Social media and the effects on American adolescents

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Social media has grown in popularity, and many people around the world now use it. People use social media to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (such as videos).^[1] Around 95% of young people between the ages of 13–17 use at least one social media platform,^[2] making it a major influence on young adolescents. While some authors claim that social media is to blame for the increase in anxiety and depression, most review papers report that the association between the two is weak or inconsistent.^[3]

Social media may positively affect adolescents by promoting a feeling of inclusion, providing greater access to more friends, and enhancing romantic relationships. Social media allows people to communicate with other people using social media, no matter the distance between them.^[4] Some adolescents with social and emotional issues feel more included with social media and online activities.^[5] Social media can give people a sense of belonging which can lead to an increase in identity development. Adolescents that post pictures on social media can look back on their memories, and their positive emotions can be related to a sense of their true identity.^[4] Additionally, social media can provide a way to communicate with friends and family when alone.^[6]

Adolescents who use social media tend to be more outgoing and interact more with others online and in person. According to Newport Academy, teens who spend more time on non-screen activities, such as sports, exercise, in-person social interaction, or any other in-person activities are less likely to report any mental issues, such as anxiety or depression.^[7] Social media provide adolescents within the United States the ability to connect with people from other countries. Being involved in social media typically improves communication skills, social connections, and technical skills. Furthermore, adolescents who are students can use social media to seek academic help.^[8] The appropriate usage of social media has developed favorable academic environments for both, the students and the teaching faculty, offering the potential benefits in the process of learning information.^[9]

According to research conducted by Dr. John Gilmour and his coauthors, social media exposure, specifically Facebook, has allowed the general population to have positive interactions and gain social support from their family and friends, which in turn benefits their overall well-being. Social support is defined as the extent to which an individual feels a sense of value and belongingness to a social group.^[10] Although several studies have found that general Facebook use has a negative impact on mental health, Facebook use has a variety of positive mental health outcomes when used to seek and provide social support.^[10] Gilmour and his research team used academic databases and located 27 articles related to individuals’ use of Facebook as a mechanism for social support. The articles did not consider adolescents and adults separately, but rather focused on the general population of Facebook users.

After analyzing all 27 articles, the researchers concluded that the more active a person is on Facebook, the greater the opportunities for receiving social support.^[10] Furthermore, higher levels of Facebook-based social support predicted greater positive mental health outcomes.^[10] These outcomes include, but are not limited to, a decrease in depression, anxiety, and loneliness, as well as an increase in general psychological well-being.^[10]

Focusing on adolescents, J. Pouwels and her coauthors conducted a 3-week study to determine whether social media has a positive impact on adolescents’ close friendships, characterized by supportiveness, responsiveness, and accessibility.^[11] A total of 387 adolescents who were active on Instagram, WhatsApp, and Snapchat completed a 2-minute survey six times per day.^[11] They reported the amount of time they spent on these three social media platforms, as well as their momentary experiences of friendship closeness.^[11] Findings suggested that the more time spent on Instagram and WhatsApp, the higher degree of friendship closeness as reported on the surveys.^[11]

Similar results were found in a study conducted by Dr. Lauren Shapiro and Dr. Gayla Margolin. Their study found that social media has a positive impact on the development of adolescents’ social relationships.^[12] The researchers administered self-report questionnaires to gather these findings. Their results suggest that social networking sites make it easier for adolescents to communicate and share feelings and experiences because it is less threatening than face-to-face interactions. In addition, online communications were found to lead to closer, high-quality friendships among adolescents.^[12] As discovered by this study, social networking sites can also foster identity development for adolescents.^[12] Specifically, social media provides many opportunities for self-disclosure, which researchers believe plays a role in identity development. Adolescents that participated in the study reported being able to learn more about themselves through using social media.^[12]

Although social media offers positives to teenagers, there are also negatives that come with it. These types of content may be even more risky for teens who already have a mental health condition. Being exposed to discrimination, hate or cyberbullying on social media also can raise the risk of anxiety or depression. What teens share about themselves on social media also matters. With the teenage brain, it's common to make a choice before thinking it through. So, teens might post something when they're angry or upset, and regret it later. That's known as stress posting.

According to Living Skills in Schools,

Addiction is based on dopamine dependence. Dopamine is the brain's chemical signal for pleasure, excitement, and motivation. The addiction process begins through the hacking of the dopamine system by an outside source. The dopamine becomes spiked, dysregulated, and the brain is flooded with this chemical.^[13]

This outside source of technology addiction can impact dopamine receptors long term affecting attention span, critical thinking and problem solving.^[14]

In the article, "Unveiling the Dark Side of Social Networking Sites: Personal and Work-related Consequences of Social Networking Site Addiction" by Murad Moqbel and Ned Kock, they expand on Social Networking Sites (SNS), and the negative effects it causes among people have excessive use. Moqbel; et al. say that: "Although SNS addiction is not formally recognized as a diagnosis, it can be broadly defined as a psychological dependence on the use of SNSs that interferes with other important activities and yields negative consequences".^[15] The article discusses how excessive use of SNS causes people to perform poorly at work and how it causes distractions, like not doing their jobs correctly. This article is based on a survey of 276 corporate employees. The authors explain that: "However, excessive use of these SNSs may also promote negative outcomes, such as addiction, distraction, reduced positive emotions, low performance, and poor health".^[15] SNS can have positive effects on work such as communication, but excessive use makes it affect you at work and may cause different mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. Also, in this article, it is discussed who is more likely to suffer from SNS addiction and the reason. Anyone can suffer from SNS addiction, however, there is a specific group that is more vulnerable to suffering from SNS. The authors explain that: "One of the earliest studies on SNS addiction reported that young people are more vulnerable to falling into SNS addiction".^[15] Young people use SNS more because they want to see what other friends are doing in addition to following the public lives of celebrities, for example. The problem gets worse when they become obsessed and it becomes a competition to show "who has a better life". That is when depression begins and young people compare themselves to other people's lives. This is called social cognition, and that is when a person wants to imitate or follow what they learn from seeing another person. The study concludes by showing that, of the 276 people who participated in the survey, the majority suffer from depression and mental disorders due to excessive use of SNS since they were young, and that it affects them in their daily life and work. SNS causes them to have distractions and perform poorly. If they had positive emotions, they could have better performances and better health. Sadly, the results of this survey show negative effects such as bad performances at work due to distractions and depression.

Many research studies have also analyzed the negative effects of social media on adolescents’ mental health, however. In the same study conducted by Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Margolin, they discovered that social networking sites, such as Facebook, make it easier for adolescents to compare themselves to their peers.^[12] Based on the results of this research study, social comparison can have a strong negative impact on adolescents’ self-esteem.^[12] Self-report surveys revealed that the more time adolescents spent on Facebook, the more they believed others were better off or happier than themselves.^[12]

Along with accomplishments and happiness, physical attractiveness is also a significant aspect of social comparison.^[12] Preadolescence is a period when children start to become exposed to social media and is also a period when they start to develop body image concerns and depression.^[16] Since individuals posting on social media tend to only present the best version of themselves online, research has shown that this can cause adolescents to perceive others as more attractive than themselves.^[16] In the study administered by Dr. Shapiro and Dr. Margolin, female adolescents reported having a more negative body image after looking at beautiful photos of other women versus looking at less attractive photos on social media.^[12] While online, teens can be exposed to content revolving around self-harm, body shaming, bullying, unrealistic beauty standards and eating disorders.^[17]

Young adults also seem to experience higher symptoms of anxiety because of attempting to keep up with social media's warped beauty standards. Hawes et al. (2020) found that increased social media usage, along with trying to stay up-to-date with beauty and fashion trends, could be damaging to those who already struggle with body image issues.^[18] This study researched the relationship between social media use and maladjustment, focusing on appearance-related content and symptoms of anxiety. They had two hypotheses, one being that appearance-related (AR) social media preoccupation would correlate with more symptoms of depression and social anxiety, and the other being that AR social media preoccupation use intensifies the use of social media with appearance anxiety.^[18] They used 763 adolescents of mixed genders from ages 12–17. They also tested college students from ages 16–25. The participants completed surveys that inquired about social media use, symptoms of general anxiety, appearance anxiety, and depression.^[18] They found that social media use can be associated with worse emotional adjustment in adolescents and young adults as well as that appearance-related social media preoccupation elevated symptoms of appearance anxiety.^[18]

Further investigation has suggested that spending an excessive amount of time on social media can lead to depressive symptoms, which in turn may increase the risk for social isolation or even suicidal ideation.^[12] In a recent survey of teens, it was discovered that 35% of teens use at least one of five social media platforms multiple times throughout the day.^[19] Many policymakers have expressed concerns regarding the potential negative impact of social media on mental health because of its relation to suicidal thoughts and ideation.^[20] A study conducted by Dr. Chloe Berryman and her coauthors looked into the phenomenon called "vague booking," which refers to individuals intentionally wording their social media posts in a way that they believe will obtain concern from others. These posts may even function as a cry for help.^[20] This study found that young adults who partook in vague booking and relied on social media as their emotional outlet reported greater loneliness and suicidal thoughts than those who were not vague booking.^[20]

Social comparison theory examines how people establish their personal value by comparing themselves to others.^[21] These social comparisons and related feelings of jealousy, when made on social media platforms, can lead to the development of symptoms of depression in users.^[22] Depression is common also for children and adolescents who have been cyberbullied.^[23] According to Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance – United States, 2015, nationwide, 15.5% of students had been electronically bullied, counting being bullied through e-mail, chat rooms, instant messaging, websites, or texting, during the 12 months before the survey.^[24] Using 7 or more social media platforms has been correlated with a higher risk of anxiety and depression in adolescents.^[25]

One important aspect that is a huge factor in how teens react to media is the social learning theory. In Banduras experiment, "Bobo Dolls experiment on Social Learning," demonstrates how kids learn from social environments.^[26] In his experiment he has kids observe adults being exceedingly kind to the bobo dolls, when left in the room with just the kid and the bobo doll, the kids treated it nicely just as the adult did. In contrast that when the kids observed the adults punching and hurting the bobo doll, children did the same when alone with the bobo doll. As teens learn from their peers or idols online, they tend to duplicate that behavior just like the kids did with the bobo dolls in Bandura's experiment. If teens are viewing people with a social media platform online demonstrating certain inappropriate behaviors, they may learn from this and recreate the behavior.

Social media can significantly influence body image concerns in female adolescents.^[27] Young women who are easily influenced by the images of others on social media may hold themselves to an unrealistic standard for their bodies because of the prevalence of digital image alteration. Social media can be a gateway to Body dysmorphic disorder. Dana Johns, MD, a plastic surgeon at the University of Utah Health says, "Selfie' or 'Snapchat' dysmorphia is essentially the new age social media upgrade to a long-standing disorder."^[28] According to the APA, these unrealistic beauty standards are detrimental to the developing mind and can cause serious mental health issues.^[29]

Engaging with social media platforms two hours before falling asleep can affect sleep quality, and a longer duration of digital media use is associated with reduced total sleep time.^[30] The phenomena of "Facebook depression" is a condition which comes to surface when young adults have a higher usage of Facebook and tend to manifest the actual symptoms of depression.^[31] Youths who frequently use social media increase their risk of depression by 27 percent, while those who dedicate themselves to outdoor activities don't have that much risk.^[32] Sleep deprivation may also be another common factor in teens. According to the Mayo Clinic, a 2016 study that was conducted on more than 450 teens found that greater social media use, nighttime social media use, and emotional investment in social media, such as feeling upset when prevented from logging on, were each linked with worse sleep quality that could increase the levels of anxiety and depression.

In the article, "Adolescent Social Media Use and Mental Health from Adolescent and Parent Perspectives" by Christopher T. Barry, Chloe L. Sidoti, Shanelle M. Briggs, Shari R. Reiter, and Rebecca A. Lindsey, there is a sample survey conducted with 226 participants (113 parent-adolescent days) from throughout the United States, with adolescents (55 males, 51 females, 7 unreported) ranging from ages 14 to 17. In this study, both adolescents and parents provide social media use of adolescents' social networks. The hypothesis question of this survey is: "Are parent-reported symptoms of inattention, hyperactivity/impulsivity, conduct problems (i.e. symptoms of Oppositional Defiant Disorder [ODD] and Conduct Disorder [CD]), depression, and anxiety related to the reported number of adolescents' social media accounts and the frequency with which adolescents report checking their social media accounts?"^[33] Something very important that the authors of this survey say is that: "The present study represents an area of ever-growing importance, as approximately 24% of U.S. teens report being online ‘almost constantly’ with much of that time being spent on social media applications".^[33] Nowadays, young people spend a large part of their day on social networks in different applications. The study concluded by saying that due to young people's excessive use of social media, they have high levels of anxiety, stress, fear of missing out, and hyperactivity. The more time they spend on social media, the higher the levels. Furthermore, due to time on social media, teenagers tend to feel more lonely and sad. This may be due to comparing themselves with other people on social networks, or cyberbullying. The authors explain that: "These latter findings are particularly noteworthy in that they cannot be explained by shared source variance, as adolescent-reported social media activity was associated with externalizing and internalizing symptoms as reported by parents"^[33] The results show that these mental problems are individual, not hereditary. The authors conclude that there should be more limitations to protect young people from the excessive use of social media since, due to its excessive use, the levels of mental problems or depressive symptoms increase. Parents should guide young people on this complicated topic, and have limitations on the use of social media to prevent young people from having high levels of depression or other mental problems.

In the article, "Associations Between Time Spent Using Social Media and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems Among US Youth" by Kira E. Riehm, Kenneth A. Feder, Kayla N. Tormohlen, et al., they report the results of a cohort study of 6,595 US adolescents on the use of social networks. They divided the study into 3 waves; waves 1 (September 12, 2013, to December 14, 2014), 2 (October 23, 2014, to October 30, 2015), and 3 (October 18, 2015, to October 23, 2016). Young people today are using social networks intensely and much more frequently, causing depression and anxiety among them. The question for the Self-reported time spent on social media during a typical day was divided by (none, ≤30 minutes, >30 minutes to ≤3 hours, >3 hours to ≤6 hours, and >6 hours) during the waves. The study shows that “Adolescents who spend more than 3 hours per day on social media may be at heightened risk for mental health problems, including internalizing problems”.^[34] By using social media excessively they begin to compare themselves and create complexities and insecurities. Adolescents who use social media for more than 3 hours a day could suffer from insomnia or other mental disorders such as low self-esteem. The study shows that young people aged 12–15 tend to use their phones between 3 and 6 hours a day, although many of them spend the entire 6 hours. The authors believe that the use of social media could be limited and there could be more guidance to young people on this topic, as well as more research should be done on limiting social media.

Although a large aspect of policymaking is creating or changing laws, this is not always the case. Policymaking can also include other types of established standards, for example, parents’ rules or policies restricting their child's social media exposure. Since social media is easily accessible to nearly everyone, there are few laws regarding adolescents’ exposure to social media. However, there is substantial evidence that parents’ policies regarding the time their child spends on social media has an impact on their child's mental health.

One particular study, conducted by Dr. Jasmine Fardouly and her coauthors, involved a sample of 528 preadolescent social media users between the ages of 10 and 12 and one of their parents. Both children and their parents completed online surveys.^[16] Some of the parents involved in the study enforced social media policies for their children, such as setting rules that limit the amount of time their child spent on social media.^[16] Results from this study showed that preadolescents with parents who had greater control over their child's time on social media reported better overall mental health.^[16] The researchers found that parents who reduced the amount of time their child spent on social media resulted in their child being less exposed to content harmful to their emotional health.^[16] More parental control over time spent on social media was also found to be associated with preadolescents making fewer appearance comparisons online.^[16] The authors of this study concluded that fewer social media appearance comparisons were associated with higher adolescent appearance satisfaction and life satisfaction, as well as lower depressive symptoms.^[16]

The article, "No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression" by Melissa G. Hunt, Rachel Marx, Courtney Lipson, and Jordyn Young, reports a research study of 143 undegraded students at the University of Pennsylvania who were randomly assigned to limit Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat use to 10 minutes a day per app. The results are incredibly positive. The authors explain that: "As of March 2018, 68% of adults in the United States had a Facebook account, and 75% of these people reported using Facebook on a daily basis. Furthermore, 78% of young adults (ages 18– 24) used Snapchat, while 71% of young adults used Instagram"^[35] Here we can see a large number of young people between 18 and 24 years old use social networks. The survey also served to see the levels of anxiety, depression, and loneliness of the participants. The authors explain that: "Both loneliness and depressive symptoms declined in the experimental group".^[35] Studies show that participants lowered their levels of depression and anxiety due to limiting their time on social media. One of the excuses that young people use is that they use social media to connect and talk to their family or friends, but the authors explain that: "It is ironic, but perhaps not surprising, that reducing social media, which promised to help us connect with others, actually helps people feel less lonely and depressed"^[35] The authors conclude by saying that this survey was a success by limiting social media use to only 30 minutes a day. The level of depression and loneliness in the participants decreased and they were able to communicate better in person, something they had not done at all before. This article because it proves my argument that if there were a social media limit, people's self-esteem would improve.

In June 2024, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called for social media platforms to contain a warning about the impact they have on the mental health of young people.^[36]

In conclusion, there is a social problem with social networks and their excessive use. This social problem affects everyone, but it affects young Americans the most. If there are no measures or laws, this problem will continue to grow. Something that would help combat this problem is to create limits on the time spent on social media, and this is something as individuals we could do. Little by little, we will help this problem reach the ears of our governments and new measures or laws may be passed that limit time on social media. Due to the excessive use of social media, young people create different mental problems and high levels of depression, loneliness, anxiety, and. This affects them in their daily lives, limits them to doing things they normally do, and affects their academic or work performance. It is in our hands to educate our young people and raise awareness about this social problem so that they are not affected and have strengthened mental health. The purpose of this wiki post was to show information about the effects caused by excessive use of social media on young people and to demonstrate possible solutions to it.

• Instagram's impact on people

• "Global: TikTok's 'For You' feed risks pushing children and young people towards harmful mental health content". Amnesty International. 7 November 2023.

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