Have you ever scrolled aimlessly on your phone for hours, distracting you from reality? If you said yes, you are not alone. 

A lot of teenagers feel the same way. The majority of students spend their teenage years staring at a screen, forgetting what these years of their life are really about. However, they don’t realize how it affects them. While different apps may have certain benefits, most often than not, internet forums have tremendous negative consequences. Social media use in young teens severely affects their mental health, unbeknownst to them.

A lot of teens find social media innocent or a fun way to kill time, so much so that a very large and surprising number of this generation spends their free time on the internet.

According to the AACAP (American Academy of Children and Adolescent Psychiatry), 90% of children aged 13-17 have used social media in the past and, on average, teens spend roughly nine hours a day with their eyes glued to a screen. This is obviously a very large sum of teens using social media. 

The numbers have increased in the past few years and has led to even children under the ages of 10 ending up on popular apps. This number is quite dangerous because the more internet usage among this generation, the more distraction from the true purpose of life. When children are presented with phones filled with fun apps and games at a young age, why would they want to play outside? Why would they want to do chores or homework when they have something better to keep them occupied?

Even if one does not want to admit it, there are ultimately some benefits to owning social media profiles. 

As stated by Education Week, there are some great upsides to internet platforms. 

Some of these include being able to stay in contact with old friends, create and maintain new friendships, and gaining social support. Although social media may cause poor mental health, it could also “alleviate depressive symptoms”. This means that when teens are facing some usual teenage hardships, they could turn to internet friends that they made along the way. 

There are special support groups for specific issues on various platforms, such as Facebook grief support groups or Instagram mental health support groups. In these groups, they can all count and lean on each other through their difficult times. These resources are vital to a child, especially in the teenage years when their minds are developing the most.

On the more serious end, it is important to note that social media frequently depletes the mental health of young adolescents. 

Wellness Everyday informs that eighth-graders who spend 10 or more hours a week on social media are “56% more likely to report being unhappy” in comparison to others who use technology less. It is also said that increased anxiety and depression is already reported in teenagers who use social media. These symptoms may be because of the stress due to the media in this generation. 

Internet communities that allow kids to post pictures of themselves often set unrealistic expectations as to what their body or face should look like. The pressure of a “perfect selfie” or picture to post for all of their peers to see likely causes young, developing minds to pick apart their appearance. Poor body image and self esteem is largely associated with use of social platforms because of this rising issue. Issues like these have a huge impact on teens’ perspectives about not just, themselves, but also the world around them. So, when they think about themselves in a harmful way early on, it sets the bar for their future attitude.

In conclusion, the majority of teens spend the most fun years of their life on their phones. While social media does provide some advantages, it mainly does the opposite and restricts the mental growth of young ones. 

Social media is slowly ruining newer generations’ brains and diminishing bright futures. 

This is a widespread issue that needs to be stopped; social media use should be limited within adolescents if we truly want what is best for our kids. 

Editor’s note: This is a monthly opinion piece featuring takes in and out of the classroom from students at our area high schools. This month’s piece was written by Helix Charter High School student Rayanna Woodworth.

Top photo credit: Pixabay.com