in the US report being bullied or harassed online, and over 90% believe it’s a big problem for people their age (Pew Research Center).
Despite the vast amount of negative comments on social media, some responses also described potential benefits. Especially during the pandemic and quarantine, when face-to-face communication was less common, social media helped people feel connected to each other and keep in touch with friends and family. “The pandemic would’ve been hard to get through without social media,” confirms Oliver Jones.
Social media is also a great way to share thoughts, ideas, creative content, and educational material. It is much easier to address an issue and spread news nowadays, as opposed to times when teenagers didn’t have smartphones. There have been many scenarios where online blogs have helped to raise awareness around certain social issues. For example, in the book Watch Us Rise by Elen Hagan and Renee Watson, the main characters post poems and written work on a site and gain attention from online users all over Manhattan.
Social media is one of the most controversial, high-tech additions to the lives of many teenagers. Although technology is rapidly changing our lifestyles and habits, one thing is clear: social media is here to stay. The big question for teenagers now is, how can we reshape Instagram, Tik Tok and other online platforms so they become much more of a positive force in our generation, and generations to come?