Social Media impact on teenagers’ Mental Health

Progressing towards the Digital World & Social media:

We live in a digital Era. Time has changed a lot in terms of technology. There used to be a time when mobile phones were used only for communication. But now it is much more than that. The shift of population from simple mobile phones to smartphones have completely changed the world and the way it functions. Earlier, there was “No social media and only social gatherings” but now “No social gatherings and only social media”. 

The Shift from a Simple Past:

Let’s go back to the time and recall the situation before. The first thing that comes to mind in this recalling process is that how simple life used to be. People were not that much familiar with the World Wide Web. There were no insignificant urges to put each detail of your life in front of the public. Life was pretty private and time was spent with family and not with social media family. People used to fulfil their appetite with food and not with likes and comments on their social media posts. Everything used to be real and not reel.

The Present Scenario:

Now let’s get back to the present-day scenario. People are completely dependent on social media, some for entertainment some for business purposes. It’s is however a good invention if used for business purposes, sharing verified news and the latest information. Also, a good medium to connect with people. But everything comes with its advantages and disadvantages. 

Drawbacks:

The age group severely affected by the disadvantages of it are teenagers. Teenagers nowadays struggle to have a realistic approach towards life. They believe that everything shown on social media is real. However, they are unaware of the fact that “social media is not the reality”.

According to a study, it has been observed that it leads to unconfident youth. They are always insecure about their physical appearance. They see Instagram posts of the popular influencers with perfect gym bodies and feel uncomfortable with their body type. The high level of editing used in the pictures of influencers overpowers the real world. The blemish-free glass skin is all those teenagers these days desire. Almost ignoring the fact that human skin is not supposed to be perfect.

Further, many cases have been found, in which some teenagers felt anxiety and depression when their social media posts didn’t get a good number of likes. While, some also believed to fake their lifestyle for the sake of social media life or to gain popularity. This level of unrealistic approach towards life is a threat to teenager’s mental health. 

Above all, teenagers must be taught about the real and fake world. They should be provided counselling sessions on how to be confident in their skin. They should learn the fact that the majority of social media posts are completely edited just to gain likes and influence people all over the world. Conclusively, to achieve something teenagers need to work hard in reality and not for the sake of showing it publicly. 

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