Social Media and Its Influence on Our Lives

Does it do more harm than good?

By Saran Sangary

Is social media good or bad? That’s a question that parents and teachers want to know but never really know the answer to. How can something that seems terrible be considered good?

While teens use social media to connect and create friends with others, they also confront cyberbullying, trolls, toxic comparisons, sleep deprivation and a less familiar face-to-face interaction. Too much time spent scrolling through social media can result in symptoms of anxiety and depression.

Experts worry that social media and text messages that have been effective in a teenager’s life are promoting lower self-esteem. A survey conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health asked 14 to 24-year-olds in the United Kingdom how social media platforms have impacted their health and well-being. The survey results found that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all led to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image and loneliness.

Via Unsplash

Everybody always wants to be liked even if it’s by someone they don’t know because the more likes you get, the more you are considered fashionable. When these expectations are inevitably not met, the impact on self-esteem can be damaging. The need to gain likes on social media can cause teens to make choices they would otherwise not make, including changing their appearance, engaging in harmful behavior and doing risky things on social media. When teens go on social media, they see people’s impressions that get praised and loved because society decided that this is what an ideal person should look like, so teens start to think that this is how they should look and portray to fit in this world.

Social interaction skills require daily practice, and it is difficult to build empathy and compassion when teens spend more time engaging online than they do in person. Human connection is a powerful tool and can develop skills that last a lifetime. Bryanda Washington, a 16-year-old student at Cass Technical High School, says, “People interact differently online because the face-to-face aspect is typically diminished, and that makes people more comfortable.” While many teens prefer texting over face-to-face interaction, there are some dangers in only communicating online. One risk is catfishing, which is when someone pretends to be someone they are not. Most people who catfish are people who often want to get revenge or to scam you, and that can cause some trust issues.

Teen girls are particularly at risk of cyberbullying through the use of social media, but teen boys are not immune. Cyberbullying is associated with depression, anxiety and an elevated risk of suicidal thoughts. “Because of teens' impulsive natures, experts suggest that teens who post content on social media are at risk of sharing intimate photos or highly personal stories. This can result in teens being bullied, harassed or even blackmailed,” according to the Mayo Clinic.

Teenagers text all sorts of things that cause them to troll others by bringing people down and making fun of a person’s appearance, which results in insecurity and leads to anxiety, which eventually goes to depression. Mayo Clinic states that “a  2015 study found that social comparison and feedback-seeking by teens using social media and cellphones were linked with depressive symptoms.”

Teens all around the world have a hard time loving themselves because of what society views as pretty or handsome. As with everything else, social media brings both good and bad things into lives, but at the end of the day, you are the one who decides whether it does more harm than help.

About the Writer:

Saran Sangary

City: Detroit

School: Cass Technical High School

Year: Junior

Saran Sangary’s passion for criminal law has driven her to enter her school’s debate team and interested her in news reporting and politics. She likes to take pictures of the sunset, sunrise and her family, who calls her the "family photographer.”