Is social media destroying children’s mental health?
TRIGGER WARNING: Social media, Mentions of MH issues, suicide, sexual harassment body image, eating disorders, + bullying
A recent news article published on the 26th March by the Financial Times has brought up the conversation on social media and mental health. It discusses whether an increase in mental health problems amongst young people is because of the growing consumption of social media. The article mentions ‘a growing body of trends linking social media usage to children developing depression’. I mentioned this to my friends and asked them to discuss their experiences with social media.
The article mentions the sad death of a 16 year old boy from the U.S who’s anxiety levels were increased by the use of social media. Ian Ezquerra’s death was ruled a suicide but his mother claims he was doing a dark trend that he accessed on social media. Some content online is not suitable for adults let alone young people who are reading it thinking it is okay and acceptable.
Secondly the article suggests better regulation of social media as the guidelines are obviously not working hard enough to protect young people from triggering and dangerous content. There is clearly a rise in young people being diagnosed with mental health issues. Could this be due to the fast impact social media is having in our day to day lives?
Should some people have a social media platform?
In my opinion, the phrase no good comes without a little bad refers to this situation. Its impossible to ignore the opportunities social media has brought us as individuals. However it’s the spread of hate and misuse of social media that is damaging to society.
Some people in my opinion should not be allowed to have a platform. People like Andrew Tate who are given a platform spread damaging opinions of women causing people to think misogynistic behaviour is acceptable. It makes us question is the bad now outweighing the good?
As a society we know that not all things spoken about on social media are good, but as a society we cannot limit freedom of speech. However it is when people’s opinions are causing harm to other people that it becomes a problem that needs to be addressed.
Positives vs negatives of social media
A positive of social media for me is being allowed to keep in touch with my family while living away for university and communicate with my friend who lives in Brazil. However like everyone else I have had times where it has impacted me negatively. Self love is something I really struggle with and social media definitely makes it harder for me to feel at peace with how I look . In this society we feel a pressure for everyone to like us or be what society deems as ‘attractive’. This toxic environment is giving a platform to diet culture. This is something children at a young age should not have access too or have any worries about their body or weight unless told otherwise by a doctor.
At a young age I suffered bullying, people were awful to me and I never knew why. I thought I needed to change myself to get them to like me. At an older age I now realise that often people who are mean to others are projecting their own insecurities. Social media platforms are no stranger to verbal abuse and bullying occurring in comment sections and messages. This is why the regulation of hate speech could help control this issue. Its entirely okay to have an opinion but when it impacts others it becomes controversial and could potentially damage someone’s mental health.
Self esteem and body positivity
Too often social media has pushed the idea that our bodies should be perfect and things like cellulite, stretch marks and body hair are not ‘normal’. The definition of normal in the Oxford dictionary is ‘conforming to a standard; usual, typical, or expected’.
Luckily in more modern times we have begun to challenge the term ‘normal’. This has led to more acceptance of people who do not necessarily conform to the typical standards we were taught about growing up.
Different generations of people in society have different standards. One up side to social media is people being allowed to speak more openly about themselves and breaking down the stereotypes. There is the dark side of body acceptance with companies advertising weight loss pills. Companies like this make people believe that if they do not look a certain way they are unworthy and must strive for perfection. This is awfully damaging to young people and causes a rise in disordered eating habits.
However there has also been a ongoing growth of body positivity on social media that is encouraging people to love themselves. In my opinion having different representation on social media of multiple body types has helped people realise that not everyone looks the same and we are all unique.
Unattainable beauty standards pushed forward by social media
My friend who will remain anonymous spoke to me about her experience with comparing herself to girls online and wishing she looked like them. Social media is so clever in how it encourages you to ‘fix’ your insecurities when in reality you are perfect the way you are.
Unfortunately no matter the amount of compliments you receive the only person who can fully convince you of your worth is yourself. However this is difficult due to the toxic monologue on social media which makes self love a life long battle. For example with clothes sizes and feeling unworthy if certain clothes do not fit you. This makes you feel unworthy because society has shamed people who do not fit the standards of beauty.
Our bodies are viewed as something that needs to be fixed when in reality if we were all the same the world would be extremely boring. I really like flowers as an analogy for self love. How every flower is different but they are all equally beautiful. This essentially means even if someone has something you don’t someone else probably thinks that of you.
Changing your mindset towards your body
My friend’s advice was about her mindset. She began to look at her body and what it has achieved for her instead of what she could change about it. She is strong to play on the netball team and her body allows her to enjoy life to the fullest. Lots of influencers who encourage body positivity tell people to view their bodies like a car that needs fuel. Your body is a vessel that keeps you alive everyday and needs protecting and its important to remind yourself of that. Follow the body positive accounts and tell yourself affirmations everyday to overcome the self critic in your head.
With this advice you can slowly start to see things you like about yourself. You have rewired your brain to see the good things which is why journaling is such a good way to get out your emotions and achieve this.
Cyberbullying and verbal abuse leading to MH issues
Another one of my friends wanted to share her story on how social media has impacted her. She suffered severe verbal abuse online about her appearance. This unfortunately caused her to develop an eating disorder alongside various other mental health conditions.
Unfortunately it has become too common for people to struggle with their eating habits alongside comparing themselves to people online. It is clear not enough is being done to help young people with their self esteem and teaching them how to protect themselves on social media. “My friend talks about the unattainable beauty standards on social media that impacts people’s self esteem, essentially create a ripple affect of more problems in the future”. What she said referred directly to what the article was talking about with social media causing people to hate themselves and spiral into depression.
Inserted below is a statistic from the UK mental health charity Mind showing how common mental health conditions have become in the UK.
- 1 in 4 people will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year in England.
The tragic story of Amanda Todd
My friend recommended me to watch a documentary on the story of Amanda Todd. She was a 15 year old Canadian student who was a victim of cyberbullying and killed herself at her home on October 10 2012.
She was ripped into on Facebook and coerced into sending nude pictures via webcam. The man then emotionally blackmailed her to do other sexual things otherwise he would leak the photo.
TRIGGER WARNING: This video discusses self harm, suicide alongside verbal abuse
Young people like Amanda Todd who was only 15 years old are so vulnerable to predators or bullies online. This is why social media needs to be regulated to protect this from happening to yourself or someone you know.
To conclude
The moral of the story is making sure you use social media in a positive way as much as you can. If you start to notice it impacting you negatively it is important to put in precautions to improve your mental state. For example only following accounts that make you feel good about yourself, and looking after yourself the way you would a friend. The way you speak to yourself matters because you spend time with yourself everyday and being kind to yourself is so important.
Do not accept strangers on the internet to follow you, and only use the app if you are old enough to do so. These rules are put in place to protect young people from predators or bullies online. Report anything you see that should be against guidelines and most importantly talk to people around you if things are harmful.
One of the reasons I chose this topic was to act as a reminder for myself as well. I remind myself everyday that every time I feel bad better days are coming, and I am doing the best I can. So if you can take anything from this, just remember that you are in control of your destiny. Do not let anyone put you down, they don’t have the power if you don’t let them.
Reach out for help if you need it, it is not shameful to struggle with your mental health it is a part of life. We all have our ups and downs and the more we talk about it the easier it gets.
If you want to get involved with the conversation, comment your opinions and any experiences that your comfortable sharing on this post I’d love to hear from you all 🙂
For further reading go to the article this blog post is inspired by The teen mental health crisis: a reckoning for Big Tech | Financial Times (ft.com)
UK HELPLINES
If you need help please access the resources I have linked below (UK only) People are here to support you and you can get through whatever it is your going through.
Mind UK charity website – Home – Mind – the website has details on the crisis line you can contact or how to ask for help from someone your close too.
Samaritans helpline you can text or call – 116 123
Text SHOUT on the number 852 58
Papyrus (HOPELINE UK) – 07860039967
BEAT (for eating disorders) – 0808 801 0677
