How Social Media’s Influences Depression & Suicidal Thinking Among Teens
Wondering how the tremendous exposure to a myriad of technology is affecting your teen? Adolescence is a crucial, and transitional phase of growth and maturation. The rational areas of the “teen brain”, according to the latest neuroscientific data, are not fully developed. Lobes in the cortex connect very slowly. As a result, judgement, self-regulation, mood control, impulsiveness, and the ability to identify errors in thinking, are the result of normal, emotional, and instinctive behaviors of an immature, teen brain, which is still under construction.
Diverse Teen Activities Affect Brain Development
It is imperative that your teen spends quality time involved in a diversified number of interests and activities which stimulate the brain in positive ways. Behaviors which enhance healthy brain development, and increase critical and logical thinking include:
- participating in favorite athletic activities,
- learning a second language
- taking lessons to play an instrument
- engaging in strategy building games, such as chess
- increasing vocabulary
- Engaging in cognitively complex, and challenging, social and human interactions
- establishing friendships with others who share common interests, is an invaluable activity for teens; face-to-face, not just on-screen.
The non-profit, Common-Sense Media, has estimated that teens spend at least 6.5 hours of screen time daily. Social media interactions, along with text messaging, have now become an integral component of teen life, globally. When surveyed about how social media is impacting their life, many teens honestly state that their go-to favorites, Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, are a constant source of increased stress and anxiety. There is a palpable and building anxiousness over having falling numbers of “likes”, or worse, suffering FOMO (fear of missing out). When observing their friends interacting with others online, often, teens feel sad, depressed and left out. Words are quite frequently misinterpreted, and meanings are lost, due to the lack of tonality that direct communication offers. Emoji’s help, but there is a constant uneasiness about being misunderstood. Not getting praise through “like” numbers after posting, is very stressful and leads to self-doubt, and what parents and educators now call “social media angst”. This angst is truly the precursor to a stress level which is significantly higher than many adults face, daily. It affects a teens physical and mental health, as well as, activating the brains reward circuitry, which encourages more usage of this media.
What are the Affects of Social Media Angst
Today’s teens are continuously visible to peers, and others, through use of these internet platforms. They receive every kind of incessant judgment about their physical traits, popularity, actions, and the content of every post they create, from friends, frenemies, and others. This hyper-stress is difficult to shake off, or escape from, and it leaves many teens with an amplified sense of their flaws, real or, imagined by others. For teens, the deeply felt needs to fit in, conform, and belong, are paramount, as they struggle to establish interpersonal relationships outside the home, and meaningful self-worth. Many teens are questioning their body-imagery, mood swings, social status, and even their sexuality. They look to social media sites to find others with the same questions, doubts, insecurities and aspirations. This search is called “finding your tribe”. Support seeking of this kind may be positive, or negative; but too often, it seems to accelerate the pressures teens feel, both offline, and in cyberspace, to achieve social positions, validation, and status, from those peers whose acceptance they seek. Facing digital persecution, 24/7, and feeling the angst of being cyber-bullied, rejected, or left out, can lead to a teen depression and the contemplation of ending their life.
The Connection Between Social Media, Depression & Suicide
Studies by the Center for Disease Control, Carnegie Mellon Institute, in Pittsburgh, and many others, are targeting data gathered after investigating interactions between pairs of people, wall posts, status updates, comments, likes and the direct link to the loneliness, and low self-esteem users feel on social media platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, which is created by this on-line activity. Although more research is needed, teens who spend time adding to their levels of on-line content, and interpreting its effect on their friends and peers, experience less social bonding, more anxiety, and greater loneliness, negatively and emotional pain.
As the rise in suicide rates continues, teen girls are often fixated on their internet popularity, that has a reality and worth for them, which is comparable to their offline lives. If teens interact online with peers from school, they give serious attention to every post, photo, and like, or comment which occurs. Seeking this kind of popularity is risky for teens, who are already hyper-sensitive, and questioning their self-worth, physical traits, intelligence, friendships, social status, and morality, daily. When harsh judgements are generated, words hurt. The vast numbers of users who see and respond to this content, can be overwhelming, and difficult to ignore. Negativity can morph into truth for any sensitive teen, and anxiety can become full-blown depression, creating the link between social media and lasting thoughts of self-harm and suicide.
Social Media Usage – Too Much Screen Time?
Jerry Bubrick, PhD., clinical psychologist, with Child Mind Institute, has noted that the increasing frequency of social media use, by teens who prioritize their online interactions, over real world, actual experiences, are not receiving fulfilling, emotional rewards, which are so necessary to the teen view of happiness.
Feelings of isolation, a lack of connectivity to their peers, or posting photo-shopped imagery to make themselves look perfect, leads to feelings of inadequacy and rejection. Image and influencer driven platforms, like Instagram and Facebook, are shown in recent studies, to be a great source for teen angst, depression and worthlessness. Viewing celebrity and influencer imagery, curated to represent the ultimate, (superficial) symbols of happiness, popularity, power, wealth, and beauty, often lead teens to doubt their worth, and ability to compete for a rewarding and significant life. Using social media is proving to have very little benefits socially, while impacting teen users deeply, with long lasting mental health issues, and emotional scars.
Technological Device Usage – Addictive?
Researchers are now seriously studying the theory that technological device usage can be either healthy, and enhance life; or addictive, creating negative behaviors. Social Media addiction is more than just too much screen time for teens. It can, and has become, a technological compulsion for many, because it affects their mood, behavior, self-image and interaction with real-time and real-world connectivity. Amy Orben, Oxford University, Social Media Psychologist, has studied the current, 2017, research which verifies that “there is a significant and unabated link between social media use and depression”. The research team did find that moderate usage, in positive ways, with no disruption in sleep, physical activity, grades, and personal relationships, can be a very favorable for teen mental health, and their connectiveness to the world.
Keeping Social Media Usage Positive
Teens, with parental, knowledgeable, assistance, must find a way to keep social media usage from continuing to be a battlefield, where hurtful words destroy self-imagery and foster self-harm, depression and suicidality. The original intent of the internet was to bring diverse cultures together for more human understanding, and a celebration of human values. Use of the proactive, Fipple app, keystroke detection technology to digitally parent, care-give or intervene when people need help most, is one of the best methods to safe-guard those at risk in this global world of internet connected devices. Detecting suicidal or erratic behavior is often difficult and complex, but Fipple combines data science, linguistics and psychology to cautiously, and privately report the existence of a serious problem, before it morphs into a crisis where lives are lost. Social Media can be a destination for good if the majority of those who use it, have the intent to let the content educate, enlighten, entertain, and evolve in ways that lift humanity to a higher place. Taking away the anonymity aspect from those who would do harm in any way, with monitoring, interaction and yes, exposure, could serve as the best way to eradicate the battlefield, and create a sustainable environment for good.
