Thursday, 10 October 2024
Authors: Queennette Odudu
Country: United States of America
SUMMARY
This piece explores the detrimental effects of technology on adolescents today, emphasizing how concerns with mental health, poor academic performance, and social isolation are all exacerbated by excessive screen time, social media addiction, and exposure to toxic content. This article provides a thorough study of the difficulties experienced by adolescents in this digital age. It also provides recommendations for reducing these negative consequences, focusing on the importance of appropriate technology usage and raising awareness among parents, educators, and legislators.
BACKGROUND
In today's world, digital technologies have become a universal feature of people’s lives, especially for the youth. The rapid proliferation of smartphones, social media platforms, and online gaming has significantly changed how young people interact with the world around them. Recent Statistics suggest that 97 percent of teenage girls in the United States had smartphone access at home, and teen boys aged 13 to 17 had a smartphone access rate of 94 percent. In total, 95 percent of U.S. teens had smartphone access at home. The pervasiveness of the media has created an increasingly complex environment for youth, parents, healthcare providers, and policymakers to navigate.
Using the United States of America as a case study, technology has ingrained itself into people's daily lives, particularly young people. The quick spread of social media sites, smartphones, and online gaming has drastically altered how people engage with the environment. While technology offers numerous benefits, such as access to information, educational resources, access to quality information, and opportunities for social connection, it also poses various new challenges and risks for youth mental health and abuse.
Today’s media landscape is larger and more diverse than ever, with youth accessing an unprecedented volume of digital content across numerous devices, including smartphones, tablets, computers, laptops, and gaming consoles. Social media represents a central component of this landscape.
Understanding the Impact of Technology and Social Media on Youths' Mental Health
Concerns over technology's detrimental effects on young people's mental and physical health in America have increased in recent years. The American Psychological Association reports that anxiety, despair, and other mental health illnesses have risen significantly in teenagers. Numerous experts attribute this trend to teens' excessive use of digital devices and social media. The COVID-19 pandemic has also worsened these problems by causing young people to spend even more time online during lockdowns, making distinguishing between the actual and virtual worlds harder.
Potential Risks of Social Media for Adolescent Mental Health
Within the social media environment, peer interactions can occur with increased frequency, immediacy, and intensity. Specific online peer experiences have been identified in prior work as potential risk factors for mental health concerns. Cyber victimization, or the experience of being a victim of bullying by peers online, has been consistently found to be associated with higher rates of self-harm and suicidal behavior, as well as internalizing and externalizing problems. Other peer experiences on social media, such as social exclusion and online conflict or drama, may also put youth at risk. Peer influence processes may also be heightened online, where youth may access a wide range of their peers in addition to potentially risky content. Youth who are exposed to social media content depicting risky behaviors (i.e., alcohol and other substance use) may be more likely to engage in these behaviors themselves. Content related to suicide and self-injury may also be readily available online, potentially increasing suicide risk among youth who are already vulnerable. In a recent study of over 400 youth who were psychiatrically hospitalized due to risk of harm to self or others, a small but meaningful proportion of youth reported viewing online content that promoted suicide (14.8%) or self-injury (16.6%) during the two weeks before their admission.
Social comparison may be another risk associated with adolescents’ social media use. Individuals frequently engage in selective self-presentation on social media, resulting in posts and images that are often carefully crafted to portray users positively. This may lead some youth to engage in unfavorable social comparisons regarding their accomplishments, abilities, or appearance. Studies have shown that higher levels of online social comparison are associated with depressive symptoms in youth and that appearance-specific comparisons on social media may heighten the risk for disordered eating and body image concerns. Finally, a critical consideration in examining the effects of technology use on youth mental health is the issue of displacement: what other necessary activities are being replaced by time spent on social media? It is well established that sleep hygiene is essential to youth mental health and development.
However, prior work has reliably demonstrated a link between mobile screen time before bed and poorer sleep outcomes, including shorter sleep duration, poor sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness. Notably, 40% of adolescents report using a mobile device within five minutes before going to sleep, and 36% report waking up to check their device at least once during the night. Thus, the impact of social media on sleep quality remains a primary risk for subsequent mental health concerns among youth and is an essential area for future study.
In Conclusion, over the past two decades, new media have established an increasingly central presence in youth lives, presenting new challenges and opportunities. An emerging body of research has begun to identify social media experiences that may contribute to adolescents’ mental health. However, more research is needed as the digital media landscape rapidly evolves. Much of the existing research has relied on adolescent media use self-report measures. It has been conducted simultaneously, preventing any definitive conclusions regarding whether media use precedes and predicts mental health outcomes or vice versa. Future experimental and longitudinal studies are needed, including those incorporating objective measures, such as direct observation of adolescents’ social media pages. In addition, future investigations must continue to move beyond previous notions of “screen time” as a primary contributor to mental health and, instead, consider the specific social media experiences and individual characteristics that may make certain adolescents particularly vulnerable to social media’s positive or adverse effects. Finally, translating primary social media research findings into clinical and policy applications remains critical. As the presence of new media only grows, it will be essential to develop evidence-based approaches for encouraging healthy social media use in youth and effectively utilize these tools for mental health screening and intervention.
Recommendations
Given the findings from the above discussions, several recommendations have been proffered to mitigate the adverse effects of technology, particularly on today’s youth:
Promotion of Digital Literacy: Schools should incorporate digital literacy programs that teach students about responsible technology use, online safety, and the potential risks of excessive screen time and online predators.
Parental Involvement: Parents should monitor their children's technology use and set boundaries to balance online and offline activities. Tools such as screen time management apps and other cyber safety precautions can be helpful in this regard.
Encourage Physical Activity and Social Interaction: Youth should be encouraged to engage in physical and in-person social interactions to counterbalance excessive technology usage's sedentary and isolating nature.
Mental Health Support: Schools and communities should provide accessible mental health resources for youth, including counseling services and support groups, to help those struggling with the adverse effects of technology.
Policy Interventions: Policymakers should consider regulations that protect young people from harmful content online and limit the amount of targeted advertising directed at minors.
REFERENCES
Petroc Taylor, Share of U.S. teenagers with smartphone access 2023, by gender (2024). https://www.statista.com/statistics/256501/teen-cell-phone-and-smartphone-ownership-in-the-us-by-gender/ accessed 8/23/2024.
2. Jacqueline Nesi, The Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health: Challenges and Opportunities(2020) https://www.researchgate.net/publication/_The_Impact_of_Social_Media_on_Youth_Mental_Health_Challenges_and_Opportunities Accessed 8/23/2024
American Psychological Association. (2021). "The impact of social media on youth mental health: Challenges and opportunities." Retrieved from https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32132255/ Accessed 8/23/2024
Pew Research Center. (2022). "Teens, Social Media and Technology 2022." Retrieved from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2022/08/10/teens-social-media-and-technology-2022/ Accessed 8/24/2024
World Health Organization. (2023). Technology and Mental Health: Understanding the Link. Retrieved from https://www.who.int
Twenge, J. M., & Campbell, W. K. (2018). "The age of anxiety? Birth cohort change in anxiety and neuroticism, 1952-1993." International Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 1007-1021.
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