In today’s generation, social media plays a major role when it comes to the lives of teenagers. Many platforms constantly display edited images of one another who seems to appear as confident, egoistic, attractive and successful. Looking forward, teenagers feel a big sense of pressure to always look perfect and admirable for the others sake online. This pressure can be either harmful or motivating, but in most of other individuals’ perspective the negativity can outweigh the advantages.
Firstly, on the positive side, seeing others succeed or present themselves pretty clearly might motivate teenagers to take better care of themselves, develop personal style, or improve sell discipline. For instance, someone might feel encouraged to work out more often, dress fashionably, and even improve their social skills just like the person they see on their screen. In this case, social media can sometimes invite young people to set goals and express themselves in various ways. But looking on this way forward, young people on this generation have a high possibility to get addicted or even worse, manipulated.
On the harmful side, the expectation to look perfect can affect teenagers mental and physical health seriously. Many people compare themselves to influencers or close ones due to pressure and misinformation created by popularity itself which only shares best moments and positivity with absolutely no suspension. This personal comparison can lead to low self-esteem and anxiety. Teenagers may tend to believe that their natural appearance or daily life isn’t fully “good enough,” even though social media rarely shows reality itself. In extreme cases such as addiction can lead to unfortunate behaviours such as excessive dieting, overusing filters and constant attention seeking through likes and comments. Instead of building confidence which teenagers believe, social media platforms can make them feel pressurized and insecure in many parts of life.
As a result despite these potential benefits, the pressure to look perfect and not being your true self affects many young individuals’ life and also their behaviours on society or to themselves. The pressure to appear perfect is much more harmful than being helpful.