As a teenager, I have observed both the benefits and detriments that social media has on teens' mental health. When talking about social media, I am referring to the social media powerhouses, such as Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, BeReal, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter. In a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center, data showed that 95% of teens use youtube, 67% use TikTok, 62% Instagram, and 59% use Snapchat. This data proves that almost all teenagers one or more forms of social media. Thus, with these high percentages, people, especially teens, must understand how social media affects their mental health.
All social media giants provide users with a seemingly infinite feed of short clips and videos, which has shortened our attention spans. When skimming through one's feed, a persons mind will adapt to desire quick and instant gratification. For example, when you go into snapchat and see your friends' snaps, your brain releases small amounts of dopamine, forming an addictive pattern. The same event happens when you scroll through instagram and find a post that you find funny, making users scroll past more posts and ads until they find the right one. As a result, the average attention span in the digital world has fallen to approximately eight seconds. Now more people attain their dopamine from social media, demotivating them from doing the much more beneficial dopamine inducing activities that were popular prior to this digitally focused era. Dopamine is a chemical that makes you feel good, so when a person's dopamine levels are too high, it makes doing the boring things like working out or reading a book less appealing. High dopamine levels cause more anxiety, stress, and hinder people's abilities to focus and learn, stunting the development of our teen minds and increasing the rates of mental illness in teens. However, a decrease in attention span and increase in dopamine levels are not social media's only contributors to worse mental health. Apps like facebook and instagram that revolve around users posting images and videos of themselves have created unhealthy norms, with the most important ones being body image and social status norms. With these new apps, more and more people can edit their photos and post images that portray people in the top percent of fitness. Thus, by filling our minds with images of fit models and ripped athletes, social media has poisoned teenagers' perceptions of what normal people look like. This misinterpretation of what a normal person should look like has increased the rates of body dysmorphia and eating disorders in teens, and has harmed our mental health. In addition, most posts are compiled of good times and special occasions, which sometimes gives other people F.O.M.O. (fear of missing out). The videos and photos of people are typically only depict the best moments, misleading users to think that everyone else is always having a good time, while they are living their boring lives. The increased levels of F.O.M.O. causes anxiety and stress, resulting in worse mental health. Thus, by making feel left out and inadequate, social media has corrupted the minds of many teens. Although social media has its detriments and great ones at that, it also has its benefits. Most of the social media giants have chat functions, allowing people to stay connected from anywhere in the world. However, snapchat's primary function, which is for users to send photos of themself to other people without them being saved, helps teens stay even more connected than they would by message. Snapchat and instagram were vital during quarantine, as they helped teenagers maintain their friendships and relationships despite distance, demonstrating how social media can keep people connected. Social media is also a platform for users to spread awareness and motivation. For example, there are a variety of motivational accounts that provide important guidance and information that help teens stay focused. Personally, many of the accounts that I follow have taught me valuable life lessons, mostly revolving around self discipline and self worth. Overall, social media has its pro's and con's, but can be beneficial to teens when used in moderation. Like anything in life, teenagers and people in general must be able to control their impulses and use social media responsibly.
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