Once upon a time, a teenager could admire a celebrity from a distance. Today, the celebrity is in their pocket, posting a new handbag, designer outfit, expensive meal or holiday and before the teenager can even say “wow”, the pressure to have the same thing may already have arrived.
For some young people, social media has quietly turned into a showroom where everyone appears rich, beautiful and successful, even when reality may be very different.
And according to technology expert Ali Kingston Mwila, this constant exposure is influencing the way teenagers think, behave and make decisions.
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Zambian Business Times-ZBT Mwila said young people are particularly vulnerable to online trends because they often compare their lives with what they see from influencers, celebrities and their peers. “Social media has so much influence on children and maybe the teenagers,” he said.
He said the influence can be seen when teenagers begin demanding expensive items from their parents, not necessarily because the items are essential, but simply because someone else has them.
“They request things from their parents, not basically because they need it, but because their friend has that,” Mwila said.
The pressure, he said, can sometimes become so strong that social media users may try to create an expensive lifestyle online even when they cannot afford it.
Mwila recalled cases where young people have gone into shops, tried on expensive clothes, taken photographs and posted them online, creating the impression that they owned the items.
In other words, the outfit may belong to the shop, but the Instagram post belongs to the teenager. Mwila said this illustrates how social media can influence young people’s behaviour and perception of what is normal.
“Using some scientific approach or just observing as a human being, we can say that it has influenced teenagers,” he said.
He said social media influencers have become particularly powerful in shaping the lifestyles and aspirations of young people. “These are the people influencing young ones or teenagers on many things,” Mwila said.
According to Mwila, the influence is not limited to fashion and spending habits but can also affect young people’s mental and social wellbeing.
He said excessive social media use has been associated with issues such as anxiety and sleeping problems, while the constant exposure to other people’s lifestyles can create pressure among young users.
He said teenagers may also begin to accept certain behaviours as normal simply because they repeatedly see them online. “When these young ones are following, they begin to see all these things as normal,” he said.
Mwila said the influence can extend to relationships, personal identity, religion and other aspects of young people’s lives.
He also pointed to concerns among some schools over pupils carrying high-end mobile phones, saying schools may restrict such devices because of concerns about their influence on other pupils and exposure to online content.
However, Mwila said completely shutting young people out of social media may not be practical in an increasingly digital world. Instead, he called for a balance between freedom on social media, cultural values and measures aimed at protecting young people from harmful content.
“To some extent, where human beings need to be governed, I think the laws are always put in place,” he said.
The bigger question is whether teenagers can learn to scroll past the designer handbag without feeling that they need one or worse, feeling pressured to find risky ways of getting the money to buy it.
Article by Karen Ngulube
