How Social Media Affects Mental Health

By Jenna Gasker '22

February 2020

In some ways, social media connects people and encourages a sense of community. It could be used as a tool to reach out to old acquaintances, create long distance friendships, and establish groups with common purposes. Relationships can be built with people from around the world with the means of instant messaging. But overall, social media actually negatively affects mental health without your realization.

While in certain situations social media creates a perception of community, it often generates isolation. If you see a post with your friends hanging out without you, it will cause a feeling of seclusion. Constantly viewing your peers having fun and not including you results in loneliness. But in reality, the people that post pictures are just as lonely as the people observing them. This is proven by the fact that they feel the need to post pictures with their friends to showcase that they actually have friends. Social media produces loneliness for the people that post and the people that observe.

These social media posts tend to seem perfect. And while repeatedly looking at seemingly flawless photos of other people, it is inevitable to compare yourself to them. This creates self doubt and makes you believe that your life is not as exciting or meaningful as the people on your screen. Lower self esteem is a result of this harmful thought process. All of this time being spent staring at other people online leaves less time for self reflection. Worrying about yourself will yield a higher self confidence than obsessing over others.

Most social media users will be on their phones as they fall asleep, but this results in poor sleep quality. The blue light emitted from phone screens declines the secretion of melatonin. This hormone is vital for sleep, and a good night's rest cannot occur without it. And being well rested is important to establish a productive day. Because of this, another negative consequence of social media is not sleeping well.

So although social media can have some positive effects, it is actually destructive to mental health overall. The reason for this is because it creates loneliness and isolation, lowers self esteem, and results in a worse sleep quality. Sometimes it is beneficial to unplug from social media in order to improve your mental health.