Social media is a part of our everyday lives, but what toll is it taking on the mental health of today’s teenagers?
In today’s world, social media has become an integral part of our daily lives. It helps connect us to work, school, friends, family and basically anything else if you look hard enough. While social media has given the world a way to communicate with ease, it has also created a mass spread of fake news, unrealistic body standards, cyberbullying, and an overall distortion of reality. Consequently, it’s important to know that social media wields a substantial influence on youth’s mental well-being, whether they know it or not.
Social media is known for activating the brain’s reward center by releasing dopamine, a chemical associated with the pleasure derived from positive activities. This causes social media platforms to become addictive, but this addiction has been associated with anxiety and depression. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center reports that 81% of teens in the U.S. use social media. This means that most of America’s youth is at risk of feeling anxiety or depression due to social media. And the earlier the use of social media, the bigger the impact.
Social media is a platform that gives anyone the opportunity to share hurtful comments or even exclude others. It is a platform on which the youth can see all the experiences they are missing every day, putting a distorted lens on reality and their day-to-day lives. TikTok, Snapchat and Instagram all increase the likelihood of seeing unrealistic photos or videos at a time when teenage brains and bodies are already going through so much. Before social media, these images were still put into teen magazines, but now they are one scroll away and can be found in mass production at any given time.
Apps today even give filters or airbrush options to make it easier to distort images into something more appealing or even sexual. When you scroll through a feed and see every post as some kind of alteration, it can be hard for teenagers to understand what is real and what is not. All this is piling up at a difficult time for them, both physically and emotionally. Why can’t my hair look like that? I wish my skin was that clear. Her life is so well planned out; why am I so behind? If only I could look that good. The youth are already in a very vulnerable place; it’s something to be mindful of.
The Mayo Clinic ran a study of more than 450 teens and found that social media use and emotional investment were both connected to worse sleep quality and higher levels of anxiety and depression. Due to teenagers’ impulsive nature and constant search for inclusivity, they post personal photos, videos and stories on social media, which can result in cyberbullying, harassment or even online scams and predators. Being of such a young mindset, teenagers often create these posts without considering the consequences of the internet. In a study done by the Pew Research Center in 2022, 38% of teens said they felt overwhelmed by what they saw on social media, while about 31% say the platforms have made them feel like their friends are leaving them out of things. Another 23% said social media made them feel worse about their own lives.
Teenagers on social media spend much of their time seeing the lives of influencers, celebrities and even peers, causing the constant comparison of their lives to others and damaging their self-esteem and body images. The problem is that it’s still addictive, and it’s not helping the youth grow stronger. There are steps that can be taken to help teenagers gain the skills and knowledge to understand and heal from the negative consequences associated with social media. My only hope is that they get the help they need to understand just how distorted social media can be.