How Does Social Media Affect Mental Health of Teens

Social media has become a major force in today’s society. It has redefined how teenagers communicate with one another and has become a very large part of their lives. It is used to communicate with friends and family, to self-educate on current events and in recent years has become a career opportunity for many young people; however, it is used by most primarily as a tool for entertainment. The definition of social media according to the Tech Target dictionary is “The collective of online communication channels dedicated to community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.” Some of the most prominent types of social media networks in today’s teenage generation include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Some other forms of popular social media include Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, and Google+. The majority of today’s teenagers are active on at least one social media site. A study by Amanda Lenhart and fellow researchers of the Pew Research Center found in 2010 that “73% of American teens now use social networking websites”. This statistic was found in 2010 and since then social media sites have continued to grow in popularity among the teenage generation. While there are upsides to the role social media has in today’s society, it has a largely negative impact on teenagers of today. The main question is 'How?', how does social media affect mental health, so this essay explores in what ways social media have negative impact on teenagers, primarily in terms of anxiety, depression and self-image.

A typical day for a teenager with a phone includes waking up, grabbing his or her cell phone and scrolling through social media. Many teens have not just one social media account, but several. They scroll through Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and other internet platforms. Even during school hours students spend time on their social media. When socializing with friends, teens often spend time on their phones as a group, scrolling through social media accounts and occasionally discuss the media they view with one another. After arriving home from school, many teenagers first instinct is to find a comfortable location and spend hours scroll through social media, YouTube, and other internet platforms. Many teens report that they spend a good majority of their day on their phones, and specifically on social media sites. According to Masuma Ahuja of the Washington Post a 14 year old named Ben Knight who was visiting Washington from Pennsylvania, when he was asked about how he spends his time replied, “From the time I get home until I go to bed, I’m usually on my computer.” From the same report from the Washington Post, a student, age 14, stated that she spends “like half the day” on her phone. “For most American girls, social media is where they live,” writes Sales, who spoke to over 200 girls ages 13-19 from Manhattan to Florida, Arizona, Texas and Kentucky. Considering that 92% of American teens ages 13-17 report being online daily, and 24% of them report being “almost constantly” online, It is easy to conclude that social media plays a very large part in the lives of teens today.

The rise of social media began in the 1970s when the internet began to emerge. By the 1980s and 90s personal computers became popular and an increasing number of people had access to a personal computer. Starting in the 1990s people began blogging. This was what caused people to understand the full significance of the internet. The ability to share thoughts and ideas so easily with people from around the world was a revolutionary concept. While blogging had a large impact on the beginning of the internet, the first real social media site was called “Six Degrees”. Launched in 1997, it was credited as the first social media site, it got its name from “the “six degrees of separation” theory, which states that “everyone in the world is connected to everyone else by no more than six degrees of separation”. This site had around 3.5 million users, however it shut down in 2001.The next social media site to be launched was called Friendster. This site lasted until 2015, when it shut down its services. The first real social media site to launch that is still around to day was LinkedIn. LinkedIn was launched in 2002 by Reid Hoffman, Eric Ly, Konstantin Guericke, Allen Blue, and Jean-Luc Valliant. Its primary purpose was for professional connections to be made and that remains its purpose today. Following this, Myspace was created; its use declined over the years, but is still in operation today. Finally, Facebook was launched in 2004. Facebook was the first social media site that was primarily used to for social purposes. After Facebook, numerous other social media sites were created, some of the most popular being: Twitter in 2006, Instagram in 2010, and Snapchat in 2011, this brings the history of social media to the present day.

Now that the history of how social media began is clear, it is imperative to consider the impact that these social media sites have had and continue to have on society. With the beginning of social media came the beginning of terms such as fear of missing out (FOMO), compulsive social media use, and social media fatigue.

Fear of missing out refers to “an apprehension or concern of being disconnected, absent or missing an experience with others one might receive or enjoy”. Teens that experience the fear of missing out and more likely to spend increased time on social media. For many teens the fear of missing out means checking Instagram, twitter, Snapchat and instant messages constantly. Some are worried that their friends would be upset if they don’t reply to a text or like a post right away. Others are worried about missing a post or missing an Instagram or Snapchat story from someone they follow online. And still others are worried that they are being excluded from outings with friends or missing some other social gathering. For most however, the fear of missing out is a general feeling of knowing that there are exciting things happening online and not wanting to miss anything that would have been enjoyable. The fear of missing out has great negative impacts. It makes it difficult for teens to concentrate because they are constantly checking their phones, it disrupts their sleep because they are up late on social media since they don’t want to miss out, and it can also cause agitation and physical problems like stomach aches. Additionally, the fear of missing out is linked with many negative psychological and physiological conditions. Conditions include: depressive or anxious thoughts, negative emotions, insomnia, compulsive social media use, low life satisfaction, competency and personal interconnection, emotional tensions, deterioration of physical as well as mental well-being, problems regulating mobile phone usage and emotional control, and inadequate sleep or poor sleep quality. The fear of missing out is correlated with increased social media use and compulsive social media use, which also has great negative impacts.

Compulsive internet use refers to “excessive or poorly controlled preoccupations, urges, or behaviors regarding computer use and Internet access, this compulsive urge for access to internet and social media use often causes great distress among teenagers”. According to an article by Luo J. and other researchers, “Many people also express anxiety similar to that of people suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder. That is, constantly checking their phone no matter the situation (e.g. in bed, bathroom, driving, dining etc.) and feeling anxious when unable to do so”. Additionally this obsession can be seen in what is called “phantom vibrations,” which is basically “the illusion that the phone is vibrating when in fact it is not”. According to Muller, “Adolescents who spend excessive time on social media sites also tend to feel more preoccupied and feel as though they have less control over their online behavior as opposed to adolescents who more scarcely go on social media”. Some teens also display symptoms similar to addictive behavior, such as preoccupation, withdrawal symptoms, loss of control, and conflict. For these teens who feel a lack of control in terms of social media, often their grades and academic or extracurricular lives are hindered. Without the ability to control their time online they lose the time that is necessary to complete school and extracurricular assignments and activities. Compulsive internet use has a large negative impact on teenagers, causing them distress and inability to achieve the academic goals or extracurricular goals they desire. Compulsive social media use also is proven to cause other issues such as internet or social media fatigue.

Internet Fatigue refers to “a situation whereby social media users suffer from mental exhaustion after experiencing various technological, informative and communicative overloads through their participation and interactions on the different social media platforms”. Social media fatigue has a large negative impact on users. It leads to deterioration in both mental and physiological ways, and users are more likely to develop unhealthy behaviors as a result. Social media fatigue causes users feelings of anxiety and being overwhelmed by the thought of interacting with people online. The issue is that interaction online in today’s society is not easily stopped or paused. Therefore internet use is almost necessary which means many people will continue to have anxiety and feel overwhelmed by it, and experience other negative side effects.

All of the negative impacts of social media, including the fear of missing out, compulsive checking and internet fatigue lead to poor self-esteem and self-image. The teenage years are the most sensitive and susceptible to negative ideas. As stated in an article for The World Health Organization, “One of the most rapid phases of human development occurs during adolescence.” This is why it is so important for teens to build a positive image of themselves during their teenager years, rather than a negative image. Positive self-esteem is necessary for life enjoyment and success. It allows the individual to be themselves, believe in their own values, and make smart decisions even when under pressure. The potential to achieve goals and dreams in life is directly related to the level of self-esteem someone has. Self-esteem affects behavior, thoughts, confidence, success and every aspect of one’s life.

Negative self-esteem has a multitude of negative results. Low-self-esteem is defined as “a thinking disorder in which an individual views himself/herself as inadequate, unlovable, and/or incompetent”. Once these negative views are formed they are constant and invasive in every area of one’s life. These negative thoughts lead to false assumptions and self-defeating behavior. Low self-esteem is correlated with many psychological and physiological issues. One example is self-harm. Self-harm is correlated with low self-esteem; “75% of girls with low self-esteem are reported in engaging in negative activities such as cutting or other forms of self-harm, bullying, smoking, drinking or disordered eating”. Low self-esteem hinders relationships due to the constant negativity from those who do not view themselves as good enough. Additionally, “teen girls that hold a negative outlook of themselves are 4 times more likely to engage in an activity with a male that they will regret later on. 7 out of 10 teens hold negative views of themselves and believe that they are not good enough”. They believe they are not good enough in terms of school achievement, relationships with friends, significant others, and family as well as in the way they look. Teens who spend abundant time on social media are more likely to define their identity or measure their own self worthy based off of the metrics of social media popularity such as the number of likes, comments, followers, and retweets they get on their posts. This measurement does not define anyone; however many teenagers are of the mindset that it does. It is very important for teens to have positive self-esteem in order for them to live an enjoyable life; however it seems that social media has had many negative influences on how teens view themselves.

How Does Social Media Affect Teenagers' Mental Health?

The first way that social media negatively impacts teens in regard to self-esteem is the influence the media has on body image. Body image is closely linked to self-esteem. According to researchers for Do Something.org low self-esteem in teens can result in eating disorders, early sexual activity, substance use and suicidal thoughts. “Approximately 91% of women are unhappy with their bodies and resort to dieting to achieve their ideal body shape; unfortunately, only 5% of women naturally possess the body type portrayed by Americans in the media”. Social media is filled with images of the “ideal body shape” and other socially defined standards of beauty. When scrolling through social media it is impossible for teens not to compare themselves to others in terms of their appearance. Because girls have the tendency to be insecure about their body shape and size, they are likely to compare themselves to others. This constant comparison leads to the thought that they do not look “good enough” or are not “skinny enough”, “curvy enough”, or “pretty enough.” Teens who are unhappy with their bodies and do not seek healthy nutrition information may develop eating disorders. 'Eating disorders' are considered “unhealthy relationships with food; this includes fasting, constant dieting, as well as binging and purging'. In 2007, Anne Becker surveyed more than 500 girls ages 15-20 in Fiji; she found that 4 out of 10 reported that they had used purging to manage their weight. Purging refers to the act of intentionally removing something, in this case intentionally removing food through vomiting after eating; this is also a form of an eating disorder. It has been proven that a girl’s self-esteem is more strongly related to how she views her own body shape and weight than how much she actually weighs. Additionally, among high school students, 44% of girls and 15% of guys are attempting to lose weight. For boys, when it comes to body image on social media, they are bombarded with pictures of men with muscles and abs and other socially accepted standards of “masculinity”. This causes boys to feel the pressure to get “big” and conform to the social standard of masculinity portrayed in the media. According to researchers at Do Something.org 38% of boys in middle school and high school reported using protein supplements and nearly 6% admitted to experimenting with steroids. Also Do Something. Org researchers have found that more than 40% of boys in middle school and high school regularly exercise with the goal of increasing muscle mass. This issue with body image among teens is a real issue, and social media is the primary contributor.

The second way social media negatively influences self-esteem is in terms of how teens view their social life. With people on social media posting pictures that highlight only the best aspects of their life, it is easy for teens that are scrolling through these posts to feel jealous or left out. Most teens follow a significant number of accounts on social media and each account can post photos, comments, stories and more; therefore there will almost always be content on teens social media accounts that will make them feel less than in terms of their social life. With posts, Instagram stories, and Snapchat stories of the fun people are having with their friends, it is easy for teens to feel like their social life doesn’t measure up. This constant comparing that takes place has great negative impacts on teens’ lives. By comparing their social lives to one another, they end up feeling like they aren’t good enough as well as feeling lonely and unwanted which significantly lowers their self-esteem. What teenagers don’t always realize is that social media is like modern day art, a place where people can paint whatever picture of their life that they desire. Because of this, it is easy for teens to paint their lives to be as exciting and positive as they want. However no one’s life is as exciting and positive as they make it seem on social media; everyone has hard times and no one is doing something exciting at all times.

Social media plays a large role in the self-esteem, body image and how teens view their lives. This impact is primarily negative and has several psychological and physiological side effects. The more time spent on social media, the more comparing occurs, and the more teens feel like they are worth less than others.

The impact social media has on teens in terms of self-esteem, personal identity, fear of missing out, and constant comparison has been seen to have a correlation with increased anxiety among teens. Anxiety is defined as “a pervasively apprehensive state of mind which is concerned about prospective difficult situations or threats”. Some common symptoms of anxiety disorders are: excessive worrying, agitated feelings, restlessness, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, irritability, tense muscles, and the desire to avoid social situations, and panic attack. Panic attacks cause an intense, overwhelming sensation of fear that can be debilitating. Types of anxiety include social anxiety, and generalized anxiety. Social anxiety disorder is considered “having an excessive fear of embarrassment in social situations that is extremely intrusive and can have debilitating effects on relationships. It is a fear of being judged or viewed negatively by other people'. Social anxiety disorder leads to feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, self-consciousness, embarrassment, humiliation and depression. Generalized anxiety disorder is considered “excessive, exaggerated anxiety and worry about everyday life events with no obvious reasons for worry; in other words it is irrational anxiety” (Bressert, Steve). Anxiety disorders have the ability to take over people’s lives, and it seems that social media plays a large role in promoting and contributing to these disorders.

Before continuing on to how social media plays a role in anxiety, it is necessary to address the correlation versus causation issue; although it may be possible that social media causes anxiety, it has not been fully proven as of yet. What has been proven is the correlation between excessive social media use and increased anxiety. Social media can also negatively feed pre-existing anxiety. The anxiety is often derived more from the lack of access to the content on social media, rather than the content itself. Social media exacerbates the normal anxieties of the teenage years; “many of the pressures teenagers feel from social media are actually consistent with developmentally normal concerns around social standing and self-expression”. For example; teenagers have always struggled with social standing and self-expression, however when the media is added to these anxieties it causes them to increase significantly. As stated by Weinstein, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, “They’re the same sort of developmental challenges that adolescents have grappled with for decades, though now they’re taking place in different spaces that can certainly amplify them and shift their quality, quantity, and scale”. Social media may not necessarily be the cause of anxiety; however it is exceptionally clear that the correlation between increased anxiety and social media use is very high.

Social media promotes, increases and exacerbates anxieties in a number of ways. For teens who are concerned about their social image and social standing the media is the worst place for them to spend the majority of their time. By constantly comparing themselves to one another online they develop a fear of personal failure, feelings of self-consciousness and need for perfectionism. These thoughts and mindsets lead to feelings of anxiety. The fear of missing out, which is often developed by spending excessive time on social media, also contributes to increased feelings of anxiety. Compulsive mobile device users are more likely to suffer from an anxious state compared to non-compulsive users. When teens are so concerned about missing an event on social media it affects their amount of sleep as well as their quality of sleep. “Increased social media use is associated with shorter sleep duration, later bedtimes and rise times, and increased daytime tiredness”, according to H.C Woods and H. Scott. Woods and Scott also report that, “constant incoming alerts (from social media sites), create considerable pressure to be available 24/7 and contribute to a fear of missing out.” This means that teens are staying up late to avoid missing out on anything on the media, and by staying up late looking at a screen it affects the quality of the sleep they get as well. The blue light of the screen of iPhones has been proven to negatively affect the quality of sleep that people get. An article from Business Insider, by Kevin Loria and Skye Gould, states “that light has a similar effect to the sight of the morning sun, which causes the brain to stop producing melatonin, a hormone that gives your body 'time to sleep' cues. By disrupting melatonin production, smartphone light can disrupt your sleep cycle.” Lack of sleep has a high correlation with increased chances of becoming anxious. Constantly being concerned with what is happening on social media leads teens to become extremely anxious and upset when they lose access to their social media. This addiction to the excitement and entertainment of social media is a constant struggle for most teens today and plays a large role in the increased level of anxiety among teens.

So Does Social Media Affect Mental Health or Not?

For teenagers who suffer from social anxiety, social media becomes their best friend. At least that is what they believe. It enables them to hide from the world while remaining right out in the open. In the middle of a crowd they have the ability to retreat behind their phone screen so that people assume that they are busy and unable to talk. They have the ability to control the way they present themselves on the media. They feel almost a degree of anonymity when behind their screen. It allows them to more comfortably communicate with friends because they have more control over the way they talk and appear. While these appear to be plus sides of social media, and helpful to those with social anxiety, in reality it causes more hurt than help. When teens begin to reply too much on social media as a form of socializing and communicating with the world, the more they will isolate themselves from real world social encounters. By isolating themselves they are simply reinforcing their anxiety and encouraging feelings of depression to take root. Social media allows those struggling with social anxiety to utilize escapism, avoidance and maladaptive coping skills rather than to make an effort to improve their real world social skills The less social skills are practiced, the more difficult they become. While social media can be a helpful tool for teens with social anxiety, it cannot become the main form of their social life, it needs to be paired with real social encounters. Existing solely behind a screen will never satisfy the human need for other people in their life. Social media can be used as a tool to help social anxiety, however in today’s society it is being used as a hiding place, which promotes increased anxiety and heightened risk for depression.

It has now been established that increased social media use has a strong correlation with anxiety, and poor self-image, because of this, it would make since that social media similarly affects increased depression among teenagers. Depression is defined as “an emotional state wherein pleasurable feelings are either diminished or disappeared”. Common symptoms that can contribute to depression include low self-esteem, anxiety, lack of sleep, and stress. As previously concluded, social media has a significant negative impact on self-esteem, anxiety, stress, and poor quality and quantity of sleep. Therefore, social media greatly contributes to depression causing factors. Social media contributes to increased depression in many ways, including all previously mentioned issues, such as fear of missing out, low self-esteem, compulsive internet use, and anxiety; however another large reason social media impacts depression is cyberbullying.

There is a significant correlation between social media victimization, also known as cyberbullying, and depression. Cyberbullying is defined as “the act of harassing someone online by sending or posting mean messages, usually anonymously”. According to the American College of Pediatricians, “over half of adolescents state that they have been bullied online and over 25% of adolescents state that they have been bullied repeatedly through internet or cellphones.” The use of social media can be dangerous. It is a location where teens can take up an anonymous identity and post images or messages that everyone can see. Bullying has always been an issue in society; however with social media it has been taken to a new level. Teens can post mean things about someone and everyone has access to see what was said, which causes the victim’s humiliation to be much greater. Cyberbullying causes teens to lose their self-worth and self-esteem; it also causes anxiety, stress and emotional turmoil which can all lead to a state of depression. Due to cyberbullying, victims are two times more likely to attempt suicide, which, according to a report in 2012 from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has become the third leading cause of death in adolescents ages 10-24. Additionally, teens dealing with cyberbullying often resort to self-harm as a coping mechanism. Every year, more than 157 thousand people, ages 10-24, are taken to emergency departments to be treated for self-harm wounds. And, in 2012 an estimated 2.2 million adolescences stated that they had had at least one major depressive episode in the last year. These depressive episodes can sometimes lead to suicide. About 5-8% of teens in the United States attempt suicide yearly, and 16% have seriously considered suicide in the last year. Considering these statistics, it is clear that depression has a very large negative impact on teenagers, and that a large contributor to depression is social media use.

Conclusion

Social media has an array of pros and cons, in one sense, it can be beneficial due to its ability to connect people all over the world to one another in many positive ways, however when examining the impact social media has on teens in today’s world, it appears clear that the impact is largely negative. It causes issues such as the fear of missing out (FOMO), compulsive use, internet fatigue, poor self-image, increased anxiety, and symptoms that can lead to depression. Although it has a multitude of negative side effects, it remains clear that social media is not going to be disappearing any time soon. Therefore, it is crucial for teens and parents of teens to become more aware of the dangers of social media. Simply by understanding the unrealistic life that social media portrays will allow teens to avoid the constant comparison habits that can cause so much harm to their mental health. By becoming educated on the reality of social media and the negatives that come with it, teens will be able to better manage their social media in positive ways.