Social media: Poison to the brain

I want to change. I want to be more like them. I want to be happy.

These thoughts run through many people’s minds all day as they carry out their obligations to this world. People may seem fine, and some probably are. But deep inside, there’s always second-thoughts that take hold of the mind and drain out the enjoyment of life from the body.

I’ve seen many people around me walk around with hollow eyes, confused with what they’re doing. They compare themselves to the smarter, the prettier, and the well-off. No one can deny that at one point, we all have. After all, how can we not when we see the extravagant lives of others, liking people’s posts with envy written all over our face.

Everyday we damage ourselves. Many teens today wander the path ahead of them with their minds and hearts full of caution and insecurity. Undeniably, this issue has grown more frequently as social media’s authority grows over the lives of younger generations.

Although social media has allowed us to expand our capabilities as a society, there are many inescapable effects it’s prevalence is having on the dwindling mental health and self-image of young individuals today.

Social Media’s Presence Today

The human race as we know it would not have been able to make such advancements in society if it had not been for technology. It opened up a new path for many different aspects we depend on to live and stay connected, such being social media.

Established in 1997, social media has come a long way, from the first application site introduced being Six Degrees, to apps like Tiktok and Snapchat. We are able to use it for not only communicating with people from around the world, but obtaining valuable information that impacts societal, government, and even legal systems.

According to D’amore Mental Health, research indicates that “About 70% of the United States population have utilized social media. Additionally, 94% of all teens in developed countries use social media.” With these high-leveled statistics, we see just how impactful social media can be.

However, along with the extensive usage of social networking sites, there comes the inescapable route towards the negative effects posed from various features of this technological aspect.

It is evident that the 21st century has also brought forth a multitude of cases which stem from mental health and the depleting confidence levels of teens. Compared to past generations, teenagers now are more vulnerable to low mental health, and research suggests it may be due to the increasing time spent on various platforms.

Diminishing of Self-Esteem

One of the most prominent effects social media has on the minds of young adults today is the depletion of their self-esteem. Very rarely can we find individuals who fully embrace their identities and not succumb to the harsh mainstream standards we ourselves have established. This lack of confidence has a lot to do with how people on social media portray themselves and their lives.

If we go online to Instagram or Tiktok, we are all very likely to see the same category of posts. Perfectly constructed bodies, the most well-planned diets, or a mass collection of brand-named clothing. These unachievable standards which are promoted across platforms is what makes individuals of all ages, blind from the reality of this life.

According to a research conducted by BBC, “One in three girls was unhappy with their personal appearance by the age of 14, compared with one in seven at the end of primary school.” This data presents to us the severity of the situation as there is a drastic fall of emotional well-being for those in their adolescent years, experiencing the cruelty of insecurity and self-consciousness.

Taking this knowledge, we can see that children of these early generations are experiencing much more harsh environments than the past, leading to the extensive quantity of unstable mentality. If we really look around us, everyone is exposed to various individuals who are facing these same issues and this problem is genuine. Sometimes it may even be ourselves who are losing it.

By coming to an understanding of the effects social media has on the self-esteem of those around us, we are then able to gain perspective on individuals in our own lives. Eden Monk, a junior in our iSchool community, had shared, “We look at things as if there is a standard like how we should look, what we should wear or the things we should post and I think that’s incredibly damaging to our self interests and how we are able to live our lives.”

This statement allows us to open our eyes and acknowledge that these societal standards in place for every factor of our lives do not mean anything if we are not happy with ourselves. Allowing social media to control your choices and affect the image you have of yourself will only corrupt future paths and goals, leading people to create false identities for themselves.

A lot of the depletion in self-esteem also has to do with body-images and how others portray themselves online. It is a cycle on various platforms where we see the “ideal” person and compare ourselves to how they look. However, sometimes these perceptions of others may not even be true.

The D’amore Mental Health website also explained that“Often, teens’ photos and videos are filtered or edited, which contributes to a social media environment that portrays appearances that are difficult to obtain or unrealistic.” This reality gives us an understanding that social media contributes to the low self-esteem of those who browse it, but also to the individuals who display themselves.

Having various influencers online portray themselves as “perfect” and “unflawed” just adds onto the negative effects social media is having on others, but also to themselves. Not everyone can view themselves as having a perfect body, and it results in people being labeled according to their physical qualities.

Sophomore Ishrat Islam, explained, “Appearance is a really big thing and it’s usually always eurocentric features. Since I’m a person of color, it’s hard to achieve those things and we should be proud of our identity but we’re not since western society made it a beauty standard to not be different.”

Another aspect of social media people tend to forget regarding self-esteem is cyber-bullying. This source of belittlement on various features of social media platforms, such as comments, is what leads to a lot of the body-image issues today. People of all ages make hurtful statements that degrade the image of a person until they are unable to look at themselves positively.

D’amore Mental Health states, “A total of 59% of teenagers in the United States have experienced at least one type of abusive online behavior or cyber-bullying.” This research indicates that there is a notable number of cyber bullying victims, and this action is allowed to be carried out through the presence and extensive usage of social media. It opens a door for perpetrators to easily deplete the self-esteem and internal view people have on their presence.

This aspect of social media is very distressing as there are many cases where individuals have succumbed to the negative comments of others to the point where they decided to end their own lives. This concerns iSchool guidance counselor Ms. Colon as she states, “I didn’t grow up with social media and being a teenager was hard enough, however we didn’t have posts and videos, and it constantly lives in infamy, and that worries me for young people today.”

This statement brings us to another aspect that social media continuously leaves a print on the lives of others and posts are being constantly put forth. We can never control how it is going to harm individuals and what decisions they will make in reaction to this.

Ms. Colon goes on to explain that, “I think that people are a lot bolder when they are typing than when they’re in somebody’s face. They’re more inclined to say a lot more hurtful things than they would ever do in person.” With this fact, it is clear that social media extends the negative effects on others as it allows people to easily express immoral thoughts and comments.

And so, after analyzing these various impacts of social media on the perception people have of themselves and just how prevalent it is in dictating our life choices, it’s obvious that this system is doing much more damage to self-esteem than good.

Draining Mental Health

A great deal of this generation’s decreasing self-esteem levels due to social media may have a correlation to low states of mental health and cause several issues regarding so. Research specifies that a lot of psychological problems arising over the years connect to self-esteem and the dissatisfaction of individuals with themselves and their lives.

Psychiatry specialist Candice Biernesser from Everyday Health reports, “These ages represent a vulnerable point during the life course, when mental health disorders often first emerge and an age in which suicide rates are rising — currently the second leading cause of death among youth.”

This detail allows us to acknowledge that teenagers who are exposed to sensitive topics like body-image or beauty standards, are more likely to experience damaged mental health because of disturbance with their developing minds. There are victims of a variety of unstable emotional cases, influenced by one factor or another. However, a majority of these occurrences are fueled by what is portrayed online.

One of the most prevalent mental health disorders in this time period is eating disorders. All across social media we see young teens struggling with bulimia nervosa, anemia nervosa, or binge-eating. These problems which are increasing as days pass have a wide connection to observing individuals who “fit” the unrealistic beauty standards.

As stated by Everyday Health, “Among nearly 1,800 randomly selected young adults between the ages of 19 to 32, the risk of having eating concerns increased with higher volume and frequency of social media use.” This detail implies that as people are becoming more exposed to social media and the impractical ideas portrayed, more individuals would be influenced to take drastic measures to meet them, like developing an eating disorder.

Ishrat had also stated, “Everyone expects us to be like that (ideal body type), and think that we could just work out and have a perfect diet and achieve that. But it’s hard. We all have different bodies, we have different metabolisms, and it’s not as easy as they make it out to be.”

These points being made help us understand that being so dependent and revolving our lives around the aspects of social media, we put ourselves at risk for damaging our bodies to satisfy the standards of others who we don’t even know or care about. The expectations put online are never easily met and this has a huge impact on our own satisfaction.

Not only are teenagers at risk for developing eating disorders, but also experiencing depression and high levels of anxiety. These mental health factors which are internally destructing the human mind push people towards the path of seclusion and in severe cases, suicide.

D’amore Mental Health research indicates that, “Between 2009 and 2017, depression rates increased 60% in teens ages 14 to 17. Depression rates for those ages 12 to 13 increased 47%, for those ages 18 to 21 increased 46%, and doubled for those ages 20 to 21.8 Additionally, suicide rates have tripled among adolescents aged 10 to 14 and among girls.”

These shockingly high numbers of mental health issues from all types of ages show the gravity of the situation and we come to face the reality of our society. The threats being posed in this generation of technology are harsh and individuals are prone to being affected by it.

With this obvious matter, Eden had brought up a very significant point, stating: “I think it takes a lot for a person to not be able to feel anything from others’ social media.” This statement helps us realize that the significance of social media has come to a point where people find themselves so connected that they can’t help but feel all these negative emotions regarding their identities. The platforms we go on stir up the internal conflict and discontent of our minds.

With these various statistics and viewpoints of students around us, we see that social media undoubtedly contributes to the weakening mental, emotional, and even social states of teenagers today. It is more than an outlet for connection to the world, but also for various expectations put upon individuals today, forcing insecurity into the norms of young adults presently.

What Can We Do?

We have all been at our lowest at some points in life, and it’s inevitable to feel less than others when we spend hours a day online. We can never fix the way social media runs and the damages it is having on individuals. It is a system that will always be polluted by judgment and standards.

But what we can fix is the way it is impacting ourselves. You can either allow social media to control your life, or take action into your own hands and prevent yourself from becoming a puppet of society that relies on the judgement of others to flourish.

In order to successfully withstand the mainstream ideals social media has structured out, we can start by spending less time on the platforms that tend to bring you down. The world is full of wonders that have yet to be seen through the eyes. We can take this chance to experience what life really is and free ourselves from the burden of constant reliance on social media.

Another small step people can easily take is to communicate with others face to face. The majority of our generation depends on social media to connect with friends. However, sometimes it can be better and even more memorable, to spend time with those you care about in real life.

Ms. Gray, an iSchool advisor,had recommended, “I think that interacting more in person and re-grounding ourselves in the real world would be more helpful (to revert the effects of social media).” This action will allow people to once again understand the significance in stepping out from the technology that surrounds us and really open our view to the world we live in.

It may seem pointless to give up social media for a while and end up being pulled back in, but by trying these actions, we could see the possibilities of how less social media usage can better our mental health and perception of our own selves. Who knows what opportunities will come our way if we allow ourselves to open up to reality as it truly is unless we are willing to try it.