Does social media make teenagers feel more included in today’s society? Well, in a small survey done in 2022 by Hopkins Medicine, “a majority of respondents felt that social media helps teenagers feel more accepted (58%).”
But this isn’t the whole story.
An article published by Yale Medicine about social media and the effects on mental health, said “In the spring of 2023, United States Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, MD, MBA, released an advisory called Social Media and Youth Mental Health, in which he says there is growing evidence that social media is causing harm to young people’s mental health.”
The same article stated that results “Point to a higher relative concern of harm in adolescent girls and those already experiencing poor mental health, as well as for particular health outcomes, such as cyberbullying-related depression, body image and disordered eating behaviors, and poor sleep quality linked to social media use.” The study found that 9 out of 10 teenagers use Youtube, Tiktok, Snapchat, and Instagram and 95% of students feel that they use social media almost constantly.
Overall the answer is that social media use may make teens feel more accepted, but it actually has far more negative effects on their mental health than positive ones. Teens who spend five or more hours a day on social media apps or websites are 71 percent more likely to struggle with their mental health, including depression and anxiety than teenagers who have lower screen time. Since the year 2020, students’ mental health has decreased by 13.1% across the U.S, and social media has a part in that. According to an article called “Social Media and Mental Health in Children and Teens”: “Research has demonstrated that there are high rates of depression with very high social media use.”
In fact, according to Yale Medicine, around 32% of New Jersey’s High School students struggle with their mental health due to social media, and around one in five teens say that social media has a negative impact on their mental health.
NPHS 9th grader Maria Tramontana views social media as a negative impact on students mental health: “There are overall more cons than pros, there is cyberbullying, and a lot of negative things that I can see.”
Tramontana also said that she felt that there is pressure that makes you feel like you need to be on social media to be involved with others.
She recognizes the benefit of putting her phone down: “When I’m on social media, I scroll for hours, but then when I’m not, I actually like talking to my friends and feel happier.”
Another freshman, Melanie Pena, agrees that social media has more negative effects on students’ mental health than positive.
Pena said “ Being on social media does affect how I see myself, like when I’m scrolling I’ll see a girl or someone and wish that I was them. Like it just gives us a whole negative impact overall.”
As New Providence’s students continue to navigate social media’s effects, Hopkins Medicine says “it’s important for … parents to model healthy social media use and discuss social media citizenship behaviors with our children, to ensure we are not posting anything we wouldn’t say directly to someone in the ‘real world.'”
In other words, students should consider engaging more in face to face social interactions than in digital social media ones.