(HS Loftus 022297 2024) Social Media and Self-Esteem: Supporting Youth as they Navigate the Virtual World

Course overview

This seminar outlines the current issues social media is creating in Australia to both Youth and Adults, including updated worrying statistics on Child Exploitation and affects on Self-esteem. Social Media began as a tool to connect with friends and family and meet new people with similar interests. A way to share a photo, externalise a thought and be exposed to new perspectives. But now... social media is a very different entity. Many mental health practitioners see social media as a toxic instrument that exposes our youth to material that is not age appropriate, can start to wire their brain differently, and assist in forming toxic base core beliefs, that these young people carry through to their adult lives in a form of rules and assumptions about themselves and the world around them. One such core belief social media can affect is a person's self-esteem. Self-esteem is defined as our opinion of ourselves. All of us at some point will experience a lack of confidence over certain skillsets however someone with low self-esteem is unhappy or unsatisfied with themselves most of the time. This seminar will cover the main causes of low self-esteem that will help clinicians that work with youth and adults that are struggling to identify the causes and triggers of low confidence and low opinions of themselves.