Contents
- 1 How can social media negatively affect teenagers mental health?
- 2 How does social media affect mental health in a good way?
- 3 How does social media negatively affect youth?
- 4 How social media affects your brain?
- 5 Does social media cause mental health problems?
- 6 How social media affects mental health pros and cons?
- 7 Is social media good or bad for students?
- 8 What is the negative effect of social media?
- 9 What is the biggest problem with social media?
- 10 How does social media affect mental health in youth?
- 11 What are 3 risks of social media?
- 12 What are the effects of social media addiction?
- 13 How does social media affect personality?
A survey conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health asked 14-24 year olds in the UK how social media platforms impacted their health and wellbeing. The survey results found that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all led to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image and loneliness.
Strong social connections of any kind can ease symptoms of stress, anxiety, and depression. They can boost self-esteem and self-worth, and of course, decrease feelings of loneliness.
Young people spend a lot of time on social media. They’re also more susceptible to peer pressure, low self-esteem and mental ill-health. A number of studies have found associations between increased social media use and depression, anxiety, sleep problems, eating concerns, and suicide risk.
Social media has the ability to both capture and scatter your attention. Not only does this lead to poorer cognitive performance, but it shrinks parts of the brain associated with maintaining attention.
When people look online and see they’re excluded from an activity, it can affect thoughts and feelings, and can affect them physically. A 2018 British study tied social media use to decreased, disrupted, and delayed sleep, which is associated with depression, memory loss, and poor academic performance.
Impacts of Social Media on Mental Health
- Pro – Increases communication and raising awareness.
- Con – Promotion of fake news.
- Pro – Can help combat feelings of loneliness and isolation.
- Con – Can also increase feelings of loneliness.
- Pro – Normalises help seeking behaviour.
- Con – Can promote anti-social behaviour.
Social Media has many positive effects on education including better communication, timely information, socializing online, learning, enhancing skills, making a career among others. But the same has some negative effects which include identity theft, cyber bullying, and social isolation.
The negative aspects of social media However, multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. Social media may promote negative experiences such as: Inadequacy about your life or appearance.
The more time spent on social media can lead to cyberbullying, social anxiety, depression, and exposure to content that is not age appropriate. Social Media is addicting.
The participants who spent the most time on social media had 2.6 times the risk. Results from a separate study from the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine showed that the more time young adults spent on social media, the more likely they were to have problems sleeping and report symptoms of depression.
The risks you need to be aware of are:
- cyberbullying (bullying using digital technology)
- invasion of privacy.
- identity theft.
- your child seeing offensive images and messages.
- the presence of strangers who may be there to ‘groom’ other members.
Excessive social media use can not only cause unhappiness and a general dissatisfaction with life in users but also increase the risk of developing mental health issues such as anxiety and depression.
FACTOR2: INCREASING DEPRESSING AND ANXIETY:- It has been found that increasing use of social media also leads to depression, anxiety, and stress in adolescents. A number of studies have found a correlation between heavy use of FACEBOOK, TWITTER, INSTAGRAM and emotional distress.