How Social Media Aids the Teenage Mental Health Decline

In modern times in America, we can hardly go a few weeks without seeing an article, news clip, or some sort of media discussing the issue with the rise of negative mental health outcomes in teenagers including anxiety, depression, and suicide.

I understand that a topic such as mental health cannot be addressed in one blog post. Therefore, this post will specifically discuss anxiety, depression, and suicide, and the link to social media usage.It will also include posts for more information and/or help.

Anxiety

According to what research you read, anxiety affects approximately 20-25 percent of teenagers. That may not seem like many, but that’s as many as one in four teens. So, if you were to take an average classroom of 30 students, seven of them would struggle with it.

There are many factors that play a role in anxiety, and as I discussed earlier, I am focusing on social media specifically in this post.

After reading a slew of articles (I promise I’m not making this up. Do a quick internet search yourself if you so desire), the following are the most repeated reasons social media causes anxiety:

Waiting to see how many likes a picture gets
Feeling like you have to keep up with everyone else’s “happy life”
Compulsion to keep checking back so you aren’t “missing out”
Over-exposure (too much information to process, so your brain overloads or you worry about too many things you cannot control)

Teenage life is difficult enough without piling on anxiety from social media usage.

Posts to Help

I am a former contributor to the Lies Young Women Believe Blog and they have some good articles dealing with anxiety.

You are not Your Anxiety
My Personal Story of Overcoming Anxiety
An Unexpected Prescription for Panic
You can find all of their other anxiety posts here

Also, if you realize that social media is worsening or causing your anxiety, then check out this post that discusses how to have a “healthy” relationship with social media.

Depression

In 2017, an article in The Atlantic discussed the current generation of teenagers and the link between screen time and depression. According to the author,

The Monitoring the Future survey, funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and designed to be nationally representative, has asked 12th-graders more than 1,000 questions every year since 1975 and queried eighth- and 10th-graders since 1991. The survey asks teens how happy they are and also how much of their leisure time they spend on various activities, including nonscreen activities such as in-person social interaction and exercise, and, in recent years, screen activities such as using social media, texting, and browsing the web. The results could not be clearer: Teens who spend more time than average on screen activities are more likely to be unhappy, and those who spend more time than average on nonscreen activities are more likely to be happy.”

The article further states:

The more time teens spend looking at screens, the more likely they are to report symptoms of depression…Eighth-graders who are heavy users of social media increase their risk of depression by 27 percent, while those who play sports, go to religious services, or even do homework more than the average teen cut their risk significantly.”

The Link Between Screen Time, Anxiety, and Suicide. Click to read! Click To Tweet

Depression is, again, a complicated issue, but as research shows, it can be exacerbated by screen time. If you struggle with depression, cut out your screen time and replace it with other activities to see if that helps.

Also, while some people may need medicine for depression, this article, gives some great non-medicine alternatives to try as well.

Suicide

There is no study to truly “link” suicide to social media. However, I have seen and read interviews with health professionals who work in hospitals, and the ones who deal with teenage suicide attempts can attest that many times, attempts are linked directly back to social media and phone use.

What is clear is that the teenage suicide rate is definitely on the rise. It’s not a far stretch, however, to see how untreated anxiety and depression caused by social media can lead to suicide.

Some links to help

SaveTheKids.us – Collin Kartchner is a man on a crusade to help “save the kids” from the negativity of social media. He discusses the suicide rate among teens and ways to help on his site, YouTube videos, and Instagram page.

I also wrote a two part series about suicide. You can read them below.

10 Reasons Suicide is Never the Answer – Part 1

10 Reasons Suicide is Never the Answer- Part 2

If you or anyone your know is having suicidal thoughts SEEK HELP! Call someone right now or the National Suicide Hotline: 1-800-237-8255.

In Closing

Just to clarify, I am not anti-social media or technology. I just see it wreak so much havoc on teenagers lives that I want to make them aware of it so it can be used in healthy ways.

Also, this post is part of the “Break the Chains” Series where we discuss how to break from the issues that are robbing teenagers of life and joy. You can see all the posts in the series here.

If you’re interested in other ways social media affects teenagers, you can check out the links below: