5 Effects Social Media Addiction Has On Teenagers

Social media addiction is a severe challenge for a huge portion of our teenage population these days. According to some social media addiction studies, more than one-third of all teens visit their favorite social media site or app multiple times every day. Experts believe that excessive use of social media can result in a range of different mental health effects, especially on younger, developing minds.

Here are a few of them:

Depression

Analysts are only now starting to investigate the relationship of social media with depression. Although they don’t have an established cause-and-effect association between them, they have found out that social media use is linked with an escalation of depression symptoms, such as a decline in social contact and a rise in isolation. In addition, further studies have suggested that teens using and maintaining a presence on multiple social media platforms are more prone to depression.

Anxiety

Teenagers’ emotional connection to their social media profiles is common. They are under an obligation not just to answer rapidly online but also to have flawless photographs and also well-constructed messages and messages, both of which can result in a considerable amount of anxiety.

Keeping up with each social media site’s unwritten norms and community culture requires a significant amount of time and commitment. As a result, adolescents are subjected to extra stress that can lead to anxiety.

Things like cyberbullying, slut-shaming, and other aggressive behaviors from online users can also severely affect many teens, especially girls, and prove to be a real source of anxiety for many teenagers.

Sleep Deprivation

Many teenagers invest so much time on social media that they start wasting a lot of sleep time. Sleep deprivation, in return, can cause a lot of complications ranging from low productivity and mood swings to overeat and other mental health problems like anxiety, depression, and ADD. However, studies show that teenagers who don’t let their social media presence affect their sleep tend to be happier on average than teens who disturb their sleeping schedule with social media log-ins.

Envy

Although envy and jealousy are natural feelings, they may have a negative impact on an adolescent’s minds if they keep their focus on things other people possess or experience that they do not. And since people prefer to share only the good stuff that happens to them or use sarcasm to brush away the negative with amusing anecdotes, the viewer might believe that these people are leading more exciting lives. Younger people fail to understand that a social media post showing someone’s life is just one small moment from a life spanning several decades. Everyone goes through ups and downs, struggles in life to get where they are.

Communication Issues

Though social media is an excellent way to stay in contact with friends, loved ones, and relatives, it still cannot replace a good old face-to-face conversation. A teenager, for example, cannot see or hear an individual’s facial gestures or tone of voice online. As a result, misconceptions are common, particularly when people attempt to be humorous or satirical online.

Often teenagers spend time online monitoring status updates and likes so much that they fail to communicate with the people present in their immediate surroundings. As a result, when social media comes to the fore in an individual’s life, friendship and romantic relationships can decline. This increases the risk of teenagers developing superficial and unauthentic connections, which will lead to a poorer quality of life.