What is the definition of Social Expectations? How does it affect the younger
generation? What are some disadvantages or advantages of Social Expectations?
Social Expectations are the explicit rules that determine how individuals should act
within a group or society. In this essay, I will be responding to these three
questions and then I will give my perspective on the matter and will share some
experiences I’ve had with social expectations.
Body Paragraph 1:
Soumya Basu, “The Youth Mental Health Crisis: Analysis and Solutions”, published
in August 2023, this article talks about the struggles the youth goes through with
mental health problems like anxiety, loneliness, and stress. The youth’s mental
health is strongly affected by health and lifestyle. Vaping has caused some effects
to the youth’s habits and causes a consistent downfall of conditions that are being
influenced by Social Media. “The vaping epidemic exemplifies how social factors
impact substance use, with electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) popular
among youth due to targeted marketing and social media influence. Youth with
mental illness may use ENDS to manage symptoms or medication side effects,
contributing to conditions like depression, ADHD, and conduct disorder.”
This demonstrates that Social media is influencing the younger crowd into thinking
that vaping is good and it helps with your mental health, when In reality, it does
the opposite. The author’s purpose is presenting the effects of young people using
vaping as a coping mechanism in order to fit in with a larger crowd.But, in reality,
you’re just damaging yourself beyond repair.
Body Paragraph 2:
High social expectations increase pressure on young people, making them more
exposed to mental health problems. In this article, “The Paradox of endless options
and unrealistic expectations”, talks about consequences that occur when the youth
go through Social Expectations. For example, “ Since young people are seen as
entrepreneurs in their own lives, they become responsible for social risks such as
illness, poverty, and mental health problems (Kelly,
2007; Lemke,
2001; Macan Ghaill,
2019; Madsen,
2018). Thus, some young people may be vulnerable to a new and more complex
position of marginalization, which, according to Görlich et al. (Citation 2019)
occurs when the individual is exposed to significant pressure in several life
arenas simultaneously.” This shows that Social Expectations gives the youth a
new stress factor which is being fully responsible for the success and the failure
that comes with it. The Author’s purpose to get people to understand that Social
expectations bring upon intense pressure which require them to grow up factor in
a way.
Body Paragraph:3
A freelance writer and the former managing editor at the Child Mind Institute.
She holds a BA from the University of Chicago, Rachel Elmke, “How Using Social
Media Affects Teenagers”,Dec 2025, which takes about how social media has a
negative influence on the young generation. This generation of teenagers are used
to communicating through Social Media that they lose the ability to communicate
to a person face to face. “Of course before everyone had an Instagram account
teens kept themselves busy, too, but they were more likely to do their chatting on
the phone, or in person when hanging out at the mall. It may have looked like a lot
of aimless hanging around, but what they were doing was experimenting, trying out
skills, and succeeding and failing in tons of tiny real-time interactions that kids
today are missing out on.” This demonstrates that teenagers are losing the skill to
talk and communicate face to face, and are lowering their confidence to speak to
other people directly. They don’t know how to let go of the screen and actually
connect with the people outside. The Author’s purpose is to contribute some skills
that the current youth is lacking on and how Social expectations contribute to
that.
Body Paragraph 4:
However, Social Expectation can also provide emotional support. It also helps gain
support and attention for small influencers. Besides earning support for your
family you can also gain support from other people.
In the article, “[Social media]
allows youth to connect with people near and far,create friendships,maintain those
friendships, stay in touch with family who live far away. Seeking social support and
receiving that on social media has been found to alleviate depressive symptoms and,
and help teens feel better about themselves. (Prothero, 2025)”. This shows that
there is some light to this madness of a World. The Author’s Purpose is to shed
some light on the topic of Social Expectation.
Perspective:
I wanted to share my experience with Social Expectations. So, in high school, I
always tried to fit in with certain crowds and hang out with people. Now, I;m a
pretty sensitive guy, I sometimes take what my friends say to heart. Now, I know
topics or certain stuff you’ve done in the past that you are not proud of, which is
not cool all the time. And I know that they don’t mean to hurt my feelings, I still
take it to heart, but I hide it a lot sometimes. However, I always told myself that “
Omari, even though this bad, u dont want people to say, “Omari stop taking it
serious bro, we are just playing toughen up bro”. Like I don’t want people to limit
themselves with me because I was too sensitive to handle it. So, I would say, even
though, it hurt me, you can’t say anything because you vibe with them well and they
are fun to hang out with. Now, some of those people are still my friends but if I
have an issue on what they said. I will pull them to the side and tell them to chill or
how I felt and they would respect that. So, yeah that was my experience with
Social Expectations. I want this to be a learning experience for teens. I want them
to know that If your feelings hurt, talk to that person. And if they don’t
acknowledge, then drop them. Don’t let people waste your time, time in this world is
limited. You shouldn’t spend your life being put down, you’re allowed to live life
with your head up & confidence. You don’t need to fit in with certain groups, you
are not obligated to stay in that group, you can only make decisions on who you hang
out with and who you want in your life.
Comparing:
In both articles “Paragraph 1-3”, are listing key points in this modern Society.
People are using Vaping as a Copping mechanism or either to fit in because, as
Paragraph refers to feeling pressured into doing it. They feel like they owe people
or wanting to prove to people that they’re fun and they can hang. However, they
also risking their own bodies for Validation .
Conclusion:
In conclusion, this essay talks about how Social Expectations can really harm
younger people and change their lives. I hope it brings awareness to people’s
minds and hopefully educates the younger people to realize that they don’t have
to fit in and put themselves through that pressure and just be themselves. I hope
my experience influences younger people to make right decisions and to let them
know they are not alone in this situation. We all go through that stage, some are
lucky, some are not, but choose your friends or groups wisely and don’t let them
destroy your life. Be Happy, Be Aware, Be Honest and most importantly Be
Yourself. I’ve been guilty of it myself and I wasn’t in a good head space until now, I
regretted not reacting sooner or letting people’s opinions especially (Friends)
affect the way I felt/ the way I operated.
Citation:
- The Paradox of endless options and unrealistic expectations: understanding the impact on youth mental health, (Monika Mohr, Aug 2023)
- How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers (Rachel Elmke,Dec 2025)
- The youth mental health crisis: analysis and solutions (Jan 2025, Patrick McGory)
- How Social Media May Benefit Teens’ Mental Health ( Arianna Prothero — February 16, 2024)
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