Final Blog Summarising What Has Been Discussed Throughout

Blog post #7

Hello again, Bloggers and blogger enthusiasts!

Thank you for having a look at my previous blog post, I hope it was an insightful read and you are now more knowledgeable on the matter. My last blog post looked at young people’s perceptions of what has been discussed in previous posts. This blog post will be a summary of the topics that have been discussed in every other blog post.

This will be my final blog post as college is coming to an end and I will be moving on to bigger and better things at university. Therefore, this blog post will summarise the main points from each blog post.

Firstly, social media can influence what young people spend their money on hugely. People post pictures and videos of their flashy lifestyles which can lead to young people sometimes putting themselves in debt to live the same lives of the people they see on Instagram. Young people may get down about not owning these materialistic things and living these luxurious lives, things may not be what they seem as they are through a mobile or computer screen. The term “money can’t buy you happiness” couldn’t be more accurate. There are many things in this world that money simply cannot buy, like manners, love and trust.

Secondly, thanks to the very high and mostly unrealistic body expectations that society expects, young people have become so focused on the fact that they must look good in every picture they take to gain the approval of their online peers (followers) and to gain lots of attention and popularity (likes). This includes comparing themselves to the hundreds of other girls and guys they see on their news feed who have “the perfect figure” or “the perfect look.” Terms like these make young people feel as though that they must look like these people who are branded as these terms, to fit in or become popular, for example. Therefore if these young people don’t look like the people who are branded as these terms, then they use filters and Photoshop on their photos to dramatically change the way they look online in order to gain approval, popularity etc. This is a very bad thing as they forget what's more important in life, like making themselves happy, instead of trying to please others.

Thirdly, thanks to the vast development of technology, face to face bullying has become something of the past. People have now moved on to bullying through technology. This can be done through the use of phones and the internet. This allows a person to bully another person at any time of the day, especially through social media because it is always active. To prevent this, many schools now train pupils in e-safety and ‘netiquette’ to equip them with the vital tools that they will need to understand the harsh reality of the digital world. An effective technique to stop cyber-bullying is to block bullying behaviour online by clicking the report button on social media sites.

Fourthly, because social media is so constant, young people feel the need to always be online just in case they miss something important that involves their friends. This can lead to mental health problems like anxiety as young people feel as though they must reply instantly to friends online through instant messaging and group chats. Young people need to realise that not constantly being online isn’t the end of the world and that there are a lot more important things that they should be focusing on instead, like hobbies, interests and school work/exams. Social media can ruin a young person’s happiness.

Lastly, the primary research that was carried out showed that young people are aware of the negatives and positives of social media, but still think that social media is a positive thing in terms of how it reflects on their lives.

Overall, social media is a great communications tool which makes it easier for people to keep in contact with their friends and relatives, however there are a lot of problems with social media that can reflect on young people very badly.

I hope the last couple of months have been insightful for you and you now have a bit more of an understanding of how social media can have an impact on young people’s lives.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog.

Goodbye for now...

Young People's Perceptions Of How Social Media Has An Impact On Their Lives

 Blog post #6

Long time no see, Bloggers and blogger enthusiasts!

Thank you for having a read of my previous blog post, I hope it was insightful and you are now more knowledgeable on the matter. My previous blog post discussed how social media can have an impact on young people’s mental health, in terms of depression, anxiety and in some worse cases, suicide.

This blog post will take a bit of a different approach, and will look at young people’s perceptions of what has been discussed in previous posts. To find out this information (which will be a part of my industrial investigation project) I carried out primary research which involved interviewing my guidance tutor in my old school. She was very helpful with answering the questions I asked and went a step further by asking pupils in the school what they thought as well. So I thought that was a good thing to write about - to show a bit of a different perspective rather than from an adult’s point of view.  

One of the questions that my school guidance tutor asked pupils to help her answer was if they think social media has an impact on they spend money on. The pupils thought that social media does have an impact on what they buy, and gave answers such as:

• Online fashion trends influences their purchases.
• Online make up tutorials allows them to see what the end result looks like before they buy the product, so if it looks good, they are more likely to buy it.
• They follow celebrities which show professional photos giving an idea of what clothes they would like to buy which are similar in appearance.

Another one of the questions was if they think social media has an impact on how they feel about themselves/the way they look. The pupils thought that social media does have an impact on this, and gave answer such as:

• They compare themselves to models/celebrities that are perceived to be perfect – how they look and how they dress. This makes some of them feel insecure about their appearance.
• The current trends e.g. the way make-up is applied or how eyebrows and nails are worn which are seen through adverts online influences the way the young girls want to look.
• They take so many selfies, looking for the perfect image before sending it to gain approval from people/look like others online.

The next question was if they think social media has an impact on young people’s mental health. The pupils thought that social media does have an impact on this, and gave answer such as:

• They feel the need/under pressure to follow others online.
• They feel the need to respond immediately to group chats, they know that others can see when a comment has been read and therefore there needs to be an immediate response.
• They panic when they don’t have their phones on them. This leads to anxiety.
• They think that people post all the good things that happen and the best, happiest photos are having so much fun all the time which isn’t always true. However this makes still them feel depressed that their lives aren’t like this.

The last question asked was if they think social media is a positive or negative thing in terms of how it reflects on them. The pupils gave mixed opinions, but overall thought that social media is a positive thing. They gave positive answers such as:

• It allows them to speak to friends when not with them.
• It lets them contact family who are far away.
• It offers a lot of support for many communities – e.g. LGBTQ and friendships can be established.
• It can make new friends if socially awkward.
• Learn about what’s going on in the world.

They gave negative answers such as:

•  People are more likely to say something online that they wouldn’t say in person.
• It can reduce sleep.
• It makes life harder for some people who are subject to bullying behaviours.

Overall, lots of really useful information was gathered from the primary research carried out, and it shows that young people are aware of the negatives and positives of social media, but still think that social media is a positive thing in terms of how it reflects on their lives.

Do you any have questions regarding this blog post? Then let me know in the comments section. I look forward to seeing what you have to say on the matter.

Stay tuned for my next blog post.

As always, until next time…

How Social Media Can Have An Impact On Young People's Mental Health

Blog post #5

Hello once again, Bloggers and blogger enthusiasts!

Thank you for having a read of my previous blog post, I hope you enjoyed reading it and it was insightful. My previous blog post discussed how social media can have an impact on how young people are treated online, for example, the way social media makes it easy to bully young people every day and night (cyber-bullying) and how this badly affects them.

This blog post will be about how social media can have an impact on young people’s mental health. Now don’t get me wrong, social media is a great communication tool which allows people to connect with other people all over the world. However, social media does have some negatives, in terms of how it affects young people. Social media affects certain aspects of young people’s lives including: their sleep, their well-being, and their growth.

Young people’s sleep

It is a well-known fact that a lot of young people are on social media 24/7. Whether it’s on their mobile devices, laptop or tablet, young people are constantly on either: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp or Snapchat. Even when their go to bed, they are still online chatting to friends, scrolling through newsfeeds, checking Snapchat stories etc., until the early hours of the morning. This can have a very bad impact on their sleep which is needed to focus on tasks during the day. People, young people especially need approximately eight hours sleep to properly function throughout the day. So what can be done? Well, to make sure young people aren’t on social media or on their phones all night, parents can either take away their devices to stop them from going online or turn off the Wi-Fi after a certain time at night. This will hopefully make young people get the right amount of sleep they need daily.

Young people’s well-being

Because social media is so constant, young people feel the need to always be online just in case they miss something important that involves their friends. This can lead to mental health problems like anxiety as young people feel as though they must reply instantly to friends online through instant messaging and group chats. Young people need to realise that not constantly being online isn’t the end of the world and that there are a lot more important things that they should be focusing on instead, like hobbies, interests and school work/exams. Social media can ruin a young person’s happiness.

Young people’s growth

Social media can affect the way young people grow as individuals. Social media aspects that have already been covered like cyber-bullying and exposure to luxury lifestyles are one of many reasons that affects young people’s growth. It can lead to serious depression and sometimes even more serious cases, suicide.

Overall, social media is a great communications tool, however it needs to be used carefully and occasionally to make sure young people get the right amount of sleep they need to function daily, maintain a happy lifestyle and grow naturally.

Do you any have questions regarding this blog post? Then let me know in the comments section. I look forward to seeing what you have to say on the matter.

Stay tuned for my next blog post.

Until next time…