Social Media- Angel or Devil?

In today’s day and age, there is a new phenomenon:, there is an increasing prevalence of young people spending much of their time on their mobile phones. They are busy updating themselves on Facebook, liking photos on Instagram, and tweeting their current emotions on Twitter. Suffice to say, teenagers spend a large amount of time on social media. It has also been noted that these teenagers are portraying a different image from their real lives on social media, and some have even gone anonymous or under a different name and identity. This could be due to their desire to gain the attention of others, or to protect themselves from online threats. 

Doing things out of the norms

Doing things out of the norm may not only get you the attention from the people around you but also people around the world to notice you. With social media being prevalent in almost every part of the world, it is able to link us to every corner of the world and everyone can view any posts on social media instantly. For instance, someone from America can view a post that was sent by someone from Singapore as long as the post privacy setting is set to ‘Public’. This may sound great, as we are able to get closer and connect to people on the other side of the world with a click of a button. However, this connection also shows the ugly side of social media. For example, in the recent news regarding Zayn Malik quitting the band One Direction, a hashtag was going around ‘#cut4Zayn’.  Below are some of the tweets taken from Twitter showing several teenagers self-harming and cutting their wrists in a bid to get their idol to join back the band.

(Figure. 1: A tweet from a fan calling out to others to show support by self-harm.)

(Figure.2: A re-tweet from Twitter encouraging fans to self-harm.) 

 To gain their idol’s attention, there is an increasing trend in teenagers sharing images and videos of them inflicting self-harm, and cutting their wrist to get their idol back into the group or to attract attention from a particular idol. This images and videos float around the Internet, with enough likes and shares it becomes a trend that encourages other fans to do it. One particular gruesome act was a note saying, ‘If my tears aren’t enough for you, maybe my blood will be’; ‘the faster you cut your wrists, the faster Zayn comes back’.These notes were posted together with bloody photos of girls cutting themselves.

  Strive to have an “ideal” image on social media

This #KylieJennerChallenge shows how teenagers follow trends without thinking twice about the consequences they are going to face. Even when there are other teenagers tweet on Twitter telling people not to do it after they had scar for the next few weeks, teenagers still continue to follow this trend. Teenagers follows what their peers had done so that they can be in the in-group not the out-group by following trends that are not even the rights things to do.

This affects teenagers who are avid users of Facebook as they will come across these articles so as to look into what is considered an ideal image. After which, using their new-found knowledge from these articles or videos, they set about changing themselves and altering their looks and personality so as to fit the ideal image of a perfect person. Most of the teenagers do so as they perceive that these ‘educational articles’ are meant to help them increase their self-esteem and their looks. As the articles were shared by their friends or family, they will conform to the norms where everyone thinks that this is in trend, and come to the conclusion that that they should follow it or risk being alienated or scorned by their peers. 

Good Or Bad?

Teenagers have different image on social media and when interacting with people is to seek attention from their fellow users on the social media platforms. They alter their real self so that they could be popular online. This is to archive a sense of belonging to any groups that they are not part of outside the virtual world. Doing things that are out of the norm are not always negative. But for the example I had given, hurting oneself to gain attention might get you an answer right away. When the “hashtag”, or trend dies off, no one will remember what you did with the purpose of gaining attention, but these scars will follow you down the road. 

Having “ideal” image can both be good and bad. It may let some teenagers to strive to have a better self-image and the way they present themselves. On the other hand, some teenagers follow blindly without knowing the whole story, for example the pouty lips challenge.  Even though being anonymous means that people will not know who you are, but when they give a comment that is acknowledged by others, they get a sense of approval. Some may say that being anonymous can show your true self, but true self has different meaning in each person perspective.