Social media is becoming harmful and dangerous to teens mental health

Teenagers can use social media to find community, but their

mental health is often negatively affected by this culture of comparison. Social media has given teens way more freedom then they should have. It lets people post harmful things that just should not be public because you never know who can be seriously affected by that.

This also follows after cyberbullying which social media pages allows teens and kids that should not even be allowed on social media to say anything they want to and bully others which has lead to teens committing suicide and feeling insecure about themselves because of what someone on their facebook or instagram or snapchat thinks about them.In addition, this leads to teens being depressed, suicidal thoughts and also failure in school. ”Cyber bullying is associated with depression and anxiety and elevated risk of suicidal thoughts.

According to psycom.net “to much time scrolling through social media can result in symptoms of anxiety/depression”. Lea a student at forsyth satellite said “having social media brings down because when she see others happy and she’s not it affects her”.

Those who spent more time on social media had 2.2 times the risk of reporting eating and body image concerns. Also a student at forsyth satellite academy Jeancarlos commented on how often he is on his social media profile saying “Everyday, its like a regular thing to me, it became a habit.” Therefore social media is harming a lot of teens and becoming addicting.

Social media are affecting teens social skills as well which is essential. As it says on psycom.net “Social interaction skills require daily practice even for teens. It’s difficult to build empathy and comparison when teens spend more time engaging online then they do in person. Human connection is a powerful tool and builds skills that last a lifetime.”

The need to gain likes on social media can cause teens to make choices they would not make other wise, including altering their appearance, engaging in negative behaviors and accepting risky social media challenges.

As claimed by psycom.net “though many teens know that their peers share only their highlight reels on social media, it is very difficult to avoid making comparisons. Everything from physical appearance to life circumstances to perceived success and failures are under a microscope on social media.” As you can see social media is becoming more and more threatening to teens mental health. This can cause teens to feel insecure about themselves because of what they don’t have that someone else has.

As a result, teens should be limited on the access they have on social media. This would reduce the number of teens that are feeling suicidal or committed suicide. Furthermore, cyberbullying would also be reduced. This can help teens also with their social skills, they would be spending less time on their phones without full access to their social media profiles. Without social media teens would be able to focus more.