Social Media & Development

Social media is a common activity that many of today's adolescents participate in. Most, if not all websites that provide the capabilities of social interaction are considered social media sites. This includes networking sites such as Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter; and also includes sites that offer a portal into the world of video games. The intertwinement of communication and entertainment has grown significantly over the past decade (O'Keeffe et al, 2011). As a consequence of this growth and ever-evolving trend, researchers have offered rationale that social media stifles social development.

Both Ahn (2011) and Santrock (2010) noted that adolescence is a key stage in identity formation and while social media provides an outlet for such formation in the form of association, friendships, and interpersonal relationships. It causes considerable damage to the quality of interaction on a relational level. Ahn (2011) specifically cited that a minimum 91% of youth utilize social media to communicate and interact and that it plays a key role in their esteem, how they interact with others, how they behave and "ultimately how they develop through their participation" (p. 1439). Kramer & Winter (2008) statistically analyzed social media and its effects on social and behavioral patterns. They examined the effects on the basis of age, ethnicity and gender. Mikami et al. (2010) assessed social networking communication on social interaction specifically highlighting the developmental theory in their delineations on the impact networking sites have on adolescents.

Several reasoning’s have suggested that much of the involvement that adolescents have in social media are the result of parents not being involved or enforcing their children to become more social outside of the Internet. Both Livingstone & Helsper (2008) and Lee (2013) reasoned that social media is a whirlwind force in society and while expressions of self-esteem damage can be stressed in child and adolescent development, the onus is on parents to provide a more definitive role in their children's lives by restricting certain avenues of social networking and being more involved in how social media factors into their child's development.

References

Ahn, J. (2011, April 26). The effect of social network sites on adolescents' social and academic development: Current theories and controversies. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(8), 1435-1445. doi:10.1002/asi.21540

Krämer, N. C., & Winter, S. (2008). Impression management 2.0: The relationship of self-esteem, extraversion, self-efficacy, and self-presentation within social networking sites. Journal of Media Psychology: Theories, Methods, and Applications, 20(3), 106-116. doi:10.1027/1864-1105.20.3.106

Lee, S. (2013, June). Parental restrictive mediation of children’s internet use: Effective for what and for whom? New Media & Society, 15(4), 466-481. doi:10.1177/1461444812452412

Livingstone, S., & Helsper, E. J. (2008, December). Parental Mediation of Children's Internet Use. Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, 52(4), 581-599. doi:10.1080/08838150802437396

Mikami, A. Y., Szwedo, D. E., Allen, J. P., Evans, M. A., & Hare, A. L. (2010, January). Adolescent peer relationships and behavior problems predict young adults' communication on social networking websites. Developmental Psychology, 46(1), 46-56. doi:10.1037/a0017420

O'Keeffe, G. S., Clarke-Pearson, K., & COUNCIL ON COMMUNICATIONS AND MEDIA. (2011, March). Clinical Report: The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. American Academy of Pediatrics Journal, 800-804. doi:10.1542/peds.2011-0054

Santrock, J. W. (2010). Life-Span Development (13th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.