The question I am researching is whether or not social media has a direct impact on

mental health. What I love about this question is it can be looked at from many perspectives.

You could consider its influence on different age groups, we can look at the science behind the

actual lights on our brains, the emotional impact, if it causes depression, and etc. In a

generation where our lives are put on the internet, I think this question has been researched a

lot lately, and I can personally benefit from this research.

The world we live in today revolves around social media. In the last decade alone the

numbers have increased from 970 million users to a record 4.4 billion users, in just 10 years. As

a teen, I am constantly seeing my peers all over social media, more now than ever. I also feel

like I have seen a decrease in mental health also. In 2017, around 19% of people experienced

some sort of mental illness, this had increased about 2% from the previous year. I have always

been curious when looking at this history if there is a correlation between the two and many new

investigations have shown various answers.

The first resource I reviewed was a news article put out by US News. The article’s main

idea is to discuss how even social media can benefit us but also discusses the downside. The

article says if there is an over-usage, this usually leads to mental health issues. When looking at

social media usage, if we limit it to less than 3 hours per day, we are less susceptible to

cyberbullying. Many of the issues related to social media are related to cyberbullying and how it

affects many teens. Another main point this article hits is how every time a teen is using social

media, they are losing time doing something else. Our time spent on social media reduces our

amount of face to face contact and socializing in person. All of these are very good points on

how social media specifically affects teenagers today in America.

The next article is one written by The American Psychological Association. This article

first evaluates an idea of social displacement. With all of the growing technology, even over the

past 100 years, psychologists have had a fear of technology replacing our social interactions.

This article also mentions the effect on our teens. Some research shows that teens are not
replacing face-to-face time with social media, but rather using it due to lack of time to connect

with one another. This article also brings up many questions they are still facing today. One

example is, “Is the support you get online, the same as the support given offline?” These

questions are things we do not yet know the answers to.

This article is one published by the National Center for Health Research which focuses

on the different types of social media and also how it affects adolescents. The main types of

social media are Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. All of these are used

differently but have a common purpose, which is to connect and share with others. Some of the

pro’s listed about social media include how adolescents use this to connect with their friends.

Another reason is to stay in touch with people who do not live nearby or to get support from

those who don’t know you as well. Something this article goes into is how parents can

effectively prevent downsides of social media. Although this can be biased it says, children

under the age of 13 should have website restrictions and such things to help manage their

social media. It also mentions having a connection with your kids and helping them understand

cyberbullying.

The last article I chose to look into was one about the actual effects of social media on

your brain and its functions. The initial idea it discusses is how social media can change your

attention span. With the ability to constantly flip back and forth or see new things your brain gets

used to the idea of variable-ratio reinforcement. When having a constant usage of social media,

you are more likely to perform poorly on cognitive tasks. It actually can shrink your brain's

attentiveness and can cause lots of learning issues. The next thing it leads into is the change in

reward to your brain. Whenever you see that notification or post you've been waiting for,

dopamine is released immediately in a form of reward. When this is released more and more

often, your brain becomes addicted to the release. Overtime heavy social media usage is also

linked to a lack of memory because your brain confuses the importance of certain memories.
 All of these different sources are very relative to my main research question of ``How

does social media affect your health?” We get to see answers in several different ways. In the

form of only teenagers, looking at pro’s and con’s, and even the actual effect on your brain.
Allen, Summer. “Social Media's Growing Impact on Our Lives.” American Psychological
Association, American Psychological Association, Sept. 2019,
https://www.apa.org/members/content/social-media-research.

Clark, Maria. “40+ Frightening Social Media and Mental Health Statistics.” Etactics,
Etactics | Revenue Cycle Software, 9 Dec. 2020,
https://etactics.com/blog/social-media-and-mental-health-statistics.

D.says:, Jim, et al. “How Many People Use Social Media in 2021? (65+ Statistics).”
Backlinko, 10 Oct. 2021, https://backlinko.com/social-media-users.

Ehmke, Rachel. “How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers.” Child Mind Institute, 12 Oct.
2021, https://childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/.

Glazzard, Jonathan. “(PDF) Social Media and Young People's Mental Health.”
ResearchGate, Aug. 2019,
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/335549577_Social_Media_and_Young_People's
_Mental_Health.

Fotuhi, Majid. “What Social Media Does to Your Brain.” NeuroGrow, 11 Dec. 2020,
https://neurogrow.com/what-social-media-does-to-your-brain/#:~:text=Heavy%20social%2
0media%20users%20perform,attention%20and%20ability%20to%20multitask.&text=Not%
20only%20does%20this%20lead,brain%20associated%20with%20maintaining%20attentio
n.

Karim, Fazida, et al. “Social Media Use and Its Connection to Mental Health: A Systematic
Review.” Cureus, Cureus, 15 June 2020,
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7364393/.

Mir, Elina, et al. “Social Media and Adolescents' and Young Adults' Mental Health.”
National Center for Health Research, 5 Oct. 2021,
https://www.center4research.org/social-media-affects-mental-health/.
Orlowski, Jeff, director. The Social Dilemma. Netflix, The Social Dilemma, 2020,
https://www.netflix.com/title/81254224?source=imdb. Accessed 2020.

Ostic, Dragana, et al. “Effects of Social Media Use on Psychological Well-Being: A

Mediated Model.” Frontiers, Frontiers, 1 Jan. 1AD,
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.678766/full.

Williams, Joesph. “Social Media Use May Increase Teens Risk of Mental Health ...” US
News, Sept. 2019,
https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2019-09-12/social-media-u
se-may-increase-teens-risk-of-mental-health-issues.

“The State of Mental Health in America.” Mental Health America, 2021,

https://mhanational.org/issues/state-mental-health-america.