The Negative Effects of Social Media
By Ally Petersen
The turn of the twenty-first century brought many new advancements to our society. Technology proved to be the next frontier and creators built on from there. Technology brought so many new opportunities and careers to our society, but it also brought social media. On the outside social media is just an advanced way of connecting with others via the internet, however there is a cost to this ease.
Over three billion people in the world use social media daily as of 2020 (Statista, 2021). Social media has completely changed the way we as humans interact and consume media. Although social media has its positives it also has some negatives. Researchers have found there is a mediating link between depressive tendencies and lower self-esteem in relation to social media use (Oziemek & Biehoff, 2019). Due to these statistics, I became increasingly interested in the negative effects surrounding social media.
Berryman et al. (2017) found that the increased volume in social media use has caused an influx in negative mental health effects. Although these studies mostly examined the adverse outcomes from social media use, they also foreshadowed a positive resolution. Meshi and Ellithorpe (2021) noted that a strong social support system had a positive correlation between mental health and social media. In essence, having a strong support system includes surrounding yourself with individuals that you feel you can speak openly with and find comfort in sharing your emotions with.
It is nearly impossible to completely cut out social media due to its presence with communication. It should be noted that a majority of social media apps have built in sections in the app itself that allow you to connect and communicate with other users, hence cutting out social media may not be an option. However, a way to combat the negative effects would be to implement breaks from social media throughout your day. An overall reduction in use will prove to ease side effects. That being said, developing a social media schedule to follow throughout the day may also prove to help these effects. It was stated before and is still important that you are surrounding yourself with individuals you feel secure with. In return this will allow you to expel some of the negative emotions from social media use via talking with these individuals. Finally, while on social media you should ask yourself what is your intent on the app. Are you using the app to mindlessly scroll? Are you using the app and comparing yourself to others? In asking yourself these questions you can pinpoint the content that may be feeding into these effects. Furthermore, from pinpointing this content you can curate a feed that will promote positive emotions instead of negative emotions. There is no way to completely cut out social media but being mindful can help with the negative effects.
References
Berryman, C., Ferguson, C. J., & Negy, C. (2017). Social media use and mental health among young adults. Psychiatric Quarterly, 89(2), 307–314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-017-9535-6
Meshi, D., & Ellithorpe, M. E. (2021). Problematic social media use and social support received in real-life versus on social media: Associations with depression, anxiety and social isolation. Addictive Behaviors, 119, 106949. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addbeh.2021.106949
Ozimek, P., & Bierhoff, H.-W. (2019). All my online-friends are better than me – three studies about ability-based comparative social media use, self-esteem, and depressive tendencies. Behaviour & Information Technology, 39(10), 1110–1123. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144929x.2019.1642385
Statista Research Department. (2021, September 10). Number of social media users 2025. Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/278414/number-of-worldwide-social-network-users/ .