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Andres Brazao

Professor Beard

12/2/2021

ENGL 115

Social Media and Self esteem

and etc. It is something that has grown into the society of today and has become super huge. As I

started getting older I started seeing how really big social media is. It is something that I scroll

through everyday. Everyone uses social media to see what is going on around the world. It is the

advanced and better newspaper of our time. Social media has many platforms where you can put

your life out there and just show your lifestyle off. There is Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and

etc. It is a place where you can express yourself and it allows you to be yourself. It sounds very

great and appealing but to every story there is the flip side of it. One of the many issues of social

media is the amount of power it could hold on someone. Many people, especially teens and

young adults go on social media and measure their lives to celebrities and influencers. As a result

of that their self esteem just drops because they don’t have the same lifestyle . There are so many

people who compare their life to what they see on social media. It ranges from body, lifestyle,

money, and even relationships. Those are just some of the very few things that many people

compare themselves to. Many people could argue that this is good, that this will motivate people

to have or get those things. In reality this is bad because so many people start getting depressed

because they don’t have what the people on social media have, which can be a nice body,

lifestyle, wealth, and etc. They don’t value what they have around them and they don’t take
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advantage of that instead their confidence gets so low. Social media affects so many people,

especially teenagers' confidence because they go on social media and then compare their life to

others who are living an amazing life, have a nice body, and are in a great relationship. This ends

up affecting their self esteem and confidence in a negative way.

I believe one of the main reasons social media affects people so much is that people

compare themselves to the people who have or make their life seem so amazing. It can be the big

house they have, cars, vacation spots, and etc. People who don’t live that life see that and

compare their life and their self esteem just goes down. In the article called “#Sleepyteens:

Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and

low self-esteem” it states “More frequent Facebook use has been linked to lower self-esteem in

adults, due to increased exposure to upward social comparisons”(Scott). This quote obviously

agrees with my statement. As people spend more time on social media they start seeing more of

other people's lives and they start comparing themselves to those people. They start thinking “I

don’t have this or that” which takes a toll on their self esteem because they start getting sad and

start losing that confidence that every person should have to believe in themselves so they can

live an amazing life. They stop believing that they can accomplish the things that these other

people are accomplishing. They get too focused on how other people are living and they start to

lose their confidence and doubt themselves, making themselves believe that they can’t live that

luxurious life. That they are not good enough to make it and are too focused on others but they

forget that they have the tools to live that same lifestyle.

Not only do people compare their lifestyle but they also start comparing their bodies to

others. As a young age we are taught to be considered fit. People have to look a certain way and

it goes both ways for both a male and a female. To have a good body you need to have the 6
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pack, the muscles, the skinny waist for girls, and the curvy body, and etc. Especially for young

teenagers who want to look good. They want to look good so they can impress a certain

individual with their looks. This is seen a lot on social media with all these influencers having

those physical features. In a thesis called “The impact of social media on the self-esteem of

suburban middle school students” it states “Children are exposed to these ads most frequently by

watching television and the most common imagery is that of thin females and muscular

males.”(Pape). All this starts from an early age where the people with a fit body are praised for

and the people with not the best looking body are bullied. I have been a part of this not having

the best body. I have always been teased at looking at other people's bodies on social media and

comparing it to mine I started feeling more insecure about my body. People not fitting those

physical features start again comparing themselves to those people and with that their self esteem

starts going down. They start to feel as though they are inadequate from being able to have the

ideal body and they suffer from a low self-esteem. This can lead to so many things like suicide,

low confidence, and etc. They start to become too hard on themselves and forget that their body

is fine and there is no need to change it. This ends up being a bad thing for society because we

need to have people in society who are confident with themselves and love themselves. With

social media being around there is a standard in how a person is supposed to look. Not only does

social media affect one’s confidence in their life and body but they also affect one’s

relationships.

Lastly, what many people compare on social media is comparing their relationship to

other couples on social media. Social media is a place where so many people post and talk about

how beautiful their couple is. They post so many things with their couples, they post the

vacations that the couple goes to, pictures they post, and the lifestyle they both live. One person
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from a couple could be seeing that and just compare their relationship and just think they don’t

have what that relationship has. They start creating these expectations that their boyfriend or

girlfriend can’t reach or is very difficult to reach. In the article called “Impact of Social Media

Usage on Married Couple Behavior a Pilot Study in the Middle East '' it states “A survey [11]

carried out in the United States found that Facebook anticipated higher rates of divorce in 43

different states. Additionally, the use of social media forecasted dissatisfaction, trouble and lower

quality in marital life.”(Gull). This quote shows that social media creates many problems for

couples. It creates a lot of problems because they compare their relationship to other people's

relationships and they just think “why isn’t my significant other like that”. It creates a lot of

issues which can potentially lead to break up. This causes insecurities and so many issues

between couples because social media creates these expectations for these couples that are super

hard to get to. Which can have a further effect because this makes the other person in the

relationship feel that they aren’t worth anything or creates pressure on the other person. It also

makes the other person feel that they aren’t doing a good job and the person who creates these

expectations stops valuing their other individual and doesn;t notice what the other individual has.

Social media creates these types of issues in a relationship.

In conclusion, we see the many different issues that social media could potentially bring.

At the end of the day it depends who the person is. If it is a person who gives a lot of importance

to social media their self esteem will be affected a lot. We see that in social media a lot of things

are shown and that many people give a lot of importance to those posts. They tend to forget that

they may not have the same exact things that these other people on social media have but they

have the ability to have the same things those have on social media and even more. Social media

affects self esteem and could destroy so many people’s relationships. The way they destroy their
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self esteem is when they start comparing themselves to the people on social media they see that

the people posting on social media have a nice lifestyle, body, and beautiful relationships. This

makes the people feel that they are not capable of achieving those goals but in reality they have

the tools to achieve those goals. If people stopped comparing what they have or what situation

they are in to others on social media they would be more successful and won’t have such a low

self esteem.
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Citations

1. Woods, Heather Cleland, and Holly Scott. “Sleepyteens: Social Media Use in Adolescence Is

Associated with Poor Sleep Quality, Anxiety, Depression and Low Self-Esteem.” Journal

of Adolescence (London, England.), vol. 51, no. C, Elsevier Ltd, 2016, pp. 41–49,

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.adolescence.2016.05.008.

2. Pape, Anthony. The Impact of Social Media on the Self-Esteem of Suburban Middle School

Students. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing, 2019.

3. Gull, Hina, et al. "Impact of social media usage on married couple behavior a pilot study in

Middle East." International Journal of Applied Engineering Research 14.6 (2019):

1368-1378.8