The Effects of Social Media on the Mental Health of Children, Adolescents, and Young Adults
Social Medial has become an integral part of our society allowing us to communicate and stay connected to friends, family, and acquaintances around the world. The internet and social media has emerged with so much technology at our fingertips, we have been so engrossed that we failed to see the adverse affects this level of exposure has had on children, adolescents, and young adults. Recent studies have shown that the vast use of smartphones and social media is contributing to an increase of mental distress, self-injury, and suicide in young people.
From personal experience, I see how social media has the undivided attention of especially adolescents and young adults. What is most mind boggling is when talking to a young adult they are totally oblivious of their surroundings, much less hear a word I have said because they were doing the “infinite scroll” on Facebook the whole time. Now that I have become enlightened to how social media platforms have been deliberately designed to promote behavioral reinforcement, or behavioral psychology, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence, to promote addiction to our phones or devices I am trying to share this important information.
Ever since I watched the documentary “Social Dilemma”, I have been trying to get parents of children of all ages to sit down together and watch this documentary. This is proving to be a really had task because many people have no clue how dangerous and detrimental social media can be on their children’s mental health, and well being, before it is too late. Social media has normalized self-harm and suicide as if it is just something one does when they are depressed or life seems too hard to bare.
This is a societal problem not an individualistic one, we must encourage parents of children and adolescents to become motivated and pay attention to how much time is spent on social media, which really should not be more than three hours a day, be aware of what sites they visit and the content they are absorbing into those delicate and impressionable minds. We as parents and parents have to also be mindful of how much time we spend on our devices, and lead by example, not with the attitude, “do as I say, not as I do”.
#Dgst101
