MEEKER | It has been established that social media has a significant impact on your physical well-being however it also has a large effect on mental health and how your social skills evolve. Children or adolescents who spend more than three hours on social media a day double their risk of mental health problems. Obviously the risk lessens with adults due to their more set mental pathways but it still can affect you severely over time.
Then, there is the matter of comparison culture. The impact of social media on all men and women is substantial when it comes to body image issues. Now when this is said some people may check out, seeing body image issues as some sort of younger generation humbug. But in reality, body image issues directly impact how you confront society and relationships. Meeker High School teacher Kathleen Kelley has said, “Kids that have lots of screen time disengage from what I think of as just essential interpersonal communication activities. They don’t even engage well with their friends unless it’s through social media, and that is such a shallow representation of friendships.” This issue is influenced by the social media standards of beauty. Social standards of beauty pressure people through social media to comply or be cast out as “ugly.” This sort of pressure then leads to comparison brought on by the trend only to post the “picture perfect” side of one’s life.
Another negative aspect of social media is the “insecurity complex.” Although it can be related to physical appearance it mostly addresses the feeling of inferiority about accomplishments, personality, and lifestyle. The idolization of certain things on social media such as party culture, trendy clothes, celebrities, and wealth leads to a feeling of inadequacy about your own life. A student at Meeker High School stated that she feels more self-conscious if she is on social media frequently throughout the day.
Although social media has its negative effects on a person’s mental health some teenagers find that the constant access to someone else’s world allows them perspective, as stated by a 17-year-old at Meeker High School. Another student states “I think that it can be a really good outlet for sharing and emotional expression.” This aspect has allowed people to be more conscious of the lives of others and has evolved our culture as a whole. It has also been proven that in some cases social media can improve mental health due to its connection possibilities. Because everyone is on social media it gives us the opportunity to find “our people” improving our sense of belonging and in turn, improving that aspect of mental health.
The effect of social media on a person’s mental state is one we should be informed about because without that information we cannot properly judge how to personally use it in order to best benefit our livelihood.
By MYLAH GALLEGOS
