Is Social Media Lowering the Intension Span of the Youth?

     Social media has become a staple of modern society, Pew Research has found that over 70% of Americans actively engage on the media platforms, meaning that to find someone who doesn’t use any social media would make that person the outlier. With the rise of these massive online platforms has come all the benefits of the ability to connect with people from all around the world, as well as massive amounts of entertainment content to be viewed and enjoyed by all. On the surface this seems perfect, what could be wrong with any of this? Well, actually there is a plethora of issues arising due in large part to the rise of social media in people’s lives, but the most concerning aspect of this danger (and the one I want to focus on) is its effect on the youth.  

I was around thirteen years old when I was introduced and started to engage with social media, and I felt the firsthand negative effects of it immediately. My young teenage mind was so quick to start comparing myself to other people’s pages, it was like something I had no control over, the insecurities and desire for approval and validation from others just rolled over me like a wave, and I was not alone. Social media encourages others to post themselves in their best light at all times, so as a young boy/girl all you are seeing is people at their absolute best, it's just an environment begging for internalized comparing and contrasting your life with the person on the screen. It is quite obvious how this could destroy a young child’s self-image and leave them with feelings of intense insecurity about their looks and social status pressure. I was negatively affected in this way as a young boy, and only recently in my adult years have I started to make progress in this department, I can only imagine how much worse it is now. 

It is not just the mental health aspect of kids' lives that are being harmed by social media, but also their vary abilities to focus and engage in everyday activities as well. I will use the imagery of social media being equivalent to junk food in order for this to make sense quickly: junk food is fine in small increments, it becomes harmful when one engages with it in an unhealthy amount, as healthy individuals we should know our limits when it comes to eating junk food, but it has the ability to become addictive due to the ingredients put into the food that will always draw an addict back, thus leading to the health epidemic we are currently facing in the western world where the everyday person has a complete lack of self-control over their own diet. Social media fits every criteria of this example, especially in its ability to be addictive and destructive in our lives, even though we all know we should not sit around scrolling on media for excessive periods of time, we still do it, why? It’s not like we are ingesting some sort of chemical that would cause addiction like we do in food or in drugs, how is it so addictive? The answer is that executives have created the most addictive and dopamine inducing ways of keeping people on their sites as long as possible endlessly scrolling in looking for the next hit of instant gratification till we look at the clock and it's already been hours. By consistently triggering the brain’s reward system over and over, it is constantly making you feel as though you are accomplishing something... even though you are just doing absolutely nothing, and you will keep on going and going through your media of choice because you are constantly on a reward cycle in your brain, it is a prison. The worst part is that this overstimulation is actually causing harm to the user’s dopamine receptors, (the part of the brain that rewards you and gives you drive) over time we start getting less and less dopamine for everyday activities and accomplishments, meaning we will feel less happiness, satisfaction, and drive overall in our lives. As adults we can see how this can be so destructive, yet we still do it, imagine how much harder it is to realize this for young kids, let alone to try and stop it. Young teens/youth are experiencing record high numbers of depression and ADHD, with much of it being linked to increased hours spent endlessly scrolling through social media and a largely decreased amount of time spent socializing in person.

The next generation is likely to be facing these issues head on, and with how the numbers are looking right now, it doesn’t look like they are winning, but how can they? This is the first generation raised on social media, so of course they will be the ones hit the hardest. Much like cigarettes, it took actually seeing the consequences of a socially accepted addiction for anything to truly change, and unfortunately it looks like Generation Z is going to be the one to suffer social media’s full wrath. 

Links- 

Kulahlioglu, Camila. “Social Media's Influence on Our Attention Spans.” The Science Survey, https://thesciencesurvey.com/editorial/2021/04/23/social-medias-influence-on-our-attention-spans/. 

“How Social Media Fuels Teenage Insecurities & How to Prevent It?” Ana HPMD, https://www.toplinemd.com/ana-hpmd/social-medis-teenage-insecurities/. 

“Are You Addicted to Social Media?” Lee Health, https://www.leehealth.org/health-and-wellness/healthy-news-blog/mental-health/are-you-addicted-to-social-media#:~:text=Using%20social%20media%20can%20lead,in%20neurological%20and%20physiological%20functioning. 

“Social Media Fact Sheet.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center, 7 Oct. 2022, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/fact-sheet/social-media/.