Social Media Habits Among Teenagers

Like, tweet, follow. These are the terms that can be closely associated with teenagers nowadays. Teenagers constitute a large section of Internet users (Chang, 2010, p. 501) and in this modern day, the non-usage of social media among teenagers is almost unheard of. Social media is the collective of online communications channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration. Social media, as well as the Internet, has emerged as an essential means for work, socialization and entertainment (Byun, Ruffini, Mills, Douglas, Niang, Stepchenkova, S. K. Lee, Loutfi, J. K. Lee, Atallah, Blanton, 2009, p. 203) among teenagers. Due to the use of the Internet for the aforementioned purposes, (Yilmaz, F., G., K. Yilmaz,

Teenagers nowadays are addicted to social media due to their overindulgence, caused by their use of this platform having become a habit. With social media being a source for communication and entertainment and also being easily accessible to any teenager who has a computer or cell phone (O 'keeffe, G. S., Clarke-Pearson, K., 2011, p. 800), it is no wonder that the use of this platform has become a habit among teenagers. Due to the convenience that social media brings and provides, teenagers are now afforded with reasons to spend hours a day on social media. For example, teenagers nowadays spend hours on Facebook, updating their status, watching videos and looking through their news feed. They do so be it at home, in school or when they are out with friends. This shows that social media is easily accessible and are used on a regular basis to the point of it becoming a habit. However, teenagers who are more self-disciplined are able to limit their usage of social media to once a day as their main purpose of this platform is merely to stay in touch with friends (Kuss, D. J., Griffiths, M. D., 2011, p. 3530). There are those who can put away these distractions and focus on more relevant tasks at hand. Regardless, studies show that the overall usage of social media increased by two hours per month to five and a half hours and active participation increased by thirty percent (Kuss, D. J., Griffiths, M. D., 2011, p. 3530). With this, it is seen that as social media becomes

Teenagers nowadays are addicted to social media due to their ego as they use it to boost their self-esteem. Those with low self-esteem turn to social media for assistance in that area. They may be individuals who feel that they are not appreciated enough in reality and suffer from a lack of self-esteem because of that. Hence, with social media coming into the picture, teenagers can now have that sense of appreciation or recognition from their virtual friends by posting messages about private accomplishments and advances on the social network pages and view or comment on posts by other users (Mitina, M. A., Popkova, E. G., & Ermolina, L. V., 2015, p. 179). However, social media is no utopia. It is not always the case of feeling appreciated or recognized. There is the threat of cyberbullying, where the percentage of teenagers who were victims of this ranged from nine percent to as high as fifty three percent (Chang, 2010, p. 515). With cyberbullying and online harassment being a real threat, those who turn to social media with the intention of boosting their self-esteem may find their intentions backfiring resulting in their esteem taking a hit even more. However, social media gives teenagers the ability to switch quickly a role (Mitina, M. A., Popkova, E. G., & Ermolina, L. V., 2015, p. 178). Teenagers can choose an image of themselves for others to see. Plus, they can change this image easily and delete or block out those who are negative towards them. This ability allows