How Does Social Media Affect Mental Health in Children and Adolescents?
There is no denying that social media is a generation-defining influence in today’s world. About 4.9 billion people of all ages use social media across the globe every year. Social media gives us the potential to engage with content that inspires us, gives us skills, and connects us to peers almost constantly.
However, the algorithms that generate the content we see are expertly designed to keep us engaged for as long as possible. The benefits of accessing social media can become excessive and even detrimental if not used in moderation; interfering with our sleep cycles, physical activity, school or work responsibilities, and person-to-person interactions.
With the larger-than-life role social media plays in our lives today, how does it affect the mental health of children and adolescents?
Teenagers today spend an average of 3.5 hours per day on social media. Research shows that children and adolescents who spend more than 3 hours per day on social media are twice as likely to experience mental health challenges like depression, anxiety, and negative body image.
Why? Social media can amplify our sense of what is missing in our lives; spitting out seemingly flawless images of people who appear better looking, smarter, richer, and more interesting than us. Young people are regularly exposed to unrealistic representations of their peers, which can hurt their self-esteem by making them feel inadequate in comparison.
For young people, social media can be especially alluring-and potential risky- because during puberty, the brain and body go through a series of natural, but intense changes that incline them to desire attention from their peers. Validation, connection, and risk-taking are all important parts of this phase of development. The combination of these factors can make social media an irresistible outlet for teens who are trying to figure out who they are.
To make this issue even more complex, youth today seem to be experiencing a record-high rate of mental health challenges, including anxiety, depression, substance misuse, and even thoughts of suicide. The Surgeon General of the United States issued a special report, or “advisory,” identifying the issue of rising youth mental health problems and the role of social media as a matter of urgent national attention. The report explains the widespread mental health problems youth are experiencing today by a variety of causes, including the pandemic, increased academic pressure, digital media, limited access to quality mental health care, and broader stressors like climate change, gun violence, the opioid epidemic, and social inequality.
The good news is, these risks can often be prevented with the support of adults who place limits on screen time, and who recognize signs of problematic use. This explains why 60% of youth who say they have low parental monitoring and weak parental relationships report having “poor” or “very poor” mental health.
Here are some recommendations for families and care givers that can help youth develop healthy behaviors on social media sites:
- The recommended age for most popular social media sites-Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), and Snapchat- is 13. This is because these sites collect so much personal information and require users to exercise discretion when interacting with others.
- Set up online accounts together. Know their usernames and passwords, set up parental controls and privacy settings to ensure their account is not visible to strangers, and use the time as an opportunity to discuss staying safe online. Help young people understand that people they meet online are not always who they say they are, and they should never “friend” people they don’t know, or agree to meet people in person.
- Teach them to keep personal information private. Make sure they know not to share their full name, address, log in information, phone number, age, location, geo-tagged photos with people online. Explain why log in information should not be shared with friends, even if they are trusted.
- Charge youth’s devices in an off-limits location, like an adult’s bedroom. This prevents use of technology at nighttime, and instills the expectation that devices will be off-limits at certain times.
- Ask questions. What features of social media platforms add value to their lives, and why? Help them identify accounts that contribute positively to their lives, and eliminate ones that tend to make them feel bad about themselves.
- Model healthy use of social media. Practice what you preach! Just like overuse of social media affects young people, it affects adults, too. Showing that these habits of moderation are important with your actions will do a better job of reinforcing the lesson than simply telling youth what they should and shouldn’t do.
