Is Social Media Messing with Your Teen’s Mental Health?

The scary risks and possible benefits of living in a social media dependent world.
Article by:

Katie Hurley, LCSW (https://www.psycom.net/depression-teens-social-media)

Social media dramatically changed the way we communicate, socialize, and make and maintain
friendships. While there are benefits to living in a digital world, there are also risks. Today’s youth miss
out on critical social skills development when they spend the majority of their free time connected to
and interacting through a screen. They can also get lost in a world of unrealistic comparisons,
cyberbullying, and feeling left out.

Research shows an increase in major depressive episodes from 8.7% in 2005 to 11.3% in 2014 in
adolescents and from 8.8% to 9.6% in young adults. The increase was larger and only statistically
significant only in the age range of 12 to 20 years.1 Clearly depression is on the rise among teens, the
question we need to ask ourselves is how much does technology and social media contribute to it?

It’s no big secret that connecting via texting, Instagram, and Facebook can include harsh judgments and
comparisons. It’s easier to make statements on a screen that would otherwise be difficult to verbalize
face to face. And disjointed shorthand conversations can easily result in misunderstandings. It doesn’t
help that digital communication occurs at a rapid pace, one that is difficult to process at times.

One report by the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK surveyed 1500 young people, ages 14 to 24,
to determine the effects of social media use on issues such as anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and
body image. Their findings show that YouTube had the most positive impact, while Instagram, Facebook,
Twitter, and SnapChat all had negative effects on mental health.2

While these findings might make you want to delete all social media apps and ban your teen from any
digital communication, avoidance isn’t the answer. Teens use social media to connect, seek friendship
and support, and even ask for help at times. A better bet is to understand how and why your teen uses
social media, stay connected, and know what to look for if your teen shows unexplained emotional
changes.
Symptoms of depression

The defining feature of a major depressive episode is a period of at least two weeks during which there
is either depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities.3 For children, you are
more likely to see irritability than depressed mood. Other symptoms of depression can include the
following:

Feelings of hopelessness

Loss of interest in normal daily activities

Irritable mood

Significant weight loss or weight gain

Diminished self-care

Insomnia or hypersomnia

Psychomotor agitation or retardation

Fatigue or loss of energy

Feelings of worthlessness

Excessive guilt

Difficulty concentrating

Difficulty making decisions

Physical complaints: headaches, stomachaches

Social isolation

Recurrent thoughts about death

Suicidal thoughts, actions, or plans.

The symptoms of depression exhibited by teens are likely to negatively affect school performance (and
even attendance), friendships, and family relationships. The tricky part about teen depression is that it
can be gradual. Complaints of difficulty sleeping or frequent headaches seem age appropriate, and in
many cases they are. They shouldn’t happen regularly, though. When your typically active and social
teen appears isolated, sad, and unreachable, it’s time to get help.

How to help your teen navigate social media

Believe it or not, your teen does want your support and guidance, but it can be hard to strike a balance
between helping and trying to fix everything. Follow these tips to support your teen:
Ask questions

Teens need autonomy in their lives, so micromanaging their online use can backfire. The best thing
parents can do is engage with their teens. Ask which apps your teen uses the most often and why. Give
your teen the space to tell you about the benefits of social media.

When difficult situations arise online, either in the news or in your teen’s life, as your teen how she or
he would handle it. What can teens do to make social media a more positive experience?

Model appropriate behavior

Modeling is very important during adolescence. Teens are confronted with new and confusing
information almost daily. Growing up in the digital age is no easy task. When parents follow their own
rules and stick to their own boundaries, teen learn important lessons in self-care and setting limits.

When teens begin to internalize the importance of limits and boundaries, they can set limits with their
peers. This is an important life skill that is sometimes overlooked when teens are stressed, busy, and
constantly connected.

Talk often

Parents play a critical role in helping teens process and cope with what they’re seeing online. Talk about
your own experiences with social media. Have you ever experienced envy when scrolling through your
feed? Have you accepted a friend request that turned out to be a fake profile because you didn’t take
the time to look? When parents share their own experiences and talk openly about the highs and lows
of social media, teens are more likely to open up about their experiences.

Parents can also help teens broaden their social media experiences by talking about interesting
Instagram accounts, Twitter feeds, or Facebook pages that share information about certain topics. It’s
too easy for teens to get stuck on the treadmill of social comparisons when engaged with social media.
Guiding them toward their areas of interest using social media helps them expand their experiences and
learn new things.

Connection is key when it comes to parenting teens in a modern world. The single best thing you can do
for your teen is make time for face-to-face connections and simply be present.MEDIA AND TECH
Does Social Media Cause Depression?
How heavy Instagram and Facebook use may be affecting kids negatively
Caroline Miller (https://childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/)

Is using social media making our kids unhappy? Evidence is mounting that there is a link between social
media and depression. In several recent studies, teenage and young adult users who spend the most
time on Instagram, Facebook and other platforms were shown to have a substantially (from 13 to 66
percent) higher rate of reported depression than those who spent the least time.

Does that mean that Instagram and Facebook are actually causing depression? These studies show a
correlation, not causation. But it’s worth a serious look at how social media could be affecting teenagers
and young adults negatively.

One reason the correlation seems more than coincidental is that an increase in depression occurred in
tandem with the rise in smartphone use.

A 2017 study of over half a million eighth through 12th graders found that the number exhibiting high
levels of depressive symptoms increased by 33 percent between 2010 and 2015. In the same period, the
suicide rate for girls in that age group increased by 65 percent.

Smartphones were introduced in 2007, and by 2015 fully 92 percent of teens and young adults owned a
smartphone. The rise in depressive symptoms correlates with smartphone adoption during that period,
even when matched year by year, observes the study’s lead author, San Diego State University
psychologist Jean Twenge.

Over that same time period there was a sharp spike in reports of students seeking help at college and
university counseling centers, principally for depression and anxiety. Visits jumped 30 percent between
2010 and 2015.

Social media and depression

One of the biggest differences in the lives of current teenagers and young adults, compared to earlier
generations, is that they spend much less time connecting with their peers in person and more time
connecting electronically, principally through social media.

Some experts see the rise in depression as evidence that the connections social media users form
electronically are less emotionally satisfying, leaving them feeling socially isolated.

“The less you are connected with human beings in a deep, empathic way, the less you’re really getting
the benefits of a social interaction,” points out Alexandra Hamlet, PsyD, a clinical psychologist at the
Child Mind Institute. “The more superficial it is, the less likely it’s going to cause you to feel connected,
which is something we all need.”

Indeed, one exception to the depression correlation is girls who are high users of social media but also
keep up a high level of face-to-face social interaction. The Twenge study showed that those girls who
interact intensely offline as well as through social media don’t show the increase in depressive
symptoms that those who interact less in person do.

And there are some teenagers who aren’t successful in connecting with peers offline, because they are
isolated geographically or don’t feel accepted in their schools and local communities. For those kids,
electronic connection can be lifesaving.

Social media and perceived isolation

Another study last year of a national sample of young adults (age 19-32) showed correlation between
the time spent on social media and perceived social isolation (PSI). The authors noted that directionality
can’t be determined. That is, “Do people feeling socially isolated spend more time on social media, or do
more intense users develop PSI?”

If it’s the latter, they noted, “Is it because the individual is spending less time on more authentic social
experiences that would decrease PSI? Or is it the nature of observing highly curated social feeds that
they make you feel more excluded?”

Which brings us what we now call FOMO, or fear of missing out.

Jerry Bubrick, PhD, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute, observes that “FOMO is really the
fear of not being connected to our social world, and that need to feel connected sometimes trumps
whatever’s going on in the actual situation we’re in. The more we use social media, the less we think
about being present in the moment.”

Instead we might be occupied with worrying why we weren’t invited to a party we’re seeing on
Instagram, or making sure we don’t miss a single post from a friend. But if we’re always playing catch-up
to endless online updates, we’re prioritizing social interactions that aren’t as emotionally rewarding and
can actually make us feel more isolated.

Social media and self-esteem

Another theory about the increase in depression is the loss of self-esteem, especially in teenage girls,
when they compare themselves negatively with artfully curated images of those who appear to be
prettier, thinner, more popular and richer.

“Many girls are bombarded with their friends posting the most perfect pictures of themselves, or they’re
following celebrities and influencers who do a lot of Photoshopping and have makeup and hair teams,”
explains Dr. Hamlet. “If that’s their model for what is normal, it can be very hard on their self-
confidence.”

Indeed, image-driven Instagram shows up in surveys as the platform that most leads young people to
report feeling anxiety, depression and worries about body image.

Curation of a perfect image may not only make others feel inadequate, it’s unhealthy even for those
who appear to be successful at it, notes Dr. Bubrick. “Kids spend so much time on social media trying to
post what they think the world will think is a perfect life. Look at how happy I am! Look how beautiful I
am! Without that they’re worried that their friends won’t accept them. They’re afraid of being
rejected.” And if they are getting positive feedback from their social media accounts, they might worry
that what their friends like isn’t the “real” them.

Less healthy activity

Another possible source of depression may be what teenagers are not doing during while they’re
spending time on social media, including physical activity and things that generate a sense of
accomplishment, like learning new skills and developing talents.

“If you’re spending a lot of time on your phone, you have less time for activities that can build
confidence, a sense of achievement and connectedness,” explains Dr. Hamlet.

Kids who are spending a lot of time on devices are not getting much in return to make them feel good
about themselves, she adds. “Yes, you get a little dopamine burst whenever you get a notification, or a
like on a picture, or a follow request. But those things are addicting without being satisfying.”

Disrupted concentration

Another thing disrupted by social media is the process of doing homework and other tasks that require
concentration. It’s become common for teenagers to engage with friends on social media at the same
time they are studying. They take pride in being able to multi-task, but evidence shows that it cuts down
on learning and performance.

“Basically, multitasking isn’t possible,” Dr. Hamlet notes. “What you end up doing is really just switching
back and forth between two tasks rather quickly. There is a cost to the brain.” And with poorer
concentration and constant interruption, homework takes substantially longer than it should, cutting
into free time and adding to stress.

Sleep deprivation and depression

Some of the ways in which social media use impacts mood may be indirect. For instance, one of the
most common contributors to depression in teenagers is sleep deprivation, which can be caused, or
exacerbated, by social media.

Research shows that 60 percent of adolescents are looking at their phones in the last hour before sleep,
and that they get on average an hour less sleep than their peers who don’t use their phones before bed.
Blue light from electronic screens interferes with falling asleep; on top of that, checking social media is
not necessarily a relaxing or sleep-inducing activity. Scrolling on social media, notes Dr. Hamlet, can
easily end up causing stress.

“Social media can have a profound effect on sleep,” adds Dr. Bubrick. “You have the intention to check
Facebook or Instagram for 5 minutes, and the next thing you know 50 minutes are gone. You’re an hour
behind in sleep, and more tired the next day. You find it harder to focus. You’re off your game, and it
spirals from there.”
How to minimize negative effects of social media use

While we don’t yet have conclusive evidence that social media use actually causes depression, we do
have plenty of warning signs that it may be affecting our kids negatively. So it’s smart for parents to
check in regularly with kids about their social media use, to make sure it’s positive and healthy, and
guide them towards ways to change it, if you think it’s not.

Also, be alert for symptoms of depression. If you notice signs that your child might be depressed, take
them seriously. Ask your child how she is doing, and don’t hesitate to set up an appointment with a
mental health provider.

Steps you can take to insure healthy social media use:

Focus on balance: Make sure your kids are also engaging in social interaction offline, and have time for
activities that help build identity and self-confidence.

Turn off notifications: App developers are getting more and more aggressive with notifications to lure
users to interrupt whatever they’re doing to engage constantly with their phones. Don’t let them.

Look out for girls at higher risk of depression: Monitor girls who are going through a particularly tough
time or are under unusual stress. Negative effects of social media can have more impact when
confidence is down.

Teach mindful use of social media: Encourage teenagers to be honest with themselves about how time
spent on social media makes them feel, and disengage from interactions that increase stress or
unhappiness.

Model restraint and balance in your own media diet: Set an example by disengaging from media to
spend quality family time together, including phone-free dinners and other activities. Kids may resist,
but they’ll feel the benefits.

Phone-free time before sleep: Enforce a policy of no smartphones in the bedroom after a specific time
and overnight. Use an old-fashioned alarm clock to wake up.

Rangan Chatterjee is a GP and says he has seen plenty of evidence of the link between mental ill-health
in youngsters and their use of social media.
Is social media causing childhood depression?
By Jane Wakefield

Technology reporter

One 16 year-old boy was referred to him after he self-harmed and ended up in A&E.

"The first thought was to put him on anti-depressants but I chatted to him and it sounded like his use of
social media was having a negative impact on his health."

So Dr Chatterjee suggested a simple solution - the teenager should attempt to wean himself off social
media, restricting himself to just an hour before he went to bed. Over the course of a few weeks, he
should extend this to two hours at night and two in the morning.

"He reported a significant improvement in his wellbeing and, after six months, I had a letter from his
mother saying he was happier at school and integrated into the local community."

That and similar cases have led him to question the role social media plays in the lives of young people.

"Social media is having a negative impact on mental health," he said. "I do think it is a big problem and
that we need some rules. How do we educate society to use technology so it helps us rather than harms
us?"

Some children deliberately lose or break their phones, just to end distressing messages

Dr Louise Theodosiou, Psychiatrist

He is not alone. A group of US child welfare experts recently wrote to Facebook founder Mark
Zuckerberg urging him to close down Messenger Kids - a messaging app developed for children - saying
it was irresponsible to encourage pre-teens to use the platform.

It cited evidence of adolescents reporting severe mood changes because of social media use and girls as
young as 10 facing body image issues because of the pictures they are bombarded with on platforms
such as Facebook-owned Instagram.

A 2017 study by The Royal Society of Public Health asked 1500 young people aged 11-25 to track their
moods while using the five most popular social media sites.

It suggested Snapchat and Instagram were the most likely to inspire feelings of inadequacy and anxiety.
YouTube had the most positive influence.
Seven in 10 said Instagram made them feel worse about body image and half of 14-24-year-olds
reported Instagram and Facebook exacerbated feelings of anxiety. Two-thirds said Facebook made
cyber-bullying worse.

The study led Shirley Cramer, chief executive of RSPH, to call for three specific changes:

a pop-up notification when a young person has spent a certain amount of time online

a watermark on photos that have been digitally manipulated

school lessons on how to use social media in a healthy way

She concluded: "Social media has become a space in which we form and build relationships, shape self-
identity, express ourselves and learn about the world around us; it is intrinsically linked to mental
health."

Apple investors urge action on smartphone addiction

Facebook 'no place' for young children

Fear of missing out drives social media addiction

Consultant psychiatrist Louise Theodosiou says one of the clearest indications children are spending too
long on their phones is their behaviour during a session with a psychiatrist.

"Two or three years ago, it was very unusual for a child to answer their phone or text during an
appointment. But now it is common," said the Royal Manchester Children's Hospital doctor.

She has seen a rise in cases where social media is a contributing factor in teenage depression, anxiety
and other mental health issues. These problems are often complex and wide-ranging - from excessive
use of gaming or social media sites to feelings of inadequacy brought on by a constant bombardment of
social media images of other people's lives, to cyber-bullying.

"In the last fortnight I have had two children request extra appointments because of online bullying," Dr
Theodosiou told the BBC.

"Some children deliberately lose or break their phones just to end distressing messages."

Teenagers who dare to express alternative views, particularly about "diverse sexuality", open
themselves up to the risk of a torrent of abuse on platforms such as Twitter, she says. And online
bullying can have a more intense effect than playground taunts.

"At school, any offline bullying would be limited to that environment but on the computer at home it
begins to feel like you are being bullied in your own bedroom," said Dr Theodosiou.

One of the groups she worries about most - one she describes as "thankfully, rare" - is children who
have simply stopped going out because of their online addiction to social media, gaming platforms, or
both.

Often such children will refuse to travel to psychiatrist appointments, so a range of professionals have to
make home visits to deal with the issue. It can take months to persuade them to leave their bedrooms.
"These kids are living in a fictional world, sometimes to the detriment of their physical health. They
might have physical ill-health, like toothache, but they are still not wanting to leave their virtual worlds,"
she said.

Dr Theodosiou has seen first-hand how difficult it can be for parents. She has heard of some sleeping
with the home router to make sure the children cannot connect to the wi-fi in the middle of the night.

Even for those children whose social media use may be judged normal, there are still dangers in the way
the internet has become a conduit into the lives of friends and celebrities.

"Youngsters have a need to compulsively watch others and are getting upset because they feel their
lives aren't like that," said Dr Theodosiou.

"My sense is that they think that their friends have better lives than them, even though they are just
seeing an idealised version of others' lives."

What can parents do?

Keep an eye on how much time children spend online and ensure it is not interfering with activities such
as socialising, exercising, eating and sleeping

Consider bans on devices at mealtimes and take them away an hour before bedtime. Do not let children
charge devices in their rooms

Talk regularly to children about what they do online, what posts they have made that day, who they are
friends with and how it is affecting their mood

With younger children, have access to passwords to regularly check content

Remember, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram officially bar children under 13 from having accounts

Encourage children to use the internet for creative things - helping with homework, making their own
content

The UK's Department of Health met in November with tech firms including Snap, Facebook, Google,
Apple and Twitter to discuss the issues, which it sees as:

online bullying and harmful content

the amount of time youngsters spend online

how to verify the age of users.

Again there is plenty of evidence to suggest there is reason to worry about all three of these topics.

A study from Ofcom at the end of last year found half of UK children aged 11 and 12 had a profile
despite most platforms having a minimum age of 13.

Mental health charity Young Minds discovered that, while fewer youngsters reported online bullying
(37%) than offline bullying (47%), the vast majority (83%) felt social media firms should do more to
tackle the issue.
A Glasgow University study found many teenagers are so invested in social media and so worried about
missing out on posts, they log on in the middle of the night in order to get updates, leading to sleep
deprivation.

It should also be pointed out some studies suggest children cope well with integrating social media into
their lives.

One, from the University of Oxford, suggested that while children do spend a lot of time online, they
have some sophisticated ways of balancing online and offline time.

The UK Safer Internet Centre found that 68% of young people said chatting to their friends online
cheered them up, with 88% saying they had sent other friends "kind messages" when they were upset.

Despite the sometimes contradictory evidence, the firms have agreed to look at the three issues raised
by the UK government, along with the possibility of parental controls, over the coming months.

The BBC understands they have been asked to provide evidence of what they believe makes unhealthy
online behaviour among 13-18-year-olds, whether that be long periods of time spent online or using the
platform at unsocial hours.

The government has also asked whether social media firms could provide pop-up messages alerting
people who have been online for excessive periods and to give it specific examples.

In response to the meeting, Facebook's head of public policy in the UK, Karim Palant, told the BBC: "Our
research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for
our well-being."

Twitter said simply that it was "looking forward to positive discussions on these critical issues".

Google did not want to comment publicly.

And Snapchat said it was working on ways to improve how threatening messages are flagged by users.

Apple, which also attended the Department of Health meeting, recently faced calls from its investors to
act on smartphone addiction, with software limiting how long children can use their devices.

In response, it said that there were already parental controls built into the operating system of its
iPhones.

About Katie hurley

Katie Hurley, LCSW, is a child and adolescent psychotherapist, parenting expert, and author in Los
Angeles, CA. Katie earned her BA in psychology and women's studies from Boston College and her MSW
from the University of Pennsylvania. Katie has extensive training in Play Therapy. Katie worked for The
Help Group, a large non-profit in Los Angeles, for seven years as a school based therapist and a clinical
director. Katie is the founder of Girls Can! - an empowerment program for elementary and middle
school girls. Katie is the author of The Happy Kid Handbook: How to Raise Joyful Children in a Stressful
World and No More Mean Girls: The Secret to Raising Strong, Confident, and Compassionate Girls. Her
work can be found in US News & World Report, The Washington Post, and PBS Parents. Katie splits her
time between California and Connecticut with her husband and two children.