Psychology Archipelago
How Social Media Contributes To The Mental Health Crisis
For many people, the first instinct when they get up is to open their phone and check social media, always trying to keep up to date with the latest controversies, or compare our lives to celebrities and social media influencers. Many blame the rising rates of depression and anxiety on this social media usage. While we all know about the misinformation and echo chambers that are promoted on social media, what are the mental health effects of the hours that most of us spend on these platforms every day?
According to research, high amounts of social media use is, unsurprisingly, significantly correlated to depression. There are a few nuances, however.
The link between social media use and poor mental health is found more strongly for girls than for boys. This might be due to more societal pressure for physical beauty standards, and due to personality traits, with girls being generally higher in neuroticism (proclivity towards negative emotions) and agreeableness (possibly making them more affected by how others view them) than boys.
Studies also show that low to moderate use of social media is not associated with negative mental health outcomes. Heavy use, on the other hand, seems to be the culprit of many of the issues in mental health that we see today. What this means is that one or two hours a day might not be the end of the world, but when usage rises to three or four hours, there is a very large spike in mental illness.
Screen time does not seem to have negative outcomes, according to one of the most widely cited papers on the topic, which has led many to exonerate our devices as the cause of the increasing mental health issues. However, when looking at social media in particular, there is a clear correlation between usage and mental illness.
This is especially important in adolescence where people are more vulnerable to low self-esteem. However, adults are certainly not off the hook. A study of nearly 10,000 households in Indonesia found that social media negatively affected mental health in individuals 20 years and older.
Many people, however, have heard the phrase “correlation does not imply causation.” While there have been relatively few experiments related to social media use and mental health, nearly all of the experiments that have been done show a significant decrease in mental illness after reducing time on social media.
But what about social media causes increases in mental illness?
According to a huge study of over 10,000 14 year olds from 2019, online harassment, poorer sleep, self-esteem, and body image seem to all contribute to this increase in depression.
People who you have never even met can hide under the guise of anonymity to harass people, something that had been an issue in the pre-internet era. Poorer sleep can arise from a myriad of factors: receiving alerts and notifications during the night, having screen exposure before sleeping, and being in a constant state of fear of missing out on new content. Lower self-esteem can be caused by the fact that social media encourages everyone to only post idealized versions of themselves. Of course, when you compare your everyday self to some idealized version of someone else, you will likely feel a sense of inferiority. These people that we see are not only idealized but are also often the people at the top of their fields. This leads to a similar issue with body image. Most of us cannot compete with the celebrities and fitness models on our instagram feeds whose job it is to look good.
Social media can be a tool. However, we must also understand the dangers that are inherent in social media today. While moderate use of social media might be okay, we all know that one “10 minute break” can easily turn into hours. Social media use algorithms to provoke strong reactions, enticing us to click on the next video or post. This is why many of us engage in mindless scrolling of social media.
Thus, it is important to use social media with a clear objective in mind. For example, rather than simply clicking a random video on the YouTube recommended page, open up YouTube when you want to learn more on a specific topic. If social media is a tool, we should not let social media companies use us as simply tools to increase their ad revenue.