Confronting Students About Their Mental Health in Relation to social media

Students feel that they have no one to go to when it comes to mental health issues that

develop from social media and smartphones. Some students who have never developed mental

illness are scared to talk to someone about it because they feel that they will be judged and that

they never were like this before. Research forms a 2016 survey shows the low self-esteem that

students felt, “41.5% of students felt things were hopeless, 51.8% felt very lonely, 55.3% felt

overwhelming anxiety and 33.5% felt so depressed that it was difficult to function” (Cain, 2018).

These students felt these ways due to social media apps and what is being posted on them

or being said about them. Harvard students have put together a very detailed video on

confronting college students and there mental health and provide very resource full information

and tips on how to help others.

With social media comes cyber bullying which is a very frequent form of bullying as

most people are too afraid to say it to someone’s face in person, but they feel powerful over the

internet. Many students who use social media become addicted to it and checkup on certain

accounts that they are following, which sometimes is not the best habit. As the accounts that

people typically follow are celebrities or fitness accounts, which gives an idea that anyone can

look like the images posted on social media. The image posted on social media give off

unrealistic fantasies in people’s minds as they think they need to be this perfect figure in order to

live life. This is what ruins students as they become so infatuated with social media and looking

a certain way that they end up hurting themselves mentally and physically.

Using social media to connect with other students is something that is done frequently

especially when students are going to a new school. Colleges offer Facebook pages for students
to introduce themselves and get to know one another before there big move in day, for the

most part it seems that everyone gets along on the page, but what is said or done outside the

school monitored page is something uncalled for. Research has shown that about a quarter of

college students report being cyber-bullied at some point in the relives, and about 30% of those

students said they were bullied for the first time in college” (Mastrodicasa, J., & Metellus 2013).

This information is very useful as it gives an idea that these students had normal lives in high

school land when they enter college are being bullied online. Bullying occurs on social media

platforms that are not affiliated with the school, it seems that students who were cyber bullied

endured self-harm or low self-esteem, while others reported the bullying but also risk the fact of

dealing with retaliation from students. Many students are often thrown off about

having something wrong with them mentally as they feel that they will have let people down and

feel that they should now have this mental illness. “For people without psychiatric disorders, the

term “mentally ill” often brings to mind the pictures of people who are crazy, psychotic, and

abnormal, its these ideas that often cause teens to be afraid to talk about their illness”

(Gevara,2014). The word mentally ill can really trigger some people which is why so many

students are afraid to come to realization with themselves as they don’t want to full under the

category of psychotic. 

It is extremely challenging to confront students about their mental health status as many

are in denial about themselves even though they know deep down they need help but are scared

because they don’t want to be judged or seen as a failure to their family and friends. Having

mental health problems has become so frequent in today’s society that it is seen as almost normal

to deal with, mainly because of the society we live in and how there are so many social media

apps that are not filtered. Worcester State sends out emails regarding bullying or sexual
harassment on campus which is very informative to students to know that their school will help

them and make others aware that the behavior is not allowed or accepted. Sending out emails to

students can be reassuring to students as they know that their school will accept them for

anything that has happened to them or anything that is going on in their head. It is always

important to push friends and family to seek help and confront their habits or illnesses in order

them to get better

 Citations

Cain, Jeff. “It's Time to Confront Student Mental Health Issues Associated with Smartphones

and Social Media.” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, American Journal of

Pharmaceutical Education, 1 Sept. 2018, https://www.ajpe.org/content/82/7/6862.

Gevara, Natalia. “Teens with Mental Illness Afraid to Speak Up.” The Bruin Voice,

https://bruinvoice.net/1016/feature/teens-with-mental-illness-afraid-to-speak-up-2/.

Mastrodicasa, Jeanna, and Paul Metellus. “(PDF) the Impact of Social Media on College

Students.” ResearchGate,

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270550330_The_Impact_of_Social_Media_on_C

ollege_Students.