Social media: bad or good?

How often do you use social media? Every day? For how long? An hour? Several hours? How does it make you feel? These are all important questions to think about as I explain to you the effects social media is proven to have on teenagers. Although social media allows its users to stay connected to friends and family, it is proven to do more harm than good. Since instagram, snapchat, twitter, facebook and other social media apps are such an integral part of our society, it is important to understand the impact these apps have on individuals mental health. Social media has many negative effects on teenagers including a decrease of body image, increase of depression, and lack of happiness.

Did you know that social media causes many young women to degrade themselves and think negatively about their body and looks? An article that shows the impact social media has on body image explains: "following appearance-focused accounts on Instagram was associated with thin-ideal internalisation, body surveillance, and drive for thinness,". It is a well-known fact that looking at beautiful, seemingly perfect celebrities makes teenagers self-conscious about their own looks. While this is true, girls have also found that looking at their own peers on social media can have the same effect. A study done to understand this relation more clearly found that most young women experienced a decrease in self-image after simply looking at an attractive peer's social media account, and that "these comparisons have a stronger effect on body image concerns than do celebrity and model upward social comparisons" (Jacqueline V. Hogue). This creates unhealthy, degrading thoughts to form in teenagers minds. Young men and women are already very impressionable and most have problems with self-esteem without these images being so prevalent in their lives. Comparing your body image to other peers on social media is unhealthy and causes self-esteem issues.

Teenagers who have been diagnosed with depression find social media to increase their symptoms. An article entitled "Depressed adolescents' positive and negative use of social media", shares results from a study that centered around teens with depression and how they reacted to social media use. According to the article, "Studies which explored what depressed adolescents do online found they may be more likely to experience online peer victimization, cyberbullying, make online friends with strangers and display risky behaviors online" (Ana Radovic). Experiencing cyberbullying and other types of cruelty deepens their depression. This kind of behavior should not be used towards teens, especially ones who experience problems with depression. By limiting the use of social media, teens do not have to experience this cruel behavior. The article states that adolescence diagnosed with depression "described three types of use in further detail including 'oversharing' (sharing updates at a high frequency or too much personal information), 'stressed posting' (sharing negative updates with a social network), and encountering 'triggering posts.'" (Ana Radovic). This can be very concerning to teens with depression. They may not want their followers to know personal information but in a stressful situation they may be pressured to overshare. This will increase their depression and its symptoms. Using social media deepens depression and unhappiness.

Have you ever spent time scrolling your social media feed and found yourself feeling a little down afterward? After seeing the adventurous, extravagant, or exciting things your friends have done, have you felt unsatisfied with your own life and, quite frankly, unhappy? An article called 'Teens addicted to smartphones are found less happy-study' states, "several other studies have shown that more social media use leads to unhappiness, but unhappiness does not lead to more social media use" (Teens Addicted...). This shows that social media use is the problem not the outcome. Teenagers give so much of their time to apps that make them unhappy. Another article speaks about a study that was done to show the relationship between social media users' mental state and their posting habits. The article states: "when positive expressions were reduced, users produced fewer positive posts and more negative posts" (Jay Campisi). Since social media users see each of their peers posts, their peers attitudes and mental state have an impact on the users happiness. When a peer has a particularly bad day, that mood is contagious and spreads to all its followers at an exceptional rate. Social media spreads unhappiness to its users.

Using the information provided for you today and your own experience with social media, think about your use of these apps and how they affect you and your life. Is social media something you want to have an impact on your life? So much time is spent on social media, scrolling through feeds and attempting desperately to stay connected to others. These apps are guaranteed to affect your life in one way or another. You have to decide how much affect you let social media have in your life.