
Social media doesn’t have to be just “good” or “bad.” It’s been an incredible advancement in technology and a great change in the way we connect, communicate, and educate. The number of social media platforms has grown and continues to grow. Do we need all of them? We actually don’t “need” any of them, but we want to have them. We can have anywhere from one to ten social media apps right on our phone. Yet, considering the growth of these mediums, who do you imagine are using them the most? If you had to picture someone using an application like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter, etc. in your head, do you picture a child, a teenager, a college student, an adult, or an elder? Now, think about what that person may be looking at, what they are sharing, what and how they are posting, and what they are “liking” or “retweeting.” Is it an overall good or bad image? It may be unclear or difficult to identify it as just good or bad because it depends on your own experiences and point of view. However, out of all those people you could picture in your head, did you imagine a young person? If so, it may be because you have commonly seen mostly young people like high school and university students using the social media apps via their phones and computers. You may also have based the association on seeing many young users who are relatively active on those social media apps, such as your own friends or those you follow. That is because social media has been most popular with younger people over time. As the availability and capability of social networking sites have grown, so has the usage. Social media is an interesting form of communication technology because it is more personal to us than news or entertainment. We establish public profiles so that we can share life updates, see others’ life updates, make comments, and see others’ comments. It has even grown to incorporate local and global news, various forms of entertainment, commercial advertising, educational content, live broadcasting, videos, and so much more. Social media has given us such a large access to all of these, right in our hands. It’s rather overwhelming how advanced we are with our means of spreading information. Considering that there is no time limit to spend on them, the way we use them is completely up to us. Personal usage becomes a key factor to the issues social media presents. It ends up affecting our own mental health in unhealthy ways.

A large portion of young adults and teenagers have not only grown up with social media, but have grown closer or even more attached to it. The issue with this is that a young person’s mind is still growing and maturing, so when he or she begins to feel more causes of stress or depression, social media can be among them. It then becomes serious when people are negatively affected by their own usage and begin to change, whether it’s their feelings, their behavior, their actions, their thoughts, or their health. A recent study on the current state of social media surveyed around 1,500 14- to 24-year-olds to find out how social media has been affecting them personally. It revealed that Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram caused increased levels of anxiety and inadequacy to those in the age group. Instagram was deemed the worst medium for maintaining healthy sleep, body image, and social inclusion. The four platforms were also correlated to acts of bullying, sleep loss, suicidal thoughts, self-loathing, depression, and loneliness (Campbell). For a group of over 1,000 young people to have experienced more of these states just from using a few apps on their phone, that says quite a lot. How could we best approach and alleviate issues like these? Even though our social networks have become a great part of our lives, it is best not to be too attached to them. Many people are not fully aware of the harm they inflict on themselves, as well as others. Depression and low self-esteem occur more easily and more often as we devote more time to our online worlds, but the best ways to avoid those negative effects are to utilize those networks more wisely, more cautiously, and less often.

Using social media more wisely can greatly improve our well-being with the right amount of mental awareness. We should be more aware of the appropriate times to use social media, as well as the appropriate things to share and view. Imagine, for example, that your parents or your boss at work are seeing every one of your posts, comments, and likes. For some, it may not be the case, but it requires more responsibility and involves a self-reflecting awareness. At the same time, those traits are accomplished through maturity, which is achieved through time, age, and experience. So when most young people start using social media at earlier times in their lives, they are still in the long process of gaining that maturity and wisdom. That maturing process can last much longer with stronger usage. They can lose sense of their identity and experience more severe emotional shifts than expected. For example, a study conducted by Dr. Chou and Mr. Edge, two psychologists from Utah Valley University, involved 425 undergraduate students and measured the impact of Facebook on their perception. It concluded that Facebook use was linked to the students’ overall impression that other users are happier, and that their “life is not fair” (Pantic 652; Chou 117-119). This perception that others are living happier lives is a strong driving force in feelings of discouragement, depression, and low self-esteem. It becomes a competition in a sense because of the constant sharing of one’s happiest moments. An undergraduate college student, for instance, could be stuck in her college dorm room having to study for her exams when she goes on her Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram and sees pictures of her friends at the beach together with happy smiles. That poor student would feel worse about her state because she would much rather be with them than by herself studying all weekend. However, she could have expected what she would see and avoided going on social media in the first place. That way, she would be fully motivated and focused on herself rather than others. Social networks don’t have any control over us, but we have full control over them. We can avoid depressing ourselves if we know when to.

With the incredibly large amount of people using social media nowadays, it is also best to be more cautious and responsible with what we share and allow others to see. We may tend to give out too much information about ourselves on our social media profiles. Many young people also share pictures that can trigger more occurrences of stalking, cyber-bullying, and anxiety. What is most interesting, and most problematic, is that many of them are not aware of it. If they are not aware, then they are not cautious. The caution then becomes reactive instead of proactive. For example, a YouTuber named Jack Vale performed a social experiment in a pranking fashion that involved approaching strangers in public and telling them personal facts about themselves that were based off of what they have shared on their social media profiles. Vale was able to learn these people’s names, the name of their pets and family members, their birthdays, what they ate as a meal, and even their work. He knew what they looked like and where they currently were just from viewing their online profile, such as their pictures and comments. At one point in his video, he brought up the nickname of a woman’s pet dog, and the friends that were sitting with her did not even know she had a dog. One friend joked that she might have dropped her license somewhere. The most common response that Vale received was “How did you know that?” One group of friends even told him, “thanks for invading our privacy,” and, “I’ll call the police if you do that again” (Vale). Isn’t it interesting that none of them realized that Vale could have seen their social media profiles? Isn’t it also interesting that we panic when we lose or misplace our ID’s with our personal information, but not when we share personal information with friends and strangers online? Also, most of the reactions were of laughter and joyful surprise, not of worry or caution. One group, however, felt that Vale invaded their privacy and threatened to call the police. Did Vale really invade their privacy when they chose to share that information publicly? This experiment may have been from 4 years ago, but it can still be done again. Vale used their information to create an experiment that would promote more thinking and outlook, but others can use that information with malicious intent. This is where more stalking and cyberbullying occurs, as well as more social anxiety when going out in public. However, the best way to avoid these issues is to be aware of what we share online and act as our own mental filter for everything we do on social media.

Too much of something is always bad, so using social media less often than usual can help maintain a healthy balance to our emotions and thoughts, as well as provide more relief and control. We all need a break from activities like working, watching TV, playing video games, etc. Yet, using social media has not only been an activity, but also a daily habit for many young people. It can become an addiction for them that absorbs much of their time in the day and may keep them distracted from other tasks, whether it is studying, working, or simply talking to someone. The more they use social media, the more harm they inflict on their own mental health. In an article from Rachel Ehmke discussing how social media use affects teenagers, she points out how interactions, such as face-to-face communication, are lacking due to modern teens learning more from their screens. She cites Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair, a clinical psychologist, who claims that “there’s no question kids are missing out on very critical social skills.” With this being the case, it can lead to negative effects such as complications in friendships, relationships, peer acceptance, cyber-bullying, and self-esteem. Dr. Steiner-Adair emphasizes the key role played by self-esteem because it “comes from consolidating who you are.” As Ehmke further explains, the more identities someone has, as well as the greater time spent trying to be someone else online, the harder it becomes to feel good about oneself. Addiction also stems from receiving positive feedback on content you’ve shared or posted. As social media expert Bailey Parnell explains in her Ted Talk presentation, addiction grows when you get a “like” and “that ‘feel-good’ chemical, dopamine.” Addiction is tough to combat, but the best way to reduce it is to first recognize that it is there.

Social media has served as a political platform, as well. While it is a politician or governor’s means of reaching out to the public, it’s not necessarily pleasant for everyone. For example, when Donald Trump became President, a 44-year-old NASA contractor named David Haffner began to feel depressed and worried about his professional future. A year later, however, his means of coping with that anxiety resulted from his decreased usage of Twitter. He would be “obsessively following the news” and “staring at his Twitter feed all day” when it was affecting his mental health (Bassett). In this case, Haffner was able to distance himself from the flush of political news on his social media and reduced his feelings of worry and stress.

While there are multiple instances of negative effects from social media use, it does not mean that social media is completely harmful or unnecessary. Jake Murray, a university faculty director for professional education, wrote an article for the EdTech Times about the positive effects on people’s lives. Although he recognizes the concerns from parents, teachers, and experts on the negative outcomes of increasing online access and usage, he claims that the potential for positive outcomes hides in the shadow of those worries. Murray lists positive examples such as kinship among marginalized youth groups, encouragement for activism, alleviating difficult interactions with parents, etc. Although he is accurate with his examples, his argument that “reacting to social media and smartphones primarily with anxiety and an urge to control access is short-sighted” is not so wisely spoken. He feels that the negative effects are overlooked and overly focused on, and he believes that the positive aspects should be encouraged. However, those positive effects are positive for a reason. There have been many beneficial capabilities with the use of social media in education systems and expression of voice and opinion, yet they are not sufficient reasons for downplaying the negative consequences and reducing the concerns for them. However, his conclusion that we need the “help of education and youth development researchers to document both supportive and harmful social media and smartphone practices, and what facilitates positive experiences” is a reasonable and beneficial solution to the problems posed by social media. Another point of view is that social media boosts self-esteem and provides sources for emotional support (Jacewicz). Matthew Oransky, an assistant professor of adolescent psychiatry and therapist, has also stated that many of his patients find social connections online that they could not find anywhere else, especially LGBT adolescents and kids in foster homes (Jacewicz). The main problem with this argument is that while it is true that social media creates the opportunity for social connections, they are not all positive. Some LGBT adolescents can also be victims of online harassment and cyberbullying. That is why social media is a mixed bag or a “determined messiness” (Herring 22). 

Why is it, then, that social media has grown to have such a wide appeal? One reason is because “the power to connect with others is a built-in human desire” (Herring 21). If it’s a part of our desire to connect with each other, how does it become negative? Our time spent on social networking sites (SNS) can be tied to negative impacts such as depression because “computer-mediated communication may lead to the altered (and often wrong) impression of the physical and personality traits of other users” (Pantic 653). This idea relates back to the Facebook study regarding “happier lives,” or as Bailey Parnell identifies it as the “highlight reel.” The highlight reel is “a collection of the best and brightest moments,” similar to a highlight reel in sports. Social media, in this case, is our personal highlight reel that gives us a sense of image crafting, and the highlights are ultimately “what people want to see” (Parnell). As pastor and author Steven Furtick has said, “we struggle with insecurity because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel” (Parnell). This acts as one of the four main stressors of social media that can become serious mental issues, and when our “highlights” do well, it leads to the second stressor: “social currency.” With our use of likes, comments, and sharing, we attribute more value to that content. With the more positive feedback, the more likely we will post a similar picture, video, or comment. This leads to the third stressor known as “F.O.M.O.,” or the “fear of missing out.” Parnell mentioned in her presentation that a group of Canadian universities gathered that 7 out of 10 students would get rid of their social networking accounts were it not for fear of being left “out of the loop.” Our F.O.M.O. poses a great barrier in trying to separate ourselves from our SNS’s. The fourth stressor becomes online harassment, where the “micro moments over time become a macro problem” (Parnell). We’ve seen the stories and headlines of suicides at young ages resulting from cases of depression after the fact. We can try to prevent that from happening if we find a healthy balance in our usage. The most important factor in pushing for a healthier balance and awareness is by recognizing who can or is being negatively affected. Parnell admitted that “the scary thing is that high social media use is almost everyone I know,” such as her friends, her family, and her colleagues. When also considering the statistics that 90% of 18- to 29-year-olds are on social media, and that we spend on average 2 hours a day on it, we can better understand how many people, especially young people, unhealthy social media usage affects. As Parnell explained, “anything we do this often is worthy of critical observation” because it has lasting effects on us. 

After reviewing all of the perspectives and studies, what are the best steps to approaching and alleviating social media’s negative effects? Parnell’s four steps to “social media wellness” are to recognize the problem, audit your social media diet, create a better online experience, and model good behavior. Other approaches are to help and support young people in understanding the risks and finding a balance (Campbell). 

Social media has grown so much over the years in terms of their own capabilities and how we’ve used them. It’s perfectly reasonable for us to use them more because we fit in, we stay connected, we keep learning new things about each other, and we have made them a part of our daily routine. Yet, there is still a struggle to find one’s own identity, and that struggle is persisting. It boils down to what we share, what we post, and what we see from others online that end up having the greatest effects on us because everyone wants to paint the best picture of themselves. However, we never really reach that picture a lot. If we do, how long do we maintain it? At some point, we end up changing something about ourselves because we also encourage uniqueness and differences. We also have life struggles of our own, but do we share those, too? We’ve been given another world, per say, that is more positive and “fun” than the one we live through each day. Then there comes a point where people can get discouraged and depressed when they see their friends and family, and even strangers, having a fun moment. So as we continue to share all of the fun, humorous, and happy moments that we have, someone out there is feeling the opposite. As more young people grow up with social media and smartphones, their minds are still developing and maturing. It then becomes more important that they aren’t the ones to be discouraged, depressed, stressed, distraught, angry, judgmental, insecure, or suicidal because they will become the next parents and role models that the next generation will look up to.
