
In our generation, the internet and other social medias are prevalent in the way we as a society interact with each other. However, are these interactions positive for our mental health or do they hinder the way we perceive ourselves and each other? Most people would agree that social media interactions could do both. Social media has made us the most connected society; however, it has also coincided with the decline of our mental health. While technology and other online platforms seem to be a positive influence on a person’s everyday life, behind the scenes there are underlying causes that can lead to poor mental health. Various social media platforms can hinder teenagers’ and adolescents’ delicate state of mental health through the excessive use of social networking sites, like Facebook and Twitter, an unrealistic projection of social ideals, and the threat of cyberbullying. 

Mental Health is defined by the World Health Organization as “a state of well-being in which an individual can realize his or her own potential, cope with the normal stresses of life, work productively, and make a contribution to the community” (Bauman 1). Everyone strives to achieve this ideal psychological state, but for some it is more difficult to get there. Around the world, “450 million people suffer from a mental health disorder” and in the United States alone, 13% of youth aged 8-15 and 20% of adolescents aged 13-18 will have a severe mental disorder in a given year (Bauman 1). These are alarming numbers of people, especially youth, affected by mental health diseases that are brought on by a variety of causes. Half of this percentage does not receive treatment for their diagnosis and for those who do may not receive the best quality of treatment (Bauman 1). The numbers are only rising and with the diagnoses becoming more common in young adults, doctors have to look at what adolescents surround themselves with, and in this generation that answer is technology. Depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, and eating disorders are just a few of the common mental health illnesses that arise in young adults and adolescents. While there is not one direct cause of these illnesses, there are several factors that could be a part of the problem, one of them being social media. 

^One of the most common mental health illnesses is depression, which is now the leading cause of disability globally, and “accounts for more disability-adjusted life years than all other mental disorders” (Lin 324). “Disability-adjusted life years are measures of overall disease burden, expressed as the number of years lost due to poor health or disability” (Metrics). The disease affects 350 million people worldwide, which is a very alarming number (Kardaras n.pag.). With that number only increasing, experts fear that if there is not a change soon it will only keep rising. Depression often begins around young adulthood, leading doctors and psychiatrists to believe that social media is becoming a major factor (Lin 324). The increased use of social media in teenagers and younger adolescents paves the way for increased symptoms of mental illnesses like depression. In 2014, psychologist Jean Twenge analyzed data from nearly seven million teenagers and adults across the United States and found an increase in reports of depression-like symptoms in recent years than found in the 1980s. (Kardaras n.pag.). The only obvious difference between these two generations is the mass usage of technology and social medias. 

Social media is defined as “interactive websites where people can post profiles, accumulate online friends, peruse their friends’ friend lists, post photographs and videos, and communicate with each other” (Parks n.pag.). This definition makes social media sound harmless; however, that is not always the case. Social media is one of the most common forms of internet teenagers use to communicate with one another and “for many people, social networking has become as much of a daily routine as brewing coffee and brushing teeth” (Parks n.pag). The overuse of social media is becoming an alarming issue, and should not be compared to daily tasks like brushing our teeth. “As many as ninety percent of young adults in the United States use social media, and the majority of users visit these sites at least once a day” (Lin 324). This percentage is nearly the entirety of the young adult population in the United States, making the excessive use of social media seem like a daily norm. Not only are these young adults browsing the internet on computers, but many popular social networking sites have become accessible on smart phones and other mobile technologies, allowing for the use of these sites to only increase. 

*Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are three of the most popular social networking sites commonly used. These sites have a greater appeal to users because of the accessibility and portability provided with the mobile phone applications (Bauman 79). The invention of smart phones has paved the way for greater use of social media due to the development of such applications. Teenagers are surrounded by social media daily whether it is on their laptop or through their mobile device, making it a social norm to be active online. There are four characteristics of social networking sites: “content is persistent, meaning that it is permanent; content is replicable, referring to the ease of copying and sending content to others; content is scalable, a feature of the enormous size of the potential audience; and content is searchable, or available for location via search engines” (Bauman 79).  These four characteristics provide users with the necessary tools to find information, connect with friends, and post their own opinions for others to see, making it more common to be active online. - The accessibility of social media has greatly increased the amount of time users spend online; however, more use is only allowing for an increased potential of negative experiences online. 

One of the most commonly used social networking sites is Facebook, mainly used for staying connected with friends and family members. More than half of all American adults have Facebook accounts, and “73% of all 12 to 17 year olds are using it” (Bauman 87).  That is over half of the population, which demonstrates how popular Facebook has become. Facebook allows users to post anything form photos, personal accomplishments, videos, statuses, articles, etc. However, not all of these posts are necessarily positive, and some may not be a good influence for other users. For example, “A national survey in the U.S. found that teens who spend time on social networking sites are five times as likely to use tobacco, three times as likely to use alcohol, and twice as likely to use marijuana” (Bauman 91). Teenagers post photos with alcohol and drugs in them often, publicizing for all of their networked friends to see. By allowing these photos to be posted, Facebook glamorizes the use of drugs and alcohol, giving teenagers encouragement to see this as normal behavior, affecting overall mental health. 

*Facebook and mental health go hand in hand, often provoking anxiety and depression in users. Depression among Facebook users is common enough that the phrase “Facebook Depression” was coined (Bauman 94). This term simply means that Facebook contributes to symptoms of Depression. Users who already have severe mental health disorders, not necessarily diagnosed based on social media, tend to turn to Facebook for acceptance, positive reinforcement, and acknowledgement (Bauman 88). However, this is not what they are always receiving. Users may not like their posts quick enough, if at all, or comment something kind which makes their mental well-being even worse than it already was before. This leads to users with low self-esteem. For example, “people with low self-esteem appear to be most concerned with what others post on their walls, and are careful to check their walls often to delete unwanted or unfavorable posts” (Bauman 96). Basically, these users only want to see posts and comments that will boost their self-confidence and will do anything to pretend that those are the only posts they see. Facebook can lead to a variety of mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety, and low self-esteem; however, it is not the only social networking site to do so. 

Another popular social networking site is Twitter. Twitter first emerged in 2006, with a different approach to the way users communicate. It allows users “to post messages, photos, news stories, or links to pages in real time” and can be accessed on smart phones, tablets and computers (Bauman 80). Users can access information, or simply communicate within minutes whether they are at home or on the go, and with more than 58 million tweets sent out per day, users are taking advantage of the easy accessibility. (Bauman 80). However, Twitter is not only used in a positive manner. Users who post abusive and inappropriate content on the site tend to argue that it is their right to express their views, even if they differ from others, which tends to be true among most social media platforms as well. Users of this nature do not see how these negative posts can be harmful to others, especially to others’ mental well-being. Some of these abusive users “hide behind a thin veil of anonymity,” expecting to escape the trouble from law enforcement (Bauman 82). Tweets can also be meant in an innocent manner, but others could interpret them in a hurtful manner, which could also lead to consequences. The way users view such tweets results in low self-esteem, depression-like symptoms, and other self-confidence issues, making mental health diseases more likely to occur. The overuse of social media sites like Twitter cause an increased risk in the development of mental health disorders.    

The growing use of technology and social media has caused people to communicate less face to face. Instead of casual conversation on the street, people have resorted to their mobile devices for communication. Experts warn that this increase in the use of social networking is leading people to become isolated from each other (Parks n.pag). People become too comfortable with how they interact online and become antisocial in person. Most people, especially teenagers and adolescents, struggle with being too attached to their mobile devices or other technologies. One professor of psychiatry even states that “people are not merely attached to their phones; they become addicted” (Kertner et al). This addiction becomes noticeable to others in public and that is when it becomes questionable. For example, an author writes that while out to eat she sees a family sitting nearby and “both boys, around the ages of 9 and 12, never took their eyes off their devices throughout the entire meal” (Kertzner et al). Today’s generations are growing up in a technologically advanced society, causing children to begin using technologies and devices at a much younger age. Most adults wonder what adolescents could possibly be doing on their devices for so long, and when not playing games or watching videos, most are simply catching up on their friend’s lives, something that should still be a face-to-face interaction. Another example of this is when “a teacher asked her middle school students to go 24 hours on a weekend without accessing social media, only 28 of the students could do it, while the others worried too much about what their friends were doing” (Bauman 100). The students could not manage to wait until Monday to catch up with their friends, which is so different from how it used to be. Depriving children and adolescents of interaction and physical connection early on life, due to mainly socially interacting via digital technologies and social medias, could not only hinder their mental health, but their overall brain development as well, meaning mental health issues (Karadaras n.pag.). The lack of face-to-face interaction also causes users to only see people in the way they are shown online, leading to false presentations of others and false hopes for themselves. 

These false presentations are displayed all across multiple social networking sites, causing users to see an unrealistic projection of social ideals. The unrealistic projection of social ideals that teenagers see plastered all over the internet can amplify the insecurities teenagers have about their body image. This can lead to multiple different mental health disorders, a few being eating disorders and depression. Teenagers have a desire to achieve the media’s high standards or the “thin ideal” (Gorga Williams n.pag.). This is due to the fact that advertisements typically use models and celebrities that are extremely thin or even photo shopped to look that way. Celebrities or famous social media users present themselves in a way that makes everyone want to look like them. Young adults, typically girls, will try to make themselves look like these celebrities by using apps to alter their images before posting them online (Gorga Williams n.pag.). This false image, created by apps, can lead to someone always wanting to look that way when in reality, it’s not possible, which hinders teenager’s self-image. The negative self-image resulting from these false ideals can lead to various eating disorders that can then cause serious mental health issues like depression, personality changes, feelings of helplessness, lack of communication, and loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities. Teenagers are not simply changing his/her body but his/her life as well. They “will do whatever it takes” for the social media ideal (Gorga Williams n.pag.). Young adults and adolescents are constantly comparing themselves to others that they see on social media. Users think that whoever gets the most Instagram “likes” or Twitter “retweets” is how they are supposed to present themselves. This unrealistic sense of trying to fit in causes low self-esteem in many individuals, leading to further, more serious mental illnesses. Younger generations should not be using social media platforms and other technologies to be like everyone else; they should be using them as a place to be themselves and make connections with others just like them. However, in doing that, users fear that they will not be “accepted” online as themselves, and that is where the disconnect occurs. 

The constant threat of cyberbullying online is another major cause in the depleting mental health of teenagers and adolescents. “Cyberbullying has been defined as ‘bullying through the use of electronic venues, such as instant messaging, e-mail, chat rooms, websites, online games, social networking sites, and text messaging (Kowalski & Limber, 2013, p. S13)’” (Hase 607). In other words, cyberbullying is the use of technology to inflict harm on someone. The internet and social media has become a place for bullies to harass others without face to face communication. Many cyberbullies are too insecure about themselves to say anything in person, so they resort to the web. Twenty to forty percent of adolescents have reported being victimized online or by text (Hase 607). The victims of these cyberbullies are left destroyed, many with mental illnesses. Especially since “cyberbullying has been linked to several negative mental health consequences, such as depression, sadness, social anxiety, somatic symptoms, and poor self-concept, in addition to increased school absences and decreased academic performance” (Bauman 72). Many of these illnesses require extensive treatment and time to heal, all due to something they encountered online. With technology and social media only growing in our society, cyberbullying will only increase, continuing to threaten users online every day. 

^ However, technology and social media still have positive effects on communities. Technology has made it easier to socialize with others through mobile devices and social networks. For example, in a rural, remote island, known as Beaver Island, technology has the changed the way the citizens of the island live. Muggs Bass, a 70-year-old grandmother and cancer patient, uses the new wide-screen television at the island’s health center to video chat with other cancer patients, who have now become her friends (Irvine n.pag.). The ability to interact with other people who are going through similar problems off the island is just one way the new technology is improving the lives of everyone on the island. Bass is now able to talk to others about her condition and hear their stories as well, greatly improving her state of mental health. Joe and Phyllis Moore, other inhabitants of the island, “were able to attend their youngest granddaughter’s first birthday party via Skype,” an online video chat service (Irvine n.pag.). Most of the citizens on the island do not have the funds to be able to travel to attend such events, so the ability to video chat and feel like they can still be a part of it is such a huge benefit from technology. Technology has also been given to students on the island allowing them to keep up with everyone else. Online college courses are even offered for students who want to get ahead or who are not sure they want to leave just yet. The island has the bare minimum of technology to be able to improve the lives of everyone on the island, preventing the citizens from having too much time online. The positive effects that the technology has had on the island proves that just the right amount of technology is actually a good thing, but in most urban areas we are surrounded by new technologies causing overuse.  While technology has the ability to improve the lives and mental well-being of everyone, it must be used in moderation. The overuse of technology is where increased poor mental states begin to occur. 

-Today’s society is too excited with the new and growing technology to take the time to adequately study the flaws in them and educate others. Because of this, today’s society is overlooking the major problems with technology and social networking sites that are negatively affecting adolescents and teenagers, especially their mental health. What people see online, especially popular social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, is what is going to influence users’ mood, self-image, and general happiness. The excessive use of these networking sites allows users to potentially see more negative content than on average. The unrealistic projection of social ideals causes too many people to wish to change how they look, whereas they should be using technology to be themselves. Being online has allowed for a new form of bullying, cyberbullying, causing people to not feel safe online. All three factors of social media are a major reason why technologies are hindering adolescents’ and teenagers’ mental health. Mental illnesses are diseases that affect too many people in the world and social networking is becoming one of the major factors in causing mental diseases in the younger generations. –
