Social Media Effects on Girls: Benefits and Harms

Introduction and Research Questions

Today, tens of millions of Americans are turning to various social media platforms to keep in touch with loved ones, friends, and coworkers during the ongoing global coronavirus pandemic, adding to the legions of users around the world who have already used these services. Current estimates indicate that nearly 4 billion people use at least one social media service, and experts predict that at least half of the world's population will be using these services by mid-2021 (Kemp 2020). Although people of all ages and genders use social media, young people in particular have embraced these communication platforms in a major way, with a majority of these consumers using social media systems on a daily basis. Against this backdrop, identifying and explaining the effects of social media usage on girls has assumed new importance and relevance.

In response to its increasing ubiquity, there has been growing interest among policymakers and healthcare practitioners concerning the effects of social media use on various population groups, including young females. This interest has been fueled in large part by the fact that the use of social media platforms by girls has become especially pervasive. Current trends indicate that this usage will continue to increase well into the foreseeable future, to the point where there are more users of social media services globally than there are not (Reinberg 2019).

A large majority of young female consumers are already using popular social media platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook (Reinberg). Moreover, competition between these major social media services and newer platforms has intensified in recent years in ways that have further fueled debate over the effects of social media use on young people. In this regard, Valkenburg and Piotrowski emphasize that, "These developments raise a great many questions. Does the use of social media lead to superficial relationships and loneliness — or does it boost self-esteem and social skills? What effects does extensive media multitasking have on youth? Does it make them lose their ability to concentrate and contemplate?" (218). These timely issues also directly relate to the research questions that guided this study.

This study was guided by the following overarching research question: "What are the positive and negative effects of social media use on girls?" In addition, the following four supporting subquestions also guided the research:

For the purposes of the analysis that follows, "girls" are defined as any female who has not yet reached the age of majority in the jurisdiction in which she resides.

Relevant keywords for this study included "adolescent," "girls," "social media," "Facebook," "Twitter," and "YouTube." In addition, serendipitously identified research materials relevant to the above-stated research questions were also consulted. The results of this review are provided below, beginning with an overview of the current situation, followed by an analysis of the negative effects and then the positive effects of social media usage on girls today.

Background and Overview of Social Media Use

While controversy over the precise effects of social media on young females continues, there is no debate that such usage has increased significantly over the past several years. According to the most recent estimates, the number of Internet users increased by nearly 300 million new users — an increase of about 7% — in January 2020 compared to January 2019, bringing the global total to around 4.54 billion people (Kemp 2020). Of these Internet users, approximately 3.80 billion are also regular social media users, and these numbers continue to grow (Kemp).

Throughout the mid-twentieth century, American parents were concerned about their children spending too much time watching television, but this concern pales in comparison to the amount of time the average young person spends online today. Current estimates indicate that the average Internet user already spends nearly seven full hours online each day, meaning that young people in the United States are investing about 100 days of their lives each year online (Kemp). Kemp also stresses that, "We currently spend more than 40 percent of our waking lives using the internet. What's more, the world's internet users will spend a cumulative 1.25 billion years online in 2020, with more than one-third of that time spent using social media" (3). Taken together, it is reasonable to posit that spending this amount of time online in general — and using social media platforms in particular — will have a number of profound effects on young users.

Negative Effects: Body Image and Cyberbullying

Despite efforts to promote a healthy body image, young women in the United States remain under enormous pressure from the mainstream media, their intimate partners, and their peers to conform to an idealized body image that is elusive for many. In their quest to achieve and maintain a "Barbie doll" appearance, many young women succumb to various eating disorders that threaten their long-term health (Shahtahmasebi and Cassidy 2019). These elusive body ideals are further reinforced on social media in ways that make countering their effects especially problematic. Shahtahmasebi and Cassidy report that, "There exists an ever widening gap between healthy body shapes and society's idealized body shape. It is this gap between information and social expectations and perceptions that may be responsible for some modern illnesses such as eating disorders" (79).

The combination of an increasingly sedentary lifestyle with unhealthy eating behaviors has further exacerbated the prevalence of obesity among girls, and negative messages continue to proliferate on social media concerning the idealized — but largely unrealistic — body shape for young women (Shahtahmasebi and Cassidy 2019). Shahtahmasebi and Cassidy conclude that, "It is reasonable to assume that, on average, compared with men, women are more adversely affected by the negative feedback from the social idealization of body shape, resulting in anxiety, eating disorders, and depression" (80). Although many of these powerful messages are not specifically intended to induce a sense of failure on the part of girls, other social media behaviors such as online bullying do in fact target girls for this very reason.

In some ways, cyberbullying is perhaps the most serious negative effect of social media use on girls today. Although combating bullying has been the focus of a number of national initiatives in recent years, these types of threatening and even violent behaviors have morphed with the introduction of social media platforms. The causes of cyberbullying are similar to those of traditional bullying, but social media services provide users with virtual anonymity, which seems to promote or even encourage antisocial behaviors among young — and even some older — people. Cyberbullying behaviors may be difficult to differentiate from other types of give-and-take that occur in computer-mediated forums, but in most cases they are distinguished by being intimidating or threatening in nature (Chukwuere and Chukwuere 2017).

The propensity to engage in cyberbullying behaviors against young girls may have widely varying sources. There is a growing body of evidence, however, that cyberbullying on social media platforms can have a profoundly harmful effect on girls irrespective of the motivations behind these activities. Moreover, an inordinately high percentage of cyberbullying victims are female, especially young girls. While there is no universal definition for these online behaviors, Chukwuere and Chukwuere provide some definitional clarity by reporting that, "The kind of bullying that is influenced by the Internet is called 'cyber bullying,' which is bullying via electronic media that is a deliberate act or behavior carried out by a group or an individual" (9984).

Other childhood development authorities note that additional types of online behavior also rise to the level of cyberbullying. According to Redden (2018), cyberbullying can involve "spreading rumors with the intention of damaging another's social status [which] is a purposeful and covert form of bullying that acts to cause harm to others through social exclusion, public humiliation, and personal rejection" (375). In other words, a wide array of intentionally harmful behaviors and actions can be subsumed under the cyberbullying umbrella.

It is also noteworthy that a majority of cyberbullying victims do not know the identity of their attackers, since even gender identification in computer-mediated forums is usually difficult or impossible. As Chukwuere and Chukwuere conclude, "Most victims have no knowledge of the person responsible for their act [and] such victims are likely to be female making cyber bullying a category of the risks faced by women and girls online" (9985). These issues make clear that cyberbullying represents one of the most significant negative effects of social media use on girls at present.

Conclusion

The research showed that social media use by girls can have both positive and negative effects depending on how these resources are used and how much time young women invest in their use. On the one hand, the research was consistent in showing that some of the negative effects of social media use included mental health issues related to an idealized female body image that is unattainable by most girls, as well as being victimized through cyberbullying attacks.

In addition, the potential for negative effects associated with human-made and natural disasters is also intensified when girls rely on social media platforms exclusively for information. On the other hand, the research showed that when used judiciously and appropriately, social media platforms offer significant positive effects, including academic assistance and socialization activities that would not otherwise be available.

A particularly noteworthy finding that emerged from the research was the fact that social media platforms "learn" about users' content preferences, meaning that negative or positive content will be presented depending on what users routinely review. This means that girls who are already vulnerable to the negative effects of social media will experience even greater adverse effects, while those who prefer positive content will enjoy more positive outcomes. In the final analysis, it is reasonable to conclude that — like eating too much of an otherwise healthy food or watching excessive amounts of television — the effects of social media use on girls are situational and dependent on how these resources are used.

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