Social Media has been booming now more than ever due to the global pandemic going on at the moment. Social media is how everything is being transmitted in today’s age. Some people do not even read newspapers or read articles anymore due to the news being displayed on social media. However, since everything is posted on social media, people can see how happy people are and feel incomplete themselves which develops into mental health issues. Like the negative effects of social media, there are also positive effects. A positive of social media is being able to get help for any mental health problems and being able to find people that relate to those mental health issues. 

Negative Effects:

According to the Pew Research Center, 69% of adults and 81% of teens in the U.S. use social media. Social media is associated with depression, anxiety, or even ill from using Social Media. Social Media literally makes us feel ill but we keep coming back to use it. It seems like an addiction to many people. The reason why we keep coming back to using social media is that we feel rewarded every time we see the number of likes, comments, shares, etc. All of these “rewards” seem like an ego boost, which is also rewarding. Social media provides us, users, with access to almost everything about everybody’s lives. This is bad because we are able to compare ourselves to other people and we will always feel insufficient compared to others. 

Positive Effects:

Social media is very big on mental health awareness. There are 24-hour suicide prevention hotlines, websites that have therapists, an increasing number of websites are now offering support through social media channels. Another way to cope with mental health or feeling lonely is to communicate with family members and friends. Using social media, you are able to stay in contact with family and friends all over the world and even video call them. People can even be in touch with people who are going through similar situations and create support groups.

Social media is a big part of our lives and it will continue to be as technology evolves more and more. With the evolution of technology comes mental health being affected negatively and positively. The ultimate takeaway is that  Social media isn’t harmful or beneficial in itself, but its manner of use is the determining factor. If people overuse social media it can become an addiction that causes depression and anxiety.