Social media is negatively impacting students’ mental health, their ability to improve their talents and to connect with others. Through recent studies and first hand experiences, it is clear that social media use should be limited and monitored.
Social media can lower students’ mental health and reduce their self confidence through many ways. This includes promoting body dysmorphia, doing nothing to prevent cyber bullying and encouraging the use of filters.
Many teenage girls fall under the unrealistic expectations set by filters. Filters have caused many people to think they only look good with a fake face, and therefore have gotten surgery to make them look more like a filter. After seeing others using filters, a person may unconsciously separate themselves from others because they know they don’t look the way others are pretending to look.
Expectations for a skinny body are becoming unrealistic as well. Teenage girls are starving themselves to make themselves look better and promoting others to do the same. It is a terrible, artificial idea that is damaging people’s mental and physical health. This pressure has also sparked suicidal thoughts.
Cyber bullying has become common through social media. According to the Pew Research Center, 59 percent of teenagers using the internet have suffered from some form of cyberbullying. Additional, 68% of teenagers who have been harassed online face mental health challenges including depression, insecurity and sometimes suicidal thoughts.
Without a doubt, social media is lowering people’s self esteem and increasing the mental health issues faced in today’s teens. Because of a lack of a sense of self worth, people may be less likely to reach out to others or think others don’t want to hang out with them. This leads people to isolate themselves.
People may separate themselves from others because they are jealous of others’ cool experiences, their homes or their clothes. When a person finds out they were left out of a friend get together, it can also cause them to be insecure and jealous. This constant state of comparison caused by the convenient ability to share through social media causes harm and disconnection.
With students on their phones often, they are missing out on the opportunity to connect with others. When bored, people often resort to scrolling through social media platforms instead of reaching out. More people are becoming addicted, therefore causing them and those around them to be lonely.
The average person spends two hours and 27 minutes on social media everyday. That is 894 hours a year, or 37 days. Over one month, every year, the average person is scrolling through their socials.
Spending that much time looking at other people’s lives stops you from being able to develop your skills. If someone spent two and a half hours playing a sport or reading everyday, they could become the next Olympian or genius. Unfortunately, people choose to be on a small device that decreases their self esteem and makes them feel insecure.
When people spend 1/12 of their life on social media, they are ruining their self confidence, not reaching their full potential, decreasing their human interaction and possibly hurting others. A change needs to be made in how students spend their time.
