Exploring both sides:
Social media has quickly become a huge part if most people’s everyday life, with grandparents, parents, and children often having some form of it. With technology growing everyday it has become integrated into everyone’s lives in one way or another, this makes it far easier to have social media. With most people especially teenagers having a cell phone they have very easy access to social media which has sparked a huge debate. Parents have become worried about the effects of social media on developing teenagers. Parents begin to question, are there benefits to social media? Social media is defined as an app or a website that allows for content to be shared in order to make social connections. Certain apps have become very popular over the years especially with teenagers, for example, Snapchat, Tik Tok, and Instagram have had a rise in usage in recent years. Most parent and grandparents didn’t grow up with social media in the same way that teenagers are now. It can become hard to understand both the negatives and positive effects social media has on developing teenagers and it causes people to pick and stick with one side of the debate. Some believe the negative effects social media has on teens development far outweigh the potential positives. While others believe the complete opposite and they see social media as a wonderful thing for teens development.
Perspective 1:
To begin the debate, some believe social media is harmful and stunts teens social development. An article called “How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers” written but Rachel Ehmke discusses the potential issues that comes with teens using social media. She mentions numerous affects social media had on teenagers including effects on communication, self-esteem, cyberbullying, and dealing with being ignored. Ehmke mentions that when all communication is done online it could make people anxious to do it in person. Speaking is the biggest way we communicate and when teens become anxious about talking in person it stunts their development. Another issue that could come from social media is teens will change themselves in order to fit into unrealistic expectations. This could cause teens to take longer to figure out who they truly are of even hide who they are. Ehmke says, “kids today are getting actual polling data on how much people like them or their appearance via things like ‘likes.’ It’s enough to turn anyone’s head”. Teenagers are in a very important developmental state of figuring out who they are, this becomes a bigger challenge when people on the internet are able to watch. It could also become anxiety inducing when they way someone looks and acts differently, this can cause teens to change themselves to appease and fit in well with others.
Perspective 2:
On the opposite side of the debate, a study called “Social Media and Adolescent Health” written by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, Medicine speaks on the benefits social media brings to developing teenagers. One of the many benefits stated by T.N.A.S.E.M is, “Teens can express their identities, share their thoughts, and showcase their creativity through posts” (74). This can allow teens to find people that have similar interests or think in similar ways allowing for more connections. Another benefit mentioned by Uhls states, “Adolescents use social media to maintain friendships and explore their identity, both central developmental tasks for their age” (qtd. in T.N.A.S.E.M 75). Teenagers can connect to both family and friends that live far away that without social media they may not have been able to maintain those relationships. Another point that is made in the article talks briefly about COVID-19: “Moreover socializing in person is not always possible. Physical isolation is a source of loneliness that social media can counter” (T.N.A.S.E.M 78). Socializing however, isn’t the only benefit from social media, there is also creativity. The article explains “Social media can be a venue to exhibit different forms of expression, such as in fanfiction” (T.N.A.S.E.M 82). Not only does this help spark creativity in teens but it could also help with finding interest in writing or improving someone’s writing. Creativity is important for developing teens because it can give them a voice and allows them to think outside of boxes. Another benefit of social media is that it is a quick way to spread information: “Social media provides a quick and convenient way to learn about and discuss current events” (T.N.A.S.E.M 82). Before social media it took longer to learn and to hear about events that were going on but because of social media current events are just a click away and you can find a lot of information on it. This allows for the spread of information to happen quicker allowing teens to stay more informed while also helping them learn how to deal with current issues and how to find research on it.
Strengths:
Each article has its own strengths with their arguments, the first article was written by Rachel Ehmke, throughout her article she quotes two different psychologists named Catherine Steiner-Adair and Donna Wick. She uses their expertise to explain her side and to get their readers information on the topic at hand by experts. In the article she also lists multiple potential harms of social media and quotes both psychologists often through each harm. Another strength of this article is at the end they gave a solution in order to help teenagers for example Ehmke states, “It’s up to parents to set a good example of what healthy device usage looks like.” They give reasonable suggestions and in a way it’s a compromise.
The second article I’ve mentioned which is written by T.N.A.S.E.M has its own strengths. This article uses many different people’s research along with statists and graphs. In the article they also thoroughly explain the subject written about and they include a section explaining why teenagers like using social media. T.N.A.S.E.M also give many examples for their argument as to why social media is helpful. Another strength of this article is they give a works cited page to properly give credit to the research T.N.A.S.E.M used for the article. This article focuses on using ethos and logos for their argument which helps it feel more creditable and it’s easier to trust the research and explanations we are shown.
Weaknesses:
In Ehmke’s article one of the biggest weaknesses is their reasons for why social media is bad for you feels repetitive. For example, she mentions self-esteem can be affected through lack of communication in arguments but, they bring up self-esteem again when it comes posting online. Another weakness is they only use the research from two different people, which not only makes this article shorter than the other one, but it can make it hard to believe the research presented. This article also focuses a lot more on pathos than it does ethos and logos, the researchers show no proof of their findings. One large section of this article also only focuses on teenage girls and their experiences online; this ends up leaving out teenage boys who are just as affected by social media. The final weakness I will mention is that there is no works cited page; while I understand they give credit to the experts at the beginning of the article and all throughout it I believe it would have been helpful to their argument it had credited an article or interview done by the experts.
T.N.A.S.E.M’s article has its weaknesses as well; the first one is that the article is a little boring to read. They credit a lot of people throughout the whole article which can make it hard to read with all of the cited work. This can make it hard to read the whole article without being tempted to skim through it. Another weakness of this article is there is no clear author, this is an issue because it becomes hard to know whose words you are reading. This can make the article seem less trustworthy when you can’t trace who is writing and gathering all of this information. The article also lacks emotion which is another reason it can be hard to read, and it feels like a lot of information is thrown at you. While both articles have strengths and weaknesses, I do believe the article written by T.N.A.S.E.M is easier to trust. However, both articles still give great points for each argument, T.N.A.S.E.M simply shows more information and because of their works cited page it is easier to follow and check the information.
Similarities:
It might be hard to believe that two articles from people who are on different sides of this debate can have similarities, but they do. One of the simplest things they agree on is the fact that they believe social media has an effect on developing teenagers. Ehmke’s article mentions, “The survey results found that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram all led to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image, and loneliness”. On the opposite end, Galvin and Greenhow came to the conclusion “[a] recent narrative review found that use of social media for academic writing has been associated with less writing anxiety” (qtd. in T.N.A.S.E.M 79). While the authors main points disagree, they both acknowledge that social media does impact teenagers. Another thing both articles agree on is that finding yourself is an important part of a teen’s development. Dr. Steiner-Adair states, “Self-esteem comes from consolidating who you are” (qtd. in Ehmke). This means that finding and being secure in who you are, has a huge impact on the development of a teenager’s self-esteem. In T.N.A.S.E.M they explain, “Forming a coherent of self and identity are core tasks of adolescent development” (81). Both articles agree that self-esteem and figuring out who you are is important for teenagers development.
Differences:
Other than the obvious difference in their stance on the topic a big difference the articles have is how they approach the audience. The article written by Rachel Ehmke introduces the topic at hand by stating, “Many parents worry about how exposure to technology might affect toddlers developmental”. The article written by T.N.A.S.E.M starts with an introduction of the topic overall, along with mentioning the other side. They also add in statistics then the biggest difference in how they speak to their audience is T.N.A.S.E.M explains reasons as to why teens use social media in the first place. Another difference is Ehmke focuses mostly on the mental health aspect of social media, T.N.A.S.E.M however, focuses mostly on the developmental aspect. The final difference I found most noticeable was how they made their argument, Ehmke uses more pathos and ethos while T.N.A.S.E.M uses ethos and logos. While both use Ethos, Ehmke focuses more on the emotional aspect of her argument however T.N.A.S.E.M mainly focuses on Ethos by quoting and using many different studies or authors.
Compromise:
Both sides make good points so coming up with a compromise can be difficult. In my opinion, social media is a good thing for teenagers and can be very useful to their development. However, I do understand the worry parents or grandparents have when it comes to the teenagers in their life. I think a great compromise would be parents teaching their teens how to use social media as helpful tool. I also think that not allowing someone have their own social media until they are at least 13-14 would be helpful since they are a little bit more responsible. There are many ways compromises and having conversations with your teenagers would be helpful to see what works best but a conversation could also be had about how much screentime on certain apps should happen. Social media will probably never go away so teaching your teenager about the ways it could be helpful and how to use it as a tool is important while also teaching them to have breaks from it.
Works Cited:
Ehmke, Rachel. “How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers.” Child Mind Institute, 20 June 2025, childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; Health and Medicine Division; Board on Population Health and Public Health Practice; Committee on the Impact of Social Media on Adolescent Health; Wojtowicz A, Buckley GJ, Galea S, editors. Social Media and Adolescent Health. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 2024 Mar 25. 3, Potential Benefits of Social Media. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK603438/
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