Social Media Effects for Teen Sexting

When it comes to the world of social media many different applications are forming and taking the minds of children, teenagers and some adults by storm, SnapChat and Facebook being two of the most popular. If you did not know, SnapChat is all the craze right now among the younger generation. Numerous studies have shown that over 2 billion snaps are sent out daily. Why so many? Is this safe for children/teens? Uninformed parents tend to allow their children access to sites hoping their child would not be one of the common statistics. In this essay you will find information breaking how social media effects a child/teen with their peers, family, communication, and body imaging, also the bioecological base of each effect.

First, when exposed to social media, many parents have noticed that young adult’s behaviors tend to change rapidly. Why is this? A child/teen has access to social media and entertainment media on one single device. Studies have shown that SnapChat can play a role in the microsystem of a young adult’s life when dealing with family. (Vaterlaus, Barnett, Roche, & Young, 2016).

Recently group studies have shown that mixed emotions have been influenced by social networks among the relationship between parents and their children. Upon observation, it was proven that young adults feel that it is cruel to use forms of social media to stay connected with family and friends. According to the article, SnapChat has caused facilitate deviant behavior in children, causing the parents to have to respond in a strict manner. SnapChat has been said to cause jealousy among family members and other interpersonal relationships.

Secondly, social media can also play an interesting role in a child/teen’s relationship with their peers. This is where another form of microsystem comes into play. In this particular article, the relationship built between peers seems to be the same as if they were face to face. (Bond, 2016). Many relationships are parasocial, which is the relationship between media and audience. This type of relationship is like face to face because the friends open a level of communication and develop as a normal relationship would.

One of the differences that seem to attract children/teen relationships is the fact that there are no direct emotions because Snapchat is a site that plays an ultra-role in that, once a person post, the pic or video appear many audiences that they have befriended or to public viewing which gives them lines of open communication. In today’s time, children/teens learn from the people they meet online and tend to duplicate that trusted friends’ personae. This article produced a study that had no limitations, asking children and teen their main thoughts about developing “friends” on social media.

Third, terms of body images have swept this world in many fashions. As an adolescent starts or hit puberty, the chronosystem aspect within a person, they start to evaluate their body image. When an adolescent is subjected to our traditional form of social media, the image that their body displays become their focal point. In this article Fardoul and Vartanian stated that a study on social media and its association with people was done.

How social media affected how adolescents viewed themselves stunned researches. It has been said that girls that are on social media more are driven to internalization of the thin-ideal, body surveillance, and facial alterations. (Fardouly and Vartanian, 2016). Social comparisons have been what adolescents look at, large numbers of photos are posted on social media with tons of edits or with filters applied to make the girl happy. Snapchat offers tons of filters what can beautify or add silly effects to photos or videos. The correlational studies indicated that adolescents used social medial to compare themselves to more attractive peers.

Fourth, one thing that really should alarm parents about SnapChat is the disappearing images, videos, and text, this too falls into the chronosystem category. Where is the proof of communication going? In this article it was said that adolescents use this form of social media because it is intriguing, and everything is gone within a matter of seconds. Opening and closing a message can provide gaze of a certain photo or text of information that the other person does not want to be permanent.

The maximum time for a photo is 10 seconds and the person sending it can adjust it to fewer seconds. Disappearance of photos and messages among Snapchat is where sexting starts to develop. When communicating with strangers and disclosing negative photos in a public social media is what brings on cyber harassment. (Charteris, Gregory, & Masters, 2016). Social media, SnapChat and Facebook, has been the reason for growing popularity among young people which incorporate a self-destruct mechanism.

Finally, sexting. What is sexting? Sexting is sending nude or nearly nude photos and or vulgar language to someone older than you while you are at an illegal age, which happens during the chronosystem stage of life. This an issue that has evolved because of the ages participating in it. The use of Snapchat is a site that contributes a lot to sexting because no matter what the child sends, it will disappear. But there is still such thing as screenshot, which can expose the adolescent.

According to research, 4% of teens ages 12-17 are involved in sexting and 30% of teens are recipients of the photos. (Rollins, 2014). Though you would think that age would be the big problem with parents, it’s the fact of whether the images are considered child pornography or not. Some parents tend to think that it is okay for a child to send nearly nude photos to someone almost in the same age range as them.

Some additional information was released by Jody Stallings, a teacher, which give the parent and teacher thought on Snapchat. He spoke of social media in general as the “Monkey Paw” for adolescents. (Stallings, 2018). Educating the parents on what happens when their child is on social media in the positive and negative manner. T

elling parents that they should tell their children that it is okay to have that face to face social interaction, never always be so buried in a phone or computer. Allowing your child to explore sites like their friends but not hovering over them makes a big difference. No parent wants to leave their child behind but at the same time they do not want to give to the green life to let their adolescent invite danger into their lives. Everything about social media is not bad, you just must stop and pin point what is appropriate for you.

In conclusion, SnapChat was a harmless social media app that was launched by two friends looking to make a change. Every social aspect has its positive and negative aspect. SnapChat, alone with many other sources, was produced to allow people means of communication and an act of being able to share photos and videos with people they feel close to. The abuse of that happens on these sites are cause by the people wanting to manipulate them. When handled in a correct manner, SnapChat or any other form of social media is an appropriate app to have. Parental supervision and open communication is the key.