Author(s): Dr. Venkat Lakshmi H and Syeda Afnaan Banu

Abstract:
Social media is part and parcel of adolescents’ lives. The major concern is the duration of usage of social media on adolescents’ self-esteem and posture. Experts are of the opinion that adolescents are more anxious and have lower self-esteem because of social media usage and texting and are engaged on the internet. While doing this the adolescents miss out on things like body language and facial expressions causing misunderstandings and being hurt. The mechanical stresses caused by mobile devices lead to incrementally increased stresses about the spine. These stresses can lead to neck pain, shoulder problems, headaches and early wear and tear to the spinal joints (i.e., spinal degeneration) causing postural stress among the individuals. Hence, the present study was undertaken to assess the use of social media and its impact on postural stress and self-esteem among adolescents. A self-structured tool was developed to elicit the required information based on the objectives of the study through random sampling technique. A total of 200 (100 boys & 100 girls) adolescents aged between 14-19 years were selected. The data collected was analysed using student test and chi square and correlation statistical analysis. The findings about the use of social media and its impact on the posture and self-esteem among the male and female respondents revealed that both the genders spent an equal amount of 30-60 minutes of their time on social media. The results indicated that respondents would not give up social media even if they experienced postural stress. The findings further revealed that social media influences the postural stress and self-esteem among adolescents. Results also revealed that there is a relationship between social media, postural stress, and self-esteem among adolescents. The study highlights the need for adolescents’ active participation in co-curricular activities to prevent the impact of social media on postural stress and adolescents must control their use of social media to manage their self-esteem.