How does Social Media affect Teenage Girls’ Lives?
Social media plays a big role in our daily lives especially nowadays. Most of the children cannot imagine their lives without it. Every aspect of teens’ everyday life involves social media that requires Instagram and Tiktok. Drs. Emily Weinstein and Carrie James speak about teens, social media and health. They describe how social media is contributing to teen anxiety by comparing themselves to others. They also highlight the lack of sleep and kids being informed of the everyday things posted by others about their lives. Social media is not just for amusement; it is also the real cause of adolescent girls’ incapacity to create connections in real life, ultimately contributing to isolation. Therefore, social media could potentially have a negative impact on young peoples’ mental, social, and academic development.
First off, due to the stereotypes that are present on social media, teenagers can be negatively influenced mentally. Adolescents’ lives are being destroyed severely by the beauty standards on social media because all these platforms, especially Instagram, has taught children that in order to be labeled beautiful, a person must be attractive, have a nice body shape, straight teeth, have expensive clothing and shoes, and the newest iPhone model. The kids feel insecure about their appearance and low self-esteem as a result of all these prejudices. For example, the fact that these influencers and celebrities publish only on Instagram what they want people to see on social media is unknown to many of the teens and they just want to look like them. Most of these public personages photoshop their pictures to look perfect or get their body done which might lead to kids to think that they could do the same thing with their body. They however don’t pay attention to the real world. Their huge ignorance is a result of social media. They are trying to be someone other than who they really are. The particular reason for these circumstances is that their brains are controlled, which can be stressful and depressing. Emely and Carrie state in their article that according to “Teenagers who struggle with mental health”, the illegal abuse of the internet, particularly among younger girls, has made being a teenager more challenging. Girls who struggle with poor social media use and body image issues accuse Instagram of making their problems worse. Hence, this explains that Instagram is unfavorable for teens’ mental health. The authors believe that this platform has become an influential factor in society. In order to prove their credibility to the audience, they use ethos by giving more proof. When they say that according to public health dada, more than one-third of high school students reported experiencing frequent depression or hopelessness as of 2019, they are lying. However, this unhealthy behavior might also affect them in their academic success.
In addition, Instagram might also be one of the factors that damage adolescents’ academic performance. Teens spend so much time on Instagram that they are kept awake and unable to go to sleep on time, which may cause trouble sleeping. Most of them like to chat with their friends rather than spending that amount of time to understand or finish their homework. According to Effects of Social Networking on Adolescent Education it states that a lot of teens used social media applications. Only 11 % of them used it for academic purposes. Whereas 42% of them use them to chat with others, 10% of them browsed these platforms to pass time. Therefore, this shows that Instagram affects teens’ learning activities. The authors used Lagos by providing statistics, tables, charts and surveys.
Moreover, Instagram may not be the only social media site that puts teenagers through difficulties, TikTok may also be a platform for bullying among youths. A person exposes oneself to bullying whenever they post content or ideas on any social media platform. In the world of social media and TikTok, gaining likes and followers is really important. A teenager might feel negative as they compare themselves to this, which could cause anxiety and stress. As an example, if someone posts a video that doesn’t get much attention and then watches a comparable video that gets a lot of attention. In an effort to gain acceptance, young people create more and more provocative and risky videos. Additionally, Users are encouraged by TikTok to film themselves in unsafe conditions, perform dangerous actions, and participate in severe and fatal activities. Suicidal thoughts, anxiety, and depression may result from this. As a result, TikTok cannot be a safe and positive platform for youths.
Many teenagers spend excessive time on TikTok , which might keep them from completing assignments. Overuse of social media can cause them to be late at school or even fail their classes. Some of them may stay up all night on the internt and only get a few hours of sleep, keeping them tired and unfocused during the school day. For example when you are connected to TikTok and scrolling through it, you will not realize how fast the time goes because it is addictive.
Futhermore, teens go through a lot of challenges about how to interact with people in real life including their parents. For instance, when a kid goes out with their parents or family with the purpose of having fun and feeling more connected, all they manage to do is spend time on their phone, either talking to their virtual friends on Instagram or scrolling through. They don’t have a sense. Teens tend to believe that the relationships that they create on those platforms are true and more important. They are unaware that by reducing face-to-face conversations, they are creating a social block between themselves and their relatives and close friends, leading to a negative effect on the amount of time spent on these contacts. This can have a major impact on social well-being and friendship satisfaction. Therfore, children should use their free time with family and friends to feel more connected to reality while also feeling less lonely.
To sum up everything that has been stated so far, it is clear that Instagram and TikTok are the most popular social media that have the potential to cause a lot of harm to teens. Youth lost focus on their studies and other school work due to excessive social media use for non-academic purposes. They also stayed up later than necessary, which decreased the amount of time they were able to sleep. Additionally, over usage of social media increases the amount of loneliness. This has a serious impact on human connections and social well-being. However still, a lot of social media use might cause mental health problems and cause depression, death, frustration, and changes in mood.
The Woman King
The movie Woman King is a movie based on the true story directed by Gina Prince-Bythewood. During the 18th century the kingdom of Dahomey today known as the Republic of Benin, located in West Africa was protected by a group of women warriors known as the Agojie led by Nanisca. The Oyo empire was their most dangerous enemy since they raided Dahomey villages, took their people and sold them as captives to European slavers. As a result, Nanisca prepared the Agojie to fight against the Oyo empire for their freedom. Were the Agojie warriors real? Did King Ghezo and the Agojies were against the slave trade? Were the characters well represented? Was King Ghezo real? Was the African cultural knowledge well represented in the film? Therefore, despite the fact that this film does a good job of keeping the audience’s attention, the film portrayal of most of the characters are misrepresented?
First, King Ghezo and the Agojies’ characters for being against trade slavery were misrepresented. The movie highlights the system of slavery. In this particular case the slave traders were Portuguese Slaves who were sold as property since they were considered to be human property. They were transported to Europe by the port called Ouidah. Any white man ready to buy them took home the slaves. No matter that they were separating apart families, the slave owner remained indifferent about the situation. They treated slaves as a way to make money. The slaves are frequently seen in the movie being beaten and hanged, and tortured in the Oyo empire. However, the movie showed the conversation King Ghezo and Nanisca had about slavery in which King Ghezo said, “We will be the greatest empire in Africa.” Nanisca replied, “Yes, my king, but let’s not be an empire who sells its people. Let us be an empire who loves its people.” “My brother sold our own. I will never do that.” responded King Ghezo. Nanisca replied, “Even if they are not Dahomey, they are still our people. The white man has brought immorality here. They will not stop until the whole of Africa is theirs to enslave.” However, according to the movie’s historical accuracy it says, “in reality, Ghezo used to trade people in order to create a large population when in power. Also Agodjie are represented in the movie as being the people who fight for freedom, while they were just ordinary soldiers who captured and sold slaves.” And also the article Slave-Raiders and Middlemen, Monopolists and Free-Traders: The Supply of Slaves for the Atlantic Trade in Dahomey c. 1715-1850, it states that “Dahomey emerged as a key player in the trafficking of West Africans between the 1680s and early 1700s, selling its captives to European traders whose presence and demand fueled the industry—and, in turn, the monumental scale of Dahomey’s warfare.” Therefore, the movie misrepresented who king Ghezo and the Agojies are and what they actually did during the slavery period.
The characterization of Nanisca in the film is also inaccurate. Throughout the whole of the film, Nanisca, who is shown as an adult woman, leads the women soldiers responsible for protecting King Ghezo and the people of Dahomey. The real Nanisca was only a teenager, according to this story. As a result, this reveals how little the real Nanisca resembles the Nanisca from the movie. In addition, the character King Ghezo was misrepresented as well because There was no way Nanisca or Nawi could have ever met him because he passed away in 1859. According to The Real History Behind ‘The Woman King’ it says that “It’s not entirely clear why Ghezo rather than Glele, his successor, was added to the story. However, even Glele wouldn’t have been an appropriate choice if the film’s goal is to portray the Second Franco-Dahomean War because he passed away in 1889, before the conflict began. Béhanzin, sometimes referred to as Kondo, who governed from 1889 to 1894, during the Second Franco-Dahomean War, would have been a preferable option.” Therefore, The Woman King’s historical inaccuracy results from this. However, the majority of the characters are made-up.
Moreover, cultural knowledge is another aspect where The Woman King does not provide concern. Ghezo is never seen wearing a crown during the entire movie, despite the fact that it is uncommon to see an African King without a crown, especially in the region of Africa where Dahomey is located and most definitely not in public. The clothing and accent were also imperfect which are part of the culture. For example in the movie Black Panther They worked to bring out the diversity of Black culture making sure that African heritage was acknowledged in the movie. Additionally, they were dressed in Nigerian-made Ankara clothes. Therefore, Since I believe that is an important aspect of cultural representation, I do believe that original names and clothing should be accurately represented.
Overall, the film was amazing. It gave various examples of how to fight slavery in order to win freedom and also Nanisca showed acts of courage and bravery all through film. In my opinion, it is incredible to see women who look like you on film standing out for the independence and protection of their communities while still struggling with the risk of being a woman in the 18th century. However the lack of historical inaccuracy in the movie had a big impact.