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Allena Brown
English 1201.508
Lisa Cook
December 12, 2021
How Social Media Affects the Well-Being of Adolescents
Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook, are some of the social media platforms that people
use worldwide on a daily basis. Adults and teens of all ages and backgrounds have access to
these platforms with just the click of a button. But did you ever think that these websites could
be hurting us mentally in many different ways? While social media has its benefits, it negatively
impacts adolescents' mental health by potentially causing a variety of different mental illnesses.
Now, what is social media technically? According to Merriam Websters Dictionary,
social media is a “form of electronic communication through which users create online
communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content.” The concept and
the idea behind social media is great and has all of the possibilities to be helpful in connecting
and informing us, but it has since turned into a growing problem within our society, mainly with
adolescents. The websites themself are not normally the issue, but the way they affect people are
the issue. The use of the platforms have the power to discourage, intimidate, and even depress
the user. Depending on the length and capacity of use, social media’s effects can be very
negative and even destructive. While social media has its benefits, it is an extremely unhealthy
and a dangerous tool within society.
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Some of the problems of social media are more serious than others and require more
action to help stop them. Most people often feel tired or lackluster after they have spent a
significant amount of time on any form of social media. But it all depends on how the person is
using the platform according to Ine Beyens, who has conducted multiple studies on this topic. He
mentions that the platforms effect on users can differ from having no effect on some to great
effects on others. He conducted studies on adolescents ranging from fourteen to fifteen years old
because, in his words, they are “more sensitive to reactions from peers and have a strong
tendency to compare themselves with others” (Beyens). By choosing to focus on a younger age
of adolescents, he was able to get the true results of how social media actually affects someone.
He studied how they used the different platforms, actively or passively. Actively meant that they
were posting something or messaging someone while passively meant just scrolling through
looking at different posts. The adolescents surveyed were asked to fill out forty-two assessments
that involved their social media use and their overall mental well-being. He found that
adolescents who were actively using social media had a positive increase in their well-being,
whereas those who were mainly passively using social media had a negative increase in their
well-being. This would make sense because those who were actively using the platform had a
reason to be on it, whereas those who were passively using it were most likely online out of
boredom. Now, based on this study, we can conclude that the value of social media depends on
how you use it. But have you ever thought about the problems that it may be causing in your day
to day life?
Imagine this: you’re sitting on your couch just scrolling through Instagram then suddenly
you decide to post something. You take a decent amount of time to find the pictures, edit them,
and create a caption. Then you post it. You sit and wait for the notifications of people liking and
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commenting on your post to fly in, and you can’t help but feel happy. It makes you feel worthy
and as if these people care about you. This is something that not only I struggle with, but
teenagers around the world. When you post something, you are looking for attention. This action
of looking for praise and attention can end up being extremely detrimental and dangerous in the
long run. Let’s say you are getting two hundred likes on all of your posts and then all of a
sudden, the number slowly decreases. How is that going to make you feel? Sad most likely and
you’re going to start questioning why you aren’t good enough and it can give you extreme
anxiety and possibly depression. It might also affect your daily life and your performance of
certain activities. Social media has taught us as a society that we need likes and comments to be
important, but that’s not the case.
Most people spend a decent amount of their time on their phone during the day. Some
people will do this out of boredom or as a way to escape reality. Social media gives people this
and for this reason can be extremely addictive. One of the good things about social media is that
there is always something new to look at. There will always be new information, which is one
way the producers of these platforms keep getting people to come back and use their creation.
While this is good for the creators, it can leave negative effects on the people who use them. It
can be extremely addictive and can take focus away from other things that are more important,
such as work, school, or even spending time with your friends and family.
Not only is it extremely addictive, it can also cause many different mental illnesses such
as anxiety and depression. According to a study that Sarah West conducted, the more screen time
a child has from ages two to seventeen, the lower the well-being of the child is. She also found
that with increased screen time, brought an increased feeling of anxiety and one out of three of
the children also had depression and behavior problems. While there are many forms of anxiety,
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one of the main forms that was studied was social anxiety which can be expressed in many
different forms. Some of the most common symptoms of social anxiety are fear of
embarrassment, humility, and talking with strangers, according to Mayo Clinic. People who
suffer from social anxiety have a hard time having conversations with people face to face and
this is mainly caused from the constant screen time that most children in this day and age have.
This could be due to the fact that people are constantly on their phones and only communicate
with people via text message. While texting is a convenient and easy alternative to calling,
talking to a person face to face is lifelong skill that everybody should have. The upcoming
generations often struggle with social anxiety for this reason alone and it greatly affects them in
their future. Conversation is the one thing that keeps our society flowing and we need it for all
aspects of life. Whether it's with your family or for a job interview, conversation is a vital skill
that many adolescents are losing or never had to begin with. The overall cause for this is due to
an increased amount of screen time, including excess social media use.
As I previously mentioned, depression can also be a cause of overuse of social media.
This is caused by unconsciously comparing yourself to other people that you see online. Every
person has done it at least once in their life and has asked themselves “Why don’t I look like
them?” or “Why am I not as pretty as them?”. This is caused because of the pressures that
society has placed on us as human beings. While everyone struggles with this, woman have a
harder time dealing with the societal pressures. According to Sarah West, girls who use social
media more often have lower self-esteem than those who don’t. Society has inadvertently placed
standards on women about how they should look, dress, and act, and if you don’t fit into these
categories, then in society’s eyes you aren’t “pretty”. This can be extremely difficult growing up
with the pressures on you to look a certain way. This can often lead to depression and other
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mental illnesses because of not fitting in. While women struggle with this more often, men also
struggle with this a fair amount as well. Society inadvertently says that they have to look a
certain way and do certain things, or they don’t fit in. According to Sarah West, boys might
participate in excessive exercise to try to look certain ways or partake in dangerous and risk-
taking activities for the attention.
Attention and popularity are something that teens often struggle with because of peer
pressure. Everyone has heard the story of the popular football player and cheerleader girlfriend
living their best lives, and even though we don’t like to admit it, a part of us all strive for that
“perfect” life of being popular and having a ton of friends. Social media platforms, such as
Instagram, don’t help with this idea because of the action of liking a post. When somebody posts
something, they are, in reality, looking for attention or approval from their peers. When you
receive likes on your post, it gives you that satisfaction, but when you don’t it can often make
you sad. While this is something that teens often struggle with, there is a more serious and
important problem that is occurring due to social media, cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person often
done anonymously (Merriam Webster Dictionary). Although it is much more than just this. It can
also include posting hateful comments, pictures, or even sending private messages.
Cyberbullying can have many different effects on people including anxiety, depression, eating
disorders, and many more. While it is not incredibly common, this can occasionally lead to
suicide, which is growing problem in our country. According to an article from The Guardian
written by Patrick Greenfield, almost half of young people have experienced some form of
cyberbullying in their life, with some being so severe that it pushed them to attempt suicide.
Many people feel as though social media companies are not doing enough to prevent and or
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protect against being cyberbullied. Now, they aren’t going to catch every little thing, but when
they are notified, or someone complains about it then there should be more serious measures
taken to stop it. Some adults might argue that they should just remove their account entirely and
then the problem will stop, but how is that fair to a person who did nothing to deserve this hate,
to have to get rid of one of their favorite past times? It gives people a sense of freedom and by
taking that away for someone else’s actions makes no sense. Social media does not help
contribute to this growing problem either, if anything it makes it worse and gives teens an outlet
to cyberbully others.
Fig 1. This chart shows how social media has a negative effect on teenagers' mental well-
being in many different ways (Statista).
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The figure above shows statistics that were taken from a group of teenagers about how
social media affected their mental well-being. You can see that they were asked a series of four
questions, and they had to respond with an answer to each of them. Most teenagers said that they
felt left out or excluded when using social media, which doesn’t surprise me at all. Social media
shows you the life of not only your friends and family, but also celebrities. This can allow for
comparisons to start being made about your life to a celebrity’s and can end up having negative
consequences. This also shows that twenty percent of the respondents have been cyberbullied
which is a large number. This cyberbullying could have been prevented if social media platforms
were more cautious with what they allowed to be posted.
After all this being said, there are many positives to social media. It gives people a way to
connect with family and friends from all over the world. For instance, some of my family lives in
Texas, so social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram keep me updated about what is
going on in their lives. It also helps someone find new friends and communities with common
interests, while also giving people an outlet to express their thoughts and beliefs. (The Help
Guide). I have met numerous people through social media who I have then later met in person,
but without these platforms I would not have been able to meet them. One of my best friends was
someone who I met online through a mutual friend. We had known each other but had never had
a conversation with each other. One day, I unexpectedly received a snapchat saying, “Hey. I got
your Snapchat from my friend and I just wanted to get to know you more.” This was the
beginning of a new relationship and he would eventually become my best friend and boyfriend;
this never would have happened if it weren’t for a Snapchat. In addition to connecting with each
other, we can express ourselves on social media. Social media is one of the only platforms where
you can express your opinions with little to no consequences. One of the newest forms of social
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media that has given people the ability to express themselves is TikTok. It allows people to post
videos to a variety of songs and sounds some being more serious than other. TikTok can be
extremely addictive and you can find yourself wasting hours upon hours of time due to the
never-ending content. This platform, like all others, allows you to compare yourself to others
which can lead to depression and or anxiety. Once again, we see that the negatives outweigh the
positives.
Fig 2. This pi-chart shows the amount of time that teens are spending on social media per
day (Common Sense Census).
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As I have stated previously, social media can be extremely addictive. This information
might be very alarming to the majority of people. It seems impossible to spend that much time on
your phone, but the little things add up. For example, checking Instagram, responding to a
Snapchat, scrolling on Facebook for a couple minutes, etc. This time could be used to
accomplish much more productive things such as homework, volunteering, or working. It also
takes away time from simply just spending time with friends and family. Social media has
negatively affected the lives of most people in the country today.
Social media affects the majority of adolescents in a negative way and can lead to having
different mental illnesses, such as anxiety and depression. Although it is a convenient and easier
alternative to some other modes of communication, it lacks the face-to-face contact that we need,
can lead to other health problems, and is a way that cyberbullying takes form. So the next time
you open your phone, maybe stay off of Facebook or Instagram for the day and see if you feel
better.
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Works Cited
Beyens, Ine, et al. "The Effect of Social Media on Well-Being Differs from Adolescent to
Adolescent." Scientific Reports, vol. 10, no. 1, July 2020, pp. 1–11. EBSCOhost,
doi:10.1038/s41598-020-67727-7.
Cyberbullying.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/cyberbullying. Accessed 1 Nov. 2021
The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Tweens and Teens,
https://www.commonsensemedia.org/sites/default/files/uploads/research/census_researchre
port.pdf.
“Social Anxiety Disorder (Social Phobia).” Mayo Clinic, Mayo Foundation for Medical
Education and Research, 19 June 2021, https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-
conditions/social-anxiety-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20353561.
"Social Media and Mental Health." HelpGuide, www.helpguide.org/. Accessed 1 Nov. 2021.
"Social Media Firms Failing to Protect Young People, Survey Finds; Cyberbullying Inquiry
Finds the Mental Health of Young People Is Severely Affected by Online Abuse." The
Guardian (London, England), 26 Feb. 2018. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=edsgbe&AN=edsgcl.528952725&site=eds-live.
"Social media.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-
webster.com/dictionary/social%20media. Accessed 1 Nov. 2021
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Statista. 2021. Negative social media effects according to U.S. teens by emotional well-being
2018 l Statistic | Statista. [online] Available at:
<https://www.statista.com/statistics/934121/negative-social-media-effects-usa-teenagers-
emotional-well-being. Accessed 7 Nov. 2021
West, Sarah. "Exploring Recreational Screen Time and Social Anxiety in Adolescents."
Pediatric Nursing, vol. 47, no. 3, May 2021, pp. 133–140. EBSCOhost,
search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=c9h&AN=150893809&site=eds-live.
