Mental health has become a debated issue in modern society due to its prevalence, especially among adolescents. Adolescents suffer numerous mental health issues that impact their lives and well-being negatively. The two significant stressors identified to be unique among adolescents include social media pressure and bullying (Boniel-Nissim & Sasson, 2018). Bullying entails taking advantage of another person’s weakness and may be physical, emotional, and cyberbullying. On the other hand, social media use refers to the use of the internet to access several media platforms that contain varied categories of news and information. Bullying and social media use have led adolescents to engage in risky behaviors.
The increased use of social media among adolescents has led to increased sexual behaviors. Social media use exposes adolescents to sexual material that triggers their desire to engage in unprotected sex with their peers, which risks their health. Due to unprotected sex, adolescents risk getting sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies (Craig et al., 2020). Bullying, on the other hand, might lead the affected adolescents to turn to alcoholism as a way of surpassing the emotional stress caused by bullying. Alcoholism does not help adolescents to overcome bullying but ruins their lives by causing health-related issues and addiction.
The best way to deal with the external stressors that affect the well-being of adolescents is through education. Society and learning institutions have a significant role in dealing with external stressors that affect adolescents by providing necessary and reliable education (Craig et al., 2020). Adolescents should be taught the safe use of social media and how to avoid being influenced by what they see on various social media platforms. Adolescents should also be taught how to recognize and avoid behaviors associated with bullying to reduce the prevalence of bullying behavior.
References
Boniel-Nissim, M., & Sasson, H. (2018). Bullying victimization and poor relationships with parents as risk factors of problematic internet use in adolescence. Computers in Human Behavior, 88, 176-183.
Craig, W., Boniel-Nissim, M., King, N., Walsh, S. D., Boer, M., Donnelly, P. D. & Pickett, W. (2020). Social media use and cyber-bullying: A cross-national analysis of young people in 42 countries. Journal of Adolescent Health, 66(6), S100-S108.