Daniel Fendrich

Rodrick MW 3:30-4:45

How Social Media Affects How We View Ourselves

Why are teens always seen walking, standing, and talking on their phones? The vast

majority of millennials tend to be involved with some form of social media, and this in turn

affects how they view themselves in everyday life. On social medias such as Instagram, a

popular picture sharing website/application, teens that are consider more attractive and beautiful

show a trend of having more likes and followers. An assortment of authors, Lisa Thomas,

Chandra Johnson, Madison Malone Kircher, and Ulrike Schultze discuss the effects social media

has on tens and their identity. What this statistic says to teens is that these people and models are

how we should look, act, and be like, because these same people get tons of likes and thumbs up.

These likes and thumbs up are a sort of way to gauge how popular, or unpopular, you are. Teens

take likes very seriously, some going to lengths of buying followers or creating robots to like and

share their picture every time they post one. This all ties in with the idea of being accepted by

other teens. With more likes and followers comes more popularity and the more popular a person

becomes, the more that person tends to be happier with their own self-image. These people are

then shown to the public through social media and seen by hundreds of thousands of teens. These

social norms that have been set up in society that tell people what is social acceptable. Due to

these norms, most teens and even some adults are pressured to fit in with them already laid out,

even if they dont realize they are doing so. A large percentage of teens identities are heavily

shaped by the norms that social media sets forth with the idea of likes and shares, the constitute

of advertising, and the several different types of pages that are presented on social media.
 Teens often will go through several life phases to try to appeal to one group or another.

This in turn creates several different identities throughout their teenage years, most of which

often arise from social media. Chandra Johnson in her article Growing up Digital: How the

Internet Affects Teen Identities, an article about how attached and relied teens are on their

phones and how they are such an essential part of their lives, that "They (teens) would no more

be out and about without a phone than they'd go without underwear. Its become part of their

identity on a social and cultural level." (Desertnews). This quote means that teens have become

so attached to their phones that it is an essential part of their daily lives and routine. Teens have

become so accustom to having their phone on them it has become as common place to have your

phone on you as you so underwear. Since kids spend more time on their phone than talking to

people in real life, they get most of their choices and guidance from social media. Instagram,

YouTube, etc, all have several different caricatures that potential identities could sprout from.

These caricatures are often times the ones with the most likes, shares and favorites. And since

teens strive to be popular, these identities take over the kids own in a sense. Also, these

caricatures have a tendency to go with trends, making everyone similar in multiple ways. There

are several identities that tend to not go with the trends. That is just another trend as well, its

just a trend of not going with the more popular trends. Since this trend is not a popular trend, not

a lot of teens will try to strive to absorb it in to their own culture.

Social media also has a huge repercussion on teens identities with the use of advertising.

Almost every other post on Instagram or on the sidebars of Facebook, most will find

advertisements for fashion, beauty accessories, or a lifestyle in general. With so much exposure

to these constant ads, teens views on their own identities are bound to be warped or manipulated

in some ways. Advertisements of rather petite woman and muscular men can alter some sensitive
teens view on what body type is more favorable, and may cause them to act on this matter. This

can cause them to pursue a possibly healthy lifestyle, or a possibly unhealthy one depending on

the advertisement. Advertisements could also shift political views of the teen, not that teens are

very interested with politics, but this could still have an effect. This could cause a drastic change

to ones views of the world they live in, and also a view of the people around them, in a positive

or negative way. Also as the times go on, there are whats called social media trends. These

trends can have a huge effect on ones identity, possibly several times throughout their years as a

teen. One of the examples in Lisa Thomass article, Understanding Social Media and the

Identity Work in Young People Transitioning into University about teens transitioning into new

universities and how that affects their social media, she said Social media gives you the ability

to edit everything you post and make everything seem amazing. I remember I spent a day when I

just came to university where I deleted all the photos that I'm not pretty in. (ScienceDirect).

This quote shows how the online identity of a teen can be changed so easily, on the platform

itself and inside their own mind. This in turn leads teens to follow trends very closely and thus be

more willy to change themselves to either make themselves or other people around them happier.

The different types of pages/topics on social media can also shift ones identity to a

particular direction or not. Certain kinds of fitness pages could cause them to become more

interested in that field, to a little as joining a gym to as far as wanting to get a degree in a health

field. Certain types of motivational pages could change their identity to a simply happier person.

Ulrike Schultze in her TedTalk called How Social Media Shapes Identity, a video about the

different constructs on how social media in any form will shape our identities depending on the

technology, explains that This is what we call a co-constructive kind of relationship which

means that we construct the technology, but the technology also constructs us. We become what
the technology allows us to become. (TEDx Talk 2:16-2:29). This quote means that the certain

types of pages that we choose to follow and share with our friends ultimate goal is to have us

live by that pages. Its set that if we follow it, we will eventually abide by the ideas it sets forth.

These different kinds of pages have a huge effect on our identities in that we may choose to live

by and worship these ideas on these pages down to the t, but these can also have very negative

effects on. Our identities too. Such negative effects can have a huge impact on our identity in a

very negative way.

Once again, a teens identity can be drastically shaped and altered by the several forms of

social media. This can be a positive or a negative change. With over 4 hours a day exposure on

average, and most probably more this is sure to change some teens views on certain issues,

causing them to act a different way. Teens are easily manipulated creatures and can very easily

switch their identities from one day to the next, especially in the modern days of social media.

Teens need to spend more time outside to connect with one another. There are several other ways

to create a different persona other the one you have. Join a club, join a sports team, get involved

with your community instead of being cooped up inside being on social media. Being a teen

myself, I am guilty of adopting these different types of identities to my own daily life in that I

tend to follow the trends of social media, and we all do it to some extent. We all see a cute pair

of shoes a celebrity advertises on their Instagram and think to ourselves that we really want it.

Everyones identity can be heavily shaped by social media.

Johnson, Chandra. Growing up Digital: How the Internet Affects Teen

Identity. DeseretNews.com, Deseret News, 28 May 2014,

www.deseretnews.com/article/865603981/Growing-up-digital-How-the-Internet-affects-

teen-identity.html.

Kircher, Madison Malone. A Bunch of Teens Told Us Why Some Instagram 'Likes' Mean More

than Others. Business Insider, Business Insider, 16 Feb. 2016,

www.businessinsider.com/what-instagram-likes-mean-to-teens-2016-2

Schultze, Ulrike. How Social Media Shapes Identity. Youtube, commentary by TEDx Talks,

April 23, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CSpyZor-Byk

Thomas, Lisa, et al. Understanding Social Media and Identity Work in Young People

Transitioning to University. Computers in Human Behavior, Pergamon, 14 Aug. 2017,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563217304892.