71% of Young People Feel the Need to Live up to a Certain Expectation on Social Media

SOUTH KENSINGTON, U.K. - May 15, 2019 - PRLog -- A new study from Camp America has found a staggering 71.9% of young people feel pressure to live up to an expectation on social media. The survey, which asked 18-25 year olds about their social media habits and how it impacts them; also found that 70% felt social media had a negative impact on them.

The survey shed light on how social media can play a huge part in adding to pressures, that young people already have. The online survey asked over 500 young people about social media; with almost half of those taking part, saying they felt pressure to post on social media - to show that they are having fun.

"Social media is an amazing tool, it connects people from all over the world," says Katy Yucel, Marketing Director at Camp America. "However, it can also have a negative impact if young people are only seeing the best parts of users lives and comparing themselves; we want to do more to highlight how to help young people use it positively."

"Alongside the main survey questions, we also asked Camp America participants about how their social media habits change when at home in the UK, to when they are away at camp. 95.87% said they felt they were living more in the moment at camp. One of the most amazing parts of our program, is the opportunity to have a digital detox and really live in the moment and we wanted to have a campaign that could bring this aspect of camp into everyday life."

Camp America's 'Chase Happy Not Perfect' campaign, aims to raise awareness of the negative and positive impacts of social media and help to build self confidence and self-esteem among young people. On its website https://www.campamerica.co.uk/chasehappynotperfect Camp America will provide activities, videos and resources that parents, teachers, youth workers and camp counsellors can use to work with young people; highlighting the positives and negatives of social media.

"We have a wealth of knowledge from our Camp Directors and counsellors that can be adapted to classrooms or youth centres, or even for parents; we wanted to share these and help highlight the part social media can play in causing pressure on young people." Explains Katy. "We will be working with local schools to test these out and improve the programs and activities as we go along, adding more content throughout the year."

"We use social media constantly and it is a huge part of most people's lives, we don't want to boycott it because it can be a really useful and helpful tool. We want to try and help it to be used in a positive way and help young people to see that the perfect images on social media, usually aren't real. With that in mind we decided to create the #ChaseHappyNotPerfect hashtag on Instagram, calling people to post real photos that show real moments."