How Does Media Exposure Affect the Development of Toddlers?

Introduction Being a college student brings with it many expectations about success. You’re expected to excel academically, gain some professional experience, build connections, and think about your future career. Social media makes it more accessible to see what your peers are doing . A quick scroll through Instagram or LinkedIn can show posts about internships, scholarships, study abroad experiences, new jobs, awards, and all sorts of achievements. While these updates might seem harmless, they can also push students to reflect on their own journeys compared to others. For instance, if someone lands an internship, another student might start questioning if they should be pursuing one too. This ties back to social comparison, which is how we assess ourselves in relation to others. Social comparison isn’t always a bad thing, but social media gives students nonstop chances to measure themselves against curated versions of other people’s lives. So, it raises a key question: How does seeing other people's achievements on social media shape college students' views of their own success? In this project, I dive into this by interviewing college students about their social media habits, what success means to them, their experiences with comparison, and how they react to others’ accomplishments online. Literature Review Social Comparison Theory, originally developed by Leon Festinger (1954), provides a useful framework for understanding how social media may influence students' perceptions of themselves. Festinger argued that people tend to evaluate their opinions and abilities by comparing themselves with others, particularly when objective standards for evaluation are unavailable. Social media creates an environment where these comparisons can happen frequently because users are constantly exposed to information about other people's experiences and accomplishments. This can be especially relevant when students make upward comparisons, or comparisons with people they perceive as doing better than themselves. Research on social networking sites suggests that social comparison has become particularly common online because social media allows people to encounter large numbers of other people's lives and accomplishments. Verduyn et al. (2020) found that social networking sites provide especially frequent opportunities for social comparison, while Meier and Johnson (2022) emphasize that the effects of these comparisons are not always negative and can vary depending on the individual and situation. For example, seeing someone else's success may create pressure or feelings of inadequacy, but it can also provide motivation or inspiration. This distinction is important because social media does not necessarily determine how students will feel when they see someone else's achievement. Instead, factors such as the person's relationship to the poster, their own goals, and how they interpret the post may shape their reaction. Rafiq and Linden (2024) similarly highlight the importance of curated self-presentation on social media, since users generally see selected aspects of other people's lives rather than a complete picture. Therefore, social media may influence students' perceptions of success not because it provides an accurate representation of how everyone else is doing, but because it gives students repeated opportunities to evaluate themselves against these representations. Methods For this project, I used a qualitative interview approach to explore how college students experience social media comparison and how it may shape their perceptions of success. I conducted semi-structured interviews with college students, allowing me to ask the same general questions across interviews while also asking follow-up questions based on each participant's responses. The interviews focused on participants' social media use, their definitions of success, their reactions to seeing other people's accomplishments, experiences with comparing themselves to others, and whether social media made them feel motivated, pressured, or behind. I also asked participants to reflect on whether they believed social media accurately represented other students' lives and accomplishments. After conducting the interviews, I looked across participants' responses for recurring themes and similarities as well as differences in their experiences. To protect participants' privacy, I use pseudonyms rather than their real names when discussing their responses. This approach allowed me to examine participants' personal experiences while connecting their responses to the broader psychological concept of social comparison. Highlighted Quotes: “Wow, like I'm not doing enough... These are the people I'm competing against... for jobs or for grants or like grad school. So it's something that makes me feel a bit like behind.” “For my friends, usually my first instinct is to be happy. But then for acquaintances... I start thinking like, wow, like this person is doing... And then I'm like, what am I doing with my life?” “Even if it's written in the typical LinkedIn fashion... there's still truth to these words.” “I just got into a very toxic mindset of like comparison... I felt like I wasn't very accomplished in what I did.” Discussion The interviews suggest that social media can influence how college students evaluate their own success, but this influence is more nuanced than simply making students feel inadequate. Across the interviews, participants described social media as a space where they are exposed to other people's accomplishments, but their reactions depended largely on their relationship to the person posting and their own expectations for success. One participant, “Jordan,” explained that seeing accomplishments from close friends usually made them feel happy, while seeing achievements from people in similar academic or career paths prompted more comparison. They described seeing someone receive a STEM scholarship and immediately wondering, “should I be doing that right?” Untitled - September 22, 2026 (… Similarly, “Maya” described seeing peers' accomplishments as both encouraging and discouraging depending on how close she was to them. She explained that she generally felt happy for close friends, but seeing acquaintances accomplish things in similar fields made her think, “what am I doing with my life?” A major theme across the interviews was the feeling of being behind. This was especially apparent when participants compared themselves to people they perceived as being on a similar path. “Maya” described seeing a peer's medical assistant certification and immediately thinking about how she did not have enough clinical hours for medical school. Another participant described social media as making them feel that everyone else was accomplishing more, although they also recognized that these posts did not represent people's entire lives. This connects to the idea of upward social comparison, in which individuals evaluate themselves against people they perceive as being ahead of them. However, the interviews also suggest that students are not passive recipients of these comparisons. Several participants recognized that social media presents a curated version of other people's lives. One participant noted that Instagram is designed to show people “put their best foot forward,” while another observed that LinkedIn can make someone appear much more successful than they actually are. At the same time, social media was not the primary source of participants' definitions of success. Multiple participants identified family, personal goals, and in-person interactions as more influential. For example, “Jordan” explained that their ideas about success were shaped more by their family and older sibling's career than by social media. Another participant similarly said that their definition of success came primarily from their parents and emphasized financial independence. Overall, these interviews suggest that social media may not necessarily determine what college students consider successful, but it can make existing expectations more visible and provide frequent opportunities to compare oneself to others. This supports the idea that social comparison on social media is highly dependent on individual context rather than producing the same psychological response in everyone. Conclusion In summary, the interviews suggest social media plays a complex role in how college students perceive their own success. Participants didn’t necessarily think that social media defined what success meant to them. Instead, their definitions were often influenced by family, personal goals, academic settings, and experiences beyond social media. However, social media did offer another platform for them to assess whether they were living up to those expectations. Watching peers land internships, scholarships, jobs, or other achievements could spark motivation, yet it could also lead to anxiety or feelings of falling behind. It’s also essential to note that participants recognized that social media doesn’t capture the complete reality of someone’s life. Even with that understanding, simply knowing that posts are curated didn’t always stop them from comparing themselves. This suggests that the influence of social media might not come from convincing students that others are genuinely more successful but from consistently making others’ achievements visible. Ultimately, the interviews reveal that social comparison on social media isn’t experienced the same way by every college student. Who they choose to compare themselves to, what they value, and how they interpret what they see all play a role in whether another person’s success motivates them, pressures them, or doesn’t affect them at all. Bibliography Festinger, L. (1954). A theory of social comparison processes. Human Relations, 7(2), 117–140. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872675400700202 Verduyn, P., Gugushvili, N., Massar, K., Täht, K., & Kross, E. (2020). Social comparison on social networking sites. Current Opinion in Psychology, 36, 32–37. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2020.04.002 Meier, A., & Johnson, B. K. (2022). Social comparison and envy on social media: A critical review. Current Opinion in Psychology, 45, 101302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2022.101302 Rafiq, R., & Linden, S. (2024). Social Media and Self-Concept Among Postsecondary Students: A Scoping Review. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 27(3). https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2023.0451 

Self-regulation skills, such as regulating emotions and attention, are vital to children’s development of problem-solving, socialization, language, and relationship-building skills (Blume et al., 2025). These skills are influenced by genetics, interpersonal relationships, and life experiences, with parent-child relationships being particularly relevant. Specifically, parenting styles, categorized by Blume et al. as supportive, suppressive, and passive, are important influences on self-regulation skills, as well as overall health, behavior, and developmental outcomes. Blume et al. define parenting as “supportive” when it encourages independence, emotional and behavioral regulation, or socially adaptive behavior. This can be seen through affectionate communication, responsive behavior, emotional support, and the use of reasoning strategies. The second parenting style, “suppressive,” involves directly structuring children’s behavior and forcibly redirecting their attention. This is demonstrated through strict emotional control, harsh discipline, aggression, and restriction. Lastly, Blume et al. define “passive” parenting as behavior that neither specifically encourages nor discourages independence, emotional and behavioral regulation, or socially adaptive behavior. Examples include parental monitoring, asking questions without expressing an opinion, and observation without interaction. To examine the relationship between these parenting styles and self-regulation, the researchers operationalized self-regulation as “The ability to independently control behavior, emotional states, and reactivity in the context of intrinsic or extrinsic stressors, problems, or changes.”

There has been wide discourse on the effect of caffeine on mental well-being for decades. In recent years, several kinds of energy drinks have grown in popularity. Marketed with bright colors and health benefits, such as added probiotics or protein, these products have attracted a larger audience of consumers. Energy drinks are targeted particularly toward young consumers. Despite being marketed as mental and physical energy boosters, their caffeine content can be incredibly high, with the potential to cause caffeine intoxication (Richards & Smith, 2016).  Despite concerns about the effects of energy drinks, research on their association with mental well-being was limited at the time of the study. Trapp and colleagues explored this association by measuring depression, anxiety, and stress using the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21; Trapp et al., 2014). The study used data from a follow-up of the Raine Study, which originally recruited participants between 1989 and 1991. Conducted between 2009 and 2011, the follow-up included 1,062 young Australian adults with a mean age of 20 years.

Introduction The various stages of the menstrual cycle affect women in many ways: physically, hormonally, and mentally. Rarely throughout the cycle are females in a state of homeostasis (Mitra et al., 2025). This constant fluctuation in hormone levels and physical symptoms severely affects the lives of these females, as it can result in distraction, lower academic or workplace performance, and negative physical health (Mitra et al., 2025; Bhuvaneswari et al., 2019). The effects aren’t exactly minor. Mitra et al. used this study to examine the physical and mental benefits of participating in a yoga program during the menstrual cycle for college-aged women. The authors suggest that engagement in regular yoga programs will have overall positive benefits on women’s psychophysiological health throughout the typical menstrual cycle. The study was conducted using 82 college-aged females from India who have a normal menstrual cycle and don’t regularly practice yoga. Methods Prospective participants went through an extensive screening process to ensure they met the necessary criteria. Self-report questionnaires were then used to record the various stages of the menstrual cycle, basal body temperature, and menstrual distress symptoms. The Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) was also administered. Participants in the experimental group engaged in regular, guided yoga and mindfulness practice, following the same sequence of movements, for a period of three months, and their reported results were then compared to the responses of the control group. Notably, there was no biological measure of hormone or stress levels; the data relied entirely on self-report. 

With the highest rates of social networking service use occurring among women aged 18-29, it is important to study the impact of photo-based platforms like Instagram on body image in this demographic (Cohen et al., 2017). Cohen et al.’s study, The relationship between Facebook and Instagram appearance-focused activities and body image concerns in young women, examined 259 Australian women between the ages of 18 and 29 to assess the correlation between appearance-focused social media use and body image concerns such as self-monitoring and thin-ideal internalization. Societal standards often push women toward “self-objectification” to obtain what is prized by society (Cohen et al., 2017). Women may observe current trends and begin comparing themselves to celebrities without consciously considering the negative implications. While these possibilities are troubling, some may be quick to demonize social media for its role in the alarming prevalence of body image issues among young women. This study offers a more specific perspective by comparing appearance-neutral social media use, such as following travel accounts, with appearance-focused social media use, such as monitoring friends’ photos, within this vulnerable demographic.

It’s not a new idea that walking can provide a creative boost. While prior literature focused mainly on more intense aerobic exercise, the authors aimed to test whether a simple and accessible activity like walking could improve creativity both in the moment and shortly afterward. Specifically, the study examined how walking affects divergent thinking (brainstorming) versus convergent thinking (finding a single correct solution), with the goal of identifying an easy method for boosting creativity (Oppezzo & Schwartz, 2014). The study includes four experiments assessing how walking affects creativity. Experiment 1 shows that walking on a treadmill improves divergent thinking. Experiment 2 addresses practice effects and finds that the benefits of walking persist even after participants sit down. Experiment 3 shows that these benefits also occur in outdoor settings. Finally, Experiment 4 provides evidence that walking, rather than simply being outdoors, contributes to the increase in creativity.

Introduction Screen use among adolescents has grown rapidly, and so have concerns about what it's doing to their mental health. According to Santos et al. (2023), using devices on weekdays has been associated with diminished overall mental well-being. Adolescence already carries an increased risk for mental health problems, so it is important to monitor both how much time teens spend on screens and what they're consuming. Excluding schoolwork, media-related activities take up around six to nine hours of an American adolescent's day (Santos et al., 2023). That's a lot of time. This systematic review aimed to highlight the effects of screen exposure on a wide range of mental health aspects in adolescents. These include conduct issues, disorders such as depression, psychosocial difficulties, life satisfaction, and more. The study contributes to our knowledge of how adolescents interact with screens and how increased exposure may affect their well-being.  Methods Santos et al. (2023) followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA), meaning the researchers gathered and analyzed existing articles published in the last ten years rather than collecting new data. The methodological quality of each study was determined using the Newcastle-Ottawa Scale. Four reviewers evaluated the studies in pairs, and a fifth reviewer resolved any discrepancies. In total, fifty articles were reviewed, 38 cross-sectional and 12 longitudinal, covering 1,900,447 adolescents. Participants ranged from 10 to 21 years old, and screen time was mostly self-reported.

Introduction Black adolescent boys face unique and serious mental health challenges that are often underaddressed. According to Ribeiro Brown et al. (2022), Black boys are disproportionately exposed to psychosocial stressors such as racial discrimination, community violence, poverty, and attending under-resourced schools. Despite this heightened risk, research on how Black boys seek help and what mental health resources they use remains scarce. Previous research estimates that between 50% and 76.5% of Black youth have unmet mental health service needs. That gap matters. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to examine the types of mental health resources Black high school boys currently use, with the broader goal of informing the development of a tailored mental health education and support program for this population. In this study, mental health resources are broadly defined as any person, platform, tool, or practice that a young person turns to cope with stress and support their emotional wellbeing. The researchers set out to answer one question: What kinds of mental health support resources are Black boys using? Methods Ribeiro Brown et al. (2022) used an exploratory case study design with a qualitative approach, meaning the study focused on in-depth individual and group experiences rather than numerical measurements. The researchers recruited six self-identified Black male high school students from a predominantly Black high school in southeastern Michigan. The participants ranged in age from 15 to 17 years old (mean age = 16.5), with five being high school seniors and one being a sophomore. One participant also identified as Afro-Latino and one as Afro-Caribbean. A Black male PhD-trained researcher led an hour-long focus group over lunch in the fall semester of 2021 to gather data. The focus group questionnaire covered topics like where participants look for information, who they trust for health information, how they handle stress, which social media platforms they use, how they feel about school-based programs, and what qualities would make a person or program trustworthy. The audio recording of the session was transcribed. To find the most common codes and themes, data were evaluated using a Rapid and Accelerated Data Reduction (RADaR) technique in conjunction with traditional text analysis. Results Four major themes emerged from the analysis. The first theme was online resources, including social media (Instagram and Snapchat), websites, and entertainment media. The second theme was community and trusted individuals, with boys reporting that they relied on neighbors, older family members, and community figures who had shared similar life experiences. Participants emphasized that trusted individuals needed to be both relatable and educated. The third theme was self-reliance, where some boys expressed a preference for handling stress independently, reflecting a cultural norm of emotional self-management common among Black adolescents. The fourth theme was additional needs, where participants identified gaps in culturally tailored programs, positive role models, and school support.

The purpose of this study is to understand how daily activities such as meal preparation and cooking can support individuals recovering from severe mental illness (SMI). Individuals with SMI can experience difficulties in daily life, and Garcia and Privott (2023) sought to understand how meal preparation and cooking groups could support the transition to independent community living through occupational therapy. Occupational therapy uses everyday activities to support clients’ physical and mental health. Another goal of the study was to better understand the challenges individuals with SMI face so that more effective interventions can be developed. The study focused on one participant who had experienced long-term institutionalization and later transitioned to independent living.