The aspect of self-esteem and its implications for society are both contentious and polarizing. On one end of the spectrum, many cite social media as a means of encouraging self-esteem through social groups and other networks. Others, counter this argument by pointing to research showing that social media has adverse impacts on the self-esteem of young women (Antony, 2005). Likewise, proponents for homeschooling indicate the parents are a primarily catalyst of for self esteem as they have the ability to impacts their childs thoughts without the intervention of other students. This argument is also countered by research that shows peer groups, particularly for adolescents often can have the greatest benefit towards developing self-esteem for students (Tracy, 2003). Through this paper, the aim is to provide evidence that self-esteem, particular for homeschooled children can have varying outcomes depending on a variety of factors. These factors, which include age, sex, socio-economic status, time spend on social media websites, and others can either have a positive or a negative impact on the student.

To begin, research has shown that social media has a disproportionate impact on the self esteem of students irrespective of the school they intend. The correlation between self esteem and the different forms of school a student attends is very low. As the internet is ubiquitous, its ability to permeate the lives of all students is very large. Exacerbating this issue, is that social media allows students to from connections primarily with like-minded individuals, which often excludes those with opposing views or thoughts. These silos harm students, particularly adolescents as their brains are still forming during this period. As a result, of only seeing certain viewpoints within a certain silo, many students can confuse their immediate sphere of influence as the norm. We have seen this phenomenon at work in various others circumstances including politics, race relations, vaccine misinformation, international relations, and more. As one group immerses themselves with only like-minded individuals, their judgement is often skewed towards one belief. Here, individual dont account for misinformation, or the fact that their views could possibly be incorrect....…their parents through homeschooling. More importantly, parents can better influence the belief system of student to orient them towards discovery as oppose to simply acceptance. Parents can orient their child to better discover, learn, and gain information in a much more constructive manner. This includes looking at both sides of an argument and not being heavily biased until all the facts have been assembled. Essentially, parents can better teach their students critical thinking skills that are often absent on social media platforms on other sources of media that influence self-esteem. Through home schooling, the parents can first develop critical thinking skills for their students. Second, they can uplift their students through an environment that encourages thought and awareness. Likewise, they can reinforce positive behaviors the can positively impact self-esteem. These behaviors can often mitigate, but not completely eliminate, the influences that many other outlets such as social media have on self-esteem. All the influences above such as confirmation biases, anchoring, and social media silos are still at play, they are often counteracted by the…