Have you ever felt annoyed at seeing the plethora of advertisements that pop up on your screen? I do. Nowadays, we spend almost every minute of our day on the Internet, and it has become impossible to go even a moment without words publicizing a product or a company flashing in front of our eyes. It is hard to believe that advertisements started out as papyrus scrolls in Egypt centuries ago. Now advertisements can be seen everywhere and play a paramount role in the lives of youths.

However, not all these impacts are necessarily good. As the saying goes, there are two sides to the same coin. Likewise, advertisements affect teenagers in a plethora of ways, both advantageous and disadvantageous.

The focal purpose of advertisements is to promote the enterprise’s products and encourage business. Teenagers can be heavily influenced by them, and enterprises use this to their advantage. In most cases, it ends with teenagers spending their money on impractical products. Besides, advertisements often feature women and men with particular physical characteristics. They are lean and slim, or in the case of men, muscular. This imprints itself in youngsters’ minds as the ideal body type. In the struggle to achieve this, teenagers starve themselves and even resort to self-harm. This can lead to anorexia, depression, low self-esteem and other mental illnesses. In addition, advertisements promote damaging habits like smoking and drinking. Advertisements portray these habits as fashionable choices, and this can lead to teenagers adopting them to appear voguish in front of their friends.

On the other hand, advertisements contain the occasional dose of reality, and can increase teenagers’ awareness of the outside world. It can build up their knowledge and prepare them to step out into the world. Some advertisements create awareness among the public on topics like COVID-19, climate change, personal hygiene and more. This can motivate youngsters to take an active role and fulfill their duties to society. Advertisements can be motivational, and encourage teenagers to step up. It can act as a life-line for teenagers suffering through mental illnesses and can motivate them.

In conclusion, advertisements have both its benefits and pitfalls. Teenagers must be made aware of the various ways advertisements manipulate them so that they can resist the negative effects. I believe that with the proper counsel, advertisements can become a source of information and help teenagers around the world.