Is Social Media Usage Creating Mental Health Issues in Teenage Girls?
In 2018 New York University social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and attorney, author, and regular contributor to a host of America’s most well-known broadcast and print media, Greg Lukianoff published: The Coddling of the American Mind: How Good Intentions and Bad Ideas Are Setting Up a Generation for Failure. The Coddling of the American Mind
Although the book focuses on what is going wrong on college campuses across America. The authors put forward a well-researched analysis on the use of social media as a driver in teenage girl’s mental health issues. Recent evidence/debate/dialogue within this publication is progressing through an ongoing open-source review. (See link above).
I’m no college researcher, so I cannot contribute to this debate. However, I am a father of twin girls aged 13 years who spend time on social media engaging with large groups of friends from school, community, and sports. The foremost social media platforms they engage with are Instagram (video/image sharing), and Tik Tok (short clip video mostly dance). It’s difficult not to see how both are impacting culture and behavior change. You can’t walk down the street without seeing teenagers practicing the dances of Tik Tok.
Due to its rapid rise in popularity, it has turned normal girls into global overnight sensations who are influencing teenage girls across the globe. Upon speaking to the daughters the three most popular are Charlie Damelio (122 million), Addison Rae (82.4 million), and Lauren Gray (53.6 million). Tik Tok also provides a feature called: For You Page. Similar to the Instagram explore page it drives awareness of your posts. Due to the impact of Covid-19, we saw a significant rise in screen time as parents struggle to manage: careers, family, and children.
Stories of nighttime battles happening with parents, and teenage girls about screen usage after bedtime are not uncommon, I have lived these experiences, and know of many other parents in the same situation. Do you keep the internet on? Do you confiscate the phone? Do you let them keep the phone and waste the data? Do you set time limits on usage?
The choice is yours to set boundaries. Will you relent for peace? These are negotiations when being resolute is crucial. The mind needs to cool engines, switch off and relax. Impossible when the blue light from the smartphone is tricking the mind into thinking its day time. How Blue Light Affects Your Sleep | Everyday Health
There have been numerous reports of the negative impact on mental health associated with constant scrolling on social media. Girls are particularly prone to social comparisons reviewing: fashion, body image, lifestyle, and pop culture all prominent on social media platforms. Once you start liking or sharing posts the algorithm gets to work on predicting behavior. Addiction can materialize quickly as girls fear missing out on the latest photos, gossip, videos, or content of interest.
“Social networking has brought out a lot of things in us including our ability to deflect from our own lives while we spend countless hours becoming emotionally aroused by the lives of others, often people we don’t even know”
-Germany Kent-
How did our world transpire into being controlled by a ping-demic from a smartphone? The need to belong, feel part of something, connect with our tribe, and be someone is built into our DNA. Nonetheless, why are we in a hurry to get ahead? We want the fast route to success. Where is the patience, persistence, and humility to learn, grow and achieve? The facts and statistics introduced by Haidt and Lukianoff on rates of depression, anxiety, self-harm, and suicide perpetuated by social media usage are alarming.
How do parents guard against their teenage daughters falling into the world of filters? Teenagers are not equipped with the emotional regulation, coping strategies, or self-awareness to understand the magnitude of changes their bodies are about to experience. Widespread reports of bullying communicated through peer pressure, are pushing teenage girls into negative thoughts and feelings when they don’t know how to control them.
Relational aggression is harm caused by coercive, manipulative, or hurtful behaviors. Particularly prevalent in teenage girls. It can be as simple as gossip, silent treatment (isolating the person), or posting images that everyone else finds funny except the victim. Relational Aggression and Why Kids Engage In It (verywellfamily.com)
Mood changes are common as they battle with both physical and psychological changes in their environment. Withdrawing to their rooms for privacy is common, as is the awkwardness they feel when walking with parents in public. Hands up if your child moves at pace 30 yards ahead of you. Watch out for ruining their imaginary street credibility.
Social media can be used to wonderful effect. There is no disputing that outcome. However, there are real concerns about its role in creating avenues that damage Mental Health. Let me use an experienced I’ve just witnessed recently. Thankfully the outcome was not negative, but it was easy to understand how it would be.
One of the daughter’s friends posted a video on Tik Tok in the early morning. At lunchtime, over 12,000 people had viewed it. When she came to our house she was watching the phone every minute to see if the views were continually rising. For the next 2 hours, she sat attached to the phone, eyes glued to the screen, no other conversation except to scream:
“It’s gone up another 100 views”
The dopamine hit was constant, and she couldn’t get away from it. Happiness, joy, and excitement were written all over her face.
“I’m famous”. She cried.
Let’s rewind this scene and examine it from another angle. This is where the Mental Health Issues start to manifest. How would this girl handle a negative comment under this post when she was feeling elated? All those emotions associated with feeling exhilarated would crash in the time it took to read the comment.
This is the world of social media usage. Do you let the children experience the emotions associated with use continue? Developing independence and resilience is how they learn. Life is full of setbacks. How do you want your child to grow?
“The very existence of social media is predicated on humankind’s primitive drive of attention seeking. And when they successfully monetize your attention, they end up with billions of dollars and you end up with a screwed-up mental state. And if we don’t do anything about it now, the next generation will be a generation of mentally unstable glass creatures.”
-Abhijit Naskar-
Posting videos on social media takes courage. It’s a double edge sword in terms of negative/positive outcomes. Teenage girls can attach real meaning to where they fit in the society based on who likes/comments/shares on their posts. Becoming popular can drive them into situations they cannot control damaging their Mental Health. Parents need to be mindful of what conversations their girls are engaging with via Social Media.
This story was previously published on the Good Men Project-Is Social Media Usage Creating Mental Health Issues in Teenage Girls? — The Good Men Project
