Social Media Effects

HOW SOCIAL MEDIA ADDICTION IS SEVERELY AFFECTING TEENS

Is excessive social media use among teenagers in the ongoing pandemic leading to anxiety, burnout, depression, and other mental health issues

The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a major surge in social media usage among teenagers in addition to other age groups. Although social media has been a life-saver during the pandemic when it comes to being updated with health-related information and other news from reliable sources, killing boredom, loneliness or taking a break by consuming light and humourous content, spending too much time on it can have a deleterious effect on the mental health and wellbeing of teenagers. There can be harmful consequences of over-use including poor sleep, irritability, stress, anxiety, depression, low self-esteem and difficulty in concentration.

LIVING A VIRTUAL LIFE CAN HARM THE HEALTHY STATE OF MIND OF TEENAGERS:

For most adolescents, more time spent at home during the pandemic has meant increased hours of being glued to a screen. While social media can prove to be an invaluable tool, living a virtual life can harm their healthy state of mind. Heavy social media dependence has been linked to emotional issues like negative wellbeing, low self-esteem, experiencing feelings of depression, disturbed sleep patterns, and an impaired attention span. Bothering yourself with the feelings of the thousands of your social media followers can indeed make you feel anxious. It is a common sight to witness teenagers constantly scrolling their phones. Parents need to be mindful of this activity since it tends to keep the brain on high alert, averting the child from falling asleep and can destroy the release of melatonin, a hormone that makes us feel tired. Parents must ensure to shorten the time spent on virtual mediums by engaging the child in mind-boosting activities like concentration games, breathing exercises, or brain-body coordination workouts. A pause in social media usage can help them connect with their real life, making them emotionally happier and healthier.

MODERATE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IS AN ENABLER OF HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS

It has been well established that human beings are social creatures and the ongoing pandemic has made most of us crave a social life. Studies suggest that boredom and loneliness are strong predictors of social media use among teenagers. It helps teenagers self-regulate emotional mood states, feel aroused when they are bored as applications such as Instagram, YouTube, etc. provide entertaining content, it also helps boost self-esteem among them.Studies also suggest that during the Covid pandemic, browsing through social media and interacting with friends help teenagers reduce their feelings of loneliness. Teenagers in India are spending the majority of their online activity on Instagram or YouTube and consuming humour-based content to feel happier. However, the problem arises when the time spent on social media exceeds the four hours per day limit. It has been noticed that with excessive use, 70% of teens share sensitive information about themselves, and 66% of teens experience some amount of cyber-bullying.

The best way to thus manage the harmful impact of social media is by limiting the use of social media and including exercise as a part of one’s daily regime. The time spent on social media should not be more than four hours per day, parents should understand if their child is feeling anxious or upset and even help them improve their self-esteem by reminding them that social media is not real, it is simply a virtual world.

WHILE TEENS HAVE ACCESS TO NEW MEDIA, THEY MUST BE MADE AWARE OF THEIR RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES AND THE LEGAL IMPLICATIONS:

The lives of children from toddlers to teenagers in a major way. They seem to spend more time at home due to restrictions; learning is happening on screens, chatting with friends and peers is also happening on various social media platforms. While social media has become a major medium of entertainment, flaunting one’s skills and looks, it has also turned into a major source of information for teenagers who spend their major time on phones or laptops. However, they need to know that no child can have a personal social media account before 13 years of age. They must refrain from sharing their friends’ pictures or content. Bullying can happen on social media and teenagers need to be aware of that. For any news, do not refer to social media rather perform a detailed search on their own as the information on social media can be personal views and may not be reliable. While our teenagers have access to this new media, they must be made aware of their rights and responsibilities and their legal implications.