You Are What You See
By leilana Cercado | Opinions | sept. 29, 2025
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (SCPDA) — When walking in the hallways or eating in the courtyard for lunch, students from Stanton College Preparatory School often hear classmates conversing about different popular social media trends. One trend that has recently emerged is individuals adopting behavior labeled as “performative.” Social media often portrays performative behaviors as things done to relate to another group, for example, boys drinking matcha to connect with girls or wearing items that can create connections with others.
However, performative behaviors are not just items bought or worn; they are also things done or said to gain approval or an audience. They can be heard in students’ speech and topics of conversation, which often stem from videos they view on social media. As people start adopting these behaviors, they put themselves and their communities at risk due to the dangerous nature of these actions.
One problem stemming from performative behavior is copying the dieting habits of influencers. Many teenagers idolize influencers, so they partake in potentially dangerous dietary habits to achieve that. Sometimes, influencers promote dieting habits that work for them but do not particularly work for others. Dieting habits like these may actually be harming viewers, but people still use them because they idolize these influencers and their bodies.
Also, there are some influencers who motivate viewers in the academic field. At Stanton, students strive to get better grades and are more likely to try any study methods influencers claim to work. Also, many online influencers want to spread messages about good topics or actions. For example, protecting the environment in beach cleanups or recycling. On the contrary, influencers can get equal or even larger audiences for doing and promoting things that are not right.
Although it may be beneficial to listen to social platforms, the negatives outweigh the positives. Social media can affect everything about people; from the friends they make to the clothes they wear. Social media is making teenagers lose their individuality and identity. People following performative behaviors create societal norms and make it difficult for people to gain acceptance and can create harmful stereotypes. Social media also influences peoples’ views on specific topics, especially controversial ones. For example, the new policies on immigration. Since these policies are not brought up in schools, students are educated on these topics through social media.
Another problem that comes with people being educated by social media is the spread of misinformation. This can be dangerous, as uninformed people gain a significant amount of information on current events through their social media outlets. For example, during the height of COVID-19, there was a huge spread of misinformation claiming vaccines could cause autism and posed a threat to an individual’s health. According to the National Library of Medicine, social media was the main cause of vaccine hesitancy and uptake. Surprisingly, even though there are studies that show how vaccines are beneficial, these conspiracies still influence the population’s views on vaccines today.
Social media causes individuals to seek an audience not just online, but in real life as well. For example, a recent trend called the “Chromebook Challenge,” went viral on most social media platforms. The challenge was to stick items into the ports of computers until they exploded. This was obviously a dangerous and harmful trend, as it damaged school property and the computers let out harmful gases. By partaking in these challenges, people are risking their health to gain popularity online.
Although there may be some positives to having an online presence, the negatives outweigh these positives. Newer generations are following trends on social media, and by losing their individuality, are taking risks to gain audiences.