Negative Effects
Social media has done astronomical amounts of good on creating a platform to talk about Mental health awareness, however there are negative effects of social media as well. These are some of the top leading causes of negative effects that social media has on people.
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO)
Fear of missing out (FoMo) has been on the rise since social media took off. One thing people don’t know is fear of missing out on an event or plan, is an actually a mental health illness people are dealing with everyday. Fears that people are doing thing without you can lead to mental fatigue (Tandon et al., 2020). With all this excessive time spent on social media, it leads individuals to monitor and gather information about others’ activities. This problem could also lead to social stocking and other dangerous mental illness.(Tandon et al., 2020).
If you feel like this is you and want or need more information please check out this website: https://adaa.org/learn-from-us/from-the-experts/blog-posts/consumer/tips-get-over-your-fomo-or-fear-missing-out
Depression
Depression is one of the top leading causes of mental heath and it causes a persons mood and or behavior to change. When adolescent and young adults use the social media it has a transforming effects on their minds. These transitions can reflect significant changes in identities, roles, and responsibilities in many areas of their lives.(Michikyan, 2018). When the youth talk to each other on the social platforms like Facebook or other forms of online chat rooms they often disclose their feelings, experiences, and emotions which has a greater affect of showing mental health illness such as depression. (Michikyan, 2018). This is a growing problem because often the youth fall deeper into depression after viewing the activities of their online friends. The youth tends to be more envious of what they felt, which, in turn, contributed to higher depression symptoms.(Michikyan, 2018). As you can see the more you scroll the greater the risk can be for your depression to grow. You should seek professional help if you need too!
Depression is something that no one should have to struggle with, if you feel that you need help then please visit these websites:
Isolation
Through research we found that isolation can be reinforced by a support system through social media, rather than an in-person support system. The study portrayed how, “…, real-life social support was then associated with reduced depression, anxiety, and social isolation, while social support on social media was not associated with these mental health measures.” (Meshi et al., 2021). Obtaining support from peers socially online, can have a greater effect on increasing mental health issues, specifically isolation, so we should be careful of wrapping our reality around social media.
If you want to find more information about how social media can affect teenagers then please visit this website: https://www.nwpc.com/social-media-addiction-affects-teenagers/
Self-absorption
When looking through social media it can be hard not to compare yourself to other people such as your body image or even relationship goals. Social media can create a negative stigma around self-absorption. Research has shown that self-absorption can have an opposing effect on an adolescent's state of mind in the fact that the person may not feel as if their body image is not perfect, which can lead to eating disorders. “... media-ideal internalization predicted later thinking and scrutinizing of one’s body from an external observer’s standpoint (or self-objectification), which then predicted later negative emotional experiences related to one’s body and appearance." (Dakanalis et al., 2015). This can be seen when someone does not get the amount of “likes” they desire or when they are not receiving the feedback from followers that they had initially hoped for. With this being said, adolescents should make sure to take care of their mental health and not let the way they look negatively affect their mentality.