Social media can have negative effects on one's mental health as it can result in feelings of comparison, inadequacy, and low self esteem.
When our parents were our age, they didn’t have to worry about the problems that we face with social media. Sure, some social media such as Myspace was around when our parents were young, but it is nothing compared to the amount of social media we now have access to in our lives.
However, social media today is something completely different that kids use almost everyday. They see other peoples lives and scenarios and compare their lives to those seen on social media. We get told to not listen to everything on social media as it can be fake, but it is hard for teenagers who struggle to just ignore what they see.
Social media can negatively affect your social skills as well. With social media, it reduces face-to-face communication and interactions and replaces them with digital interactions. This has been a problem, especially with younger generations. They become dependent on social media and devices that it reduces all their social skills that they should be developing at a young age.
Now, instead of kids casually playing outside with their friends, they play with devices and it uses all their attention and takes away from their youth.
Their youth is supposed to be the most innocent and creative time of their lives, but if parents just stick their faces in screens it tremendously reduces their growth. This can result in cognitive learning issues, such as difficulty in reading, remembering things, and even difficulty speaking.
Social media and devices should be limited to young children to limit these problems from occurring, so they can have a childhood. As for teenagers, social media can be negative as well. However, it’s all about finding a balance and being mindful of how we use social media in our lives.
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