Sherlyn, a freshman here at NYC iSchool, has expressed her feelings towards influencers and the effects it has held on her. She says that challenging herself academically is hard due to the amount of strain it puts on her efforts to achieve well in school, in her sport, and socially. 

This is mentally draining and depriving in itself, but imagine the immense strain that will be held after she scrolls through social media and views an academic page with someone who is always working hard at school, has a high GPA, and looks flawless while balancing everything else as well. 

Do you think that would bring her down or motivate her? In most cases, this obsession with trying to do your best can look like you worshiping this person by scrolling through their page, scanning for any flaw or skepticism. But you find none.

This is an example of mental deprivation that celebrity and influencer worship holds on teenagers by flaunting mostly unrealistic and “perfect” standards that feel impossible for you–the person viewing the screen–to achieve. 

So, next time you examine a person’s page on social media, be careful with what you choose to believe because it can be an untruthful depiction. As Sherlyn stated, “I now realized that you don’t have to change yourself because of people you see online because you never know, maybe they’re lying.”

Many teenagers are pressured with the ultimate challenge to perform and excel in everything they do. Especially when balancing social relationships, sports life, and academic challenges, many teenagers rely on social media and someone else who is performing well to alleviate their well-being and use it as an emotional regulation tool.

This is the starting point for mental health deprivation because viewing someone else across a screen that is pursuing everything you are working towards only brings down your struggle and self-doubts, leading to bad academic performance, negative social relationships, and a diminished sports life. 

This is why many people think building your trust in those you see on social media that are most likely expanding their truth to seem well-achieved is not a great idea.

Kacey, a 14-year-old student, suggests that you should follow a celebrity role model that is inspirational, offers advice, and replicates a stable lifestyle. She says you should worship them based on “their profession or the way they might think and guide themselves.” 

Though, it is becoming harder to follow a celebrity that models that level of inspiration, and because of this, celebrities as role models are negative and sparks adversity because it sets unrealistic standards to the youth, causing a block in their identity construction through increased emotional disorders, constant comparison, and unhealthy social media use.

Celebrities as role models often flaunt their lifestyles, so that their worshippers and viewers can see them as a perfect role model to shape their lifestyle on, and misrepresent the content that they post to set highly unrealistic standards. 

While celebrities as role models are often inspiring, they confirm the Social Identity Theory to be true. 

Social Identity Theory is related to how the people in our environment determine our social behavior and lead us to view out-groups negatively. Because many adolescents across America are constantly exposed to social media, their identity, habits, and behavior is mainly built off of celebrities and influencers they see and look up to, especially if the celebrity isn’t managing their content appropriately to shape off their targeted audience.

These teenagers often face a lack of social interactions, false narratives, and bad behavior. 

Due to this, celebrities should be mindful of the type of media they post, as it can wrongly influence teenagers, especially since they are in a state of vulnerability.

Emma, a freshman at NYC iSchool, says, “I think it really matters that [teenagers] have a good role model because they’re still kind of growing a little bit [as an] adolescence and still sort of puberty-ish and during teenage years you’re still learning about social norms and how to act, etc., and if you do find a good celebrity who’s like a role model, then obviously that’s a good thing.” 

This is not to say that celebrities can not occupy their time with some enjoyment such as partying and other fun activities, but they should be mindful of what they participate in especially if the targeted audience are teenagers. 

Ms. Gray had spoken up about celebrities’ duty in society, and the amount of responsibility they have to show depending on what type of audience they represent. 

She says, “I’m positive celebrities have a responsibility to act as a positive role model and I would say I wish that they would all act as [role] models but I also think that celebrities are human beings and that it’s a little unfair to expect them to show up in a very specific way. I think it depends on what type of celebrity they are.” 

Celebrity worship is linked to a desire for fame, sense of belongingness, life guidance, and identity perception, which is why most teenagers use it as an emotional regulation tool.

When you are only just a teenager, this lifestyle is often viewed as unattainable and unreachable, which leads to a sense of helplessness, anxiety, and other negative neural impacts.

Impulsive Buying/Brand promotion

Celebrities promoting products are often broadcasted on social media platforms because it is an easily accessible and growing platform. Due to this, influencers reach their audience through multiple social media platforms, where an extreme amount of teenagers are heavily involved, and engage them through a series of collaborations and PR brands. Due to this, recent studies show that brands have altered their marketing strategies to accommodate gender-based interests and reach to influencers for brand promotions.  

Their research concludes that “functional and emotional values” lead to impulsive buying and “social values” do not lead to consumer inspiration, marking influencer authenticity and truthfulness a determining factor in impulsive buying. The research shows that a celebrities’ attractiveness and credibility heavily influences consumerism choice, determined by gender-based factors. 

Based on this, boys have a tendency to alter their consumerism behavior based on celebrities’ attractiveness and appearance, while girls are more likely to alter their consumerism behavior based on celebrity expertise. 

This is an adversity to teenagers because it increases impulsive buying and drains their mental health. 

While I did not use gender-based questions as a mediator in my survey, it did conclude that more than half of students bought a product because it was promoted on social media and by a specific person, influencer, and/or trend. 

Through this, we can see that celebrity brand promotions, especially by those who have a loyal fan-base, are more likely to influence viewers to buy the product. This alone can lead to impulsive buying. 

Karima Lajnef, a psychologist, states that “influencer marketing was considered as the most widespread and trendiest’ communication strategy used by the companies,” meaning that influencers were large drivers of persuading and influencing their followers to promote and buy the products. 

Impulsive buying can include purchasing makeup products due to wanting to reach an attainable look. Emma, a freshman at NYC iSchool, says that the ads that pop up the most for her on social media are makeup ads promoted by celebrities. 

She states, “Yeah, usually they’re makeup like everything else. Clothing too, but everything else is really not, but they do sponsorships or just the face of the ad.” 

While this is one of the main effects of celebrity endorsement and worship, there are many other problems that arise from celebrity exposure. 

Celebrity endorsement can also influence teenagers into unhealthy habits due to their vulnerability, trust in their celebrity role model, and behavioral issues. A specific habit includes gambling. 

In a large number of countries, gambling is permitted to only people aged 18 and older. Gambling is compared to alcohol and tobacco industries, though its detriment is not realized as much. 

There is a frequent presence of celebrities promoting gambling industries and companies, which is a problem because individuals under 18 are not able to gamble, and gamling promotion in ad’s sends false messaging and influences their future habits and behaviors that, based on this, could be involved in gambling. 

Research from NIH states that teenagers are constantly exposed to gambling promotions through the media and community environments. They state that celebrities in the media are the main mediator in gambling promotion for teenagers through the media and are increasingly used by the gambling industry to promote their products. 

There is limited evidence in gambling being directly connected to the outcomes of ad exposure promoted by celebrities, but there is a direct connection to teenagers getting involved in other harmful products as a result of this. 

Teenagers are easily influenced towards these products because they are aware of the legitimization and trustworthiness of companies and celebrities promoting the product. 

Trustworthiness is an example of celebrity worship affecting consumerism choice with the main mediator being their truthfulness and good morals. 

Prevalent effects of exposure to gambling ads promoted by celebrities include reduced perception of the harmful aspects of gambling, positivity towards gambling, and recall of gambling companies for future participation in gambling. This is an issue in itself because it promotes unhealthy future habits for a prospective population of promising teenagers. 

41 studies reveal that gambling behavior is mainly promoted through influencers on wide-scaled social media platforms such as TikTok, Youtube, and Twitch with relatable content targeted for younger viewers. Factors that make teenagers more susceptible to gambling influences are sports themes, financial incentives, and glamorization, which is promoted by celebrity endorsement, music, and humor. 

This is a large problem because teenagers are particularly vulnerable to gambling promotions which contrasts their easiness in being influenced, especially because they do not know better. 

Gambling can be seen as a way to escape reality and an emotional regulation tool, which is similar to the purpose social media is set for. 

Another example of promoting products that pose harmful effects includes the promotion of unhealthy foods. Obesity rates, as mentioned in the other paragraphs, are prevalent as a result of celebrity worship and food images on Instagram. 

People in marketing industries have relied on celebrities to promote their products for the longest time, and in this case, that includes promoting unhealthy fast foods. Their viewers are mainly teenagers and take it upon themselves to develop parasocial relationships between their celebrity role models, which leads them to be interested in their lifestyle and consumption habits. This influences them to eat more unhealthy foods, this pattern being closely related to obesity rates in teenagers. 

This is also noticeable as the health-halo effect, which occurs when a consumer views one healthy ingredient and it makes them perceive the whole product as healthier, leading to obesity rates, over-intake of food, and high consumption of unhealthy food. 

Additionally, obesity rates can be associated with celebrity worshipping because digital engagement and eating intentions are increased when celebrities post food images. This is referred to as the “camera eats first” movement because so many people are posting food images in response to the growth of social media platforms and engagement. 

Recent studies show that more than half of these photos are of unhealthy foods–pizza, hamburgers, fast food, pastries, and other carby, fried, fat-induced foods. This is because they are seen as aesthetic and produce the most likes, views, and social engagement. 

Most research concludes that celebrities uplifting healthy food is the best solution to decreasing obesity rates, but some research questions this by stating that seeing a celebrity role model constantly eating healthy foods can decrease the viewers mental health. So, many are still on a path to finding a win-win solution. 

Through this, we can see that viewing a worshipped celebrity promoting products is harmful to teenagers because it can introduce them to harmful habits and products, which reveal the negativity of celebrities as role models. 

This is important for you because now you are knowledgeable about the detrimental impacts media promotions by celebrities cause, and will be able to establish meaningful actions towards preventing negative influence. 

Mental health impacts

Social media is growing rapidly and therefore diminishing teenagers’ mental health through constant celebrity exposure. 

Due to that, this issue should be taken as carefully as one would examine the effects of social media–while it strengthens communication sources, the mental health impacts outweigh the pros.

Similarly, prevalent effects as a result of viewing celebrities on social media includes emotional disorders, depression relating to the unattainability of appearance, and constant social comparison. This trend is seen most in teenagers because they are the most affected by social media use, influencing negative habits and narcissism rates. This can alter their ability to mindfully interact with others in a healthy and proactive way. 

Assuming that most of the readers viewing this article are teenagers, they should be mindful that they have an increased risk of suffering from emotional disorders, including, but not limited to, multiple types of narcissism, anxiety, and depression. 

Recent research finds that teenagers who worship a celebrity are more likely to be fame-seeking, and as a result of that, will be exposed to increased narcissism levels with “problematic internet use as a mediator.”

Other neural impacts can include neuroticism, which is a personality trait that is often equated to depression, sadness, and a disresponsiveness to stress, anxiety, and negative emotions. This trait is often linked to higher emotional disorders and detriments. 

Neuroticism is seen mainly as a result of celebrity worship because behavioral problems are constructed on celebrities’ actions.

There are many other impacts that have been revealed as a result of celebrity worship, which not only includes decreased youth sport development, but narrates a negative identity construction to teenagers. This impacts their cognitive abilities–such as their ability to critically think, their behavior, their social interactions, and decision-making. 

Parasocial relationships 

Celebrity worship is a growing issue presented alongside the detrimental effects of screen time and social media use by Gen-Z, sparking multiple different emotional disorders such as anxiety and depression, making it a national issue.

Celebrities dominate social media platforms by posing unrealistic flaunted lifestyles that benefit their popularity, but mentally bring down those watching them. There are diverse factors in how and why celebrity endorsement affects teenagers, with many of them ranging from sports participation to lifestyle advancements, and all of them emitting negative results. 

The more you are exposed to celebrity content and endorsements, the more your mental health will deflate and result in multiple emotional disorders. 

The negative effects of having a role model also varies on who it is–specifically if it is an entertainment role model or a personal role model. 

An entertainment role model is someone that you know, but that does not know you, and who is primarily a celebrity featured on wide-scaled apps and TV platforms, while a personal role model can be a friend, healthcare provider, or family member that can produce positive feedback adhered to your expressed issues. 

An extremity of research says that many teenagers rely on entertainment celebrities as role models as opposed to a personal role model because they do not know them formally and develop a glowing image of them that fulfills their positive expectations.

This can be referred to as a parasocial relationship, and according to Ms. Gray, it means: “[seeing] your favorite celebrity on the street and [knowing] them a little, but they definitely don’t know you.” 

A parasocial interaction, however, is a social media user viewing the celebrities social media credentials and viewing them on a screen, through social media. 

Gabby, a freshman at NYC iSchool, illustrated a clear example of having a parasocial relationship on social media, describing her interest in knowing “if they are actually who they say they are in social media,” by meeting them behind the camera.

Parasocial relationships formed by emotional bonds between Gen-Z and celebrities affect the consumerism choice of Gen-Z social media users. Because of this, brands are careful in deciding how their product is promoted and strategically select the influencer who would be best at promoting it. 

Additionally, parasocial relationships formed by the followers to the celebrity are mostly platonic, but research says that it can also be romantic, as in celebrity crushes. This is mainly due to emotional bonds formed by the followers, but it can also be because of the amount of intimate details the celebrity shares about their lives. 

Their success, personality, and body appearance lead followers to consider them as romantically interesting and attractive, and this can be a bad thing because it can set high standards to the followers, making them uninterested in being with anyone else beyond the screen, and limiting standards, though this aspect of parasocial relationships can be subjective. 

This follows a desire for them to see the celebrity in person and real-life, and real-life connections and bonds don’t always involve friendships–it can also involve romance. 

There are 4 stages in a parasocial bond, each one determining the strength of the bond. Stage 1 is called the “initiation stage,” which is an early stage and just involves the first impression of the celebrity; Stage 2 is called the “experimentation stage,” where the viewer is learning more about celebrity and is forming a mental model of them; Stage 3 is called the “intensification stage,” where the viewer maintains a relationship with celebrity with constant exposure; and Stage 4 called the “bonding stage,” which is the last stage that develops a connection and commitment to viewing the celebrity. 

Due to this bond, and mainly in stages 3 and 4, the viewer will impulsively buy because of a celebrity’s influence during live-streamed shopping events where emotional trust is overshadowed by rationality. 

Gen-Z forms parasocial relationships with celebrities due to credibility, persuasiveness, relatability, and truthfulness. Repeated exposure to celebrities on social media platforms such as TikTok, Youtube, and Instagram can also lead to parasocial relationships. 

Celebrities as role models: who are they? 

50% of students that took my survey reported they have a celebrity role model, and various sources explain that the only accessible way to view a celebrity is through social media, meaning that the main driver of this problem is obvious and should be avoided: social media. 

Of all the people I had interviewed and asked the question “Should celebrities be considered role models?,” everyone said they could. 

Some people replied with the case that celebrities that are good influences are role models, suggesting that those who aren’t should not be considered role models, saying that they provide real perspectives of the industry in which they work in, and if they provide helpfulness, advice, and inspiration they are a role model. 

On social media, teenagers are exposed to a diverse array of content that grabs their attention for prolonged amounts of time. And what they see most is influencers and celebrities. 

Sherlyn and Soleil, both freshmen at NYC iSchool, say that the people they see on their for you pages are “mostly influencers,” proving the claim that many teenagers exposed to social media are either watching an influencer/celebrity or are watching them because they worship them. 

Celebrities’ flaunted lifestyles are often glamorized, making their lifestyle seem perfect and unachievable to a teenager’s eyes. 

Things such as makeup are promoted heavily on social media, establishing a need for the viewers to have it, as it will make them “look better.” 

Sherlyn says that celebrities as role models should provide advice to the viewers, instead of promoting artificial products such as makeup and “trying on makeup.” 

On top of enhancing facial features to flaunt, a viewer of celebrity content’s parents’ socioeconomic status is linked to a sense of celebrity worship and mental deprivation because of the viewers’ want for economic profit and development, marking them as economically unable to reach this specific level of comfortability. 

This opposes a teenager who lives a lifestyle in which their parents are socioeconomically profitable, which decreases their chance of worshiping a celebrity and the negative neural effects that relate to celebrity worship.

Of all the seven students I had interviewed, all of them said they compared themselves to celebrities they saw on social media at some point in their life.

Sherlyn O., a freshman at NYC iSchool responded to if she has ever compared herself to a celebrity on social media, and states, “Yes I have–like the clothes I wear, hair color, race or in ethnicity and language too.” 

Additionally, Soleil, a freshman at NYC iSchool stated that when she compares herself to celebrities on social media, it is sometimes based on their race. She states: “[I compare myself to] their appearance because I feel like most influencers that are shown on social media are white people so I feel like I’ve been comparing myself to them sometimes. I try not to.” 

The pattern shown here is that there is a lot of comparison of the viewer to the celebrity, but mostly it is the comparison of race and ethnicity, due to the prevalence of un-diverse role models across social media. 

In-diverse role models can also include bo-po (body positive) celebrities, different races and ethnicities, and the type of products they promote. 

Celebrity role models don’t just include entertainers, but they include athletes. Athlete role models have an extreme influence on youth athletes because they supply a sense of determination, inspiration, and motivation to help them excel in their sport.

Due to this, athletes play a significant role in youth sports development–and this can be a positive thing–meaning that there is an opposite side to this as well. Because young athletes look up to athletes so much, youth sports are detrimentally being threatened by athlete drop-outs because it deflates prospective young athletes’ sense of motivation and dissipates whatever spark of inspiration they had. 

This is an extreme pattern due to hardcore training, early specialization, injuries, burnout, and poor relationships between the athlete and coach. 

At track practice, my friends and I had just finished running multiple laps around the track, the activity hard and strenuous. We sat down, trying to inhale as much air as possible back to our lungs and carefully surveyed the area ahead of us–sprinters leaving a gust of air behind them, sprint-walkers pushing their arms around, and joggers out of breath but strong in their movement–until we saw him. 

A young athlete–about our age–was out of breath after what seemed like the same hardcore workout we had just emerged from, except his coach was yelling at him with hurtful words that made one of my friends “glad our coaches are not like that.” After a while, this was an extreme pattern we saw–coaches yelling at athletes, timing them, screaming down their necks, making the teenagers scared and pressurized. 

There are many other impacts that have been revealed as a result of celebrity worship, which not only includes decreased youth sport development, but narrates a negative identity construction to teenagers. This impacts their cognitive abilities–such as their ability to critically think–, behavior, social interactions, and decision-making. 

This alone can lead to athlete fallout and dropouts, which is why it is important to have an athlete role model that will uplift the youth athlete even through times of hardship and demotivation. But the question is–how do we ensure this? 

While having a celebrity role model can motivate you–especially if they are focused on well-being and health upliftment–there is a high chance of emotional disorders occurring to the viewer. 

Most celebrities’ worshipers will believe in their celebrity role model’s actions due to their trust in them, and this can blindsight their way of differentiating between what is unrealistic or fake. 

This is why celebrities flaunted lifestyles and unrealistic standards will eventually pose a sense of self minimization to the viewer.

Solutions

As it relates to mental health and emotional disorders as a result of celebrity exposure on social media, many people across multiple different careers that explore neural patterns are on a journey in pursuit of finding an attainable solution for making the negative effects less prevalent. 

An example includes psychologists, who are mental health doctors. Leora Trub, a psychologist, holds a digital media and psychology lab at Pace University where research relating to cognitive issues, such as this, is conducted frequently, and shares a solution psychologists are using to address celebrity exposure on the internet and extreme social media use for teenagers: developing a curriculum in schools to ensure 10 year olds and 11 year olds are prepared for the challenges of social media. 

There are not many “unified” realistic solutions that account towards fixing social media use among teenagers because social media has only presented negative impacts and has developed strongly among teenagers, making it harder to find a solution that fits for all users. This was mentioned by Leora Trub, a psychologist and therapist that teaches at Pace University in the digital media and psychology lab. 

She is experienced with mentoring and assisting research with students and shares, “I will say that my team at Pace University–because I have a lab that is dedicated to the top to this exact thing–, we’ve developed a curriculum for schools that instead of just being about kind of safety and bullying […] and the focus of a lot of the existing curriculum, it’s a little bit more focused on, like teen development, but preteen in our case. So we’re targeting 10 year olds and 11 year olds, so 5th and 6th graders, um, to help them think about […] what’s important for them in the world and how does, how does […] existing in a world of social media present certain challenges and how can they prepare themselves for those challenges?”

All of the solutions mentioned below include making sure that a celebrity that represents teenagers is limiting their immoral behaviors because it is the key to ensuring that no one constructs their identity based on wrong habits. 

Ms. Gray says the qualities that make a celebrity a good role model is “not being incredibly irresponsible,” and, “not to say that a celebrity has a responsibility to avoid partying or dating, but maybe to do it in a way that models some amount of responsibility.” This gives insight on how much celebrities influence teenagers, by stating that many teenagers will follow celebrities regardless of the amount of responsibility they reveal. 

Unresponsible behavior can include gambling, which is promoted and endorsed by celebrities, proving the importance of providing solutions to limit this.  

As mentioned in previous paragraphs, gambling industries using harmful marketing strategies to promote gambling include financial incentives, glamorization, and sports themes. This is an extreme problem because it can moderate and establish unhealthy gambling habits. 

In order to manage this, further changes to the way content is viewed can be managed only by operators of social media platforms such as TikTok, Youtube, or Twitch because they sign deals with gambling industries to solidify advertisements. Therefore, solutions should be made to benefit the operators while also addressing the minimization of pervasive gambling advertisements and the advertisement of other harmful products. 

Whether or not all of the mentioned solutions can be implemented are determined by owners of social media platforms and apps that promote negative effects for teenagers, and parents of teenagers active on social media, which is why it is harder to find solutions to limiting gambling ads.

The reason why teenagers are influenced by celebrities is diverse, but one main reason is because celebrities have large and loyal fan bases, making them more reliable to trust, especially when determining how to behave. 

This is a form of social capital that celebrities often look up to for maintaining their influence over their viewers. Celebrities on social media rely on views and likes as their source of income, making it vital and important for them to increase these metrics. 

Because of this, a lack of power in follower status can dictate and influence content visibility, making it a priority for influencers to appeal to teenagers. Not to mention–their whole career is shaped on social media. 

This social capital makes celebrities impact what their viewers think is ethically accurate, the social norms, teenager behavior, body image, and consumer habits–all of which can have a negative outcome when influenced in the wrong way. This is where future solutions come into place, and the efforts that are being taken to seal this issue. 

We should alter the way this data is seen to teenagers and by doing this, the appeal of social media platforms could fade, minimizing screen time usage and negative effects caused by social media and celebrity exposure. This is important because likes and follower counts determine the popularity of a social media user, and teenagers are sensitive to these metrics. This leads to high depression rates, emotional disorders, and future critical thinking restrictions (Prinstien). 

We know that celebrities as role models pose a negative impact for teenagers frequently exposed to social media and we know that social media is a bad thing because it degrades teenagers’ mental health and efforts to minimize it can result in unhelpful and straining results.

An attainable solution that both favors social media users and concerned parents is endorsing positive figures and establishing how-to courses based on screen time limits.

How negatively impacted a social media user is to seeing unattainable flaunted celebrity lifestyles is determined by the celebrity’s appearance and such factors include their body image and achieved beauty standards. Teenagers viewing a plus-sized model despite their own body image is seen as a positive impact. 

Based on this information, we can endorse positive figures by diversifying for you pages to expand the prevalence of several different influencers of multiple body types and traits. 

We can additionally indulge parents in how-to courses relating to screen time limits on their teenagers’ phones to make parents more attentive of the situation. In these courses, we can mention both the positive and negative impacts of social media, and through this they will notice how the negatives outweigh the pros, and establish solutions and technological help to maintain screen time access. 

Easy access to social media is a part of the main reason Gen-Z and younger adults use the internet, which is why it is important to minimize screen time use from these platforms. An example of doing this is setting a time limit for an hour or 30 minutes daily, or shutting off access to the app completely. 

Because parents have control over most teenagers’ technology, making sure they are aware of this topic will ensure that they are protecting the well-being of their child and managing their behavior. 

These how-to courses are especially important for the parents that aren’t engaged in teenagers’ screen time and social media because the main reason they could be out of the loop is because they are unaware of the impacts of the internet and the media within. 

As of right now, other companies are making efforts to slow down the impact of social media use and creating a temporary solution to fill in for the operators of social media platforms, who should be creating solutions as well.  

As an example, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has developed solutions to manage teenagers’ social media exposure caused by celebrity influence. 

To do this, these professionals gathered research from teenagers and the results concluded that teenagers who do not have apps associated with school-based work are most likely to suffer from emotional disorders as a result of increased social media use. So, another solution that parents have control over, is adding educational apps to their teenagers phones.

While interviewing multiple freshmen, I’ve noticed that they all have liked the solution including (modifying) diversifying “for you” pages the most by recognizing it as an attainable solution.  

Sherlyn was one out of the very few who shared why she thought this solution was best, and her response included how endorsing positive figures would improve mental health between social media users and teenagers. 

She shared, “[This solution] is really good because it can help teenagers feel supported in life and this is an amazing role model for teenagers because they get influenced a lot by these bad celebrities [that] can make their mental health go down, but if we do the opposite, then it’s really good because [they’ll] be good.”

This response revealed how important diversity is in social media platforms and celebrities, as it ensures that everyone is celebrated and anyone can be anything. 

Similarly, Soleil–a freshman here at NYC iSchool–said that she likes this solution because it encourages “multiple diverse people” and in return, “you’re not just focused on one idea or one perspective.” 

While this solution is agreeably great, to ensure a strong impact, we need to make sure the owners of these companies are in agreement as well. 

While above, you can see that many solutions included reaching out to parents to produce actionable steps in minimizing screen time use, but now we can see that people are also aiming to target the audience affected by all of this: teenagers.