Seunghyun K's Senior Project Blog

Project Title: Beauty is the Beast: Social Media's Effects on Self-Esteem BASIS Advisor: Matt Winter Internship Location: Mountain View Mental Health Onsite Mentor: Dr. Katie Brazaitis

Project Abstract

A leading cause of adolescent depression stems from an unhealthy family environment, thus causing adolescents to have self-esteem issues from having an insecure childhood. Social media only amplifies this, as its evolution has led to over 53% of the global population using social media in 2021 (De La Garza et al., 2021). As children are being introduced to the vast field of information on various social media platforms at an increasingly younger age, social media plays an inherent threat to their self-image and their views on life, especially when their screen time usage is unmonitored by a parent or guardian. I will be studying this matter with my Expert Advisor, Dr. Katherine Brazaitis, as I carry out my project to find ways that adolescents are affected by mental illnesses such as anxiety or depression, both effects that stem from self-esteem issues. Through a short survey, I will study the subject’s media screen time, coupled with the types of content one views on social media and the age they began using social media to find the effects on their self-esteem. I will be conducting this survey at BASIS Ahwatukee and getting my results from students using proper guidelines. Through this project, I hope to be able to find the types of content that cause the most amount of self-esteem issues so that those types of content can be more heavily monitored by parents or guardians.