There’s little doubt that being a teen is hard. Transitioning to adulthood while navigating the world with increased independence and coping with biological and mental changes puts a lot of pressure on young people.
In some ways, today’s advanced technologies mean adolescents are facing more challenges than in the past. The digital sphere places a world of information at our fingertips, but it also presents its own unique challenges. For many teens, social media asks a lot of questions about our place in society, how others perceive us on social platforms is a considerable stress point.
Teenagers spend a tremendous amount of time on their social media accounts. For teenagers, when they aren’t using their accounts, they’re busy thinking about them—the impact on adolescent mental health is complex and may lead to health issues later in life.
The Mental Health Challenges Teens Are Facing Today
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), one in six people is aged 10 to 19 and 14 percent of those struggle with their mental health.
Depression, anxiety, substance abuse, self-harm, and eating disorders can occur during teenage years. Of course, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and compounded by isolation, many of these illnesses were exacerbated. A fear of the unknown and restricted social interactions were a combination of factors that led to an increase in mental stress.
During the peak of the pandemic, teens, like people everywhere, turned to the internet to fulfill their needs. Not only were they spending significant amounts of time online for schooling, but also to fulfill their social needs as well.
Without sports, extracurricular activities, and limited time in-person to spend with friends, social media platforms began to play a larger role in many teenagers’ lives.
Social Media Impacts ‘Overall Happiness’
In a survey of 4,500 Gen Zers, ExpressVPN found that 86 percent of respondents felt social media had a direct impact on their happiness, and more than 60 percent were worried about becoming addicted to social media.
Despite their worries and fears, and even though many expressed envy of those without a social media presence, respondents did not want to give up their social media use. In fact, 13 percent said no amount of money would convince them to give up their favorite platform.
How Teens Can Take Care of Their Mental Health
We often think of teens as being on the cusp of adulthood. But, in many ways, they are still on the cusp of being children. They are still developing, physically, mentally, and emotionally. Some of the onus for taking care of their mental health does fall on them, but there are ways they can be supported.
Social media platforms are finally beginning to acknowledge and address the impact these platforms can have on young people. In response, Instagram has introduced new features such as hiding like counts to help reduce anxiety while using social media.
The features alone are not enough, though. Your teen must opt into using them. If you can, encourage them to take advantage of these features, especially if you know your teen looks for external validation through their social media activity. If you don’t know what your teen is doing with social media, it’s time to sit down with them and discuss what’s okay and what’s not.
According to the survey, teens can spend a tremendous amount of time using social media — some even up to 5 hours a day. Don’t be afraid to set limits and help them look for alternative options for how they spend their time. Remember that this can be done in non-judgemental and non-punitive ways. You can even suggest finding a new hobby you can take up together.
Encourage your teen to create relationships off of social media as well. In-person meet-ups and activities can do wonders for pulling a teen off of social media and out of their head. If your teen struggles with social anxiety or has difficulty with people, don’t forget that animals can fill a huge social void. If your teen doesn’t have a pet of their own, they may be interested in volunteering at an animal shelter.
Social Media and Teenagers
Social media isn’t all bad, but there are many things to be concerned about when your teen begins to lean too heavily on social media. Make sure your teen is using social media safely and not giving away too much personal information, like where they live or go to school. Perhaps most importantly, remind your teen that they have inherent value found outside of social media. And, that they don’t need to search for value by getting the approval of peers or strangers.
