3 Ways Social Media has Impacted Our Mental Health

In today’s society, social media plays a large role in people’s daily lives. Social media is considered as a form of online social communication; most would consider this to be an essential part of their daily lives. This issue is important due to the fact that although social media has many benefits, there are also many negatives to having social media. 3 ways that social media has impacted our mental health is social media addiction, teen mental health, and increased suicide rates.

Social Media Addiction

Social media addiction has become a bigger problem in today’s world now than ever before. It has become such a major problem that people let it interfere with their daily lives, activities, relationships, and their work. Since most individuals have social media readily available to them right at their fingertips, they choose to use social media as a place to gather their news. They also use it as a form of communication and a way to stay connected with their peers. A negative effect of social media addiction is that people become overly invested in what is happening on social media, rather than their everyday lives. Those who become overly invested in social media begin to lose face-to-face interaction. Additionally when individuals are addicted to social media they begin to compare their lives to the ones they see online.

Teen Mental Health

Teens these days are used to having all this social media in their lives because they grew up with it. For these young adults, most can’t remember a time where social media wasn’t a part of their everyday lives. According to The U.S. Surgeons General’s Advisory found that teens who spend more than 3 hours per day on social media have a higher risk for having mental health problems. For example they might face problems with depression and anxiety. It is crazy how much social media has an effect on teens these days and their mental health. Teens most of the time often turn to social media as a way to escape and take time to relax but studies have shown otherwise. Another thing that teens often do and people in general is compare their life to the ones they see on social media. This can cause them to want to shape their life into what they are seeing online.

Increased Suicide Rates

Due to social media being so prominent in people’s daily life activities and it affecting people’s mental health it can sometimes lead them to a deeper place. These rates also continue to grow as time goes on because social media is only growing. There are many things that go on with social media that lead social media users to this point. For example cyberbullying, depression, anxiety, and feeling like they have to live up to a specific standard. This makes it very hard on someone and when they feel as if they have had enough that is when people choose to give up. It’s not always what someone wants to do but they believe that it is the only way out.

Overall social media really does impact people’s mental health due to social media addiction, teen mental health, and suicide rate. Oftentimes people just choose to not believe that social media is influencing their mental health. Due to social media growing these days it is only going to get worse. Unless there become ways to limit how much time someone can spend on it. Hopefully one day but this how people’s lives are going to be due to having social media a part of our daily lives.