Teenagers around the world spend unhealthy amounts of time on social media platforms everyday. “A 2019 study of more than 6,500 12- to 15-year-olds in the U.S. found that those who spent more than three hours a day using social media might be at heightened risk for mental health problems” (Mayo Clinic). This is equivalent to 21 hours a week which is almost the same time as an average part-time job. Using social media for extended amounts of time is damaging to the health and well-being of the users. “81% of teens in the U.S. use social media. This puts a large amount of the population at an increased risk of feeling anxious, depressed, or ill over their social media use” (McLean Hospital). So many teenagers around the world spend hours each day staring into a device. This means most of the millions of teens using social media will develop anxiety, depression, and other harmful mental issues. While devices are occasionally used productively, most are used for social media.
Social media includes platforms such as Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. These platforms are all advertised as ways for teenagers to stay connected and enjoy their time. In reality, social media has many harmful effects on the lifestyles of teenagers, it is often linked to signs of anxiety and depression. “Using it activates the brain’s reward center by releasing dopamine, a “feel-good chemical” linked to pleasurable activities such as food and social interaction. The platforms are designed to be addictive and are associated with anxiety, depression, and even physical ailments” (McLean Hospital). This causes teenagers to continuously return to the app in hopes of releasing these same chemicals and create a false sense of happiness. Using these platforms for extended periods of time can have a detrimental effect on the development of teens and their quality of life. Research shows that social media platforms have a detrimental effect on the mental health of teenagers. “A survey conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health asked 14-24 year olds in the UK how social media platforms impacted their health and wellbeing. The survey results found that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all led to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image and loneliness” (Ehmke, 2023). Social media leads to mental health issues and affects the morale of teenage users. The act of viewing others posts led to insecurity and lowered self-esteem. This also led to loneliness, anxiety and in worst cases, depression. Unregulated social media usage will affect the mental health of the next generation of teenagers as they will begin to develop anxiety and depression, insecurity, and limited social interaction.
Anxiety and Depression
Unregulated social media usage will lead to an increase in anxiety and even depression among the next generation of teenagers. Social media can have many negative effects on the brain. Studies have shown that extended usage of social media is linked to symptoms of anxiety and even depression. “A 2016 study of more than 450 teens found that greater social media use, nighttime social media use and emotional investment in social media — such as feeling upset when prevented from logging on — were each linked with worse sleep quality and higher levels of anxiety and depression” (MayoClinic). Overusing social media has led to increased signs of anxiety and in worst cases, depression. Teenagers are constantly viewing photographs and videos posted online by their peers. They often see others engaging in exciting activities. This introduces the idea of FOMO-fear of missing out. If someone doesn’t join in or does not participate, there’s a concern that they’ll miss jokes, connections, and invitations (McLean Hospital). When teenagers feel excluded, it can affect their thoughts and feelings. In 2018, psychologist Melissa G. Hunt conducted a study at the University of Pennsylvania, she looked at 143 undergraduate students. One group was asked to limit their usage of social media to ten minutes per platform per day, while the other group was asked to continue using social media as they regularly did for three weeks (Berger, 2018). Hunt then looked at seven outcome measures, including fear of missing out, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Compared to the group that used social media freely, the group whose usage was restricted experienced a decrease in feelings of loneliness and depression. Those who began the experiment with stronger feelings of depression saw a more significant decrease in anxiety. Using social media for extended periods of time with no regulations led to the second group continuing to feel anxiety and dissatisfaction with themselves and their lives. Just across the span of three weeks, regulating social media usage led to an increase in happiness and an improved overall mood in the students that participated in the experiment. This shows how extended usage of social media can harmfully affect teenagers and their ability to live a healthy lifestyle. If social media continues to be unregulated, the next generation of teenagers will face increased feelings of anxiety and depression, preventing them from leading a fulfilling life.
Insecurity of the Future
Unregulated social media will lead to low self-esteem and increased insecurity in the next generation of teenagers. While viewing posts on social media platforms, teenagers are subject to many unrealistic lifestyles and images. By nature, teenagers begin to compare themselves and their own lifestyles to the ones they are exposed to on social media. This causes them to become unsatisfied with their lives and wish that they met the standards of those they saw on social media. Teens often see only the positive aspects of the lives of their peers, which causes them to believe that they are inferior. Teenagers are also exposed to unrealistic body images which cause them to feel insecure about their own looks. “A small 2013 study found that older adolescents who used social media passively, such as by viewing others' photos, reported declines in life satisfaction. Those who used social media to interact with others or post their own content didn't experience these declines” (MayoClinic). Those who utilize social media to simply post content and express themselves or communicate with their peers experienced the positive effects of these platforms. On the other hand, those who used social media to only view others posts were exposed to unrealistic expectations which caused them to become insecure about their lives and develop a lower self-esteem. Teenagers are constantly pressured to alter their profiles in hopes of upholding a positive social image. “About 40% of adolescents feel the pressure to curate their profiles, deleting and retaking photos, deleting others’ comments, or even entire accounts, to portray themselves in a desired way” (Pew Research). This shows the insecurity that has been instilled in teengers as they are constantly changing their public image to portray themselves positively to impress their peers and other users. They only post aspects of their lives that are exciting and try to convince others that they have an enjoyable lifestyle. The public image that teenagers create is often unrealistic and one-sided. This constant pressure of appearing perfect to others adds more stress to teenagers and makes them more insecure about themselves and their lifestyles. If social media continues to be unregulated then the next generation of teenagers will face insecurities and low self-esteem, resulting in an increase in mental issues. A future will likely exist where this situation worsens and teenagers are so full of insecurity that they develop life-threatening mental issues and are not able to live a fulfilling life.
Limited Social Interaction
Unregulated social media leads to a generation of teenagers who do not experience “pure“ social interactions and never truly connect with their peers. While social media is advertised as a way to connect with many people, it is distracting people from the “real world” and meeting people face-to-face. The mental routine of constantly being connected to hundreds or thousands of people may be overburdening our brain areas related to social interaction, potentially exceeding our mental limit. The evolutionary constraint may be a group size limit of approximately 150 individuals, which may be the reason for our increased cortical volume (Korte, 2020). However, social media has led to us being in continuous contact with a group that far exceeds our biological limit, overburdening the brain. The brain is tricked into believing that it is constantly experiencing social interaction, when in reality the user is disconnected and cut off from other people. Teenagers using social media start to lack face-to-face social interactions and meaningful conversations. Just less than 50 years ago before the invention of smartphones, teenagers would do anything possible to keep themselves occupied and prevent boredom. In previous generations, during free time, teenagers would likely be found outside playing at parks, hanging out at the mall, or eating at a restaurant. While it seems as though they were aimlessly hanging around and that these interactions were meaningless, they were experimenting, trying out skills, succeeding and failing in many small social interactions. They were learning and growing. teenagers then developed incredible social skills and confidence in interacting with others. They were experiencing life to the fullest and building strong connections with those around them. Spending hours speaking and bonding face-to-face without distractions led to improved mental health and fulfilled their bodies natural need for social connection. This is not to say that life back then was perfect, teenagers also faced bullying, lowered self-esteem, and body image issues. The only difference was that rumors and accusations spread by word of mouth rather than through social media. This meant that misleading information was not spread on a wide scale like it is over social media platforms. As a result teens back then were not as overwhelmed by bullying. teenagers then were not distracted by technology, so they were able to spend more time having fun together. Currently, when teenagers are not doing homework, they can be found online and on their devices. teenagers today spend their free time on social media platforms texting, sharing, posting, scrolling online. This means they are distracted from the real-world and are not spending time with other people in-person. Rather than going out into the world, meeting new people, and creating lasting connections, teenagers simply follow people online to become “friends”. teenagers nowadays lack developed social skills as they have not spent much time interacting with others and learning from their mistakes. Teenagers would rather text many friends through a variety of platforms than meet up and have in-depth conversations with each other. If we do not regulate social media, teenagers will continue to avoid face-to-face interactions, resulting in poor mental health.
Rebuttal
Many people argue that social media platforms positively impact mental health. These people believe that it enhances social connection, increases self-esteem, and improves a sense of belonging. A majority of people argue that social media platforms enhance social connection but this is false as social media disconnects teenagers from each other and causes them to avoid face-to-face interactions. teenagers often speak over call or text rather than making plans to truly connect in-person. This means teens rarely spend time experiencing things as a group. Many people claim that social media increases self-esteem but this could not be farther from the truth. Social media exposes teenagers to unrealistic expectations, body-images, and lifestyles. Teens get to compare themselves with what they see on social media and become unhappy and insecure, this drastically lowers their self-esteem. teenagers see lifestyles on social media that they wish they had themselves which causes them to feel disappointed by their own daily lives. teenagers are overwhelmed by the amount of unrealistic content they are exposed to that they begin to dislike many aspects of their own lives. This causes unhappiness and discontent. Many users insist that social media improves a sense of belonging but this is false. Teenagers often see posts of their peers experiencing exciting things together which causes them to feel excluded and increases feelings of loneliness. Teens view their own friends experiencing unique adventures together and bonding over fun activities which results in them feeling unhappy and jealous. Considering that social media does not enhance social connection, increase self esteem, nor improve sense of belonging, the harmful effects outweigh the few perceived benefits. This means that it is in the best interest of teenagers around the world that social media be regulated.
I appreciate that the pros of social media are considered as well.
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