What are the negative effects of social media on mental health?
The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health: What's the Bad?
Alexa Klein, a student working at Reflet Salvéo this summer, shares the results of her research with us. Considering the popularity of social media and the importance of mental health, this article is timely!
According to a British study conducted in 2017 by the Royal Society for Public Health (RSPH), more than 90% of young people between the ages of 14 and 24 have an account on at least one of the following social networks: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat or Youtube. According to the same study, rates of insomnia and mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety for the same age group have increased by about 70% in the past 25 years. Social media therefore seem to have a very detrimental effect on the mental health of the hyper-connected new generation, but why? And can using social media have positive or negative effects?
The addictive nature of social media
Part of the blame for their customers' deteriorating mental health falls on network executives. Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Twitter are all built to create a highly addictive user interface. This addiction is so strong that in a 2017 study conducted by psychologist Dr. Adam Alter in the United States, young people in high school were given the option of getting their smartphone shattered or having a bone shattered. On the other side, 46% said they'd rather have a bone in their hand broken than their phone broken. Almost half of these teenagers were willing to put up with physical discomfort in order to remain linked! What is the explanation for this? The normal delays in our consumption are removed by social media, as is the confusion associated with acceptance.
Natural pauses. Prior to the advent of social media, our media experience was minimal. Our access to media is now unrestricted. Our television knowledge used to come to an end when it comes to reading the news or listening to a programme, for example. We opened the newspaper to read the news and read until we reached the last page. We would turn on the television to listen to a programme and then turn it off when the programme was over. Those normal pauses in our media consumption that served as brain stop signals are no longer present. Reading the news on Facebook or Snapchat is a never-ending experience thanks to the infinite scroll feature, which allows you to read indefinitely. Autoplay has made it almost impossible to listen to only one show or video on YouTube or Facebook, or to watch only one “storey” on Instagram or Snapchat. When one video or "plot" finishes, another begins automatically. It's not shocking, then, that these platforms, which were designed to keep us glued to our phones, cause severe sleep disruptions, which can lead to a slew of other mental and physical health issues.
The fear of being rejected. The lack of natural breaks isn't the only factor that contributes to social media addiction. The five social media sites analysed by the RSPH — Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube — are all designed to establish a high level of confidence insecurity among their users, albeit some more than others. For many, it is this unpredictability that brings them back again and again. As a result, many of us develop an acceptance addiction as a result of social media's social approval structures. Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube monitor the amount of “likes” and comments on a post or video. Instagram, YouTube and Twitter count the number of subscribers to an account. Facebook and Snapchat both keep track of how many friends you have. The number of "retweets" on Twitter is counted, while the number of "shares" on Facebook is counted. YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat monitor how many times a video or “storey” has been viewed. Snapchat keeps track of how many "snaps" are sent and also has a trophy system for those who use the app.
Simultaneously, cyber-bullying and violent attacks on the self-esteem of young people who are less 'popular' or different from the norm, that is, those who obtain less social acceptance, is a chronic issue. The RSPH looked at five social networks. This is one of the reasons why the RSPH wants the British government to require social media companies to create recognition systems for people suffering from depression or other mental health problems linked to cyber-harassment, as well as people who use unhealthy social media in general.
Reaching the unattainable: social approval - a double-edged sword
One of the cutting edges of social approval is its addictive side, but the desire for social approval also leads to the creation of unachievable goals which in turn can lead to mental health disorders. Creating goals is part of human nature. People are naturally inclined to create goals for themselves. The effect of uncertainty linked to social approval as well as the effect of glorifying reality exerted by social media leads many to set unattainable goals, especially with regard to their appearance and lifestyle. . It is therefore not surprising that Instagram, with its platform dedicated to hyper-filtered aesthetic photos and “dream” lifestyles, is the most harmful social network for the mental health of young people according to the RSPH. The photo platform is closely followed by Snapchat then Facebook and finally by Twitter. YouTube stands out from the crowd as having on average more positive than negative effects, but it is on the other hand the social network which causes the greatest loss of sleep among young people. Apart from losing sleep, creating unrealistic goals related to the use of social media that make everyone seem prettier (Instagram), funnier (Twitter), more talented (YouTube), richer (Instagram and YouTube) and has more friends (Facebook and Snapchat) that young people lead us to experience:
Depression linked to discomfort with one's appearance and lifestyle
A feeling of loneliness and isolation
The RSHP offers, among other measures, the identification by social networks of photos that have been modified before their publication to try to counter this problem. On the other hand, it seems unlikely that platforms like Instagram will introduce this kind of measure without external pressure by various organizations.
Conclusion
The correlation between the almost universal use of social media among adolescents and young adults and the dramatic rise in mental health disorders among them in recent years is undeniable. It therefore seems appropriate to devote efforts towards creating laws that would further regulate the conduct of social media giants such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Snapchat. Equally important, however, is to make efforts to create educational resources and tools to teach the constantly wired new generation how to make healthy and productive use of social media for more advantages than disadvantages. Where there a lot of disadvantages of internet and social media for mental health you can also take benefits for the technology by taking the telehealth psychiatry services of Kentucky mental health care.