What Social Media is Really Doing to the Youth
Teenage girl looking at her phone from
“No phones at the dinner table!” Is this a phrase you find yourself uttering often? Children of America find themselves engrossed in their personal devices. A sense of concern arises when a parent witnesses their child get trapped in the internet realm with cat videos and celebrity content. The truth is social media platforms have a way of targeting innocent youth through a carefully calculated algorithm. The content algorithm favors posts that users will be more interested in, instead of displaying content in chronological order. Through this, social media users are in a constant cycle of seeing content that they find entertaining. Video-sharing platforms – TikTok and Youtube– and photo-sharing platforms– Facebook and Instagram– are able to offer their young audiences a perfectly crafted lineup of posts that keep them scrolling.
A study on social media revealed that some social sites are capable of displaying “posts from your closest friends and family front-and-center in your feed” as they predict their user's interests will line up. Not only are hours of wasted time a concern, but the effects social media has on its user's mental health is a big factor. These toxic social media platforms promote unrealistic body standards among young girls leading to negative self-images. Furthermore, the presence of social media platforms opens up a new employment path: social media influencers. These individuals are responsible for posting glimpses into their daily lives, which are often heavily edited and staged for aesthetics. The downfall to this career– influencers fail to highlight their daily struggles and less aesthetic moments. Once again, causing their audiences to reflect negatively on their own lives. These individuals cause young children to compare themselves to their manufactured Instagram posts.
Young social media users argue that platforms such as Snapchat help them keep in contact with friends that they do not have the opportunity to see often. Social media can act as a tool to help people find their crowds and to keep long-distance friendships alive, but the torment that it subjects users to outweighs the pros. While it is increasingly important to allow children to socialize appropriately, a severe reliance on social media platforms for communication is not healthy. Rather than sending black selfies back and forth on Snapchat, parents should encourage their children to call up a friend, get some coffee, and catch up. In the post-pandemic world, children require reminders to separate themselves from their screens and experience face-to-face interactions. The peer-reviewed journal article published by the Harvard School of Public Health even suggests that taking friendships off of social media can provide them the opportunity to grow stronger. Bryn Austin, a professor at Harvard, noted some of her personal findings about the effects of social media,
“From experimental research, we know that Instagram, with its algorithmically-driven feeds of content tailored to each user’s engagement patterns, can draw vulnerable teens into a dangerous spiral of negative social comparison and hook them onto unrealistic ideals of appearance and body size and shape. Clinicians and parents have been sounding the alarms about this for years.”
The evidence clearly points to social media negatively impacting children of America in various divisions of their lives. Social media platforms use bright colors and flashing lights to rewire the brain into releasing dopamine upon usage. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that is released by the reward center of the brain. This allows individuals to feel pleasure and satisfaction. While children are not taking pills, they are still exposed to the harmful effects that are commonly associated with drug usage. Like drugs providing a quick dose of dopamine, the brain can gain quick releases moderately from the effects of social media. Furthermore, excessive use of social media creates unnaturally high dopamine levels within the body. In its absence, the brain experiences withdrawal-like symptoms in a dopamine-deficit state. When kids become so engrossed in their phones, they do not get to thoroughly experience other dopamine-providing outlets such as music, exercise, sun exposure, and sleep. Dr. Wane of the Cleveland Clinic published a study showing how frequently social media users experience “FOMO”, which means fear of missing out, anxiety, sleep deprivation, and negatively affected self-image. Excessive social media usage can even blur the line between reality and false online connections. Raising a child is hard enough, now there's an added fear: social media addiction. No past generation has experienced anything like this– parents of Gen Z are the pioneers.
Many phone providers offer users screen time limitations. Through the settings app, controls can be placed on different platforms to remind users they’ve been on past their designated time. While social media platforms are certainly entertaining for kids, it is important for boundaries to be put into place. Columbia Public Health, an education facility dedicated to health sciences, advises individuals to silence their phone notifications. The absence of constant notifications can further aid in helping people to separate themselves from their personal devices. In extreme cases, it may be best to cut out social media altogether. A social media cleanse provides users with a harsh cut from their platforms.
While this is going to be difficult at first, the results will be beneficial. Modern life calls for social media to be present to a certain degree, but children much not become reliant on the effects of social media. Teaching kids healthy ways to unleash dopamine releases is essential in aiding them while they detach from social media.
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