Social Media Apps for Teens: What You Need To Know

It’s crazy that these apps are morphing into the same thing, and your teen still wants to use them all. They want to Twitch this, Snap that, and “do it for the Gram.” There are so many social networks. It’s all too much to keep track of. We live in an age of misinformation and lifestyle influencers. If you want to keep up with what your teen is doing, you have to be deliberate. If you want the details on Social media apps for teens, keep reading this article. We break it all down for you.

What Are Best Social Media Apps for Teens According to Teens?

If you’re a parent, you may not know what the kids are up to on the internet right now. There are so many social apps for teens online that it’s hard to keep track of them. You want to connect with them and be in the know. Unfortunately, things seem to be advancing at a faster pace than you can keep up with. Do you mean TikToks aren’t the same as Instagram reels, even though they’re both short videos? Yes, and those are separate from YouTube Shorts (which are also short videos.) We’re going to break down the best social media apps for teens as much as we can.

Snapchat

This app is great for sharing videos, messages, and photos that disappear after viewing. It sounds like the kind of arrangement that could facilitate some sneaky behavior. This app also has the Stories feature, which shares content that lasts 24 hours with others.

Instagram

Speaking of a 24-hour story, Instagram has that, too. It’s a fairly new edition that has taken off. IG has been around for a long time and people know it as a great place to share photos, too. Recently, teens can also create and share short-form videos called reels.

TikTok

Did someone say short-form videos? TikTok is the giant for that kind of content. Have you ever seen kids doing choreography in front of a mounted camera? They were likely making a TikTok. This app boosts more authenticity than other apps.

BeReal

If we’re discussing authenticity, let’s touch on BeReal. With this app, teens can randomly tag each other to share a photo of themselves within 2 minutes. Some consider it to be a pretty fun game.

Twitch

If your kid likes video games, they may have used Twitch before. This is a platform where people live-stream video games or other content. Teens will stick around to listen to commentary from their favorite streamers.

Twitter

Of course, this is the app that people use to share their random comments. It’s known for people eating their words. Be extra careful with this one. The content here is not as regulated as on other apps.

How Does Social Media Affect Teenagers: The Good and the Bad

The social media sites we grew up with had a hold on us. Still, they are nothing like what we see today. We had to take what the apps gave us back then. These days, they design apps to show us addictive content. Programs study our interests and show them to us, thus guaranteeing that we always love what we see. If you aren’t alert, you could get caught up in an endless loop.

Are social media apps as bad as people make them out to be? Does it just come down to individual self-control? How does social media affect teenagers in particular? Let’s have a balanced discussion regarding both the good and bad. Let’s start with the good.

Teenagers Have a Community of People Just Like Them

Just like adults, teens use social media to find their community. Teens with unique experiences or niche interests and talents may feel alone where they are. Social media has a way of bringing people very far away close to you. Teens get the benefit of this through social apps for teens. Instagram has pages where people who love the same shows can gather and share thoughts and theories. Teens with special needs can relate to someone with those same needs in another country. We can never underestimate the power of not feeling alone.

It’s an Opportunity for Education

Some teenagers live in small towns with limited diversity. Some go to schools with limited curriculums. It’s difficult to get an education on a lot of different topics. For many teens, social media makes that possible. Teens these days are the first in their families to learn about certain racial biases. They are the first to call out gender issues as they see them. They wouldn’t know how to do this without the help of the information garnered on social media.

Teens are far more educated on their mental health these days. It’s only in the last decade that the mental health stigma began to decrease. Through self-awareness, teens can understand better how they relate to other people.

Social Media Encourages Self-Expression

Something about a camera gives teens these days an extra layer of boldness. Teens discover that people worldwide praise them for the things that make them unique. Whether it’s sharing that new makeup tutorial or a new dance challenge, teens love to share their take. Many teens are able to carve out a place on the internet for their artistic expression.

Unfortunately, there is also a lot of bad that comes with social media. With teens being a particularly vulnerable demographic, we need to address these issues.

Online Bullying Is Rampant

While teens find like-minded people around the world online, they also find people who think differently. This is putting things lightly. Sharing aspects of your life online can open you up to people who don’t respect your vulnerable. As an aspiring social media influencer, you know this. Teens don’t get a pass just because they’re young. They get the same slew of threats and criticism that adults do. Sometimes, the people perpetuating this verbal abuse are strangers online. Other times, these bullies are people teens know in person. We don’t know which is worse, we just know that social platforms give them a microphone for their hate. The source of extreme anxiety, depression, and peer pressure could be a social media comment section.

Addiction and Over-Exposure

Think about how often your phone ends up in your hand when you’re idle for a second. Notice how your thumb drifts to the Instagram or TikTok app instinctively? Teens go through the same thing. Some teens find themselves scrolling an endless (yes, it is endless) feed for hours. This subtracts from productive work or rest. The inability to ration time, in addition to limited supervision, only means that teens are at risk of addiction.

Comparison to Other People’s Lives

Before Facebook, people had no idea what that random guy from across the world was doing. They just lived their lives how they liked it. Now, we are constantly seeing what other people are doing. Teens grew up in an interesting time. Social media has always exposed them to other people’s lives. They perpetually have the material to compare their lives to other people. They see all the events that they miss out on. They also grew up in a time when young people become millionaires in their teens and early twenties. Social media effectively creates discontentment with their own lives. This can drastically affect their mental health and create a level of despondency.

When you consider all this, it becomes clear that these teens experience all of what adults experience. Bullying, feelings of discontentment, and anxiety are not just things teens go through. Unfortunately, they are a vulnerable group and may need an extra layer of security. Some parents have even considered monitoring their teens’ activity on the internet.

Should Parents Monitor Their Children’s Social Media?

Now, we have to delve into murky waters. You’ve seen a glimpse of how weird the internet can get. You’ve seen how much flies under the radar. Do you think the internet exposes your teen to inappropriate content? You have a right to control the potentially mature content that your teen may see. Ideally, you want to have a conversation about the content first after opening up the floor for healthy dialogue.

So, should parents monitor their children’s social media? This is an important conversation from many different angles. As parents, you may have known your children for the longest, and you may know them the best. We’ll do our best to give you some food for thought.

Look Out for Signs

Before taking things 0 to 100 immediately, you can look for signs that your teen needs some regulation. Waking up one day and commandeering your child’s phone may just create a lack of trust between you both. Instead, observe their relationship with social media over time. The American Psychological Association provides some help with this. Here are some signs to look out for:

• Does social media usage overshadow actual in-person interactions? When their friends come over, are they interacting with each other? Are they disconnected from each other while on their phones? Social media shouldn’t stop you from being, well, social. It should be a supplement to in-person interaction, not a substitute.
• Is it interfering with school or work obligations? Everyone’s brain needs a rest from the stresses of life. That is healthy, even. However, if your child is putting off doing schoolwork to watch music videos online? Are they rushing through their studies to visit their favorite video-sharing platform? In this case, these social apps for teens should take a back seat.
• Is their lifestyle becoming more sedentary? Social media has a way of having us move only our thumbs and eyes. Your teen’s overall health may be in jeopardy if they are becoming a couch potato. Yes, this is the case, no matter how many dance videos they record. They may need to have allotted time to “touch grass”, as the kids say.
• Are they losing sleep? Even young people need adequate sleep. You may need to get involved if they are missing out on a full night’s rest because of their excessive scroll.

Open the Lines for Communication

Taking the phone and locking it away is still not the solution if any of the above apply. Your teen doesn’t need a warden. They need a responsible adult who understands the community guidelines. There is a lot of value in trying to relate to your teen. Plixi is an excellent site for learning about the ins and outs of social media sites like Instagram. Feel free to familiarize yourself more with how things work on that site. That could lay the groundwork for some good conversation with you and your teen.

Let them know that you care about how social media makes them feel. Ask them about their favorite reelcreators. Ask them if they have a favorite lifestyle influencer. This way, you can get an idea of the kind of content they are consuming. See the kind of behavior they admire or aspire to. Make it clear that if someone threatens them online, they can always come to speak to you about it.

Establish Time Limits

Instead of swiping their internet privileges completely, consider limiting their access. Sure, there may be some pushback and signs of withdrawal at first. Soon, though, they will adapt to the reduced times. They’ll realize that they didn’t need all of that time after all. They will prioritize the content that they enjoy from now on. They will see that not all Instagram stories deserve their time.

Social Media Monitoring for Your Own Account

Hopefully, the only social media monitoring you worry about is the growth rate of your page. Even then, you should be able to rest assured that Plixi has you covered. With our AI algorithm and platform of knowledgeable social media influencers, you’re set to succeed. If you want to create content for young people, we can help with social media apps for teens. We can help you reach your growth goals! Start gaining Instagram followers today.