Mental Illness in Social Media
The internet has evolved greatly since it’s beginning, it is now a place where virtually anything can be found. Whether it is public government documents, information for a school research paper, or someone’s private information, it most likely can be found on the internet. With the evolution of the internet also came social media and more collaborative, connective platforms where people share their lives, interact with others, and express their opinions. Now, the evolution of the internet and social media has become an environment that can impact people's lives, emotions, and well being, especially to those who are still developing and are growing up in this. So if behavior and mental illness in humans is a basis of genetics and environment, how does the cyber environment attribute to that?
Social media was first created to connect humans, connect the world. Whether it was to give news, or share big events, it was not a large part of everyone’s life. However as it started to grow and grow, it has become more influential to the people who use it. For many, social media is not just an app or website they can turn off anymore. Especially now there is a rise in social media “influencers”. Children now grow up in not only outside “trends” and outside world “norms” but also social media “trends”. Kids now can be seen as more “stylish” or “too mature” for their age simply because they copy and have the influence of the older age from social media. Children now have genuine role models from a high social media presence. More and more careers are dependent on social media, as it has become a world that could be monetized as well. It is clear that social media has become influential enough to become an environment that affects traits and behaviors of humans.
Social media is more connected to behavior and the brain than people lead it off to be. For example, studies have shown that positive attention in social media activates and affects different parts of the brain. According to the article, Growing Up Wired: Social Networking Sites and Adolescent Psychosocial Development, their studies show that getting increased “likes” causes an activation in the ventral tegmental area of which is a vital area in the brain’s reward system. The ventral tegmental area is set off when it sees these “likes” and it sets off the same endorphins and feelings as certain drugs, sugar, and overall rewards and pleasure that people face in real life. This shows how social media can affect the brain just as the brain preserves pleasure and events in real life. They found that the increase or decrease in likes corresponding with more or less activity associated with these reward system areas in the brain. It has been observed in social media usage as when someone receives, notification on their phone, like a text or a like on instagram, a rush of dopamine is rushed out from the brain, allowing for the person to feel pleasure. This pleasure is instant, and requires minimal effort or accomplishment however it leaves people yearning (whether they know it or not) for likes and comments. This shows how social media can be compared to drugs and gambiling as it is a part of the brain’s rewards system, and can cause addiction. As social media likes and comments trigger the same parts of the brain as addictive substances, people who use social media can fall to social media addiction, a behavioral addiction that is “characterized as being overly concerned about social media, driven by an uncontrollable urge to log on to or use social media, and devoting so much time and effort to social media that it impairs other important life areas.” (Hillard, What Is Social Media Addiction?).
A reason why social media habits can become addiction is how when people are on social media, they talk about themselves and focus on themselves. Studies show that when one is talking and bragging about oneself, their brain releases immense amounts of dopamine, the “reward” hormone. Normally, people would talk about themselves 30% - 40% in day to day life, but on social media, it is more than 80%. As time went on, people started sharing their lives on social media more and more. As increased posting continued, so did the availability of information, now one can learn about a whole person without even meeting them, if they just have a facebook, instagram, or linkedin. This causes people to filter out their lives and what people can see online. Of course, no one is going to post on their timeline that they lost their job, but they will boast about their wedding that is coming up. This is just the need of acceptance and admiration that humans desire. However, as children grow up on social media, they may forget that posts on instagram may not be the whole story of a person’s life. These people will then compare their whole lives, to a snapshot of someone who seems to have the best life possible. Although social media is new, comparison is not, but the difference is social media is so much more accessible and people may be immersed in it without knowing, constantly judging themselves versus someone else’s post. This results in lower self esteem, especially for young children with their bodies as research on youth has found that body insecurities increase with social media use. The National Center for Health states, “Higher social media use leads to “body surveillance,” which refers to monitoring one’s own body and becoming judgmental of it. People who do more body surveillance report feeling more shame about their bodies” (Mir, Novas, and Seymou, Social Media and Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Mental Health)
Although there have been studies of the correlation of social media and mental instability and illness, it is not a clear-cut, direct cause and effect relationship. For example, many studies show that the amount of time spent on social media is correlated with depression and anxiety. Meaning that the increase in the amount of time one uses social media, the increase for depression and anxiety. However, it is not just social media’s fault, it is also how it is used. Many of the people who have increased usage of social media, have a greater rate of sleep loss, or poor sleep in general, of which can also cause anxiety and depression. When an individual stays up late scrolling through facebook, the light from the screen can disrupt their circadian rhythm, resulting in poorer quality of sleep. This comes to show that social media can contribute to mental illnesses, but it is not a direct cause. Social media is like junk food, it gives people a rush of dopamine as if they are being rewarded, but it can also be abused and overused. When one is obsessed, and is dependent on social media, or is not mindful and aware when they use social media, it is easier to develop addiction and mental ill-being. It also depends on their mental wellbeing prior to using social media, if they are in an environment that causes them stress or anxiety, and social media adds to that, that may cause mental illness as well.
Social media has become a big part of society and people’s individual lives. In many ways humans have grown to be more dependent on social media, whether it is for new or just overall entertainment. With this growth in social media, comes implications that can harm mental health, although it might not be a direct cause, it can contribute to mental ill-beng. Social media definitely has a large influence in people’s day to day life, and it can also benefit people’s life. However, it is still important to be mindful when using social media as it mixed with a harmful environment or mindset can lead to illness and addiction.
Works Cited
Acevedo, M. “The Effect Of Social Media On Human Behavior,” June 1, 2017. https://www.newinfluencers.com/the-effect-of-social-media-on-human-behavior/.
In the “The Effect Of Social Media On Human Behavior,” Acevedo studies the relationship between social media and humans behavior due to social media. Acevedo narrows in on internet and social media dependency as well makes connections on how social media can be a benefit with downsides.
Carr, Nicholas. “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” The Atlantic. Atlantic Media Company, January 23, 2020. https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/07/is-google-making-us-stupid/306868/.
In, “Is Google Making Us Stupid?”, author Nicholas Carr explores the phenomenon of internet knowledge and how much more accessible knowledge and information is to the public. He claimed that we are too reliant on the internet for information and instead we only have surface level facts, rather than deep understandings.
Hilliard, Jenna. “Social Media Addiction.” Addiction Center, September 17, 2020. https://www.addictioncenter.com/drugs/social-media-addiction/.
In “Social Media Addiction.” by Jenn Hilliard. Hilliard explains what exactly is social media addiction. Hilliard shows the signs and symptoms of social media addiction as well as provided studies to show how social media addiction can be caused both through a scientific explanation of the brain and from a societal impact point of view.
Hopkins, Bruce. “The Impact of Social Media on Education,” August 23, 2020. https://www.academiaapps.com/impact-social-media-education/.
In “The Impact of Social Media on Education” by Bruce Hopkins, Hopkins compares the pros and cons of social media on society, more specifically, from an education perspective. While weighing out the pros and cons, he highlights how it can help or set back the world whether it is through individual use of social media and the internet or how billion dollar businesses and industries use social media to boost advertisements and income. In addition, rather than focusing on grades and G.P.A he focuses on how the students themselves benefit or are deprived by social media, whether it is socially or internally. Through a wider and globalized perspective with how the internet affects society and the world, he ultimately allows the reader to decide if the benefits of social media outweigh the drawbacks or vice-versa.
Lipton, Bruce H. The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles. Carlsbad, CA: Hay House, Inc., 2016.
In the book, The Biology of Belief: Unleashing the Power of Consciousness, Matter & Miracles, written by Lipton Bruce H. Bruce. Lipton argues that the brains and understandings of humans are not as special as we make it out to be. He claims that although it seems like we have our own “scientific research” that seems unbiased, it is biased in the fact that we need to connect it to us, and relate it back to us to make it easier to understand. He then claims that because of this, it is impractical to learn through just books and paper , as that is not how humans are wired, but rather drawing connections and creating a deeper understanding.
Mir, Novas, and Seyou. “Social Media and Adolescents' and Young Adults' Mental Health.” National Center for Health Research, August 21, 2020. https://www.center4research.org/social-media-affects-mental-health/.
In Social Media and Adolescents' and Young Adults' Mental Health.”, Authors Mir novas nad Seyou study the implication of social media on the mental health of adolescent children as well as young adults. They study the statistics of mental wellbeing in adolescents and young adults and draws connections to how social media, society, and the environment contributes and impacts that.
Plomin, Robert, and Denise Daniels. “Why Are Children in the Same Family so Different from One Another?,” June 2011. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3147063/.
In “Why are Children in the Same Family so Different from One Another? Authors, Plomin, Robert and Denis Daniels explain how behavior of humans is not only shaped by the environment but is also defined/greatly affected by genetics as well. They attempt to explain how siblings or people grown in the same environment can have greatly varying personalities. The authors focus on quantitative genetic theory as a premise to further explain and explain what affects behavior. As even though people may grow in very similar environments there are genes that can be dominant, varying, and triggered by different things. They explain their experience design by looking at the implications of twin and adoption data for the separation of shared and nonshared environmental variation in the three domains with the most relevant data: personality, psychopathology, and cognition.
Spies Shapiro, Lauren A, and Gayla Margolin. “Growing up Wired: Social Networking Sites and Adolescent Psychosocial Development.” Clinical child and family psychology review. U.S. National Library of Medicine, March 2014. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3795955/.
In “Growing up Wired: Social Networking Sites and Adolescent Psychosocial Development.” by Spies Shapiro, Lauren A, and Gayla Margolin. Shapiro, A, and Margolin conduct a clinical study report on how social media affects the physical development of adolescent youth. They draw connections between family life, internet life, and life outside the home to try to see what shapes phycology and behavior in children.
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