Teenagers work hard to appear interesting on social media: Report

Experts at the University of California have revealed that teenagers work really hard to create a 'favourable' image of themselves online.

Teens carefully select their photos, activities and links to post on social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. The study reveals that more and more adolescents and youngsters want to come across as desirable and popular among their peers.

"Teenagers aren't just posting carelessly; they're surprisingly thoughtful about what they choose to reveal on social media," said Joanna Yau, a PhD candidate at the University of California, Irvine in the US.

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"Peer approval is important during adolescence, especially in early adolescence, so they're sharing content that they think others will find impressive," said Yau.

"We found that some teens invested great effort into sharing content on Facebook and Instagram and that what may seem to be an enjoyable activity may actually feel tedious," Yau said.

"Their social rules for online interaction require a higher level of sensitivity than do those for in-person communication," she said.

"Even interesting and positive posts can be interpreted negatively. For example, sharing about college admissions could come across as pretentious and prideful," she added.

For the study, experts included 51 Southern California adolescents - 27 females and 24 males - between the ages of 12 and 18. The participants were divided into ten focus groups on the basis of proximity, grade level and gender. At each grade level, there were female, male and mixed-gender groups, with no adults are known to the participants present.

Each participant's social media activity and engagement was closely analysed.

(With inputs from PTI)