“iCovid”
What’s up everybody, my name is Jericho Encomienda, and very obviously, I’m a teenager. As many teenagers in the audience can relate to, I own a phone, and find myself on social media during much of my free time. Between classes, before and after school, during the weekend, I often scroll through my Instagram feed, send photos/videos to my friends on Snapchat, or view funny videos on TikTok.
However, sometimes I forget that many of these social media apps didn’t exist not too long ago. I often hear from my mom or dad “When I was your age, I didn’t spend so much time on my phone like you. I would go out and spend time with friends face to face, or do more productive things.” Fair enough, right? But, as I continued to hear these things from my parents, I would ponder over the effects of social media, specifically to me and all of the teenagers in America. So that’s what I’m here to talk about today: Social Media. Is it harmful to our teenagers?, and.. Do the current circumstances under the pandemic worsen the effects of social media?
First, I’m going to speak on my personal experience with these social media apps, as relevant as that may or may not be. I’m gonna keep it real with all of you, social media has been a big distraction for me since I first got a phone. After analyzing my own personal experiences, I believe the main harm that social media has imposed on my life is it being a distraction.
But I wanted to delve deeper, and find the most consistent consequences/detriments of the use of social media. Even though social media was a big distraction for me personally, was this the case for most other teenagers?
I first started by researching general issues surrounding the use of social media, not necessarily pertaining to social media and the pandemic. My initial findings included that the most common “cons” associated with teenage use of social media apps were: Addiction, Cyberbullying, Lower Self-Esteem, and Depression/Anxiety
Now, I’d like to acknowledge the fact that there are a plethora of benefits to social media such as increased communication or plain entertainment. I definitely agree that the necessity/efficiency of social media is subjective from person to person. Different people experience different effects, and are under different circumstances.
However, after researching more, my personal conclusion was that despite various benefits existing within social media, there are a multitude of ways in which it can be harmful to the development, mental health, and well-being of our teenagers. Not only that, the global COVID-19 pandemic may allow these harmful effects to be worsened. And that’s something to be concerned about for parents.
Let’s look first to the first problem with social media: developing an addiction to the apps. According to surveys conducted by Pew Research Center and Common Sense Media, social media is somewhat addictive to many teenagers. 76% of teens use social media. For reference, 71% of teens use Facebook, 52% use Instagram, 41% use Snapchat, 33% use Twitter, and 14% use Tumblr. These surveys also reported very important information about parents:
59% of parents say they feel their teen is addicted to their mobile device. Within this statistic, we see that over HALF of parents believe that their teens are addicted to their social media apps. We can test this theory right now. For all the parents in the room, how many of you would say that your teenager is addicted to their apps.
Look around, and notice how it is just about or a little bit over half of you who are raising your hands. Now, this begs the question, what is so addicting about social media, and how does that negatively impact the lives of our teenagers? Well, one aspect that can contribute to addiction is the release of dopamine that takes place in our brains. For those who don’t know, oftentimes our brain releases dopamine, which results in our feelings of satisfaction, stimulation, or pleasure. For example, dopamine is released when we eat our favorite sweets, or when we win a prize. A study conducted by PubMed.gov concluded that our brain releases dopamine in a similar manner when we receive attention and likes on social media. They describe that “The rush of dopamine that occurs with this positive feedback creates a ‘high’.” Now, for obvious reasons, this can be very unhealthy. When teenagers grow accustomed to this satisfaction that occurs when they receive positive feedback and attention on something like Instagram, they are more inclined to put out more content or posts, and thus spending more time on it.
Additionally, let’s say a teenager grows accustomed to receiving hundreds of likes on their instagram. How do you think this teenager may feel if they start to receive less likes, or less attention on their posts? Possibly sad, or unsatisfied. I know, it sounds really stupid, but it’s a real thing. For those of you who are teenagers in the audience, go ahead and raise your hand if you feel that this is a realistic feeling that takes place in teenagers.
Moving on, I’m going to also explain the concept of FOMO, and how that contributes to social media addiction in teenagers. FOMO: The Fear of Missing Out. Social media has allowed teenagers to share the happenings in their daily lives in a way that’s never been so quick and easy. Because of this, teenagers start to feel the need to constantly be available, be up to date on pop culture and trends, as well as know what their friends are doing. Teenagers don’t want to be off their phone so that they aren’t able to respond to an invite. Teenagers don’t want to be off their phone to miss any new trends that are becoming popular… the list goes on. These are all clear examples of how FOMO can lead to teenagers becoming more and more attached to these apps, and their phone.
Researches from Emerald Psychiatry find that:
“Researchers are finding that this fear of missing out is connected to social media use. These feelings strongly correlate to feelings of regret and social significance. As people consume large amounts of social media posts and tweets, they start to compare themselves physically and socially.
These mental health issues can arise out of larger concerns surrounding inclusion and social standing. Heavily-edited social media images create feelings of a more perfect world where the viewer perhaps feels lift out. Additional damaging feelings may arise from viewing individuals who are socially connected to the viewer, but the viewer is not part of the activity or event.”
Although not everyone experiences it, FOMO is a real issue that many teenagers on social media do experience.
Now, moving on to another greater issue surrounding social media: mental health. Through my research, I was able to find that in many cases, although not all, social media apps can be a significant contributing factor to things like depression, anxiety, and general loneliness.
According to sciencedirect.com, those who use more social media platforms have an increased likelihood to develop these issues. “Compared to those who used 0–2 social media platforms, participants who used 7–11 social media platforms had substantially higher odds of having increased levels of both depression and anxiety”.
In addition, they also find that FOMO and social fatigue occurs fairly frequently in teenagers who use social media often.
Now, this doesn’t mean that there is an objective link between social media and mental health issues. With this information however, it should be clear that there are signs of it, and that some sort of relationship between social media and depression/anxiety can occur.
Now that I’ve gone over the most common general harms of social media: addiction, FOMO, and mental health, let’s address the implications of these effects under the status quo. I wanted to get as close as I could to finding some answer to the question: Are these negative effects of social media apps enhanced or worsened under the COVID-19 Pandemic?
Back on to my personal experiences with social media. I am currently a senior at Raisbeck Aviation High School. As most teens are, I am attending online classes on Zoom every day. Sometimes I have my camera off, sometimes on, but to be honest, mostly off. I’m gonna be as straight up as possible, my teachers have no clue what I or any other student could be doing behind our shut-off cameras. We could be paying attention, maybe we aren’t. I know that sometimes, be it during work time or be it during a less-interesting lecture, I sometimes go on my phone and scroll my TikTok for-you page. Who’s guilty of this? *raises hand*
As you can see, this is a real issue. How are our students supposed to truly take advantage of their education if their teacher can’t even hold their attention accountable? I collected some data, because I wanted to find out how common this was amongst teenagers. I surveyed roughly 60 students at Raisbeck Aviation high school. 72% of them believed they increased their use of social media during the pandemic. I also found that only 7.9% of the students I surveyed ALWAYS had their cameras on during zoom classes. Of the other 92%, 79% of them claim they are guilty of using social media on their phone while their cameras are off, at least sometimes.
So what is the takeaway from this information? I am aware that this survey is not representative of the entire U.S teenage population; however, it still says a great deal about how social media can be a big distraction, and an excuse to not pay attention in online classes. By no means am I trying to say that every teenager is addicted to social media, but this information should raise some concern for many of you.
Before I move on, how many of you parents rarely let your teenagers out of the house these days? Dr. Michael Raster finds that “People who really miss being around others and who may not have outlets or adequate support systems can become lonely” and that “They can become depressed, and clinical depression can cause physiological changes in the body.” For me personally, my parents aren’t too strict on me going out to hangout with friends occasionally, as long as I follow COVID guidelines. Luckily, I am able to spend time with my loved ones outside of the house to fulfill my social health needs. However, I know that many of my friends and colleagues don’t have a similar experience. Going back on to the survey I conducted… I found that about 40% of teenagers said their parents were strict about letting them hang out with friends during the pandemic. Additionally, about 64% of those surveyed said they either sometimes, or do indeed feel excluded when seeing their friends together through posts on social media.
Without including it in my survey, 10% of the teenagers mentioned FOMO as a contributing factor to this when given the option to explain their answers.
All in all, this survey opened my eyes to the potentially great link between social media harms and quarantine. If teenagers already naturally develop addiction to social media, staying at home for most of the day or week would only make them more inclined to use it. Additionally, if teenagers already deal with FOMO, how
Here are a few quotes from some Raisbeck Aviation High School Students:
“Because people are spending more time on their phones and being exposed to digital media more, the likelihood of the harms go up.”
“I would say it's definitely been harder for people to focus with their cameras off, but it's more due to them **staying up late** on social media since they don't have a direct obligation to get up for class and attend and they could just be napping in class.”
“Personally, more time on Social Media has detracted myself from more important things such as school work, or even college applications.”
“Everyone's on social media a lot more now, and considering school is online and you can be in class in your own house, you can go on it very easily and get distracted during class.”
“People are more likely to spend more of their time on their phones since there is more free time in general. So many bad habits people already had would be intensified during Covid-19.”
“I'm on my phone wayyyyy too much because of quarantine and lack of in person school.”
Again, am I trying to argue that social media is undoubtedly causing harm in every teenager? No. But through the evidence I presented, and the surveys conducted. it is important to note that there is sometimes a great risk in it. Take away COVID-19, Quarantine, and Online classes, and social media has already proven to be troublesome for many youth. However, as we look forward into the unknown future of the CoronaVirus, we should look out for how the harms of social media can be even more detrimental.
So, after retrieving this immense amount of information, what should you as parents do with this information? I’m not suggesting that you just snatch your kids’ phone away right now and lock it away for eternity, or even for the remainder of quarantine; however, I am here to warn you that the consequences and harms of social media are very real and things to look out for.. And that these negative effects are possibly even more worrying under the global pandemic.
I suggest having important conversations with your teenagers about their mental health, and their general well-beings. Although they may not be experiencing every consequence that I may have mentioned today, they may be experiencing some that may fly under the radar. Additionally, set some guidelines if needed. Social media has given us so much, and has revolutionized the world. However, considering quarantine and all of the harm that it has caused alone, when used the wrong way, it can also be very detrimental to the growth, development, and well-being of our teenagers. Thank you.
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