Today, young girls – or teenage girls more specifically – have proven to be the biggest social media users. The way teen girls consume and produce on various social media platforms has allowed them to become one of the biggest social groups to fuel such applications. Teen girls are more interested in cultivating an online identity rather than simply using social media to communicate with their friends and family. For that, social media is especially dangerous for them. Once an online identity becomes their top priority in their everyday lives, they start forming unrealistic ideas surrounding their bodies and overall self-image, thus causing self-inflicting harm without directly meaning to.
Unfortunately, a strong correlation between being heavily active on social media – like hyper-posting the tinniest of details from your life and using extreme photoshop or forming excessive aesthetics to please your followers – and low self-esteem has been found. So, what exactly is so harmful about such behavior?
Hiding Imperfection
One of the reasons as to why social media can be indirectly harming your teenage daughter is because she feels the need to hide her true self – or her imperfections – in order to appear perfect and not get judged by her friends or followers. When a teen girl is constantly putting on makeup, dressing up lavishly, caving into diet culture, and so much more in order to keep up with her online persona, she will soon enough feel the need to turn this persona into real life. This means that the way she always puts effort to appear flawless on her Instagram or TikTok, she will want to put effort to appear flawless in real life as well. Going out with her friends for a casual dinner will turn into turmoil of “what should I wear to have a perfect body?” or “what makeup should I use to hide my textured skin?” Social media often disconnects young girls from the reality of normal bodies and normal skin that does not necessarily resemble the Kardashians. When these girls forget that having a tummy or having stretchmarks – and even having acne – is normal, their low self-esteem will cause unimaginable harm that could lead to serious health issues, such as an eating disorder.
Looking Up to “Perfection”
On top of always wanting to look perfect on their feed, young girls often compare themselves to each other a lot. This issue accelerates through the use of social media. Once your teen daughter sees her friends or even some influencers she follows looking dazzling on their socials, she will often start to believe that she is not good enough just because she does not particularly look like them. The irony in this situation is that young girls forget that the same way they take extreme measures to keep up with their online identity, so do their friends and the influencers they like. Almost everyone on social media posts pictures of themselves looking great and it is rare that anyone ever posts a picture as they are in their “natural habitat”. However, the minds of young girls are programmed to believe that what they see on social media is real and that often contributes to their insecurities and self-Image issues.
What to Do to Fall Out of the Loop
- Parents must take social media seriously –as much as respecting your daughters’ privacy is important, checking up on them and their activity on their socials is necessary.
- Remind your daughters – or allow them to remind themselves and their friends – that there is a life and hobbies beyond social media.
- Explain to your daughters why social media breaks are vital.
- Teen girls must remember that they should trust their friends as real people and not treat them as individuals with merely nothing but an online image.
- Remind your daughters – or allow them to remind themselves and their friends – that having flaws is normal and is part of being human.
Social media may seem harmless – a form of entertainment and nothing more – however, it can be harmful in many ways. In order to keep social media fun for your children, they must be reminded that they are enough just the way that they are and that social media is merely people showing you what they want you to see.