How Does Social Media Affect Teens?
Social media is on every device and platform today and with social media all people that use it can see what goes on in life. However, that is not the only use of social media, it can be used as a form of entertainment. It can be used to express yourself and your ideas. Social media can be used to make yourself and your ideas heard. However, there are not only good effects from social media. There are also bad effects caused by social media. In teenagers and even young adolescents. In this article I will talk about how growing up with social media can affect teenage development, the impact on them in general, how it affects mental health, and ways to regulate social media usages.
How Does Growing Up with Social Media Affect Teens' Development?
There are the obvious negative effects of social media like getting distracted from homework, disrupting sleep, getting in the way of family activities, getting in the way of exercise, or even giving misleading info to people. According to scientists, in the adolescent years of the teen, the region of the brain that wants attention from others is much more sensitive. A 2022 study showed that in 1,300 responses in the age range of 13-17 years stated that 35% of those teens used more than five social media platforms each day.
How Does Social Media Affect Teens in General?
According to the teens that use social media most say it affects them in a neutral way meaning they do not feel affected at all. Fifty-nine percent of them say it has a neutral effect. Nine percent say it has a negative effect. Thirty-two percent say it has a positive effect on them. For youth, social media affects four major areas of youth. The areas are connection, identity, learning, and emotions. The most common negative effect of social media is a teen thinking that their body image is not good enough for society. Another quite common negative effect of social media is people becoming victims of cyberbullying on any platform they use. Cyberbullying can lead to a teen feeling that their body is not good enough and cause insecurities. There is also a good side to social media for the youth. Some teens in a study done by Adolescent Research Review reported that social media helped them quote, “Come out of their shells” and become more social with their peers. Other teens reported they enjoy using social media because it helped them boost their self-confidence.
How Does Social Media Affect Mental Health?
Social media can be one of the biggest effects on mental health in a teen’s life. The positive ways social media affects teen mental health is that it can help them express themselves, connect them to others that want to help them if they are going through a stressful time. It can help them see others that are going through the same struggle. This way they can learn ways to cope with what they are going through. Social media can help teens find their voice and help them learn to be able to talk about their problems and give them the confidence to talk about their own mental health. However, there are also negative effects of social media. Social media can addict some teens and cause them to share a little too much personal info that is important for teens to keep to themselves. Social media can also spread rumors that can harm people. There are also some very dark and real-world problems that bad people on the social media platform can cause. There are bad people that want to do terrible things on social media, and it is a responsibility for teens to stay away from the bad people on social media.
How Can You Regulate Your Social Media Usage?
The first step to regulating your social media usage and maybe even breaking free of your addiction to social media is considering ways to approach the problem and how to work on it. A good thing to do is limiting screen time. Limiting screen time is like knocking down two birds with one stone. Social media is on electronic devices and limiting the time you are electric devices can help you in many ways. Or if you do not want to set a screen time, at least take breaks when on social media or scrolling through social media. Something that you must do to help solve this problem is tracking how much time you are spending on social media. You can try to decrease that time by 25 minutes, 30 minutes, or if you can 1 hour. This is one of many ways you can help regulate your social media usage.
Written by: Ariya