How Social Media Affects The Mental Health Of Adolescents
Social media has become a tool of constant interaction between people around the world, and in younger generations, it has even become a fundamental extension of their social life. These digital platforms are truly useful in many aspects, but they can also give rise to the appearance of adverse psychological phenomena to take into account, especially in children and adolescents.
Nowadays, more and more young people make constant use of these virtual spaces, and precisely for this reason it is necessary understand how social media affects adolescent mental health
This is how social networks can impact the mental health of adolescents
First of all, it is necessary to clarify that there is no determining formula by which using social networks must necessarily produce harmful psychological effects; It all depends on the way users use these tools However, in practice, it is being seen that the youngest segment of the population is especially vulnerable to a series of psychological alterations facilitated by misuse of these Internet spaces. Let’s see what they are.
1. Peer pressure
As happens in almost all areas of adolescence, the world of social networks tends to exert great pressure on adolescents that often goes unnoticed by parents and educators.
Access to social networks is currently occurring at increasingly younger ages. based on the “fear of missing out on what the rest are doing”, and it often happens that the group of friends that interacts in a certain social network tends to exert great pressure on the person who does not participate in it. Adolescents who are not interested in using these digital platforms feel excluded, until there comes a point where they feel the need to start using them so as not to be left out of the group of friends.
This type of group pressure can generate alterations related to low self-esteem, since these young people feel ignored and even experience how they should behave in a way that does not fit their personality. in order to have adequate visibility in that digital medium
2. Psychological consequences of cyberbullying
Cyberbullying is the term used to refer to harassment that takes place on the Internet, and can occur on all types of social networks or applications that you normally have access to today.
This type of harassment is one of the most recent forms of discrimination and psychological violence that exist due to the rise of new technologies, which allow the youngest to have great visibility and even make coordinated harassment attacks involving dozens of people possible
Bullying on social networks has the same devastating effect on the person who suffers it as classic school bullying, but it is characterized by being more difficult to detect by both parents and teachers.
3. Social isolation in face-to-face relationships
In some adolescents who suffer any type of bullying at school or who do not have positive in-person relationships with their peer group, social networks can also severely affect their mental health by making that internalize the idea that these relationships can replace those that occur face to face
To avoid this situation, it is essential that parents monitor their children’s activity on the Internet and social networks, so that they are not emotionally affected due to the harassment or emptiness that other people may give them.
4. Low self-esteem
Low self-esteem is one of the classic emotional problems in the adolescent stage and the misuse of social networks can also have this same effect. Specifically, girls seem more likely to develop complexes with their own bodies, due to the constant evaluation of the idealized image of influencers
This phenomenon poses a real danger to the mental and physical health of very young girls whose emotional and self-esteem problems can end up leading, in extreme cases, to eating disorders.
In this sense, it is also worth noting that some social networks contain communities of users that praise behavior associated with anorexia, bulimia and megarexia, promoting unhealthy lifestyles and diets, or simply offering a constant bombardment of unrealistic models of men and women. very thin women or with very little body fat.
5. Political polarization
As has been known for some years, some social networks promote political polarization and division of opinions to have more interactions between their users.
This phenomenon can also affect psychologically and the mental health of adolescents who use this type of social networks, people who have not yet fully formed their personality and who They can be highly influenced by political radicalization and hate speech
6. Constant use of social networks due to a dependency process
Many adolescents run the risk of acquiring behavioral dynamics similar to those who suffer from an addiction: they feel the need to always be “glued to the screen” This is largely due to the skill with which social media algorithms offer an uninterrupted feed of content selected taking into account each person’s preferences, which is a non-stop distraction.
7. The main positive side of networks: self-affirmation based on diversity
Social networks can also help adolescents discover new hobbies that positively affect their mental health or that contribute to building their adult personality.
When used well, these networks can have a very positive effect on adolescents, and in many cases they constitute an element of socialization or learning large amounts of knowledge. Specific, It has been seen that these digital platforms are especially helpful for LGBT youth who do not have access to other people with the same concerns and experience in their immediate environment.
