Milena Baquerizo
Professor Toohey
ENG170:13
Research Paper Final Draft
10 November 2021
Negative Impact of Social Media in The Youth’s Mental Health
Since the creation of social media, society has been able to see exponential growth on the platforms as years have passed. Social Media went from sharing moments with family and friends, to being able to have a voice or earn money as an individual. However, as there has been growth, there has also been fear. Because of social media, there has been multiple conflicts and concerns in society, more specifically, parents having concerns for their children. At the beginning of social media platforms, the question was whether these new platforms would have a positive or negative impact on newer generations. Now, a decade later this question has shifted as well asking, how much of a hold will social media continue to have on the youth?
As social media platforms started to evolve, society did as well. Topics that weren’t prioritized before started becoming a major topic of conversation, one of which is the mental health of our youth, and they are affected by social media. Social Media, as previously stated, started from being photo-comment sharing apps made by corporations to make money. However, now the pressure to keep up with the rest of the platforms has been unattainable. As mentioned in the Netflix documentary, The Social Dilemma, by Tim Kendall “Every corporation is now competing for the youth’s attention and as youth’s attention goes to social media also the problems that have always being present, seen themselves at a spike by a 100%”. (Orlowski The Social Dilemma). As it is shown in the book, The happiness effect, one of the problems of social media is the ability to show perfection and the ability to show a highlight reel of your life. No matter what environment a teenager sees themself surrounded with, even if they have privilege or not. The desire to emulate perfection amongst teenagers and young adults is real. “The colleges and universities I visited were incredibly diverse geographically, ethnically, socioeconomically, and in terms of their religious affiliation or lack of one and their level of prestige. Yet across them all, one unifying and central theme emerged as the most pressing social media issue students face: The importance of appearing happy” (Freitas 58-58). How the simple line between wanting to be happy versus ‘showing or proving the world that you are happy’, is getting blurrier by the second, with teenagers spending more time on these platforms, they fail to recall the falseness of it all. (Freitas 59-60)
A youth’s mental health is also affected by cyberbullying. Cyberbullying has existed since the start of the internet, but as social media started becoming prominent since the early 2000s, so was this problem. As Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, etc., started becoming relevant on the online world, so was the “Knit picking amongst youth”. The term ‘online trolls’ started becoming more known as it was a reference toward online bullies. Cyberbullying became more common to experience cyberbullying at least once during your teenage years, and as long as social media platforms or any online platform exists, this won’t stop. The article Cyberbullying among youth: A comprehensive review of current international research and its implications and app… describes how cyberbullying can be very out of touch amongst people compared to “in-person bullying”. “For instance, the fact that the victim and perpetrator are communicating in cyberspace means that there is no capacity for the perpetrator to see the victim’s immediate reaction to his or her behaviour (Cassidy) Some argue that this allows for disinhibition and deindividuation (Agatston et al). “Being cut off from the emotional impact of one’s behaviour may create a disconnect that blunts the empathetic response elicited by seeing the pain one causes” (Cassidy 5-5). With cyberbullying is still one of the main detractors in young person’s mental health specially in countries like the US, UK, Canada, etc., where it is shown show that approximately one third of students have been victims of cyberbullying. Furthmore, of 35 studies reviewed by Patchin and Hinduja, over half reported victimization prevalence rates higher than 20%, and, in the multiple studies conducted between 2004–2010 by Patchin and Hinduja, the prevalence of youth “who have experienced cyberbullying at some point in their lifetime ranges from 18.8% to 40.6%, with an average of 27.3%” (Patchin & Hinduja).
Another negative effect caused by social media on youth has been isolation. One clear of example can be a teenager who struggles with social interaction and tends to isolate themselves and instead of going to a school dance or a party, they decide to stay home. This often happens because of the temporary feeling of fullness social media gives them. A study made by the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania “found that teens who use social media heavily are 3 times as likely to feel socially isolated” (Nelson Social media effects: It may be encouraging social isolation). With COVID-19 happening social isolation wasn’t a choice anymore it was a need, and the amount of “down time” teenagers and young adults would have, didn’t make the isolation better as social media consumption during the pandemic was up more than it has ever been. A study made by Digital Commerce 360 referenced in the article, COVID-19 is changing how, why and how much we’re using social media, showed that “The majority of respondents agreed that their social media consumption (72%) and posting (43%) have increased during the pandemic”(Wold).
Before, parents see it as a too much “phone-time”, teenagers and young adults see it as something normal. However, what they fail to realize that before, during and after COVID-19 happened social media users especially the youth are still setting up high standards for themselves. By posting about different social activities users react and experience FOMO to it as there is a lot of events happening, and they aren’t part of it, which consequently teenagers start feeling lonely, doubting about themselves, their abilities and their looks which ends up with them self-isolating and decrease their interactions and activities with people in real life. Isolation and FOMO are connected hand in hand as it is being normalized and engraved in their brains from a very young age to the point were being more present online than in real life is not out of the ordinary. “Human beings need face-to-face contact to be mentally healthy. The more you prioritize social media interaction over in-person relationships, the more you’re at risk for developing or exacerbating mood disorders such as anxiety and depression” (Robinson Social Media and Mental health). Another point of view often expressed by teenagers and young adults is that they have this sense of false safety as mentioned in the article, Social Media Effects: It May Be encouraging social isolation, “without even realizing it the potentially negative social media effects is using it as a security blanket in uncomfortable situations. As much as we all hate awkward moments in high school, it’s how we learn to navigate the real world. Now, it’s easy to escape those moments of silence by simply checking your phone or acting like you’ve received a notification” (Nelson).
As teenagers and young adults start growing and developing both physically and mentally, so does the perception they have of themselves. Which leads to the next reason, experiencing inadequacy about their life or appearance. From the way they live their life constantly comparing it to others, to the way they look comparing it with public figures, celebrities or just people that surround them, to becoming hesitant on trying something or expressing themselves because of the control and hold social media platforms has on its users. The group most affected by the this are teenage girls one of the two examples to be touched on this is, trying to have the ‘perfect selfie’ as it is mentioned in the book, Why Social Media is ruining your life, making reference to a study made to teenage girls where it shows the perfect example of attempting to be accepted by society’s imposed beauty standards to what was previously stated. “In the UK In 2015 we uploaded approximately 24 billion selfies to Google’s servers. According to recent research, teenage girls in the UK spend on average 84 minutes preparing for selfies every week, and it’s estimated that the average millennial will turn their phone camera on themselves over 25,000 times over their lifetime” (Ormerod 60-60). The second example is comparing themselves to fully celebrities that usually are grown women but more specifically models with one specific body type that represents less than the 10% of the female population in the world. Ormerod in the previous stated book references this by expressing her concern on today’s generation by commenting “traditional media was previously accused of increasing body image dissatisfaction with its persistent depiction of thin, attractive models – and it was regularly blamed for the rise in eating disorders. However, the new social platforms have supercharged this situation – we are now so immersed in images of perfection that we have almost no realistic idea what other people look like. And, perhaps even more worrying, we’ve lost a grip on our own mirror image too” (Ormerod 60-61). Not just the companies that created the social media platforms in the first place see themselves benefited at the cost of the new generation’s mental health issues, but other apps as well has seen this a way to capitalize of off that strong desire of perfection.
What scares parents the most about this, is that while everyone know that social media can cause a negative impact in both physical and mental health. The youth keep doing it. They think of everything they might be doing ‘wrong’ and correct it instead of trying to cut of these platforms that from the age of 13-15 can be detrimental and exhausting for people with and without existing mental health issues. They don’t leave it because of how it makes you feel at the moment, often described by Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google, in various ted talks and the documentary previously mentioned ‘The Social Dilemma’ like a drug that you can’t stop using it. Social media is supposed to Make you feel good in the moment but has a negative impact not long after and that was, is and will be social media’s main purpose as said by Sean Parker, the first president of Facebook: “We need to sort of give you a little dopamine hit every once in a while, because someone liked or commented on a photo or a post or whatever…. It’s a social-validation feedback loop … exactly the kind of thing that a hacker like myself would come up with, because you’re exploiting a vulnerability in human psychology… The inventors, creators – it’s me, it’s Mark Zuckerberg, it’s Kevin Systrom on Instagram, it’s all of these people- understood this consciously” (Lanier 12-13). Social media wasn’t made side to side with psychologists or putting into consideration human values and ethics. It was made by the CEOs and creators what it potentially could happen. Ten years later it has happened at a much bigger scale. Not even caring about what impact could have in the future generations to come. Mentally wise, even if it’s not doing something beneficial for the youth, they always come back to it. And Parents have given up already. As far as kids been exposed to these platforms from a very young age. The amount of time spent just for it to trigger or make them feel as they have an issue with who they are as people is worrying, but not surprising, mental health problems amongst these particular group of people are growing but to how extent is it going to stop if society can’t cut the problem from the root.
Social Media throughout its start has had a controversial start, specially taking into consideration the amount of people that would sign up for them at a very young age. Parents at first were against them but now it is a tool that is very common and consistent in society that it got to the point that it’s not even surprising for them, the amount of time someone can spend connected. And the baggage that comes with it is starting to show, body-image, isolation, cyberbullying, and fake perception of reality all having as consequence, a negative impact on the youth’s mental health. Although there have been actions trying to bring mental health awareness on this topic, it is not enough. New generations and generations to come don’t deserve to grow up with the pressure social media brings you. Youth shouldn’t be comparing themselves with people who are in completely different circumstances and bringing themselves down because they don’t fit those standards. Although social media and the topics mentioned in this paper are very common, we must consider the big picture when it comes to mental health, the impacts it has on it and the future of next generations.
Works Cited
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Nelson, Randi. “Social Media Effects: It May Be Encouraging Social Isolation.” ViewPoint Center, 16 May 2020, https://www.viewpointcenter.com/social-media-effects-social-isolation/.
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