How Social Media Can Have An Impact On Young People's Mental Health

Blog post #5

Hello once again, Bloggers and blogger enthusiasts!

Thank you for having a read of my previous blog post, I hope you enjoyed reading it and it was insightful. My previous blog post discussed how social media can have an impact on how young people are treated online, for example, the way social media makes it easy to bully young people every day and night (cyber-bullying) and how this badly affects them.

This blog post will be about how social media can have an impact on young people’s mental health. Now don’t get me wrong, social media is a great communication tool which allows people to connect with other people all over the world. However, social media does have some negatives, in terms of how it affects young people. Social media affects certain aspects of young people’s lives including: their sleep, their well-being, and their growth.

Young people’s sleep

It is a well-known fact that a lot of young people are on social media 24/7. Whether it’s on their mobile devices, laptop or tablet, young people are constantly on either: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, WhatsApp or Snapchat. Even when their go to bed, they are still online chatting to friends, scrolling through newsfeeds, checking Snapchat stories etc., until the early hours of the morning. This can have a very bad impact on their sleep which is needed to focus on tasks during the day. People, young people especially need approximately eight hours sleep to properly function throughout the day. So what can be done? Well, to make sure young people aren’t on social media or on their phones all night, parents can either take away their devices to stop them from going online or turn off the Wi-Fi after a certain time at night. This will hopefully make young people get the right amount of sleep they need daily.

Young people’s well-being

Because social media is so constant, young people feel the need to always be online just in case they miss something important that involves their friends. This can lead to mental health problems like anxiety as young people feel as though they must reply instantly to friends online through instant messaging and group chats. Young people need to realise that not constantly being online isn’t the end of the world and that there are a lot more important things that they should be focusing on instead, like hobbies, interests and school work/exams. Social media can ruin a young person’s happiness.

Young people’s growth

Social media can affect the way young people grow as individuals. Social media aspects that have already been covered like cyber-bullying and exposure to luxury lifestyles are one of many reasons that affects young people’s growth. It can lead to serious depression and sometimes even more serious cases, suicide.

Overall, social media is a great communications tool, however it needs to be used carefully and occasionally to make sure young people get the right amount of sleep they need to function daily, maintain a happy lifestyle and grow naturally.

Do you any have questions regarding this blog post? Then let me know in the comments section. I look forward to seeing what you have to say on the matter.

Stay tuned for my next blog post.

Until next time…