Social Media Vs Adolescent Girls

Abstract

Social media is an increasing part of adolescent girls' lives and can have major effects on their psychological health and mental well-being. Adolescent girls are vulnerable to harm caused by unrealistic body standards and negative content on social media. So, what are the effects of social media on adolescent girls, and how can potential harm be mitigated? Using secondary data this paper presents an analysis of how social media presents a harmful effect on young girls regarding their body image, increase of body comparison, etc. Thus, the answer to the research question is, social media causes negative effects such as over-comparison to others, body dissatisfaction/dysmorphia, and bullying. Possible solutions are parental controls on social media apps, limiting time spent on these apps, age restrictions, etc. Social media negatively impacts the physical and mental health of adolescent girls. These findings are very important because now that we know this, we can find a way to limit the time girls spend on social media, create parameters and limit what content is viewable and accessible with age restrictions.