How social media affects mental health in young people

How Social Media Affects Mental Health in Young People Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation How Social Media Affects Mental Health in Young People The advent of social media has revitalized human aspects like communication and information sharing while also reshaping people’s health and wellness bearing its unique characteristics. The growth in social media usage is largely appraised because of its positive impacts such as easing interactions beyond conventional boundaries. However, not much effort has been put into exploring the adverse health impacts of social media usage. Presently, individuals who fall within the generational categories of millennials and Gen Z form the largest portion of social media users at 84%. Such young individuals aged between 13 and 29 are exposed to all the benefits as well as the ills that come with excessive reliance on social media for communication, information sharing, or entertainment. In this research, the focus is on exploring social media effects on the health of young people who are the majority of users of such platforms. Understanding how social media affects the mental health of young people can be vital in advancing strategies to address the concerns that impact users’ health adversely like cyberbullying, unrealistic comparisons and expectations, sleep deprivation, the fear of missing out, as well as the body image. Cyberbullying is among the most notable triggers of mental health issues among social media users. Cyberbullying is the deployment of technologies like social media to harass, intimidate, embarrass, or harm another person in those online spaces. The fact that most online spaces afford accessibility and anonymity to the users means that some individuals take advantage of engaging in various harmful behaviors that amount to cyberbullying. Some of the cases of cyberbullying include sending threatening messages to the victims, sharing embarrassing photos, and spreading rumors or insults. In 2022, Pew Research conducted a study that showed that “the rise of smartphones and social media has brought a new and more public arena into play for this aggressive behavior” (Vogels, 2022). In the same study, it was noted that nearly 46% of teenagers aged 13-17 have experienced at least a case of cyberbullying in the US (Vogels, 2022). As highlighted in Figure 1 below, offensive name-calling is the most prevalent technique of cyberbullying occurring 32% of the time. The other notable types of cyberbullying include spreading false rumors (22%), sharing explicit images (17%), harassment (15%), and physical threats (10%). Cyberbullying can lead to severe psychological distress that, consequently, triggers mental health issues like depression, anxiety, and even suicidal thoughts (vogels, 2022). Victims of cyberbullying stand a higher chance of contracting mental health illnesses as opposed to those who do not experience similar treatments. Figure 1: Cyberbullying Social media also comes with unrealistic expectations and comparisons that can be detrimental to mental health. Social media platforms keep fueling idealized versions of reality that some people use to construct their beliefs. Often, the portrayals on social media can be unrealistic and highly filtered. Still, they are a form of content with target audiences. According to Burghart et al., “If users do not take care of what they consume, they can easily be exposed to the unrealistic ideas that trigger feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem”. Besides the increased expectations, social media has also opened a platform that can conduct unhealthy comparisons. Often, people showcase perfect lives on social media feeds. Whil...