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Brian Powell

Prof. De Gruy

ENG 1201

10 December 2021

Your Mental Health Is Logging Off

The year is 2005. You are a senior in high school and just wrapped up a long, boring day

of classes. Nobody is home after school; now is your chance to login into AIM (AOL Instant

Messenger) and talk to all your friends. After logging in, an influx of messages comes in and you

feel a burst of happiness wash over you. This was my first introduction to social media as it was

blossoming into the social frenzy we see today in Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Of course,

these are only a few of the many outlets people have come to crave in their daily lives and leave

us to wonder: what effect does social media have on people’s mental health? While social media

is a new era for technology, researchers are finding negative studies linking social media to online

addiction, depression, and a decline towards social interactions in the real world for all ages.

Social media seems like it has always been around, but in the past 50 years, all the familiar

platforms we know today were not around at all. Back in 1971, the very first email was sent by

Ray Romlinson from one computer to another through a dial-up connection using landlines,

becoming the first use of “social media”. Social media was further developed during the 1970s

when “MUD, originally known as Multi-User Dungeon, Multi-User Dimension, or Multi-User

Domain, was a real-time virtual world with role-playing games, interactive fiction, and online

chat” (Whiteman). MUD is centered around text, requiring all users to type commands using a

common language. This eventually led to the first bulletin board system launched in 1978,

allowing users to share ideas on an open forum; the heart of what social media is.
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The next step of social media growth fell into the hands of AOL and their Instant

Messenger service (AIM). AIM used a dial-up connection and signed you in as an account linked

to other accounts you had added. Here you could leave someone a message or live text them on a

computer, the first of its kind in the 1990s. Communication before this was phone calls over

landlines, so this was the first digital form of written communication besides emails. The building

blocks for early social media platforms were strewn across unsuccessful starter groups, until

Blogger came along in 1999. Blogger was an online content management system that enabled

multi-user blogs in live time with time stamped entries. Sound familiar? Facebook would later use
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this same style of posting to change social media forever.

Fig. 1. This image shows the history of social media from 1978-2015 (Johnson).

Today, we have social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and

YouTube as the main companies behind social media. The largest of these companies would be

Facebook, who started back in 2004 and bought out Instagram to enhance their corporation

(Figure 1). Before cell phones, we relied on computers and laptops as our only way to access these

services. Companies like MySpace and Xanga served as the original “hotspot” websites teens and
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young adults would venture to explore music, blogs, but mostly interact with their friends.

Facebook began as a way for college students to find other college students at their school or other

campuses. Now, Facebook is the leading social networking site that has over 1.2 global users

every month (Whiteman).

The brief history of social media proves one point: they are not going anywhere soon.

From one man sending an email to another computer in 1978, to billions of users logging in

monthly on one service provider in 2021 shows the growing trend towards this type of

communication. Social media allows people to share photos, audio, text, and video to anyone all

over the world. So where is the harm? Researchers have been tracking the newest trend of social

networking and the results are not as “user friendly” as these companies are leading on.

Addiction is the pursuit of something regardless of the harm or lasting issues it may cause

to oneself. Helen Bouygues is the founder of Reboot Foundation who conducts research and

surveys based on critical thinking topics such as addiction. In 2012, Bouygues surveyed 1000

Americans on their social media usage. Her research discovered that over 40% of adults would

give up their pet or car before they would give up their accounts online. Another 70% said they

would not delete their social media portfolios for anything under $10,000 (Bouygues). The results

show that people, regardless of the harm to their real lives, are unwilling to rid social media from

their lives for good.

These surveys show a dedication to the personal accounts made, but what about how much

time people spend on social media? If people take breaks or do not spend much time on these

platforms, how could they be harmful? The issue Bouygues also finds is the average time spent on

social networks is around 2 hours a day, which has affected people’s careers, family time,

relationships, or other real-life areas that this time could be spent on. Everyone surveyed admitted
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that they find themselves checking their Facebook or Instagram constantly throughout the day,

sometimes without even noticing (Bouygues). This type of behavior falls under one of five

descriptions of addiction: denial. The other four behaviors are changes in mood, inability to stop,

continuing despite negative consequences, and feeling preoccupied with substance. Example

surveys check each one of these boxes pointing towards social media as an addictive activity.

If you think that these companies made their products to not be addictive, you are wrong.

Former employees of Facebook and other Big Tech companies have come out in a recent Netflix

documentary The Social Dilemma detailing their inventions of pleasure and reward systems that

trigger the brain a small amount of pleasure that rewards their users. This can be found in the

“Like” button and notifications letting you know every time someone likes a post you have made

(Social Dilemma). When we see this, it naturally releases a chemical in our brain causing pleasure

called dopamine. Dopamine is reinforcing your brain’s quest for pleasure that leads many to

pursue this feeling again, making the user addictive to the cause of the release. Facebook and

other social networks use this method of pleasure and reward to keep people coming back online

and using their product without the consent of or knowledge of the user.

Early developers of social media found that users had a common thread between them:

affirmation. As human beings, there is a desire to be wanted and seen by our peers. A sense of

community is what all these platforms share in what they will provide their consumers. To

establish this, they allow an open forum for you to post whatever you like and for you to follow

whoever you want, leaving a feeling of control for the user. This is the trap set to build your

affirmation bias between people you know, and sometimes people you do not. The key is the more

affirmation one gets, the more they enjoy using that platform. More likes or shares, we feel
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wanted in a place by like-minded people when in fact we have been chained to an endless well of

affirmation that keeps the consumer coming back for more.

All these companies, or Big Tech, are free to use so what is their product? Our attention.

How do they make money? They are selling our attention to the highest bidders and these bidders

are advertisement companies that plague the online market. The only way to fuse us and the

advertisements together is by providing a space where we spend countless hours clicking away

while they feed you ads to gain revenue. By designing the “like” button for example, this

notification on our phones sends a signal to our brain that releases dopamine. We pursue this

feeling by clicking the notification, which sends us back to the social network where they present

us ads that make them money. The endless cycle is harmless when you look at it from the user

point of view, but when you see the purposeful mechanisms driving these platforms, you realize

they are manipulating our minds to keep us returning without us really knowing.

Another excuse to use social media is that it is a tool that keeps us in touch with the ones

we love. This is not true. As discussed in the documentary, the difference is a tool is patiently

waiting for you to use it with no other motive than to do the designed job it was created for. Social

networks seduce us into checking our phones by having notifications on our phone going off,

nagging us to check our phones constantly to “keep up to date” (Social Dilemma). The addictive

design of these networks is masked as friendly tools to help stay connected with the world when it

is sucking away our time from spending time with those around us.

Flavia-Petronela Medrut, a researcher and psychologist, did a study on young people and

the link between depression and social media. The research showed that longer use of social

media led to lower self-esteem and anxiety from constantly comparing with others online (Medrut

167). American teenagers alone are seeing a spike in numbers reporting depression, anxiety, or
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suicidal thoughts since the birth of the social networking era. It is no coincidence over 51% report

a negative mood after using sites like Facebook or Instagram, leading to chronic depression and/or

anxiety (Whiteman). All the same users reported that they recognize the negative mood altering,

but still will not delete their accounts or limit their use.

Another culprit to feeling depressed or anxious in these spaces is because of the new

phenomenon called cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is the use of electronic devices to bully

someone by texting threats or sending vulgar images that intimidate the victims. Over 95% of

online users surveyed have witnessed cyberbullying while 30% have reported to of been bullied

themselves (Whiteman). Most of these users are under the age of 30, and this has led to some

teenagers taking their own lives due to the actions committed on social media. Other's report

being anxious because of activity occurring online that has no consequences for the perpetrator

unless texts are screenshot and reported to police. Still, the accounts where cyberbullying was

reported have found little to no success because of the substantial number of cases that are

overlooked on a public level.

The alarming issue is not just what happens while you are online, but how you feel when

you are not logged in. Two thirds of people surveyed showed issues resting or sleeping after being

online for even a brief period. Over half of these same individuals reported feeling “uneasy or

nervous” whenever they were not online, feeling they were not in the loop on current events

happening within their accounts (Whiteman). This feeling of depression is temporarily relieved

when users log back in, receiving their dopamine fix and then the cycle begins again. The

connection between addiction and depression is found in most users who feel these websites are

making them happy, but it is their mental health in jeopardy due to the constant circle of

repetitiveness within their virtual world.

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Depression is the leading cause of suicide attempts and deaths. Suicide rates have gone up

33% between 1999 and 2019, equaling one death every eleven minutes. This is a huge issue here

in America and many researchers have linked social media and depression to suicide rates going

up (Whiteman). The issue of cyberbullying, low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety all stem

from teens and young adults using social media increasingly each year. Today, there are over five

main sources for online networking, which on average is 3 more than reported back in 2010

(Social Dilemma). This epidemic is a silent killer because we do not acknowledge it is happening

or care to see why these statistics have gone up drastically in the same timespan as the beginning

era of social media usage.

Online world is one that lacks empathy due to the absence of face-to-face interactions. One

cannot gauge the feelings of someone through text, nor can one feel inhabited to engage in

emotion where social media provides a void of it. Have you ever written something online that

you would never say to someone’s face? This is a perfect example of how cyberbullying takes

place, or how someone may take something you said the wrong way. Simple posts online of you

and your vacation might trigger someone else who is experiencing financial issues, leading to

them feeling depressed. All these unintentional interactions happen nonstop online, leading to

people comparing and thinking less of themselves without knowing it is taking place. Our mental

health is not benefitting from online use when we see ourselves leaving this space in a worse

mood than when we enter it.

Addiction and depression extend from our constant use of the online arena, but also our

social interactions take a blow. The world today is built around social connections; most online

services require you to have a Facebook account to even login into their services. We cannot

avoid being online, and the price is our face-to-face relationships are becoming fewer because
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people are not communicating and building relationships in the real world. Social psychologist

Ethan Cross of the University of Michigan is quoted saying, “On the surface, Facebook provides

an invaluable resource for fulfilling the basic human need for social connection, but rather than

enhance well-being, we found that Facebook use predicts the opposite result – it undermines it”

(Whiteman).

Social interactions all center around exactly that: being social. Online versus real world

interactions cannot be compared because you are building no social experience by being online.

School and work all revolve around people and how they interact with others and that plays into

their networking ability. Careers in some fields are built on how well you can speak to another

person, and social media removes this important learning tool. Younger adults and teens are

discovering that when they participate in real world activities, they have little success in

maintaining conversations and eye contact with those they interact with (Bouygues).

It is hard to think of social interactions today without thinking of how political they get.

Before social media, it was taboo to talk about religion or politics. Now, majority of posts online

centralize around information being shared from others providing individual stances on politics

and tough issues. This goes to show the researched number of countries with political

disinformation campaigns on social media doubled in the past two years (Social Dilemma).

Another 64% of people in extremist groups on Facebook did so because the algorithms steered

them there. Our lack of empathy and face-to-face interaction leads to us saying things online we

typically would never say, and once that is out there for the public, opinions of you are made and

affect your interactions in real life. Families and friends have been ripped apart due to the online

feuds started by social media wars of sharing misinformation or acting a way you typically would

not if seeing the same person in front of you.

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The digital era of communication is too new and messy for proper interactions to take

place. The internet is unregulated and unless you are doing your own research, sharing

misinformation online is as easy as copying and pasting. Entire ideas and conspiracy theories are

born out of this online avenue of sharing false information that leads down a dangerous path. Take

the storming of the Capital in January 2021. A large group of people believed the election was

rigged because of articles being shared on Facebook and Twitter, establishing extremist groups

who believed storming the Capital would find their truth to the “corruption” of the election. A

woman died that day because of the attack on the United States Capital, all in part because of the

social interactions taking place throughout Twitter and Facebook.

To oppose these claims, there are those who believe the online world is just as important,

if not more important, than the real world. Younger generations were born into a digital realm,

building friendships and relationships online is important and not something found to be negative.

A book written by Victoria Betton and James Woollard called Teen Mental Health in an Online

World outlines a study of teens who find a structured online existence to be a healthy one (Betton

and Woollard 2). Younger adults and teens are finding themselves using other apps to help

balance their addiction by setting locks on their phones or laptops so they can only access social

media during allotted hours of the day. They are reporting happier lifestyles, but this serves as

proof that social media is affecting all age groups who consume it.

Another opposing claim is that not all social platforms are as toxic as many make them out

to be. Students venture to use YouTube videos as a learning tool in watching videos on how to

make things or set the algorithms to only things that interest them (Betton and Woollard 3).

Evidence shows watching these videos does in fact leave the viewers in better moods and with

more knowledge of said subject they are researching. Not all social media platforms are bad in
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design, but there are easily sinkholes you can find yourself in that can lead to a negative head

space or addictive patterns are not healthy for your mental well-being. Anything in copious

amounts is unhealthy, and the opposing claim is that there can be a healthy balance where one

does not overindulge or use in a negative way. The issue is that these outlets all share algorithms

that are built for you to keep watching or staying on their site. YouTube for example uses

algorithms of videos you have watched in the past and has a feature that starts the next video as

the one you are watching is ending. This is an unhealthy feature because it is not designed to help

you learn more about whatever, it is designed to keep you staring at your screen as they make

more money off your views and time spent viewing.

Social media has a negative effect on people’s mental health if not recognized and setup to

prevent long intervals online. Digital communication is a new era for technology, one linking to

online addiction, depression, and a decline towards social interactions in the real world for all ages

if unchecked. We can change the trajectory of our society heading into full virtual communication

by knowing the patterns in place that make these platforms so addicting. Being smart about the

approach taken when using these devices allows for a healthier mental wellness and overall better

social unity going forward. Let’s move back to the days of the early 2000s when social media was

just another space where you could communicate with friends after a long, boring day of work or

school. Nothing more, nothing less. A simple quote to live by in the social realm of today’s world,

“If you don’t know the product, you are the product” (Social Dilemma). We can better our world

by making future social media apps that serve as the tools they are designed to be, not making you

the tool designed for their success.

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Works Cited

Betton, Victoria, and James Woollard. Teen Mental Health in an Online World: Supporting

Young People around Their Use of Social Media, Apps, Gaming, Texting, and the Rest.

Jessica Kingsley Publishers, 2019, pp.1-9. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=cat01128a&AN=scc.b2170642&site=eds-live.

Bouygues, Helen Lee. “Social Media Is a Public Health Crisis | Healthiest ...” U.S. News, 20 July

2021, https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2021-07-20/social-media-is-a-

public-health-crisis.

Johnson, Miriam. “The History of Social Media - Where Did It All Start?” Future Marketing, 5

October 2017, https://www.future-marketing.co.uk/the-history-of-social-media/.

Medruţ, Flavia-Petronela. “The Impact of Social Media Use on Adolescent Mental Health –

Depression and Anxiety: A Review.” Social Work Review / Revista de Asistenta Sociala,

no. 2, April 2021, pp. 163–72. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?

direct=true&db=e5h&AN=151177953&site=eds-live.

The Social Dilemma. Directed by Jeff Orlowski, Exposure Labs, 2020. Netflix,

netflix.com/title/81254224.

Whiteman, Honor. “Social Media: How Does It Affect Our Mental Health and Well-Being?”

Medical News Today, Medi Lexicon International, 10 June 2015,

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/275361.