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Bella Hurley

Professor Cassel

English Composition ll

1 November 2021

How can Social Media affect our Mental Health?

Social media is something that has been rising for a while now, but along with

that, a closer look should be taken to see how this affects the world and our mental

health. The question is whether or not social media has a direct impact on mental

health. This question is very good for research because 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, this

question has been rising, and this new research can benefit many.

There are many things that must be considered when researching a question

about social media and its effects. The first thing to consider is, “What is social media?”,

“What are the main platforms?”, and “What are their purposes?”. The next thing that is

needed to take into consideration is how it affects different age groups, and does it have

a different effect on different ages. One big problem with social media is how it creates a

disconnection, or social displacement, “What is this displacement, and what causes it?”.

Lastly, the actual structure of the brain and how it can be affected is very important.

Though most of these show the negative side effects, you must also compare the

benefits social media can have in addition. All of these must play a role in the research

that is being discussed.

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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. Many teenagers constantly see their peers all over social media, more now

than ever. There is a noticeable decrease in mental health through seeing our peers

alone. In 2017, around 19% of people experienced some sort of mental illness, this had

increased about 2% from the previous year. Many researchers have been curious when

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

investigations have shown various answers.

There are many social media platforms used all across the world. The main types

that we use today include 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. Facebook forever was one of the social media platforms, used by most

parents to share pictures of their activities, or kids. Today many people use Facebook

as a way to build a profile for a business or to promote themselves. On Facebook, you

can follow one another, comment on posts, or get reviews on different products.

Facebook, however, is just one of the many different types of Social media.

Another example of Social media is Twitter. Its purpose is to reach a bigger

platform by tagging someone else or liking someone’s tweet. Another reason Twitter is

very important is for recruiting purposes or contacting someone with a bigger platform

through direct messaging. Similarly, the second most used network is Instagram. This

platform focuses on a lot of personal platforms, but now is expanding to promote certain

products through ambassadors. Snapchat has been around for years but now has

become many teenagers’ go-to apps. Snapchat is a form of sending selfies back and
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forth with friends, or groups. Snapchat also uses “stories'' so all of your followers can

see. This app is much more of a personal use connection rather than for marketing

purposes. All of these apps can be utilized differently for personal or business use.

One of the most important age groups to focus on currently is the teenagers and

how social media has affected them. The current teenagers have grown up surrounded

by social media and it plays a major role in their lives. One really important aspect of

social media is how it is used by others, one downfall of social media is cyberbullying

which many teens deal with. 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. The more time a teen spends on social

media the more exposed they are to the chances of cyberbullying. This is where mental

health comes into play. When exposed to cyberbullying teenagers feel more vulnerable

to, “depression, anxiety, and other illnesses”, all of which can lead to teens being down

on themselves. All of these are examples of mental health issues just related to

cyberbullying.

Another impact social media has on teenagers is how easily you can compare

yourself to someone else. Because around the world, you can connect to one another

and you can also easily compare your life to theirs. Whether they are rich and famous,

work out all the time, model, travel the world, or etc. teenagers constantly feel the need

to be like these “role models”. This easy access to everyone leaves room for kids to

look at these people constantly and, “ negatively influence body image and encourage

social comparisons.” As a teenager, you are already more susceptible to having mental
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tendencies to be down on yourself, with this ability to compare lifestyles at your palm,

this increases the likely-hood of disliking what you look like, or how you live.

One large problem with adolescents being on social media is unfortunately

sexting. With the technology we have today everything can be sent easily and

immediately and only seen by one person. Studies show that almost 20% of teens have

been involved in sending nudes. These things that are supposed to go away before

anyone knows, lead to child-pornography charges which are extremely serious.

Unwanted situations like this can take a huge toll on someone’s mental health. Whether

someone is feeling compelled to send, being stressed about receiving, or even having

to mentally recover afterward, all of these feelings began with easy access to social

media. Teenagers with these advances in technology on our social media can use it

extremely immaturely which leads to these mental health issues.

With all of the growing technology, even over the past 100 years, psychologists

have had a fear of technology replacing our social interactions. This is basically the

main theory of social displacement which is becoming a much bigger research point

now. This theory states that when we tend to spend more time on our phones or

computers on social media, “ the less time you’re likely to spend socializing with people

in the real world.” This problem of displacement applies to two types of social media

users refer to as active and passive usage. Active usage is that of simply scrolling

through images, like Instagram. Passive is more of an interactive usage, such as

Snapchat. Both of these are types of social media use that apply to the social

displacement theory that many studies have now been done on.
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Social Media not only affects your attitude but can have a big effect on your brain

itself. On average a person uses social media three hours a day, but no one ever looks

into what those 3 hours do to your brain. When using different apps, social media

constantly takes your attention off of other things. The ability to constantly flip back and

forth or see new things causes your brain to get used to the idea of variable-ratio

reinforcement. Someone who exceeds those three hours a day becomes less attentive

in general because the brain is unable to focus on one stimulus. The result of this is a

shrinkage of the parts of your brain dedicated to attention such as the prefrontal cortex.

When you lose the ability to focus, you also lose your ability to multitask, all due to an

overuse of social media.

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 the form of a reward. When this is released more and more often, your brain

becomes addicted to the release of this “happy hormone”. The hypothalamus, where

dopamine is released, gets confused on this constant release causing this addiction.

These rewards over nothing cause your brain to feel a need to be on social media in

order to get that hormone because there is now a “lack” of it. This addiction to dopamine

leads to other addictive tendencies in our brain.

Over time heavy social media usage is also linked to a lack of memory because

your brain confuses the importance of certain memories. Studies have proven when you

are recording an experience of seeing it online, you tend to actually remember it much

less than if you were to experience it. When we experience this lack of long-term

memory we actually experience a deficit in our brain. Those long-term memory storage
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places are used less and less and therefore begin to shrink because they are useless.

This does not only affect your remembrance of a video but then affects your day-to-day

life.

Not all social media is bad however, there are many ways it can benefit people

and relationships. One way social media is beneficial is how adolescents use this to

connect with their friends. In the current times, we live in, time is always in demand.

Whether that be a practice or a job, there is barely any downtime to sit and connect with

one another. Social media can allow us to still have those conversations with one

another, without using all of our time. It can be a very quick and easy way to stay

connected with little spare time on your hands.

Another reason is to stay connected with people who may not live near you or

get support from those who don’t know you as well. Sometimes social media can be

used as an escape from the people around you. People use social media all the time to

interact with others from different states, or even countries which is a beneficial thing.

This allows people to find others like them or who share common interests but may not

work together or go to school. Social media can bring together people you never would

have met like dating sites or even just friendships are created through the media.

A huge advantage to the increases in social networking is for businesses and

advertising. If you are developing a company the best way to advertise is now through

social media. Once you find a few ambassadors to promote your business many of their

followers will be interested in the products being advertised. Social media is also a great

way to promote yourself to a business you would like to partner with. As you grow your
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social platforms, companies want to invest in you to promote their products and this

creates different job opportunities across the country.

One last big thing social media does for people is provide easy access to

athletes. Whether you are a high school, collegiate, or professional athlete you always

want to be promoting yourself and looking for others to show interest in you. High

school athletes will post their highlights on Twitter or reach out to college coaches

through social media platforms all the time for recruiting purposes. College athletes now

promote themselves on social media and can now receive money for numbers of views,

etc. Professional athletes are constantly pushing their own products designed by them

or who they are partnered with through their huge platforms. Social media has made it

so much easier for athletes to stay in contact with one another and help promote

themselves and better their futures.

Social media is such a rapidly growing industry that is influencing all of the worlds

around us in every aspect of life. With this arising and it becoming part of our everyday

lives we always want to consider all of the good and bad aspects of it. You do not want

to mess with mental health because it is already an issue on its own, let alone other

influences. Throughout extensive research, social media has had many effects on our

mental health. Many of the negative effects come from the over usage of social media

which can be controlled if needed. In order to prevent many of these negative side

effects such as addictive tendencies, or lack of memory, and anxiety or depression, can

all be prevented with certain precautions. Reducing or, at least, limiting your social

media usage can greatly help prevent a decrease in your mental health.
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Aside from all of the negatives, there can also be positives of social media that

do not take a toll on mental health. Some of these include recruiting, business

promotion, job increases, and many other things. Social media does not always imply

something terrible although it definitely can have a direct effect on our mental health.

With the right management of our time on social media, it can be used for great

purposes without decreasing your mental health.

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