Getting through senior school has never been easy, but with the invention of smart phones and social media, running the teenage gauntlet has become twice as hard. A new documentary series called Teens, which airs its first episode tonight on Channel 4, follows a group of teenagers from Davenant Foundation School in Loughton, Essex for a year and charts how modern technology has changed the way young people interact. The cameras started to follow the group in January 2014 and continued to record their antics until the end of December. Scroll down for video . A new Channel 4 show called Teens followed group of sixth formers from Davenant Foundation School in Loughton, Essex (pictured), for a year . They monitored more than one million texts, Snapchats, WhatsApp messages and tweets over the 12 months, charting the highs and lows of friendship at the age of 16. What becomes clear early on in the programme is how much each teen uses their phone – whether it is to engage on social media or simply text their parents. This first episode meets Jess and Harry D, who have both have just joined school for sixth form. Harry D, 16, uses his Twitter account for three main functions – stirring up emotions among his friends, pranking his mates and family members to appear cool among his peers, and lastly, to meet young women. He finds a girl on twitter who looks attractive then follows her and sends her a couple of public messages, before long they are sending each other private messages. Harry D and Jess feature heavily in the show and come to blows over Twitter . He tells the cameras: ‘When you’re on DM’s you’re on good ground, then she gives you her number. ‘When she gives you her number, that’s it - you‘re so close to succeeding. ‘That’s when you [use the number to] go on WhatsApp. ‘You don’t text because that’s too serious, who do you text now? Your mum and dad.’ Jess, who is also 16, uses Twitter to get involved in campaigns like No More Page Three. This episode shows how social media can be a force for good among teens, by engaging them in current issues and broadening their horizons. But it also shows that having teens so closely linked 24/7 also allows tensions to become inflamed and how easy it is for bullying to start. In the show, Jess is seen inviting a campaigner from NO More Page Three to come and give a talk at the school about the issue. Rebecca and Harry M, who feature on a later episode of the documentary series . During the debate, many of the pupils side with Page Three, believing that a woman with her breasts out does no harm. When Harry says that it is simply tradition, the anti-Page Three campaigner says that is not a good reason to keep something and likens it to slavery, which she also calls a tradition. The comment has an inflammatory effect on the pupils present, who quickly take to social media sites like Twitter to attack the lecture, with many blaming Jess because she organised it. Later that evening, the pupils continue to whip up a storm on social media and Jess reads multiple comments about herself being an attention seeker and that someone has called her fat which is retweeted several times. She cries in front of the cameras and says that the comments have really affected her self-esteem. The producers then talk to a group of girls from the school who have also been attacked on social media. One says: ‘It’s hard on twitter because you don’t have to tag someone’s name on it, so you can twist it and say it wasn’t about them, even when it clearly is. Another adds: ‘Someone wrote “These are the ugliest girls in the year” on Twitter and listed lots of my friends’ names underneath, I was on there as well.’ Shauna, Melissa and James all take part in a later episode of the programme . But while Jess labels the Twitter drama ‘World War Three’ during the evening when the abuse is at its worse, the next day everyone is back at school and smiling and joking. It becomes clear that although the teenagers are able to be highly aggressive to each other when behind their computers, they have also become very adept at recovering from the situation the next day. Harry says: ‘When you say something to someone on social media, you aren’t aware of the consequences. ‘They can’t come and find you and that’s why people find it quite good. ‘Twitter beef is probably the most entertaining thing in society. ‘I stick to the thing where I’d say to someone on social media what I would say to them in real life.’ But possibly the biggest change is how nothing, not even the amount of sleep you had the night before, is private any more. The schoolmates tweet about everything from a failed biology test, two six hours sleep and how they were let down by a girl. Just fifteen years ago, a teenager could leave Year 11 as a preppie schoolboy and come back three months later as a goth in the sixth form. These days that kid would be papped heading down to the corner shop for a pint of milk mid-transformation and it would be on the web for their peers to see within minutes. Social media and unlimited internet on smart phones has given these teens the freedom to interact with their friends all night, but they've paid a hefty price - real expression. Teens airs tonight, Tuesday 24 March, on Channel 4 .
New Channel 4 documentary called Teens shows pressure of social media . Cameras followed group of sixth formers from Loughton, Essex, for a year . They monitored a million texts, tweets, WhatsApp and Snapchat messages .