It’s no secret that there’s a definite link between social media and mental health, but the question is, is it a negative affect or a positive affect?
Over recent weeks, I have investigated the link between the rise of social media and mental health issues. Many teenagers have said that social media has taken a toll on their mental health in one way or another by affecting their anxiety and depression, isolating them from their friends and family and causing major FOMO.
Research has shown that most teenagers will use their phone from between 2-8 hours, that’s well over half the day wasted scrolling endlessly. How many hours a day do you spend on social media and scrolling endlessly throughout various apps?
I know for me, I’m guilty of going on social media way too much. I use social media for between 5-8 hours a day which isn’t good at all. The research I have carried out has really opened my eyes to dangerous social media usage and what it can do for our health.
Social media is often used as an escape for young people, we use it to escape from our everyday lives and dulge into a world of likes and follows and fake drama. Many young people (and adults) use social media as a confidence boost by uploading a picture to one of the various social media sites and just sit watching it for hours until it reaches a ‘good’ amount of likes. I’m sure we can all say we are guilty of getting a bit upset when a picture doesn’t hit a certain amount of likes.
Numerous studies have linked social media to:
anxiety
Depression
Stress
And surprisingly enough, it isn’t necessarily using social media but actually what it’s used for and how long for. Many people use social media to bring ‘happiness’ to their day, which obviously isn’t the best way to live our lives.
Social media isn’t only used as an escape but many people use social media as a weapon to bully another person, this can destroy people’s confidence and trust within people. Online bullying and trolling is at an all time high which is why I think more awareness needs to be brought upon these issues. On every app there’s a lot of hate, one I’m particular I have noticed is TikTok, widely used by young children and teenagers who post videos, trying to have fun and just getting flooded with hate and trolling. I have seen young children not only receiving hate online but also giving it, social media has gone from being a place where people can just have fun with no judgement to being a place full of hate and criticism. (I talk deeply about online bullying in another post - check it out).
I think we really need to change how people act on social media, I think the first thing we can all do to change what happens on social media by changing our mindsets and the way we act online.
I’m not going to sit here and say social media is terrible and shouldn’t be used ever by anyone because I personally love social media and despite the negatives, there’s hundreds of positives to social media but I think we could all change our habits and the way we use social media in our everyday lives.
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog post, on our website you will find a lot of helpful information and articles talking about online bullying and trolling, please take 5 minutes to read through these so we can raise awareness and make a difference to social media.
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