By Addison Brunetti ’26
Throughout the world, in this day and age, many people are able to access phones. A phone can be very useful when needing a way to find information for school, fitness goals, alarms, etc. Although phones are useful for certain situations, having social media and being on the internet every day for an excessive amount of time can affect your physical and mental health. It can slowly start to affect your learning ways and your brain growth. It can even start to slowly artibue to self harm, depression, addiction problems, and even suicide. Many websites show real percentage rates of the amount of people who openly took a survey about the effects of a cell phone including an article which states, ”Ultimately, we can easily become addicted. In total, 420 million people around the world are dependent on the internet. 60% of US college students believe that they’re addicted to their smartphones, and 10% of US social media users are addicted to the platform(s) they hang out in” (“How Does the Internet Affect Your Health?”). Social media being accessible for teenagers can affect their mental and physical health. Many researchers have proven that the internet affects the brain and how people can change because of the usage of it. Social media companies should have a time limit to how much time you can spend on social media.
When talking about social media, people think about all the funny posts and how they are able to scroll for hours. What people don’t realize is how social media can contribute to having bad mental health. When people use social media, it usually releases dopamine, which can be seen as a “feel good chemical” and is pleasurable just as much as food, doing fun activities, etc. This can affect how your everyday life is, always anticipating that little adrenaline rush you get from social media texts and it may take you away from real life world interactions, affecting your mood. A quote from an article relating to the topic of how social media contributes to bad mental health states, “‘The less you are connected with human beings in a deep, empathic way, the less you’re really getting the benefits of a social interaction,’ points out Alexandra Hamlet, PsyD, a clinical psychologist. ‘The more superficial it is, the less likely it’s going to cause you to feel connected, which is something we all need’” (Miller). Having a face-to-face conversation can help boost your mood but when there is only a conversation being created over a phone you don’t get that human interaction, which can cause depression, a feeling of isolation and loneliness.
Additionally, kids also may start to feel a type of loneliness based on the amount of reassurement they receive on social media. If their friends/people don’t compliment them on their post or interact with the post, they are going to feel bad about themselves and start to feel perturbation. Another part of a website which Miller talks about states, “Kids spend so much time on social media trying to post what they think the world will think is a perfect life. Look at how happy I am! Look how beautiful I am! Without that they’re worried that their friends won’t accept them” (Miller). Kids still continue to start judging how others look and have a lower self esteem to look prettier because of the desire to please everyone else. They judge themselves based on how people judge them which can create bad anxiety for a child and cause them to fall into a spiraling depression or even death as a result of suicide.
Online people are inconsiderate and share rude remarks to others online which can make a person’s mind fall into the path of depression because of sorrow and stress over what somebody said. Cyberbullying is a big part of the negative aspects of social media. Cyber bullying connects to many horrible situations including suicide, self harm, anxiety, etc., which young kids can and do expreince over the course of over accessible social media use. It affects people’s whole life and harms a way someone may act or feel as it states in an article: “About 10 percent of teens report being bullied on social media and many other users are subjected to offensive comments. Social media platforms such as Twitter can be hotspots for spreading hurtful rumors, lies, and abuse that can leave lasting emotional scars” (”Social Media and Mental Health: Social Media Addiction”). Out of numerous websites, this article shows an explanation and even a rate of how teenangers are bothered and traumatized by using social media platforms, giving a good reasoning on why we should put a time limit on these platforms.
Even though social media is seen as bad in that way, it doesn’t stop anybody from having the craving desire to be stuck on their phone, on social media, half the day. Addiction problems are real and so is the change of someone’s physical health when addicted to the internet and social media. In an article Mclean states, “The platforms are designed to be addictive and are associated with anxiety, depression, and even physical ailments” (“Here’s How Social Media Affects Your Mental Health”). Social media can create psychological cravings off of that addicting distraction. For kids growing up, having social media accessible isn’t a way to grow a kid’s creative thinking. Social media can alternate the brain’s thinking and affect various things including your attention span, growing addiction, low self esteem outcomes, etc., as it states in this article, ”Brain studies have found that excessive internet use changes multiple brain areas. These brain areas are involved in attention span, language development, and cognition, among other functions. Excessive internet use causes a decline in the function of these brain areas” (“How Does Internet Addiction Affect Mental Health?”). The brain can also lose track of time, starting to forget things quickly and fail to prioritize the important things in life.
It can hurt the body and cause pains with your eyes, hands, face, etc., which it states in an article, ”According to the American Optometric Association (AOA), a significant number of patients complain about eye strain, as well as neck and back pain in association with using a computer or mobile device. Headaches, blurred vision, dry eyes, and light sensitivity may be experienced from long hours in front of a screen” (“Does My Internet Usage Affect My Health? | Medicine or Malarkey”). Being on the phone every day isn’t normal and it doesn’t help the physical side of our body, which is a good reason showing if we had a time limit to these apps, our body wouldn’t have to be put under the stress it is.
Others about this topic may argue that social media has its good sides. It gives us a way to communicate with others, make new friends, seek emotional support at rough times, discover new and valuable information about the real world, and they aren’t wrong. The internet can be good, but when it is overused and becomes more of an addiction, that’s when it starts to pick up the bad mental and physical health part of it. Social media likewise creates people to have a wider set of thinking space, too much, to the point it can create anxiety, letting you overthink, and possibly even start to grow FOMO. The anxiety can increasingly get severe from all the negative news, bad reports. In this quote, Miller talks about how FOMO/overthinking can affect you, stating, ”Instead we might be occupied with worrying why we weren’t invited to a party we’re seeing on Instagram, or making sure we don’t miss a single post from a friend. But if we’re always playing catch-up to endless online updates, we’re prioritizing social interactions that aren’t as emotionally rewarding and can actually make us feel more isolated” (Miller).
In conclusion, social media does and continues to affect peoples health. The internet can affect your whole life, changing your perspective, mood, brain growth, etc. Social media being accessible for teenager’s can affect their mental and physical health. Many researchers have proven that the internet affects the brain and how people can change because of the usage of it. Social media companies should have a time limit to how much time you can spend on social media. Though the media can be fun and entertaining, when it is overused it can harm a person’s physical and mental health, which is why there should be a time limit to the amount of time used on the apps.
Works Cited
“Does My Internet Usage Affect My Health? | Medicine or Malarkey.” CareSpot, https://www.carespot.com/blog/does-internet-usage-affect-your-health/. Accessed 16 May 2024.
“Here’s How Social Media Affects Your Mental Health.” McLean Hospital, 29 March 2024, https://www.mcleanhospital.org/essential/it-or-not-social-medias-affecting-your-mental-health. Accessed 16 May 2024.
“How Does Internet Addiction Affect Mental Health?” Simcoe Addiction and Mental Health, 12 January 2024, https://www.simcoerehab.ca/2024/01/12/how-does-internet-addiction-affect-mental-health/. Accessed 16 May 2024.
“How Does the Internet Affect Your Health?” LinkedIn, 26 July 2022, https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/how-does-internet-affect-your-health-visitoranalytics. Accessed 16 May 2024.
Miller, Caroline. “Does Social Media Use Cause Depression?” Child Mind Institute, https://childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/. Accessed 14 May 2024.
“Social Media and Mental Health: Social Media Addiction.” HelpGuide.org, https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm. Accessed 15 May 2024.
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