On a personal level I have first-hand come to realize how social media can affect one's mental health. I remember when I first got on social media, I was constantly comparing myself to other females on the platform and wished that I could look like how they did. Then I was fixated on how many likes I got on each of my posts. Social media was destroying my mental health and self-esteem day in and day out. I would constantly look at my phone to see if I had any notifications from someone trying to follow me or liking one of my posts. However, I made changes and over the years since then I have made sure to take time away from social media by completely deleting my accounts and refocusing in on me when I started to feel the negative impact again. Social media can be dangerous but if used properly it can be beneficial and fun.
Now on the other hand I do believe social media can cause harm to mental health with no doubt in my mind, but I do not think it is the app's fault. I think as being in the generation that grew up with social media, we were not shown how to properly use it because our parents did not fully grow up with it like we did and so they did not know how to guide us on it. When a young teen has social media, they are focused on being a part of the popular trends and looking their best and wanting to get more followers and more likes. They focus on the things that at the end of the day do not truly matter because it is not real life. They become obsessed with it constantly scrolling and finding thing's they want to do because they want to fit in and be like the influencers they follow. Over the years teens and even younger adults have fallen into the habit of doom scrolling which alone can mess with one's brain. It becomes a habit to scroll through social media rather than get schoolwork done or do chores around the house. It has almost become like an addiction for some. Then there is the other side to social media that should be focused on. Social media alone holds large amounts of information. From news outlets and branded pages, social media can be a resource to learn new things. For me personally I follow pages that will keep me updated on what is going on in our world like Fox News, Business Insider and so many more. If you use social media in a positive way as for educational reasons or even following more positive pages and limiting how much time you spend on the apps it can be useful and fun.
Social media can affect mental health in a negative way if misused but if you learn positive ways to use platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok they can be beneficial. Social media is not a bad thing but as a society as these platforms continue to grow bigger it is our duty to help younger generations learn to properly use it, so they are not negatively affected.
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