Social media: Like or Dislike?

Believe it or not, the "forefront" of Western culture is actually still a relatively new phenomenon. Social media has barely been around for a couple of decades, but now we can't imagine our lives without it.

Facebook was created in 2004, Twitter in 2006, Instagram in 2010 and Snapchat in 2011. For anyone born in this millennium, life before mobile phones and social media is near unimaginable. This sudden rapid modernisation of daily life seems to have caused fault lines and declared a non-violent yet hostile war between the younger and older generations of our society. This is hardly surprising, and is exaggerated through confirmation bias. This is the tendency for people to only search for and recall information that confirms or supports their belief. In this case, stereotypically, the older generations are likely to only familiarise themselves with negatives surrounding social media, and vice versa for advocates of social media, in efforts to fuel their verbal war that has been unofficially declared. I'm going to attempt to make a balanced judgement of both sides of the dispute.

There is no doubting the downsides of overusing social media. It sparks envy at others 'perfect' lives, loneliness when one feels they have been left out and it gives people a license to be hurtful amongst various other detrimental effects. It can have a serious effect on mental health and that is a genuine concern. Surely the rise in mental health issues since the turn of the millennium is not entirely coincidental.

A study by the American Psychological Association in 2019 found that 'The percentage of young Americans experiencing certain types of mental health disorders has risen significantly over the past decade, with no corresponding increase in older adults' . They found that between 2008 and 2017, there was a 71% increase in young adults aged between 18 and 25 experiencing serious psychological distress, whilst suicidal thoughts increased by 47% in the same time period. To further compound the idea that this has been caused by the usage of social media, the study also found that mental distress amongst those aged 65 and above had actually decreased.

The mental strain of having to post online and adhere to the ever increasing levels of social acceptance is undoubtedly large. Many suffer from body dysmorphia and extremely low self esteem as a result of feeling lower than the perceived 'normal' that social media portrays. Some of this I have seen first hand, as I'm sure many of you have too.

The assumption based on the evidence, therefore, is that social media is bad. But this surely can't be true when there are 3.8 billion active social media users across the world, there must be reasons why people can't let go of social media despite its downfalls.

And there are. There are so many reasons why social media has been a useful addition to our daily lives. Most obviously they connect us to things and people that we would never have been connected to otherwise. You can get to know people, whether it's acquaintances, friends or something beyond friendship, as well as follow something that interests you - for example politically or sport wise.

It can be an opportunity to demonstrate your talents in a world which is becoming ever more competitive. This could be through LinkedIn or even a YouTube channel. For example, Justin Bieber made his breakthrough with a cover song on YouTube before being found by a talent manager.

Perhaps the overriding reason people continue to use social media is simply that it is enjoyable. Socialising with friends, an opportunity to keep up with celebrities and the highest profile people and organisations, and of course humour. In particular, TikTok takes advantage of the latter and with great success.

Social media platforms also recognise the potential harm to mental health. For example LadBible, who are an extremely popular account across all platforms, have led mental health awareness campaigns such as 'Man Up' and 'U OK M8?' Another beneficial usage of the platforms can be seen in the recent Black Lives Matter movement where social media became highly educational and powerful in its ability to spread a message.

So there are clearly two sides to the social media argument and it really boils down to the age old adage, it's all okay in moderation. I know personally that during the lockdown I may have found myself even more bored without any social medias to scroll through, and many of you may feel the same. But we cannot ignore the evidence that mental health issues have risen, and are still rising in direct correlation with the rise of social media. Neither social media nor mental health issues are likely to ever disappear, but there are certainly ways that all of us can help to reduce the latter, in particular by simply speaking up.

#socialmedia #mentalhealth