Picture by Sydney Sims
Originally published in The Campus on May 2019
According to the Pew Research Center’s report on social media usage in 2018, 88% of 18-29 year olds in the United States use social media at any given time. Although social media has been a transformative force for many people across the world, no group of people have been as influenced by the advent of social media as college students, who use the technology on a daily basis to connect with other people and stay informed about what is going around in different parts of the world. This can have both positive and negative effects on college students. Although social media has done a good job connecting young adults, it has increased the amount of mental comparisons students make with their peers.
Oftentimes, social media causes us to see the best of others all the time. Since applications like Instagram and Facebook allow people to have a window into the lives of others, we are encouraged to post content that show the best parts of our lives. In an effort to not feel left out, we can feel pressured to portray how great our own lives are going through social media. Meanwhile, the negative or difficult parts of our lives are hidden behind the other side of the screen. Social media gives students an opportunity to view the success of our colleagues and feel inspiration from the effort and dedication required to achieve that success. Unfortunately, this can cause us to compare ourselves to other people’s successes. When social media is designed to always display the best of us, it can feel like we are comparing the up and downs of our lives to the endless highlight reel of countless others.
These developments can have a clear impact on our age group’s mental health. Tara Bahrampour’s Washington Post article “Mental Health Problems Arise Significantly among Young Americans” addresses this. According to her description of a report from the APA’’s Journal of Abnormal Psychology, which was published in March 2019, “in the past 10 to 12 years, the number of people reporting symptoms indicative of major depression increased 52 percent among 12- to 17-year-olds and 63 percent among 18- to 25-year olds” Interestingly enough, the rate of change amongst older adults barely changed, suggesting that whatever is causing these changes is unique to the younger generation.
The article “Age Period, and Cohort Trends in Mood Disorder Indicators and Suicide-Related Outcomes in a Nationally Representative Dataset,” also published by the same journal, argues that there is a relationship between the increased usage of social media amongst young adults and the increased prevalence of mental health disorders by stating that “Cultural trends over the last 10 years may have played a role regarding the larger effect on mood disorders and suicide-related outcomes among younger generations compared to older generations...Smartphones and social media were commonly used in 2012, and those trends continued...those born in the mid- to late 1990s are significantly more likely to have mental health issues than those born in the early 1980s.”
Jared Roseman, a Georgetown University student referenced in the Washington Post article, states that “[Social media] creates a false sense of reality so that many people start doubting themselves.” Likewise, Joshua Coleman, a psychologist in Oakland, California that is also referenced in the article, states that “[Social Media] offers almost a minute-to-minute update on your social status...every interaction you have is rated, and that’s basically what life is like for young people these days.”
With the growing acceptance of mental health illnesses as a problem, and with the increasing reliance of social media amongst young adults, this issue is likely to get more prominent as social media continues to dominate modern society. As college students entering the workforce and hoping to put ourselves in positions to achieve our academic and professional goals, we must remember that social media, while immensely useful, should not be used as a barometer for self-worth and happiness. For those suffering from mental health illnesses or those that are generally experiencing influxes of emotions that tarnish their well-being, consider giving social media a break. A tool that is meant to help make our lives easier should not be doing the opposite.
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