Introduction
This digital technology, known as social media, permits sharing of information and ideas, comprising visuals and texts, via virtual platforms and networks. Access to social media is common, even though issues have been raised concerning the effect of social media on the mental of adolescents (Orben & Blakemore, 2023). Social media presents a supporting nature, utilizing it to activate the brain’s reward center by releasing dopamine associated with pleasurable activities like social interaction, food, and sex (Prinstein et al., 2020). Social media sites are fashioned to be addictive and correlate with depression, anxiety, and physical disorders among teens. The essay analyzes social media and its effect on youth’s mental health using the public sphere.
The Influence of Social Media on Youth Mental Health
Current Debate and Key Scholars on the Issue
The current discussion on social media concerns its benefits and risks posed to adolescents and society. In 2023, social media went viral, although in a bad way. The US President, Joe Biden, threatened to ban TikTok, a video-sharing platform (Weir, 2023). Senators have even initiated legislation that bans children under thirteen years old from having a social media account.
The mental health of youth continues to deteriorate, and parents, legislators, and teachers have given an alert on social media. Despite negative discussions surrounding social media, it is critical to realize its benefits for young people (Weir, 2023). Hence, APA’s recommendations aim to offer a science-supported balance to the conversation. This aims to reach out to the teens and assist them in utilizing these social networking sites appropriately.
Major Perspectives: For and Against
In the digital era, many people worldwide are expected to exploit social media. Therefore, for children raised with technology, these digital media have been integrated into their lifestyle. Consequently, guidelines must be formulated, and teens must be educated to apply social media safely to benefit their lives. In 2021, many students reported depressive signs, with LGBTQ+ youth and girls having higher rates of suicidal thoughts and poor mental health.
The youth may be specifically susceptible to the charms of social media and its harms. Young people turn to social media for peer contact, and eventually, they may accidentally encounter harmful content (Weir, 2023). Hence, adults need to assist children in getting the best out of these platforms by supporting them in utilizing online networking sites to engage with their peers positively.
The argument is that social media interaction may facilitate healthy socialization among youths, mostly when facing social isolation or stress. For those teens with anxiety or struggling with social circumstances, sharing their experiences on social media may be a crucial move towards feeling relieved and comfortable associating with peers physically. Further, through social media, adolescents tend to find individuals with similar interests and identities.
Additionally, social media can develop an opportunity among the populations of clinical teens to establish supportive social correlations that would have been logistically difficult or challenging before its evolution (Prinstein et al., 2020). In addition, it is argued that social media offers a lot of avenues for youths to learn new information about current events, engage with problems affecting them and society, and have their views heard (Weir, 2023). They can explore their identities through social media, a significant activity of their years.
Arguments presented against social media creating opportunities for youth are they come with their repercussions. Extreme exploitation of social media may interfere with physical activities, sleep, face-to-face social interactions, and school work (Weir, 2023). Young people spend more hours interacting with their peers daily through electronically mediated sites than attending school, sleeping, or associating with adults (Prinstein et al., 2020). Although adolescents often have electronic contact with peers, most report feeling isolated and lonely from genuine and physical social interactions.
Further, they are frequently exposed to risky, illegal, and manipulated content through social media that can pose dangers for mental health development matters. Social media has made teens consider all the information they access through social media and know it is essential for their development. Social media appears skillfully designed to exploit normative adolescent susceptibilities, providing irresistible avenues for them to yearn for social rewards all night and day, together with the fear of missing out on online social encounters (Prinstein et al., 2020).
In addition, online content on these social networking sites may promote risky behaviors, for example, self-harm and disorder eating. Most patients with eating disorders have attributed it to online behavior (Weir, 2023). Therefore, setting boundaries and limits around it, along with adult coaching and discussion, present the best approach to facilitate positive results for adolescents.
The Evolution of Views and Issues Over Time
Digital media usage, such as social media, among adolescents has increased drastically over the past decade. In their development, they have become growingly centered on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. To boost their sense of belonging and self-esteem within their social interactions, youth post content on these social networking sites with the hope of getting positive feedback.
Together with that information with a potential future rewards model, they get a recipe for persistently checking social media networks that contribute to addiction. They even tend to compare their likes; thus, missing experiences may develop into despair and fear. This can be associated with cases of psychopathology like non-suicidal self-harm, and suicidal behaviors and thoughts, anxiety, and depression have escalated over the past few years (Prinstein et al., 2020). Hence, many scholars have suspected the potential connection between the use of social media and the surge in the prevalence of youth mental health issues.
Nowadays, it is considered that social media is something people must learn to cope with. Approximately 4.9 billion persons globally are projected to use social media daily (Weir, 2023). This implies that social media cannot be separated from people’s lives; they must learn to live with it. Despite its being woven into people’s lives, its dangers cannot be accepted. Still, proper directives and policies should be established to teach teens better ways of using social media to their advantage.
With the increasing digital media content in these modern days, protecting kids online is essential for individuals and the country. Moreover, social media utilization among adolescents has changed social behaviors online and transformed the importance of social constructs studied before its advent (Prinstein et al., 2020). Without proper guidance on the application of social media platforms, youth will continue to experience mental health problems associated with its usage.
Impact of the Issue on Daily Life and Broader Concerns
Social media has emerged as an issue affecting the daily lives of the youths and other life matters such as health, education, gender, race, and business. There are growing concerns over the influence of social media on academic success. It has been noted that social media utilization and attention significantly affect student academic performance. Similarly, when motivation was regarded as a predictor, it forecasted academic performance was exceeding and afar social media exploitation (Barton et al., 2021). Subsequently, it shows that social media exploration affects learning negatively.
Further, mental health for youth has deteriorated over the past decade with an increase in the use of social media. Adolescents spend a lot of time online seeing troubling trends. Governments across the globe are under pressure to intervene and control technology firms partly due to the concerns that there is a connection between these trends and psychological issues among children. For instance, in the United Kingdom, the parliament is debating on the Online Safety Bill that aims to protect kids from harmful content on social media platforms (Orben & Blakemore, 2023).
Besides, the European Union (EU) approved the Digital Services Act, which has initiated strict directives demanding corporations to remove illegal content posted on their websites (Orben & Blakemore, 2023, p 410). There is a demand for social media firms to prioritize the health and well-being of adolescents in their phases of product development (Orben & Blakemore, 2023). It reveals an increasing trend in creating awareness to control the adverse effects of social media among teens.
Conclusion
In conclusion, social media presents both benefits and drawbacks to adolescents. Some advantages are that it promotes healthy socialization, sharing information, and meeting people with similar interests and identities. Youth also get contact with their support networks through social media platforms. However, these benefits come at a cost to those who are vulnerable. For example, applying them for comparisons and the feedback associated with physical looks is connected to poor body image, depressive symptoms, and eating disorders among girls. It affects their mental health issues, leading to their suffering and low academic performance academically. Hence, its use should be controlled and employed by adults.
References
Barton, B. A., Adams, K. S., Browne, B. L., & Arrastia-Chisholm, M. C. (2021). The effects of social media usage on attention, motivation, and academic performance. Active Learning in Higher Education, 22(1), 11-22. Web.
Orben, A., & Blakemore, S.-J. (2023). How social media affects teen mental health:A missing link. Nature, 614(7948), 410–412. Web.
Prinstein, M. J., Nesi, J., & Telzer, E. H. (2020). Commentary: An updated agenda for the study of digital media use and adolescent development – future directions following Odgers & Jensen (2020). Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 61(3), 349–352. Web.
Weir, K. (2023). Social media brings benefits and risks to teens. here’s how psychology can help identify a path forward. American Psychological Association. Web.