By Sesa Graham
The first thing she does before waking up and the last thing she does before going to bed is checking her social media accounts. While she waits for her morning cup of coffee to brew, she scrolls through Instagram and TikTok, liking a dozen posts and keeping up with the latest hashtags on Twitter. She is an addict. And she lives in all of us.
Social media was designed as a space for users to explore and connect, but social media soon became detrimental to mental health. Social media has become an escape from the real world. Users can dive into their virtual profiles, becoming a new person while viewing anything they want with just their fingertips.
Social media is part of people’s daily lives and routines. Many individuals will spend hours on a platform without realizing how much time has passed. Social media isn’t just a problem when it comes to mental health; it can also be considered a form of addiction. While many have witnessed the positive impact that social media can have, the negative effects have spiraled out of control.
‘It’s hard to love myself’
Those born after 1996, known as Generation Z, have not experienced what life was like when the internet or social media didn’t exist. Because of this, Instagram has been a primary cause in making teenage girls feel worse about their bodies. Social media has done little to nothing to change its platforms to help protect the youth’s mental health.
Hannah Davis, an 11th grader, said, “It’s difficult with my generation because I feel like everyone is so consumed with social media that they don’t take a minute to enjoy what’s around them.”
Instagram made changes to its platform so that users could hide the amount of “likes” on their pictures. Research has yet to show how this solution has made a difference.
The rates have gone up in suicide for teenage girls. Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt Ph.D. said, “There has been an increase in depression and anxiety for American teenagers, which began between 2011 and 2013.”
Davis said, “I feel like social media has affected my mental health because I am constantly comparing myself to other people, and I want to be myself, but it’s hard to love yourself.”
TikTok has been known to be a problematic platform for eating disorders. The trending hashtag #whatieatinaday was filling up individuals’ “For You Page,” causing those who have or do suffer from an eating disorder to feel triggered.
Davis shared that she wishes influencers she followed would shed light on the mental health issues and use their platforms to educate.
According to a new report, Instagram spends most of its $390 million global advertising budget on targeting teens. Teens 13-15 years of age are Instagram’s primary target. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) protects the privacy of children under the age of 13 by requesting parental consent to collect or use any personal information of the users.
‘I allowed social media to influence my entire life’
Social media has been known to lower self-esteem, loneliness, feelings of missing out, and anxiety while also increasing the rate of depression. Being a woman is hard, but when there are photos on social media platforms with unrealistic filters and edits, it makes it that much harder.
Meg Velazquez, a social media user, said, “Most of my negative experiences with social media started when I was in middle school; I allowed social media to influence my entire life.”
Society has always tried to say what the “perfect” woman should look like. It has changed so often that it makes others feel impossible to catch up. If society and social media say the ideal woman should be skinny, women feel the need to lose weight. If society and social media say the ideal women should be curvy, women feel the need to gain weight. The same goes for makeup, clothes, hair, etc.
Velazquez shared that she has been able to break the obsession with social media and focus on treating social media like a scrapbook and hiding her like count in the last few months.
Women compare themselves not just to what other women look like but to how these women are living. Female users see these other idolized female users, such as influencers, living luxurious and traveling, wishing they had that life. Wishing they had that relationship. Wishing they had a family. Wishing they had that kind of financial security and so on. It is a never-ending cycle of comparison and feeling inadequate.
“I’m glad that I found people online who advocated for bettering your relationship with social media by utilizing it for less of the “social” part and more for yourself and your own growth,” Velazquez said.
‘If you’re not six foot and wealthy, what are you?’
Many would think that women are the only gender to fall victim to social media, but men do just as much. Social media makes men feel like they need to fit in a “perfect” gender mold. Social media and society have told men to be more masculine, be less masculine, be more emotional, and be less emotional.
The stigma around mental health is high when it comes to men. Since the beginning, this has been an issue because society instilled that men need to be more masculine and that showing emotion for a man makes you weak.
Cole Crawford, a remote employee and avid social media user shared, “I don’t have a problem talking about mental health, but I am not ignorant to the fact that it is not a very openly-welcomed topic with males, and you can really see that on social media.”
Putting social media into this mix makes it incredibly difficult for a man’s mental health to succeed. Men and women compare themselves to who they see online when it comes to image.
Crawford explained that social media has impacted his mental health by showing him an inside perspective on how people seemingly think. He believes social media to be a double-edged sword because, on the one hand, learning how people think is interesting. Still, more often than not, he finds most people’s opinions online to be scary or just disappointing.
However, often a man will compare himself to other men on social media when it comes to success. If a man sees another living what he would consider a successful lifestyle, he might believe that he isn’t doing life right or isn’t successful.
“I spend a lot of time thinking about unrealistic expectations for men you see online; if you’re not six foot and wealthy to the point you can go to a new country every month, what are you?” Crawford said.
In a survey conducted to gain insight into social media’s effects on mental health, an anonymous male said, “Other people’s often artificial portrayals of how glamorous their lives make me envious and feel like I’m doing something wrong with my life.”
Is social media the new form of therapy?
Social media has declined mental health in users, and it has also played a psychological role in making people think that the help they need mentally they can find on their platforms. Instead of finding a therapist or seeking professional help, users are now searching hashtags to find support and inspiration for what they are dealing with.
Finding these videos isn’t difficult and can be detrimental. Someone looking for advice on bipolar disorder can search the hashtag #bipolardisorder, and that hashtag alone has 280.6 million views on TikTok. This is a way for others to feel like they aren’t alone, but it’s also videos of random users, not professionals advising on how to help the disorder.
Clinical psychologist, Marianne Osentoski said, “Social media has affected mental health, but we don’t know the degree to which it is social media versus other things.” She explained that one negative effect of social media could be wasted time and energy.
A significant problem with this is that self-diagnosis is happening a lot more. If someone feels sad, they watch a video on depression and automatically assume they too have depression without seeking advice for a medical professional. Many young users recognize their symptoms of anxiety, eating disorders, and other mental health conditions through a social media platform.
Osentoski mentioned that technology affects the ages of individuals differently; its effects would also need to be measured to what these age groups would be using specific social media platforms for.
Social media cannot replace therapy or the help of a professional. Overall, the excessive use of this can correlate with worse mental health outcomes if not appropriately treated.
Despite the best efforts of social media, this is a public health issue
Social media can affect participation in your life outside of your cell phone, reduce happiness, and ignite addictive behaviors. It affects users in more ways than one. Users might not realize it now, but what you watch will consume your mind.
Whatever our ages might be, social media has impacted its users in one way or another. Social media hasn’t been around for particular generations, but it isn’t going anywhere. With technology growing the way it has been, the users aren’t sure what is next to come. But that isn’t to say that a change can’t be made. There is no better time than now to make a change.
