It is a natural feeling for people to seek the consent of those around them, the peripheral world, or the feeling of wanting to be liked. The obsession with followers and likes has much to do with an individual’s self-esteem. Quite often, when the youth post a picture or make a comment, they want to see the reciprocated reaction from other people, something that can either make them feel good or bad. Social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram are immensely changing the way the youngsters feel about themselves because they have provided the like button ranging from pictures, statuses, and pages. These sites have also changed the youngster’s feelings through how many followers and likes they get to their posts. To extreme circumstances, youngsters may even delete a post they made and could not get more likes or if their age didn’t attract more followers as they expected.
The younger generation is obsessed with followers and likes as a symbol of their relationships on social media, narrowing down to individuality. Most of the time, the youth need and seek approval from their friends and peers on social media and need to portray power through many followers. As part of the mental health risk, the younger generation’s obsession for likes and followers on social media is highly likely to affect their mental state. Some youth may also call or reach out to friends and peers in extreme contexts to like their posts or follow them.
Youngsters make themselves vulnerable to scrutiny and judgment, all in the effort of getting followers and more likes and the hope for positive feedback on their posts. Guilty as charged, a young person will post something on their timeline and check their phones within a few seconds or minutes to confirm whether it is being liked. When the youth don’t get their desired likes on social media, they even end up unhappy or dissatisfied for not achieving this requirement. Youngsters have become obsessed with adoration and endorsement from social media that they almost feel eligible to receive more followers and likes.
