Psychological Effects of Social Media

Psychological Effects of Social Media - Seah Kim (Whitmore Highschool, Tenth Grade)

The rising epidemic of depression and anxiety among young people is caused by addiction to social media, along with isolation. During the covid pandemic, people had to adjust and compromise their lifestyles in order to be quarantined, isolated from society. It was challenging at first, but soon it became a normal occurrence. However now, after the virus is gone, people find it harder to return to their old lives.

Especially for teens, after adjusting to online classes, physically going to school has been tougher, to go through the trouble of getting ready, looking presentable and socializing. This explains the increase of absences in schools with percentages doubled compared to pre-covid pandemic. As Katie Rosanbalm, a psychologist, says, “Our relationship with school became optional” (Mervosh, 2024). There is a significant relationship between absences in schools and increase of depression and anxiety. Students might believe taking a day or two might help when you are feeling stressed. While some cases might be true, now that makeup classes are easily accessible through online, it encourages students to take more than a day off, even a week or two because they think ‘Instead of going to class, I can do the work at home and rest’ There also has been an increase of online homeschooling after the covid pandemic, since teens now feel more comfortable staying home instead of going to schools. A huge problem with this is not attending schools, means no socializing. Especially teens, relationships with peers are critical because friends encourage and empathize with each other. However, by distancing yourself, making relationships becomes more difficult. 

Teenagers like to be caught up on trends, not wanting to be left out. Topics and videos from social media are their conversation starter. After experiencing public high schools, I have made all of my friends through conversations related to popular songs, recent drama or the newest fashion. This encourages teenagers to never leave social media, afraid of what they might miss. With popular content these days almost always holding negative messages, staying on it all day can’t be good for them. “The clean girl aesthetic” , viral on TikTok for example, encourages young girls to wake at 4 a.m. and complete intense workouts, and eat less, promoting unrealistic beauty standards. Going even farther, platforms with no filters such as Twitter, you can find accounts about the ideology of being ridiculously thin and discourage eating with the hashtag “thinspo” These accounts actively promote eating disorders and anorexia leads young youth girls into believing their extreme claims about beauty standards are correct. 

Not only girls but everyone is affected by the toxic influence of social media regarding comparison and validation from others. Another example is serious issues such as suicide or suicidal thoughts being taken lightly in current generation, due to media. When faced with hardships, many teenagers casually say they do not want to live anymore. Along with an increase of hospital admissions of 31% between the ages of 12 and 17, 44% of young people have experienced higher levels of depression (National Institute of Mental Health, 2023). Without a doubt, social media has played a major part there.

By being isolated and constantly comparing yourself through social media, many teenagers in the present have developed mental disorders. How do we fix these issues? The first step to the solution is cutting off social media. While this may seem simple, cutting off an old habitat almost everyone participates in is difficult, therefore, taking little steps are crucial. Like many therapists suggest, when feeling sad or hopeless instead of going on your phone doing activities like walking or talking with someone will eventually affect you more positively. 

However, in order to get farther away from the media, teenagers need to be self motivated to do so. If they want to participate in the media simulation, no amount of encouragement from outsiders will make them step away from it. For teens to feel the need to decrease their use of social media, it is important to see why it affects them in an unhealthy way. Therefore, parents and youths that already realize social media is the cause of this young generation’s depression and anxiety, need to spread awareness, starting with people around them. 

References

Mervosh, Sarah. 2024 (March 19). A Crisis of School Absences. New York Times. 

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/29/briefing/school-absences.html?login=email&auth=login-email

National Institute of Mental Health. 2023 (July 19). Youth Emergency Departments Visits for Mental Health Increased During Pandemic. 

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/news/science-news/2023/youth-emergency-department-visits-for-mental-health-increased-during-pandemic