Social Media: More Damaging Than You Think
by Matt Rizoli, Senior - Mount Saint Charles Academy
Hi! My name is Matt Rizoli, and I have 482 followers on Instagram and follow 547 people. I have one post, but my account is private so you can’t see it. My bio tells you I’m from Massachusetts and that I graduate this year. A few people you know follow me.
Was that not a horrible first impression of me? Do you really know anything about me?
Unfortunately, it is 2021 and that is the first impression that probably 75% of the people that hear my name get of me. They know nothing about me, yet assume everything. They don’t know my left hand shakes when I write, or how I always seem to have an earbud in, or how I’m always with the same five people, or that after every major accomplishment, I go to my grandpa’s grave to share my success with him.
Social media undeniably provides some great things for us. It is a way to stay connected with our friends and family, no matter how far away they live. It also provides easy entertainment, and allows us to follow meme accounts or funny tiktokers to see on our feed. It is very cool to see glimpses into our favorite athlete or celebrity’s life. However, social media can be incredibly damaging to the mental health of young adults. Since smartphones grew to popularity in 2005, there has been a 52% increase in adolescents reporting major depression (2017), and a 63% increase in adults ages 18-25 from 2009-2018. While one could blame this on other factors, there has been no significant increase in older adults, who are much less likely to use social media. However, it does not stop there. The same study showed that young adults experiencing psychological distress in a given month increased 71% (from 2008-2017), and the rate of suicidal thoughts in the same group increased 49%.
People argue many reasons why this could be, but from my own perspective, it is an issue of comparison. Let me ask you something- have you ever looked at someone on social media and thought, “I wish I looked like that,” or “I wish I was that happy,” or “I wish I had that”? The answer, for most teens and young adults, is most likely yes. Although this may be common, it is unmistakeably damaging. One study found that “people who said they made frequent social comparisons were more likely to experience envy, guilt, regret, and defensiveness, and to lie, blame others, and to have unmet cravings.”
Social media comparisons are even worse for people who are already struggling. A study of Stanford students had the participants evaluate how happy they are, then solve a puzzle along with their peers. One of these peers was actually a researcher, and finished the puzzle much faster than them. After this, while happier students were barely affected, the unhappy students had their self-esteem and assessment significantly damaged, showing how comparing oneself to others can hurt some of the most vulnerable parts of the most vulnerable people. Coupling this with only seeing pictures of people looking their very best with photoshop, perfect lighting, and filters, seeing our peers be what we wish we were is detrimental, especially to a depressed mind.
One of the most long-term impacts of social media hurting teen mental health is in eating disorders. If you have the time to spare, I would absolutely recommend reading this article, as it explains the eating disorder epidemic being fueled by social media better than anything I have read. Consider these statistics. We all know most girls want to be thin, and the boys want to be tall and muscular, but the amount is truly horrifying. According to the article, over 60% of adolescent girls are actively trying to lose weight, even though the vast majority of them are at a healthy body weight. The prevalence rate of anorexia nervosa is 0.48% of girls ages 15-19 years old. To put this into perspective, according to this article, the death rate for anorexia is 5.1 deaths for every 1000 patients. This is about four times higher than major depression, and significantly higher than bulimia, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. If diagnosed with anorexia between ages 15-19, the risk of death increases tenfold. If diagnosed between ages 20-29, increase that to eighteen-fold. What is most alarming about this is that these are the most susceptible groups. The article previously listed states that there is a blatant connection with eating disorder susceptibility and visual media viewing (found in the study measuring eating disorder increase in media naive population when visual media was added), and the most susceptible to death by eating disorder are the ones that are on social media the most.
If you are to take one thing from this piece, remember how damaging it is to compare yourself to others. If you are a parent reading this, remember to instill this in your children. Social media can be a great source of connections and entertainment, but try your absolute hardest to keep your self-worth far away from those feeds.
My name is Matt Rizoli. I’m pretty shy until you get to know me; I’m a hugger, I spend most of my time writing pages nobody will ever read or listening to music, I try my best to catch the sunset every single night, and I could talk about the ocean for hours. A lot better than my Instagram, right? You, and everyone else around you, are a lot more than that scrolling feed, and I promise everyone is not nearly as perfect as we pretend to be.
