The topic of the study is “Relationship between social media use and self-esteem control in high school students.” This study will highlight the impact of social media on students’ self-esteem and suggests possible ways of avoiding negative influence.
In the 21st century, there is a steady increase in social media platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest among the youth (Andreassen, Pallesen, & Griffiths., 2017). However, social media has constant pressure on youths, such as high school students who, through peer pressure, begin to admire the lifestyles they cannot afford and end up lowering their self-esteem (Keles, McCrae, & Grealish., 2019). Therefore, social media use is among the major contributors to low self-esteem among high school students because it subjects them to constant pressure.
Besides, the study will explore the merits and demerits of social media and reveal the modern and appropriate ways to help resolve the issues affecting the youth without provoking their self-esteem. Furthermore, the new information will be helpful to the peer counselors and youth leaders who will guide the child through the tempting times in their lifetime. Finally, the study will address the global problem affecting the youth’s mental health and provide possible solutions to boost self-esteem and avoid unnecessary pressure in life. Work by Keles, McCrae, & Grealish., 2019 indicates that exposure to social media affects the way youths behave when they become adults. The negative influence will lead to negative adulthood behaviors, while controlled and appropriate direction leads to proper development into adulthood.
Primary independent variables are age and sex.
The potential extraneous variables that might affect the results of this study include religion, political alignment, ethnicity, social-cultural activities, and personal beliefs that significantly impact the youth’s perception of emotional issues such as self-esteem. In addition, social and ethnic differences significantly impact how people relate and affect their response to the problems such as peer pressure and things beyond their limits (Hou et al., 2019). Furthermore, religious differences lead to varied beliefs and perceptions of content available on social media. For instance, while other students use social media for entertainment and education, others want to experiment with the activities they find on the platforms. Similarly, social-cultural activities play a role in how students perceive their content on social platforms (Keles et al., 2019).
For instance, children from poor backgrounds rarely get exposed to social media, and when they finally get the opportunity, they experience internet shock accompanied by negative behaviors. Therefore, to control the extraneous variables, the study will stratify the data collected based on religion, political alignment, ethnicity, personal belief, and social-cultural activities. As a result, it will be easy to highlight the difference in data collected from the cohorts.
References
Andreassen, C., Pallesen, S., & Griffiths, M. (2017). The relationship between addictive use of social media, narcissism, and self-esteem: Findings from an extensive national survey. Addictive Behaviors, 64, 287-293. Web.
Hou, Y., Xiong, D., Jiang, T., Song, L., & Wang, Q. (2019). Social media addiction: Its impact, mediation, and intervention. Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace, 13(1). Web.
Keles, B., McCrae, N., & Grealish, A. (2019). A systematic review: the influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. International Journal of Adolescence and Youth, 25(1), 79-93. Web.