by Layla Anderson, Isabella Murray, and Lola Mays

Social media impacts many people, but severely influences teenagers due to their generous use of time on social media.

One of the most popular apps among teenagers is TikTok. The Pew Research Center states, “…94% of teens say they use social media, with 46% of all teens saying they use it almost constantly.”

Social media is one of the contributing factors to the increasing poor mental health of teenagers. Yale Medicine states, “Over the last decade, increasing evidence has identified the potential negative impact of social media on adolescents. According to a research study of American teens ages 12-15, those who used social media over three hours each day faced twice the risk of having negative mental health outcomes, including depression and anxiety symptoms.”  

French teacher Dana Schenk agreed, saying, “It can be a potent influence on their mental health because they do not have the tools to protect themselves when it comes to things that make them depressed or sad or unhappy with their lives. They do not know how to find resources in themselves to move on and not pay attention to all that.”

Talkspace therapist Cynthia Catchings said on September 2023, “Mental health can be affected by social media when there is no clear understanding of how it works. Although teens know that not everything on social media is real, they may still be influenced and experience negative emotions that create feelings of worthlessness or low self-esteem.”

Teachers over the years have been seeing an increase in poor mental health in teenagers. But, poor mental health isn’t the only danger of social media. The influence of social media is alarming. Teenagers are being pushed to do all kinds of things, good or bad because they see someone online doing it or want to be like another person on social media.

A very common social media influence we see in teenagers is body image. Teenagers are driven to want to have this “perfect” body because they see someone online have it.

English 12 teacher Emmaly Rose said, “Teenagers are influenced the most by body image standards, materialism, and social validation. Social media platforms often prioritize beauty, wealth, and social status, which creates unrealistic expectations of what is ‘normal.’ Teens may feel pressured to conform to certain trends or viral challenges.”

When students feel badly about themselves, studies show that students project it onto other students and pick on or even bully their peers to make themselves feel better.

“Social media is one of the main contributors that we see when students are being picked on. Social media makes it easy because people can hide behind it. Sometimes they don’t even know who the identity is, which means it’s really hard to monitor inside and outside of school, and it’s very hard to control,” said assistant principal Jennifer Gohmann.

Social media isn’t just a problem online. It also brings in problems inside the school. If students argue over social media they will bring those problems into the school. 

Rose said, “These outside problems can create a hostile or stressful school environment, making it harder for students to focus on learning. It can create tension in school hallways, among peers, and even in the classroom.”

Misinformation is also a result of relying too much on social media rumors.

“Some things to be wary of is: becoming isolated and not learning in depth. A lot of times we don’t verify the information. Believe everything you see. And nobody questions it if you have too much information. How do you sort through all that to make sure it’s from a verified source? Make sure you’re not following somebody that is giving you dangerous ideas and promoting bad things,” Gohmann said.

Just because there are some bad influences on social media doesn’t mean they can’t be good ones too. Some common good social media influences are better communication, finding your voice, growing businesses, building communities, connecting with new friends, and many more.

“You have a lot of very interesting people posting stuff on social media because it’s a platform for everybody, so as long as you have that good part and good influence that you have that you follow things that can teach you something and make you a stronger person or more understanding person or that you learn something, then it could have a very good influence,” Schenk said. 

Teenagers can protect themselves by distancing themselves at times from social media distractions. 

Schenk said, “Set a timer, be economical with your time, be greedy with the quality of what you’re watching. Always think of ‘Did I learn something today?’”

To read senior Franki Jones’s opinion column on social media and body image, click on the link below:

Column: Love yourself for who you are and for who you were made to be