This article explains the positive and negative impacts to adolescents’ exposure to social media.
Social media use is harmful, despite the general publics belief that social media usage is more beneficial than harmful the majority of children, teenagers, and even some adults use social media constantly. It has become a part of life for people in our generation. Globally, there are 4.8 billion users of social media. Social media sites like facebook, instagram, TikTok, and Twitter are utilized to generate content. These platforms display graphic content that can be used to generate revenue and advertise products. Social media is bad for people because it can lead to mental health issues, inappropriate content access, and cyberbullying.
Unsupervised, kids may accidentally find or intentionally be exposed to inappropriate content that could have long-term negative effects. It can have terrible impacts on sensitive people, especially kids and teenagers, to be exposed to content about suicide and self-harm. Suicide and self-harm risk can rise as a result of such content, which normalizes and describes self-harming actions.
The extent of these acts may be lost on sensitive minds, which may come to see them as pleasant or even normal. Exposure to such content may have an indirect effect, increasing the risk of self-harm since affected people may mimic or get influenced by the conduct they see online. Social networking sites have developed into hubs for social comparison, which has a negative impact on mental health, especially in teenage girls. Excessive exposure to thoughtfully chosen and filtered images of other people's life can lead to the development of filled ideas of joy, success, and beauty. When users, particularly young ones, compare their lives to the allegedly idealized ones displayed on social media, they may feel unfit or lower.
This can worsen depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, disordered eating habits, and body dissatisfaction. These unpleasant feelings can be caused and have an adverse effect on one's general mental health when one feels pressured to meet social standards for attractiveness and to look for approval from likes, comments, and follower counts.
Social media may positively affect adolescents by promoting a feeling of inclusion, providing greater access to more friends, and enhancing romantic relationships. Social media allows people to communicate with other people, no matter the distance between them.[1] Some adolescents with social and emotional issues feel more included with social media and online activities.[2] Social media can give people a sense of belonging which can lead to an increase in identity development. Adolescents that post pictures on social media can look back on their memories, and their positive emotions can be related to a sense of their true identity.[1] Additionally, social media provide a way to communicate with friends and family when alone.[3]
Adolescents who use social media tend to be more outgoing and interact more with others online and in person. According to Newport Academy, teens who spend more time on non-screen activities, such as sports, exercise, in-person social interaction, or any other in-person activities are less likely to report any mental issues, such as anxiety or depression.[4] Social media provide adolescents within the United States the ability to connect with people from other countries. Being involved in social media typically improves communication skills, social connections, and technical skills. Furthermore, adolescents who are students can use social media to seek academic help.[5] The appropriate usage of social media has developed favorable academic environments for both, the students and the teaching faculty, offering the potential benefits in the process of learning information.[6]
According to research conducted by Dr. John Gilmour and his coauthors, social media exposure, specifically Facebook, has allowed the general population to have positive interactions and gain social support from their family and friends, which in turn benefits their overall well-being. Social support is defined as the extent to which an individual feels a sense of value and belongingness to a social group.[7] Although several studies have found that general Facebook use has a negative impact on mental health, Facebook use has a variety of positive mental health outcomes when used to seek and provide social support.[7] Gilmour and his research team used academic databases and located 27 articles related to individuals’ use of Facebook as a mechanism for social support. The articles did not consider adolescents and adults separately, but rather focused on the general population of Facebook users.
After analyzing all 27 articles, the researchers concluded that the more active a person is on Facebook, the greater the opportunities for receiving social support.[7] Furthermore, higher levels of Facebook-based social support predicted greater positive mental health outcomes.[7] These outcomes include, but are not limited to, a decrease in depression, anxiety, and loneliness, as well as an increase in general psychological well-being.[7]
Focusing on adolescents, J. Pouwels and her coauthors conducted a 3-week study to determine whether social media has a positive impact on adolescents’ close friendships, characterized by supportiveness, responsiveness, and accessibility.[8] A total of 387 adolescents who were active on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat completed a 2-minute survey six times per day.[8] They reported the amount of time they spent on these three social media platforms, as well as their momentary experiences of friendship closeness.[8] Findings suggested that the more time spent on Instagram and WhatsApp, the higher degree of friendship closeness as reported on the surveys.[8]
Similar results were found in a study conducted by Dr. Lauren Shapiro and Dr. Gayla Margolin. Their study found that social media has a positive impact on the development of adolescents’ social relationships.[9] The researchers administered self-report questionnaires to gather these findings. Their results suggest that social networking sites make it easier for adolescents to communicate and share feelings and experiences because it is less threatening than face-to-face interactions. In addition, online communications were found to lead to closer, high-quality friendships among adolescents.[9]
As discovered by this study, social networking sites can also foster identity development for adolescents.[9] Specifically, social media provides many opportunities for self-disclosure, which researchers believe plays a role in identity development. Adolescents that participated in the study reported being able to learn more about themselves through using social media.[9]
How The Addiction to Technology Begins
Adolescents are our future, and before we can develop change and recognize the negative impacts of technology we need to know how the cycle begins. Living Skills in Schools describes the process as such, Addiction is based on dopamine dependence. Dopamine is the brain’s chemical signal for pleasure, excitement, and motivation. The addiction process begins through the hacking of the dopamine system by an outside source. The dopamine becomes spiked, dysregulated, and the brain is flooded with this chemical. [10] This outside source of technology addiction can impact dopamine receptors long term affecting attention span, critical thinking and problem solving. According to a University of California study, it takes over 23 minutes to refocus. If your teen can’t go over 5 minutes without checking their devices, then they are not engaging in anything fully. Screen time is stealing the treasures that come along with being able to entirely focus, like enjoying a delicious meal to its fullest capacity, listening to a piece of music and hearing every sound, or experiencing the beautiful sights nature offers. There is one area that constant interruptions impact that, it could be argued, is the most detrimental of all, problem-solving.[11]
Social media is harmful because of inappropriate content. The reason social media is bad is because of inappropriate content that can be shared, which can make people feel awkward, uneasy, and even have a negative impact on their mental health. Anyone can easily get inappropriate content by visiting websites like Google. Google can be used to obtain photos, movies, or games that show harm or violence toward humans or animals. Because it can harm children's mental and emotional development at any age, but notably in the case of very young children, inappropriate content poses a risk to public safety. Due to this issue, there's also a chance that many kids may become curious and want to learn about these websites with unsuitable information, which is not a good thing. Research indicates that the majority of teenagers who have viewed inappropriate content on social media platforms may change their behavior as a result of it. "The risks of exposing young brains to excessive, inappropriate, and harmful content were highlighted in the Surgeon General's recent recommendation on social media and youth mental health". Although there is lots of information available on the internet, not all of it is appropriate for younger audiences. From explicit pictures and violent content to hate speech and cyberbullying, inappropriate and harmful content can take many different forms. Even non-explicit content, like trying something new challenges or influencer content that promotes negative body image and social comparison, can have bad effects on young brains. With aggressive moves, unwanted exchanges, and computer programs that customize material to user preferences, social media platforms in particular can expose kids to these harmful elements.
Many research studies have also analyzed the negative effects of social media on adolescents’ mental health, however. In the same study conducted by Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Margolin, they discovered that social networking sites, such as Facebook, make it easier for adolescents to compare themselves to their peers.[9] Based on the results of this research study, social comparison can have a strong negative impact on adolescents’ self-esteem.[9] Self-report surveys revealed that the more time adolescents spent on Facebook, the more they believed others were better off or happier than themselves.[9] The results show that social media exposure was positively associated with tobacco and alcohol use and that deviant peer affiliation significantly mediated this relationship.[12]
Along with accomplishments and happiness, physical attractiveness is also a significant aspect of social comparison.[9] Preadolescence is a period when children start to become exposed to social media and is also a period when they start to develop body image concerns and depression.[13] Since individuals posting on social media tend to only present the best version of themselves online, research has shown that this can cause adolescents to perceive others as more attractive than themselves.[13] In the study administered by Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Margolin, female adolescents reported having a more negative body image after looking at beautiful photos of other women versus looking at less attractive photos on social media.[9]
Young adults also seem to experience higher symptoms of anxiety because of attempting to keep up with social media’s warped beauty standards. Hawes et al. (2020) found that increased social media usage, along with trying to stay up-to-date with beauty and fashion trends, could be damaging to those who already struggle with body image issues.[14] This study researched the relationship between social media use and maladjustment, focusing on appearance-related content and symptoms of anxiety. They had two hypotheses, one being that appearance-related (AR) social media preoccupation would correlate with more symptoms of depression and social anxiety, and the other being that AR social media preoccupation use intensifies the use of social media with appearance anxiety.[14] They used 763 adolescents of mixed genders from ages 12–17. They also tested college students from ages 16–25. The participants completed surveys that inquired about social media use, symptoms of general anxiety, appearance anxiety, and depression.[14] They found that social media use can be associated with worse emotional adjustment in adolescents and young adults as well as that appearance-related social media preoccupation elevated symptoms of appearance anxiety.[14]
Further investigation has suggested that spending an excessive amount of time on social media can lead to depressive symptoms, which in turn may increase the risk for social isolation or even suicidal ideation.[9] Many policymakers have expressed concerns regarding the potential negative impact of social media on mental health because of its relation to suicidal thoughts and ideation.[15] A study conducted by Dr. Chloe Berryman and her coauthors looked into the phenomenon called “vague booking,” which refers to individuals intentionally wording their social media posts in a way that they believe will obtain concern from others. These posts may even function as a cry for help.[15] This study found that young adults who partook in vague booking and relied on social media as their emotional outlet reported greater loneliness and suicidal thoughts than those who were not vague booking.[15]
Social comparison theory examines how people establish their personal value by comparing themselves to others.[16] These social comparisons and related feelings of jealousy, when made on social media platforms, can lead to the development of symptoms of depression in users.[17] Depression is common also for children and adolescents who have been cyberbullied.[18] According to Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance — United States, 2015, nationwide, 15.5% of students had been electronically bullied, counting being bullied through e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, websites, or texting, during the 12 months before the survey.[19] Using 7 or more social media platforms has been correlated with a higher risk of anxiety and depression in adolescents.[20]
Social media can significantly influence body image concerns in female adolescents.[21] Young women who are easily influenced by the images of others on social media may hold themselves to an unrealistic standard for their bodies because of the prevalence of digital image alteration. Social media can be a gateway to Body dysmorphic disorder. Dana Johns, MD, a plastic surgeon at the University of Utah Health says, "Selfie' or 'Snapchat' dysmorphia is essentially the new age social media upgrade to a long-standing disorder." The current social media age we're inputs a new level of expectations for adolescents and how they should look.
Engaging with social media platforms two hours before falling asleep can affect sleep quality, and a longer duration of digital media use is associated with reduced total sleep time.[22] The phenomena of "Facebook depression" is a condition which comes to surface when young adults have a higher usage of Facebook and tend to manifest the actual symptoms of depression.[23] Youths who frequently use social media increase their risk of depression by 27 percent, while those who dedicate themselves to outdoor activities don't have that much risk.[24] Sleep deprivation may also be another common factor in teens. According to the Mayo Clinic, a 2016 study that was conducted on 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 that could increase the levels of anxiety and depression.
Although a large aspect of policymaking is creating or changing laws, this is not always the case. Policymaking can also include other types of established standards, for example, parents’ rules or policies restricting their child’s social media exposure. Since social media is easily accessible to nearly everyone, there are few laws regarding adolescents’ exposure to social media. However, there is substantial evidence that parents’ policies regarding the time their child spends on social media has an impact on their child’s mental health.
One particular study, conducted by Dr. Jasmine Fardouly and her coauthors, involved a sample of 528 preadolescent social media users between the ages of 10 and 12 and one of their parents. Both children and their parents completed online surveys.[13] Some of the parents involved in the study enforced social media policies for their children, such as setting rules that limit the amount of time their child spent on social media.[13] Results from this study showed that preadolescents with parents who had greater control over their child’s time on social media reported better overall mental health.[13] The researchers found that parents who reduced the amount of time their child spent on social media resulted in their child being less exposed to content harmful to their emotional health.[13] More parental control over time spent on social media was also found to be associated with preadolescents making fewer appearance comparisons online.[13] The authors of this study concluded that fewer social media appearance comparisons were associated with higher adolescent appearance satisfaction and life satisfaction, as well as lower depressive symptoms.[13]
