Social media is one of the fastest growing industries in today’s world. A study conducted by the US Pew Research Center showed that 92 percent of teenagers go online daily. The wide spread of social media has changed nearly all parts of teenagers’ lives.

• Changing relationships

High school student Elly Cooper from Illinois said social media often reduces face- to-face communication. “It makes in-person relationships harder because of people’s attention given to their phones instead of their boyfriends or girlfriends,” Cooper said.

Yet, some people believe social media has made it easier to start relationships with anyone from anywhere. Beth Kaplan from Illinois met her long-distance friend through social media. He currently lives in Scotland, but they’re still able to frequently communicate with each other. “I can feel close to someone that I’m talking to via FaceTime,” Kaplan said.

• Wanting to be “liked”

The rise of social media has changed the way teenagers see themselves. The 19- year-old Essena O’Neill announced on the social networking service Instagram that she was quitting social media because it made her unable to stop thinking about appearing perfect online. Negative comments also can do great damage to a teenager’s self-esteem. Teenagers who get negative comments can’t help but feel hurt.

• Opening new doors

However, Armin Korsos, a student from Illinois, takes advantage of the comments he receives over social media to improve his videos on the social networking site YouTube. “Social media can help people show themselves and their talents to the world in a way that has never been possible before,” Korsos said.

A study by the British government has discovered the mental well-being of the country's teenage girls has worsened.

The survey, which included 30,000 14-year-old students in 2014 and 2021, showed 37 percent of girls with psychological stress, up from 34 percent in 2014. British boys 'stress level was actually seen to fall over the same time period, from 17 percent to 15 percent. The report's authors pointed out the “appearance of the social media age” could be a major contributing factor for increasing stress among teenage British girls.

“The adolescent years are a time of rapid physical, cognitive (认知的) and emotional development,” Pam Ramsden, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom, wrote in a blog post. “Teenagers interact with people in order to learn how to become competent adults. In the past, they would engage with parents, teachers and other adults in their community as well as extended family members and friends. Now we can also add social media to that list of social and emotional development.”

Throughout adolescence, girls and boys develop characteristics like confidence and self-control .Since teenage brains have not completely developed, teens don't have the cognitive awareness and impulse control to keep from posting inappropriate content. Furthermore, this content can easily be circulated far and wide with disastrous implications.

“Social media can also feed into girls' insecurities about their appearance,” Ramsden said. “These sites are often filled with images of people with body type unattainable to the normal person. However, these images and the messages tied to them gradually grow into some widely-accepted social standards.”

“Social media allows girls to make comparisons among friends as well as celebrities and then provides them with ‘solutions’ such as extreme dieting tips and workouts to reach their goals,” Ramsden said. “Concerns about body image can negatively impact their quality of life preventing them from having healthy relationships and taking up time that could be better spent developing other aspects of their personalities.”

Nobody likes to fail. It makes people feel embarrassed and discouraged. What's worse, it may cause major professional or personal trouble and lead to negativity. Basically, failure is no fun for most people. However, a vast body of research tells us that failure provides us with a chance to grow and develop, increases adaptability, and helps protect against anxiety.

It's hard to change the mindset (心态) of a lifetime. But even if we still can't get over the broken marriage or the failed College Entrance Examination or the work presentation that went fearfully wrong, it might not be too late for our kids.

Christy Pennison, a professional consultant, says she works with an increasing number of kids and teens who show significant anxiety around a fear of failure. She said, "We want to protect our children, and we want them to live happy and meaningful lives, so we frequently tell them the harm of failure and ask them to avoid failure. The children experiencing internal and sometimes extenal pressure think they shouldn't fail. Meanwhile, we always have high expectations of them. So when they don't live up to a certain standard, or things don't go according to the plans, they will feel upset and anxious."

Pennison argues that failures, are often the hidden learning chances that can help people develop positive qualities, like persistence, focus, flexibility, patience, and positive self-image.

So what can parents do to help their children embrace (拥抱) failure instead of avoiding it at all costs? Pennison suggests directing praise towards the effort, not the result. "This allows children to build confidence in themselves, "she explains." Acknowledging the effort can give children permission to try new things without a fear of failure. And the bigger picture is that the development of the mindset —'I'd rather try and fail than not try at all.'—helps them keep a belief in themselves, and expands their world of possibilities." As Pennison points out, we all fail, but how we get up after we fail is what matters.