It’s no surprise that social media affects your mental health considering doing anything that takes up your time has a mental effect on you. Nowadays there are so many social media platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and so on. According to TextRequest lots of children and teens get addicted to these social media platforms and that always ends up affecting how much they communicate with others face to face. As you can see here, teens talk way more on social media now then they used to. Some teens even stay in their room all day texting strangers on social media, gaming apps, etc.

Interviews:

Ruby Borer said: 6 hours, “I don’t usually go on Instagram but I’m usually always on discord.” Discord is an app used to talk to people across the world — could be your friends — or you can meet people on servers, in voice chats, or just text. It’s marketed towards “gamers and its mostly used to talk whilst playing videogames.

“Strangers have asked me for my Instagram, age, Snapchat, face pics, etc. but over time you sorta learn the difference between a creepy question and a friendly genuine question.”

Mia Da Silva Rena said: 3-4 hours, “I sometimes get put into random group chats with people I don’t know and they ask for weird pictures and I have to block them or I get tagged in random posts and I have to block them too.”

Joel vila Baiget said: “2-3 hours, I get added into random chats with old men”

Teens having mixed thoughts

According to the pew Research Center, some kids think social media is an opportunity for them to meet others with the same interests or for them to feel less lonely. This is not a bad thing but it can have its limits because sometimes meeting others with the same interest also means getting involved with strangers who could turn out to be a whole different person than you thought they were.

According to Sysomos, these are the negative Impacts of social media on your health

Addicted to social media

Being addicted to social media could lead to a lack of sleep, never getting school work done, always lazy and bad grades.

Stress and anger issues

Being on social media can be really stressful because you always have to worry about what you look like or what others think when really all that matters is your opinion.

Emotional behavior

For some teens or maybe even adults seeing all these skinny influencers etc.. can really affect their emotions. It could make them feel not worthy, fat or maybe even unsuccessful. This could cause them to show lots of sadness.

Tips and tricks

On social media, there’s lots of information or tips and tricks on how to get skinnier or how to glow up, etc... It may be helpful for some but for others, these things can be hurtful because then they see all these models and they start to feel bad about who they truly are.

Dangerous effects

People may be having a great time on social media with no problems but on the other hand, People are getting bullied or stalked, etc.

If you think about it social media is like a reality show for teens. It's when teens get the chance to post all about their private life. (where they are, what they’re wearing, what they look like and so on...)

Stalkers and strange people on the internet is not the only dangerous effect of social media. A lot of kids attempt stupid dares which they get from their followers, and these dares lead to negative endings, like, humiliation, accidents, and possibly even death. These incidents don’t only happen because of dares; influencers try everything to get that perfect picture for their feed. “Is our life just worth one photo?” said Instagram influencer Meenakshi in one of her posts where she was sitting on the edge of a cliff. She was trying to tell people that you don’t need to risk your life just for likes. What’s the point?

This is how it all started.

According to Fastcompany.com in 2011 Instagram influencer, Tom Ryaboi, Posted a picture of him swaying his feet from side to side whilst sitting on a skyscraper. After that post came lots of videos and pictures of other people on tall skyscrapers with captions such as “Can we get famous now?” or“On the tallest skyscraper, Will I get likes now?”

There weren’t only pictures on skyscrapers but there were also pictures near nearly exploding volcanoes or people stuck in cages with lions. All for likes.

According to commonsense.org this is how to stay safe

Take a break

Sometimes it would be good if you logged off of social media for a little while.

Keep it to yourself

Instead of posting where you are and what you’re doing at all times, keep that information to yourself.

Don’t talk to strangers

If someone you don’t know tries to follow you or tries to text you, don’t reply, show it to someone -an adult- and eventually block the account. Make your social media accounts private.

Don’t show yourself

Don’t post pictures of yourself in oversexualized clothing.