How Social Media Impacts Teen Mental Health

This is a literature review that investigates the impact of social media on children between the age of twelve and nineteen years. The paper synchronizes information from seven sources that have reported on the effect social media has on teens. The paper seeks to explore the subject issue and deliver results that indicate the pros and cons of social media for teens. The paper also examines the empirical research studies which are carried out to investigate the impact of social media on adolescent mental health. The seven sources analyzed have some similarities in ideas related to the how social media affects teens, while there are also some differences among the sources. The synthesis of these studies highlights both similarities and differences while also identifying gaps and inconsistencies in the existing literature. This paper was developed due to the increasing growth of social media platforms and the accessibility of gadgets one can use to access social media platforms. Kimani highlights that more than 69% of the world population today is exposed to digital gadgets that can be used to access social media. Among these statistics lie the teens who are the most affected. This is because their brains are still developing and hence may not differentiate between good and bad effects of social media. The findings of this paper are for future use, where they may be used to develop policies and enable researchers to access vital information that can be used to impact teens.

Social media has become one of the common things that an average student is exposed to. Due to this exposure, which for some people starts in early development years, such as the ages of five years, social media has become a common thing among the youth which they use for communications and other interactions (Alonzo et al., 2021). Several countries and ministries in the government have already discovered the potential adverse impacts social media can have on teens if left unsupervised. Concerns have been raised about teens excessively using social media use, which has a non-negligible impact on their mental health. More than 74% of teens use social for the wrong reasons (Boer et al., 2021). These include excessive play of games and viewing of pornographic content, which was not the original intent of the platforms. As much as social media platforms can be used for the right purposes, such as enhancing interactions and business activities, it has also been termed as one of the most sensitive areas of rapid technological advancement that should be kept in check (Schonning et al., 2020). This paper intends to explore the current state of empirical research on this topic, examining the methodologies, findings, and discussions of seven peer-reviewed studies and providing insights into the relationship between social media usage and adolescent mental health.

Literature Review

The studies reviewed in this review show that they is a significant correlation between increased social media use and higher levels of depressive symptoms. This is because the more people use social media, the more they are exposed to the outside world. For teens whose brains are still developing, they find themselves comparing their lives and those of social media influencers (Orben et al., 2020). This leaves most of the teens feeling inferior to their social media models, leading to depression and other mentally adverse symptoms. These teens may begin participating in unlawful behaviors such as stealing and deceit to afford the lives they see displayed on social media platforms such as Instagram and twitter. Barthorpe et al. (2020) investigated the association between social media use and depression among adolescents aged 13-18 using a longitudinal design to collect data, which they analyzed and posted the results in their journal. The authors surveyed a sample of 30 teen participants for three years to assess changes in social media use and depressive symptoms. Twenty-seven teens in the study reported adverse effects after the third year of the survey. This is where they began registering poor performance in school, getting more verbally and physically assaultive due to unsupervised exposure to social media.

Orbe et al. (2020) carried out qualitative interviews with a sample of 100 teenagers to examine how exposure to idealized images on social media influenced girls' perceptions of their bodies. The study revealed that many girls on social media feel dissatisfied with their body types, whose main cause is exposure to social media. Some of these girls post their photos online and get negative reviews, which makes them feel inferior or unattractive. Most of these girls then involve themselves in destructive behaviors such as skin bleaching and plastic surgeries to look attractive and viable to other social media users (Orbe et al., 2020). Most of these girls can not afford quality products to bleach or enlarge their body parts, leading to them buying counterfeit products, which leads to future health complications. The high levels of comparison on social media platforms bring about the dissatisfaction of these teens. Boys begin using steroids to gain muscles, which also has adverse effects on their health. Social media bring about these impacts; thus, children and teens should be supervised while using social media platforms (Orbe et al., 2020). They should be advised on what information they should expose themselves to and ways to deal with social media criticism, which is vibrant in the current society.

Further research revealed that many teens underwent social media bullying, which caused significant psychological distress among them (Karim et al., 2020). This happens when one's social media details are leaked, and they receive insults directly in their inboxes. Others were bullied when they posted their photos on social media and got very negative comments. If one does not have an 'ideal' body, one may even gain low self-esteem from the comments one receives on the posts. Some are accused of being too dark, fat, or ugly, which, of course, has an adverse effect on their mental health. Most of these teens are no longer the same, and they require to undergo therapy for them to regain their old self-esteem and charisma. The study by Coyne et al. (2020) investigated the how cyberbullying victimization and psychological distress among adolescents affect them; where they utilized a cross-sectional survey design to assess the prevalence of cyberbullying victimization and its impact on adolescents' mental health. The author's results were similar to Kimani et al. which also showed that teens are subjected to intense bullying and psychological torture when they are exposed to social media without supervision.

Social media has, therefore, been proven to be among the leading causes of teen stress and low self-esteem. This is where they are exposed to erotic, violent, and blasphemous content, which makes them lose their initial innocence and gain insecurities such as weight and intellectual insecurities (Schonning et al., 2020). To reduce these insecurities, Barthorpe et al. (2020) suggest that children and teens should not be subjected to social media without parental or guardian guidance. Subjecting them to social media without showing them the dangers of social media may leave them vulnerable to adversity on the platforms, which may mess with their current and future lives.

Synthesis

The reviewed studies collectively highlight how social media teens students psychological and mental health. They highlight the unknown or assumed effects of social media, which later on have a huge impact on a person's life. The studies also highlighted how to deal with these adverse effects, and parental guidance was the most adamant solution in most of the studies. They highlighted that teens have not fully mentally developed and what content they are exposed to can shape their future lives. For instance, teens who are overexposed to indecent dressing and drug abuse on social media may dress indecently and abuse drugs in real life (Boer et al., 2021). Some of the studies showed that they were a huge link between increased social media use and adverse mental health (Coyne et al., 2020). Qualitative research about the impact of social media on teens' lives on a sample of thirty teens and the results showed that twenty-three teens are impacted by social media more negatively than positively (Coyne et al., 2020). These studies emphasized the role of specific factors, such as social comparison and cyberbullying, in exacerbating psychological distress among adolescents. They pinpointed that these adverse effects are due to other teens and adults on these social media platforms who are malicious and inconsiderate of the impact of their comments on their victims. The study findings also suggested that the type of impact social media on teens mental health depend on individual differences and contextual factors.

Alonzo et al. (2021) reports that excessive social media usage can also affect teens positively where it provides a platform where they can interact with others during school holidays and even share important materials such as educational materials and other useful projects. Some social media platforms, such as Facebook, have interfaces where one can post affiliate links and make money from social media marketing (Alonzo et al., 2021). These are some of the positive features of social media that many teens still need to explore. Also, the studies revealed that the association between negative mental health and social media usage has not been fully understood, as some mental health experts also use social media to spread mental wellness awareness and provide materials and services that can help teens maintain a positive perspective in life (Orben et al., 2020). Future research should employ longitudinal designs and objective measures to understand better the causal pathways linking social media to adolescent mental health.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the research results of this paper show the many ways social media can impact teens. The study findings underscore the need for targeted interventions to promote positive online behaviors and mitigate the adverse effects of social media on adolescent well-being. If people could cease bullying and body shaming others on social media, these platforms can have a greater positive impact. This is where teens may be motivated to become the best versions of themselves. They can also contact their role models and, if lucky, get to interact with them on social media platforms, increasing their self-esteem and drive to achieve their dreams. The studies were also not fully informative; hence, scholars can further advance readers' understanding of this important topic and inform evidence-based strategies for supporting adolescent mental health in the digital age.