Social media plays a vital role in our lives as it helps to stay connected with our friends far away from us. Also, it helps teens to remain aware of global digital trends. But it has dark sides too, and especially teens are more vulnerable to it. Now, as a parent, you might be wondering: how does social media affect mental health?
Be patient! In this guide, we’ll provide deep insight into both positive and negative aspects of social media, telling you how this affects your teen’s mental health. Also, we’ll share some tips to protect minors from digital dangers. So keep learning!
Why social media have an immense effect on people?
Social media influences you psychologically as well as sociologically on a profound level because of accessibility. Thus, you tend to check it anytime. For instance, when you wake up, before going to bed, and even while focusing on your work, social media is always a click away. As a result, it becomes a part of your routine subconsciously. After a while, taking a break from social media becomes difficult, causing social media addiction.
Moreover, on social media, whenever you post, you get instant feedback in the form of likes, comments, and shares. Thus, you feel happy that your work is acknowledged by others. However, you know you feel good for a reason.
For instance, it’s our brain that actually releases a dopamine chemical, which is also known as a feel-good chemical. Thus, it gives you happiness for a short time. As a result, you keep posting, and in other words, our brain depends on dopamine releases to feel good. Thus, this thing makes you addicted to social media usage.
Use parental controls to create a healthy online environment for teens.
A double-edged sword: how does social media affect mental health?
Social media has its own perks; like you can talk to your friends, share pictures, or watch hilarious videos. Thus, it helps you stay connected and lets you express yourself. But, like everything, it also has its dark sides. Thus, we call it a double-edged sword.
Thus, to keep your mind sharp, it’s important to understand both the negative and the positive sides. So, you can focus on the good parts and be safe from the bad things.
Negative effects of social media on mental health
- FOMO: First of all, when your friends go outside to parties, they post their pictures on social media. Thus, when you see that your friends are enjoying themselves without you, then a FOMO ( fear of missing out ) feeling arises. This thing makes you feel left out, anxious, and even jealous.
- Comparing yourself to others: Moreover, keep in mind that on social media, people only share their happy moments of life, or just show off. Thus, when you see these posts, you start comparing your real life with their materialistic online life. Hence, you feel bad for yourself, which makes you under-confident.
- Cyberbullying: In addition, the biggest downside of social media is that it can be an irrational source of bullying. For instance, it’s common that you might get hurtful comments, and even worse, people criticize you. This kind of bullying can be severely damaging to your mental health.
- Sleep problems: Furthermore, when you use your phone late at night, it also affects your sleep cycle. For instance, the screen emits blue light, which disturbs the melatonin production in our brain. Thus, it makes it harder to fall asleep at night, thus you remain tired all day long.
Positive impacts of social media on mental health
Although there are risks associated with social media. But keep in mind that social media isn’t bad itself, but how you use it can make the difference. So, it is not all bad; actually, a considerable number of users leverage social media to feel good about themselves rather than feel worse.
So, now let’s explore how social media affects mental health positively!
- Connect with others: First and foremost, social media offers children a connection to peers. Even when they are located thousands of miles away. This connection is essential and helps you feel loved and supported, especially when going through hardships in life.
- Support and empathy: Furthermore, when you see on social media that people are living a perfect life, and you are facing challenges. Then you become hopeless. However, social media at the same time gives you access to groups of people discussing mental health and sharing genuine stories. That helps a lot in understanding that a lot of people feel the way you do, and that you are not alone. Thus, it plays a role in bringing comfort to your life.
- Creative expression: In addition, social media also provides a platform for self-expression. For instance, if you’re an expert in drawing, music, or have any other skill, then you can showcase your talents before people. Thus, appreciation from people boosts your confidence and feel batter images.
- Spreading positivity: Furthermore, social media can also be a helpful method of putting a smile on someone’s face. For instance, just a single positive comment or a nice post can instantly make someone’s day. When you increase others’ happiness, you usually feel good as well.
Thus, we have now highlighted both the negative and positive sides of social media. Now, it’s totally up to you how you wish to make use of social media.
Social media and teens: Is social media good or bad for youth?
As a parent, you may notice your teenager constantly active on their phone—scrolling, snapping, or sharing. You will be surprised to know that according to a Pew Research Center 2024 report, almost 95% of teens have a smartphone and 90% use social media on a daily basis.
You know Instagram and TikTok are some of the best-known and most-used apps of the younger generation. However, the use of such platforms is linked to mental health problems because of unrealistic beauty standards. This causes the teens to compare their lives to others, which just depresses them.
Thus, learning the causes of this can help you assist your child more mindfully.
Why are teens more vulnerable to social media’s impact?
Now, you might be wondering why teens are more affected by social media, especially mental health. Well! There are many logical reasons behind this! For instance;
- Still in developing stage: First of all, teens are in a stage of life where they are still figuring out their identity. It means that they are not mature enough to manage their emotions. Thus, when they get praise or even criticism from others, it directly impacts their brain.
- Too much active online: Moreover, teens spend a lot of time on social media compared to adults. Also, the problem is that they didn’t differentiate between what’s real and what’s fake. Thus, it means they are highly likely to get exposed to harmful content, either in the form of unrealistic beauty standards or peer pressure.
- Tie self-worth to feedback: Furthermore, most of the teens even judge their identity based on the likes, comments, and shares on their online posts. However, sometimes people may send bad comments, which they load on their minds and even get to trauma, some even try to commit suicide.
How does social media impact teens’ mental health?
Social media is a part of day-to-day life, and this is especially true for teens. However, social media drives serious issues related to mental health. Experts and research have shown that heavy use of social media causes anxiety, depression, poor self-image, and numerous other health risks to teens!
So, let’s understand these risks and know experts’ analyses, so you can take timely action and make your kids digitally secure.
Anxiety
A JAMA Pediatrics study outlined that adolescents spending over three hours daily on social media are 60% more likely to experience severe anxiety. Anxiety is a condition where you feel worried all the time, even in the complete absence of a threat. Thus, it greatly affects focus, sleep, and even simple day-to-day chores. You know social media is the main reason behind increasing anxiety among teens, because it creates pressure to stay connected.
Depression
Depression isn’t just about feeling sad, but it makes you despair from life, and you lose interest in activities once cherished. You know, scrolling through social media showcases flawless bodies, idyllic relationships, and opulent lifestyles. Thus, it is very easy for teens to feel left behind.
Body image
Body image is the perception one has concerning their physique. A negative perception of their body can lead to low self-worth. This happens when social media exposes you to numerous pictures and videos, many of which are filtered or Photoshopped, showcasing so-called-perfect bodies.
Thus, a good number of teens suffer from body shaming, which only serves to amplify their insecurities. Dove’s Self-Esteem Project reports that 80% of girls have used editing applications by age thirteen. This illustrates the level of concentration and the extent of negative impacts these influences have.
Online safety
Online safety involves safeguarding oneself against sharing private information, inappropriate content, receiving cyberbullying, and being approached by online predators. Cyberbullying Research Center in their 2024 survey found that almost 30% of teenagers experience cyberbullying at some point in their life.
While engaging on social media, teens do not always know the identity of the person behind the message or friend request that they are engaging with. Thus, many young people have carelessly shared personal information; hence, persons with bad intentions may blackmail them.
How to protect minors from the dangers of social media on mental health?
Now, as a parent, you might be wondering how you can keep your kids safe from the dangers of social media. Don’t worry! We understand your concerns, so here we are going to share with you practical tips to make your kids’ online experience healthier.
- Start with open conversations: First and foremost, you should maintain a positive, friendly atmosphere, as it’s crucial in building trust. Then you should make them aware of social issues. Tell them never to share their personal details with anyone online. Also, tell them that reality is far different from online life. So, don’t try to copy others and be yourself.
- Set healthy boundaries: Next, you also collaboratively agree on a set of reasonable limitations in regard to device usage. You can also set rules like don’t use a mobile phone late at night, and also at the dining table. You know the American Academy of Pediatrics reports that excessive screen time, particularly in the evening, can disrupt sleep and increase stress.
- Provide relaxing mental health tools: Additionally, therapists recommend that restrictions should be coupled with relaxation activities. Thus, you can use calming aids, like relaxation apps, journals, and soft music. They can help teens to better relax and control their feelings.
- Use of parental control tools: However, if you want to have reliable control over your kids’ digital activities, then leveraging parental controls is a smart move. But you might be thinking, which is the best and safest parental app to go for? Well! To help you in this case, we would recommend using FlashGet Kids parental control tool as it combines real-time monitoring features. For instance;
Limits screen time: it helps you to set screen time limits on specific social media apps for specific hours, like during sleeping or study hours. Thus, you prevent your kids from becoming too active online. This, in turn, minimizes the chances of getting exposed to unrealistic beauty standards.
Screen mirroring: Moreover, you can also live monitor who your kids are interacting with online, thus preventing your kids from cyberbullying dangers.
Final thoughts
In a nutshell, many studies have revealed that social media has diverse effects on teens’ mental health. This is because they are still in their growing phase, so they don’t handle their emotions and are easily captured by materialistic things online.
Thus, they start comparing themselves to so-called perfect people online and thus feel depressed and anxious. Thus, the most effective way to prevent your kids from such dangers is to limit their screen time and keep them aware of social issues.
FAQs
Social media can have a huge impact on self-esteem. For instance, it causes younger kids and teens to compare their lives and their bodies to the so-called ideal bodies on social media. This can bring down a person’s self-esteem levels to a depressing state.
Social media may facilitate interaction, but it can also lead to anxiety, depression, sleep difficulties, cyberbullying, and a myriad of other issues. This all happens because of the nature of being online active always.
Even though you may be interacting with other individuals online and even video chatting with them, you may still feel lonely. This is because online chatting cannot substitute for real-time laughs, hugs, and cherished moments.
Absolutely yes. Digital monitoring not only helps keep the child away from danger. But it can also help deal with online situations in a mentally appropriate manner.
Social media isn’t meant for younger kids as they are too young to face the harsh criticism, hateful comments, as well as aggressive attention from social media users. That is the reason why researchers claim that children require assistance in navigating social media.
