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There is no denying that excessive social media use has devastatingly harmful effects on all of us. And surely these harmful effects of social media on Teenagers are particularly crucial to handle. According to the research conducted by the Pew Research center, "92% of teens report going online daily, including 24% who say they go online “almost constantly,” A professor from the Columbia Law School says that older generation who is not grown among the cellphones has better brains, saying that,
“They (older people) are often better trained to be patient with complex tasks, They can stand being bored for more than a second. I think the generation that is most at risk are the millennials, who have zero tolerance for boredom.”
Let's try to learn what are some of the major negative effects of using social media, and can you save your children from getting into the whirl of these constant problems.
• Disrupted Concentration
Constant use of social media, and consistently thinking about Facebook posts likes on the picture, eagerness to check out new places, tagging friends, tweeting fast and foremost and sharing something new every minute on Instagram has imparted a craze on the youngsters. They feel a constant urge to post something special, unusual, and attractive on these platforms. And in the race of this show-off, their concentration and focus disrupt from the things that matter, their future, their professional life, their studies. This consistent use of social platforms disrupt their mental activity and they lose their focus.
• Lack of Sleep and Lazy Physical Routine in the Morning
Sleeplessness and sluggish morning routine are two of the worst harmful effects of social media on teenagers. Scientific studies indicate that more than 60 percent of the adolescents keep using a cell phone for at least an hour on the bed before going to sleep. And the blue light coming out of these cell phone devices pose an extremely dangerous effect on your mental activity. It keeps sending signals to your brain that it is not yet sleeping time and is morning, and your mind remains active and in running condition.
In a study published in SAGE journals in 2017,
"... a connection between increased technology use at bedtime with decreased sleep quantity and quality. Along with all of the benefits of technology, however, come repercussions. It is important to be aware of how this new age of technology may influence the coming generations so that we may be prepared to offer recommendations to prevent the harmful effects of overexposure."
• Loss of Actual Social Interactions in Real Life
Kids spent most of the time with their cell phone, rather than interacting with each other in real time. A clinical psychologist at the Child mind Institute, Dr. Alexandra Hamlet says that,
“The less you are connected with human beings in a deep, empathic way, the less you’re really getting the benefits of social interaction, the more superficial it is, the less likely it’s going to cause you to feel connected, which is something we all need.”
• Fear of Being Missing Out- FOMO
Mostly, teens want to stay connected up-to-date and updated through these social media apps. In psychological terms, it is called Fear Of Missing Out- FOMO.
Dr. Jerry Burbick from the Child Mind Institute says that,
“FOMO is really the fear of not being connected to our social world, and that need to feel connected sometimes trumps whatever’s going on in the actual situation we’re in. The more we use social media, the less we think about being present in the moment.”
• Consistently Being in Depression and Anxiety
Being anxious, depressed and indulged in some kind of negative thought all the time has become a norm these days. Especially, the teen kids who spend loads of time with their cell phone, have something pinching in their head all the time.
A recent study published in the Journal of Social and Clinica Psychology by the researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, titled as "No More FOMO: Limiting Social Media Decreases Loneliness and Depression" perfectly elaborate the negative effects of social media's excessive usage and the danger of developing anxiety and depression.
In this study, a total of 143 University students were included in the research design. The students were categorized into two groups randomly. One group was assigned to carry on using social media as they are used to do, and for another group, social media access was significantly less.
Observing everyone around us, it seems obvious that people are getting into the whirl of some kind of anxious thoughts all the time. The researcher said,
“Prior to this, all we could say was that there is an association between using social media and having poor outcomes with well-being,”
The results were obvious, as expected. The group of students who had limited access to social media was mentally more productive and healthy than those people who continued using social media as before.
The author of the study has written that,
“What we found overall is that if you use less social media, you are actually less depressed and less lonely, meaning that the decreased social media use is what causes that qualitative shift in your well-being,”
• Constant Need to Look Beautiful and Crazy Use of Filters
Excessive use of social media is definitely to show off. Everyone using it seems to be in a race of elevating his or her level from others. Young teenage girls fall victim of this and try to look attractive all the time. And if they do not get their required amount of attention, they feel destructive and terrible. Dr. Hamlet says on this issue,
“Many girls are bombarded with their friends posting the most perfect pictures of themselves, or they’re following celebrities and influencers who do a lot of Photoshopping and have makeup and hair teams, If that’s their model for what is normal, it can be very hard on their self-confidence.”
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