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Judith Niyimpa
Dr. Adrienne Cassel
ENG 1201
30 November 2017
What impact does social media have on teenage girls?
Teenage girls now days spend most of their time on social network sites (SNSs), such as
Instagram, Facebook, where they post images of themselves (selfies), share outfits of the day
(ootd), and other etc. This is how these teenage girls get followers, likes and comments from
their peers as they do the same with their friends. In another words, they compare themselves
with peers in the context of beauty. These teenage girls seek to present a good image of
themselves but are anxious about how other people perceive them (Chua). Teenage girls need to
be taught how to be authentic when they post their profiles on social network sites in order to
When interviewing my seventeen years sister she mentioned that to some girls, these
SNSs are part of their life because thats how they get to talk to their friends, thats how they
know whats going on at school, etc. If ones not on these SSNs they feel left out because they
never know whats going on at school. They post everything on these SNSs, and it gives them
something to talk about at school. It all starts on these SNSs, thats how ones make friends and
It has been proven that using these SNSs affect ones self-esteem. Social network sites
has its own way of defining beauty for teenage girls, having a pretty face, thin body, wearing
makeup etc. This puts a pressure on these girls of how theyre supposed to look like. Some of
them present themselves as a totally different person as they are in real life. Most of these
teenage girls edit their own pictures before posting them, dress differently on these SNSs, wears
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makeup, because they want to fit in and they care about their friends or followers feedback
(Chua). When ones sees that his/her friends are getting more followers, likes, and comments,
they try to be like them so they can get the same feedback (Nishimwe). Teenage girls on social
media who has low self-esteem issues show their skin and wear revealing outfits so they can get
more feedback and feel better about themselves. This may improve their self-esteem temporarily,
but once they log off those SNSs, their self-esteem really hasnt improved (Nishimwe).
The other big danger that comes from kids communicating more indirectly is that it has
gotten easier to be cruel. Kids text all sorts of things that you would never in a million years
contemplate saying to anyones face, says Dr. Donna Wick, a clinical and developmental
psychologist who runs Mind to Mind Parent. She notes that this seems to be especially true of
girls, who typically dont like to disagree with each other in real life. You hope to teach them
that they can disagree without jeopardizing the relationship, but what social media is teaching
them to do is disagree in ways that are more extreme and do jeopardize the relationship. Its
exactly what you dont want to have happen, she says. Dr. Steiner-Adair agrees that girls are
particularly at risk. Girls are socialized more to compare themselves to other people, girls in
particular, to develop their identities, so it makes them more vulnerable to the downside of all
this. She warns that a lack of solid self-esteem is often to blame. We forget that relational
aggression comes from insecurity and feeling awful about yourself, and wanting to put other
Teenage girls who are bullies tend to do it more on these SNSs because they might create
fake accounts so ones will not know who they are. Number of cyberbullying is growing and Commented [NJ1]:
many teenage girls are suiciding because of it. ChildLine, a British counseling service, reports an
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increase from 2,410 cases of cyberbullying in 2011 and 2012 to 4,507 cases of cyberbullying in
The main reason why these teenage girls spend most of their time on these SNSs is that
they want to fit in. The number of teenage girls who are using these SNSs is rapidly increasing
and those who are frequently using these SNSs tends to not do well in school. However, the
results can be different depending on how youre using these SNSs. They can be useful when
youre using them to search for more information, posting some useful information,
communicating with your friends about school work, creating group so you can discuss about
To answer the question, What impact does social media have on teenage girls? Social
media has a big impact on teenage girls. It can lead to indirect communication, cyberbullying,
low self-esteem, etc. Teenage girls need to be taught how to be authentic when they post their
profiles on social network sites in order to reduce a negative impact on social media.
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Works Cited
Chua, Trudy Hui Hui and Leanne Chang. "Full Length Article: Follow Me and Like My
Comparison on Social Media." Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 55, no. Part A, 01
Daniels, Elizabeth and Eileen Zurbriggen. "'It's Not the Right Way to Do Stuff on Facebook:' an
Photos on Social Media." Sexuality & Culture, vol. 20, no. 4, Dec. 2016, pp. 936-964.
EBSCOhost, doi:10.1007/s12119-016-9367-9.
Contorting the Minds of Victims and Bullies Alike, and the Law's Limited Available
Redress." Southern California Interdisciplinary Law Journal, vol. 26, no. 2, Spring2017,
https://childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/ Accessed 26
October 2017.