115 Social Media And How it Negatively Affects Mental Health

INTRODUCTION

Social media has become an essential part of modern life, reshaping how individuals communicate, connect, and consume content. It offers a variety of benefits, particularly for young people, who use these platforms to stay in touch with friends and family, explore new interests, and express themselves creatively. Much like other socially uniting pastimes, such as watching sports, social media can provide a sense of belonging and entertainment. It serves as a space where adolescents can form and maintain relationships, share ideas, and access vast amounts of information and educational content. For marginalized groups, social media can be an invaluable tool, offering support networks and platforms for self-expression that might otherwise be inaccessible. While social media is often hailed for its ability to connect people across distances, its impact is complex and multifaceted, influencing everything from mental health to personal development.

Adolescents are particularly drawn to social media for a variety of reasons, all of which align with their developmental needs and desires. Platforms allow teens to engage in social connection, self-expression, entertainment, all while satisfying their need for belonging and validation. According to recent research, a large majority of teens report that social media has had a positive or neutral effect on their lives, citing its role in helping them maintain relationships, stay informed, and even explore new topics of interest. Social media offers a unique space for teens to showcase their creativity, express their identities, and interact with like-minded individuals. Whether it’s watching funny videos, engaging with educational content, or staying up-to-date on global issues, social media provides a multifaceted experience that resonates with adolescents in meaningful ways.

However, the widespread use of social media also brings significant challenges, particularly in relation to mental health. Constant exposure to idealized beauty standards can contribute to body dissatisfaction and eating disorders, such as anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa, and binge eating disorder. Additionally, the rise of cyberbullying on these platforms has led to increased feelings of anxiety and depression among young users. While social media provides opportunities for connection, it can also result in feelings of isolation, as online interactions often lack the emotional depth and authenticity of face-to-face communication. Furthermore, the overuse of social media can lead to issues such as sleep disruption, poor concentration, and hindered cognitive development. These risks underscore the need for a balanced approach to social media usage, especially for adolescents who are particularly vulnerable to its negative effects.

Mental Health

Not only does the excessive use of social media cause eating disorders, it is shown to have caused a variety of other mental disorders as well. Dopamine is a chemical in the brain that can be described as a “feel-good chemical” and released by the reward center. This is released with social interaction, like on social media apps, making them highly addictive (The Social Dilemma: Social Media and Your Mental Health ). These addictive apps can cause multiple disorders, mostly anxiety and depression.

Anxiety

“General Anxiety disorder is characterized by persistent and excessive worry about a number of different things” (Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)). Social media advertises beauty standards, which play a major part in the development of anxiety. When someone or something tells these young boys and girls how they should look they might start to feel extremely self conscious. “Heightened self reflection is a central feature of mood and anxiety disorders” (American Psychiatric Association). Constantly worrying about how you look and how you can change that causes a great amount of distress on your mental state.  But GAD is not the only anxiety disorder that can be caused by social media. By no surprise, social media can cause the development  of social anxiety. Social Anxiety is characterized by “an intense anxiety or fear of being judged, negatively evaluated, or rejected in a social or performance situation” (Social Anxiety Disorder). Although it is online, social media is still a social situation. Social anxiety can develop when you become obsessed with what you are posting, how many likes or comments you get, how many shares you will get, whether or not people will think you look good, etc. All of these thoughts can overwhelm one’s mind if they become too addicted to the attention they get off the app. This distress can be very damaging, and greatly affect one’s everyday life.

Cyberbullying

Most people look to social media as a positive outlook to express themselves and find confidence but end up having their words or posts taken and used against them. Social Media can be deceiving and needs to being used with caution. 95% of teens in the United states have access to being online and of that percent 37% of them have been cyberbullied with 30% of them having it occur more than once. Social Media has opened a whole new door to bullying with being able to anonymously bully someone or judge someone else of their social media. Most social media companies know the harm their app can have. An investigation revealed that Facebook knew the risk Instagram had on mental health but chose to keep it secret for their own good. Facebook knew it was causing teens to have anxiety, depression, and body image issues by comparing themselves to others. Cyberbullying has been known to be most common on those two apps as well as Tik Tok.

Social media is a platform where it is easy to become someone you are not. It is incredibly easy to create a fake profile and troll a friend or even make a fan page for someone, and no one would know who the person is behind the screen. With the political and social climate today, it is very easy for social media users of all ages to hide behind a screen and say things that aren’t constructive or helpful for the development of society. Social media has made people feel free to address these issues in ways that they would never say to the person standing in front of them (Hovitz, 2018). It has become increasingly difficult to talk to people of different beliefs, especially over social media. For example, Instagram became a huge platform for posting about political and social issues over these past few months, which also caused many online arguments. People couldn’t stand to see someone posting something of a different belief to them, and it caused rifts between friends, family and even strangers. This dehumanization of communication has increased the feeling of being under attack for vulnerable populations in our country (Hovitz). Because of this platform, it was easy for people to hind behind screens and their thumbs and type away what they wanted to say but wouldn’t necessarily say in person. It also highly increased the miscommunication. Having important conversations, such as these, need to be had without the presence of a screen, so that you can understand the other person’s body language, response and tone of voice.

Hindering Development

As social media is being used by children of younger ages more frequently, these young minds are being expose to unrealistic body types and images more early on. Sometimes these teens won’t even be able to recognize that they are being influenced by what they see on social media, but they can be influenced in quite subtle ways. The way that they dress, the way that they talk, the way that they carry themselves, it can all come from influences on social media. This can be harmful, because if young teens, especially girls, see that there are girls on social media that look a certain way, they are going to believe that this is the expectation and want to follow along. This can negatively impact teenage development, because their bodies and minds are still developing in this stage and being influenced by an outside source will only hinder that development. Instead of trying to discover who they are and who they are going to be, teens will be inclined to follow in the footsteps of influencers, because they think that it will make them the most popular or the coolest. At this age, being accepted is the priority and young teens will do whatever and follow whoever they can to accomplish this goal, even if it means being negatively impacted.

Isolation and Loneliness

While social media is often seen as a tool for connection, it can, paradoxically, contribute to feelings of isolation and loneliness, especially among adolescents. Despite the widespread use of social media, a significant number of individuals report feeling lonely or disconnected. In fact, nearly 1 in 5 adults frequently feel lonely, highlighting a disconnect between the number of online connections people have and their sense of meaningful social engagement. Social media platforms provide an illusion of connection, yet they often fail to replace the depth of real, face-to-face interactions. Adolescents, in particular, may experience increased social isolation as they substitute online interactions for more fulfilling, in-person relationships.

Research suggests that heavy social media use can lead to heightened feelings of social isolation, especially when online interactions replace physical socialization. Studies have found a strong correlation between increased social media usage and greater perceived social isolation, with socially isolated individuals spending more time online. Moreover, the curated nature of social media often exposes users to distorted portrayals of others’ lives, fostering unrealistic comparisons and feelings of inadequacy. This can exacerbate loneliness, particularly when online interactions fail to translate to genuine, supportive relationships. While social media can provide an avenue for support, especially for individuals in marginalized communities, it may inadvertently increase feelings of isolation in others, creating a complex relationship between social media use and loneliness.

Physical Health

Beauty Standards

The definition of a “beauty standard” is the combination of mainstream trends that determine whether or not an individual is deemed “beautiful” or not.  They are not developed by a single person, but by an entire society based on what is considered to be trending, or popular.  Beauty standards have been around for generations.  They have become so normalized that many do not even question their value or morality.  Due to the development of social media, the negative effects of unrealistic beauty standards have heightened.  Instead of focusing on magazines and televisions, industries could push these standards more easily to the public through social media.  Industries, specifically the beauty and fashion industry, push this ideology onto the public for the sole purpose of making money.  They prey on the vulnerability of the public and encourage them to change their appearance and fit the beauty standards, all by buying their product.

A majority of those negatively affected by beauty standards are women, young girls, teenagers, mothers, and so many more.  Social media popularizes influencers who fit beauty standards, and many of their followers on apps such as Instagram are young girls.  These young girls look up to these celebrities and influencers.  Yet, what many fail to realize is how fake and misleading social media is as whole.  A survey on female college students found that women compare themselves more negatively when viewing feed from celebrities and peer groups (Oakes, 2019).  Everything on social media is filtered, edited, and staged to look perfect.  It has been shown that beauty filters are narrowing beauty standards and making them more attainable for influencers to promote.  From October 2019 to August 2020, Instagram banned face filters that dramatically altered the facial structure of one’s facial features because of the negative mental effects it was shown to cause (Ryan-Mosley).  It is fake, but society continues to believe its authenticity.  This can be extremely damaging to one’s mental health, specifically in adolescents who are easily influenced.  It can ruin one’s confidence, self-esteem, and value of self-worth.  If social media is constantly promoting posts that fit into the “ideal” beauty standard, then that post receives millions of likes and positive comments, an adolescent is going to believe that society only likes that specific type of person.  A doctor commented, “People are killing themselves to look beautiful”, as more and more people seek extreme beauty enhancements and modifications to fit these strict standards (Ashtran, 2021).  Teenagers, specifically, are at a certain phase in their life when they are still discovering their identity and can be particularly self-conscious of themselves and what people think.  This negative self-image can lead to illnesses such as depression, anxiety, and eating disorders.  Beauty standards place people into categories and label them based on such.  These standards are false perceptions and false realities that are proven to repeatedly deteriorate and destroy the mental health of anyone who uses social media.

Eating Disorders

Eating disorders form from the fear of gaining weight, or from trying to lose weight. These disorders often stem from the pressures of society’s beauty standards. The center point of beauty standards, consist of a slim, toned figure. Adolescents aim to please others, constantly trying to change themselves in order to be accepted by their peers. The overwhelming  thoughts can be so intense that it leads people to developing eating disorders. John Hopkins states that the most common onset age of eating disorders is between 12-25 (Mennitto, D). This is a very common age range for social media users, making the connection not surprising.

Anorexia Nervosa

Anorexia Nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by self-starvation due to the fear of gaining weight and/or trying to lose weight. Those with anorexia generally have a BMI under 18.5, which is an unhealthy level. This eating disorder has “the highest mortality rate of any psychiatric diagnosis other than opioid use disorders” (Anorexia Nervosa). There are two types of anorexia nervosa: starvation (not eating) and binging/ purging which means overeating, then throwing up (Anorexia Nervosa).

Symptoms:

• For females, menstrual cycles may cease
• Dizziness and even fainting can occur from dehydration
• Hair loss
• Brittle nails/ hair
• Weak/ wasting muscles
• Heart burn/ reflux (for those who vomit)
• Depression, anxiety, irritability, poor concentration, and fatigue

(Anorexia Nervosa).

Bulimia Nervosa

Bulimia Nervosa is an eating disorder characterized by alternating between a low calorie food diet and a binge of unhealthy foods. “Binging is defined as eating a large amount of food in a short period of time”, often done in secret due to feelings of shame and embarrassment. This binge/purge behavior is different from anorexia because those with bulimia can be  a little underweight, normal weight, overweight, or even obese (Bulimia Nervosa).

Signs/symptoms that someone has Bulimia

• Frequent trips to bathroom after meal
• Unexplainable large amounts of foods missing, wrappers, or empty containers
• Recurrent unexplainable diarrhea
• Misuse of diuretics
• Chronic sore throat
• Swelling of salivary glands in cheeks
• Dental decay due to stomach acid
• Heartburn or gastroesophageal reflux
• Feeling dizzy/ fainting from excessive purging behaviors due to dehydration

(Bulimia Nervosa).

Binge Eating Disorder

Binge eating disorder is a disorder when someone uncontrollably and consistently overeats. People with often seek comfort in food but after binge eating feel quite the opposite and end up feeling sad and guilty. Most of the time people diagnosed with this disorder also have depression and anxiety that influence this disorder. Those with this disorder do not throw up like Bulimia nervosa but just feel the guilt after.

Signs and symptoms:

• Eating when full or not hungry
• Eating alone or secretly
• Being upset about over eating
• Weight fluctuation
• Associated with depression and anxiety
• Feelings of distress and shame
• Disappearance of large amounts of food
• Eating constantly with no planned meal time

Social Media Addiction

Social media platforms are designed to be highly engaging, leveraging psychological, technological, and social factors that make them hard to resist, especially for adolescents. One of the primary drivers of social media addiction is the “variable reward system”, a feature that is intentionally built into these platforms. Similar to the way a gaming system operates, social media provide intermittent rewards, such as likes, shares, and comments, that trigger dopamine release in the brain. This dopamine-driven feedback loop creates a sense of anticipation and excitement, encouraging users to continuously check their notifications in hopes of receiving approval or recognition. The unpredictability of these rewards increases the likelihood of obsessive checking and habitual use.

Moreover, adolescents, who are in a critical stage of identity formation, are particularly vulnerable to the pressure of social media. Those with low self-esteem may turn to these platforms for affirmation, seeking validation through external feedback. However, the curated nature of social media often fosters unhealthy comparisons and feelings of inadequacy, which can contribute to anxiety and depression. The constant need for social approval, coupled with the compulsive nature of checking, creates a cycle that is difficult to break. Over time, this dependence on social media intensifies, leading to negative impacts on real-life relationships and overall well-being.

The addictive nature of social media is further amplified by its ability to fulfill a wide range of needs – emotional, social, and entertainment. Adolescents may use social media to manage loneliness or stress, yet, ironically, prolonged use can exacerbate feelings of isolation and dissatisfaction. The constant reinforcement from social media platforms, combined with the mental health challenges individuals face, makes it easy for them to become trapped in a cycle of excessive online engagement.

Missing Voices

When thinking about social media, it is usually focused on teenagers and young adults and how technology and the internet shapes their perspectives and reality. One group that may not be traditionally included in this discussion is older generations. Because of how recent social media is in everyday life, it is not as prevalent in the lives of people who are a part of older generations. Since social media and smartphones are fairly new technological advancements, many older generations do not use or have no interest in learning how to use this technology. But this may have a different impact on this generation than it does on teenagers and younger generations. According to “Marriage, parenthood and social network…” the use of social media by older generations may actually have the reverse effects and could be beneficial to them (Becker, 2019). While the difference between the mental health impact on teens compared to elderly generations is almost completely opposite, middle-aged people are affected by social media more similarly to teens. In one study done, researches examined the affect of social media on new mothers. In this study, new mothers were exposed to 20 Instagram posts per day showing the idealized as well as non-idealized concepts of motherhood. These idealized posts contributed to envy, anxiety, and social comparison that the new mothers experienced (Kirkpatrick). While the relationship between social media and mental health is usually directed towards teenagers, it could also have drastic affects on middle-aged and older generations.

Relationship to STS

Social media encompasses all of the aspects of STS, science, technology and society. Science is incorporated as the science behind social media such as the algorithms behind the scenes or the developments that made social media platforms possible (Barnhart, 2022). Relating to social media and mental health, science could also include the psychology of it and how social media impacts the mental health of its user and could lead to illness such as anxiety, depression and eating disorders (Shatz). Social media can also subject younger generations to other dangers such as cyberbullying and isolation (“Social Media and Mental Health”, 2022). Technology is the technological developments and testing that these platforms had to go through before they could be put out for the public to use. Social media is such a recent thing, the technological advancements that have come out since it has been established have already been life changing. Lastly, society is such an important part of social media and mental health. All of the users on social media, the influencers who post, the people commenting and liking posts and videos, are all a part of the society that makes social media. They are truly the leading force for these social media platforms because without its users there would be no platform.

AI Disclosure

Microsoft Copilot was used to create a new image to represent the addictive nature social media has on individuals. This AI software provided me with the image above. ChatGPT was used to find information on the new sections. Using this information, text was added to the chapter. AI was also used to help edit grammar and make my ideas clear and understandable. All the AI-generated outputs were critically evaluated, edited, and supplemented with addition research from non-AI sources. scite.ai.  (2025). Co-Pilot [Large Language Model].  https://copilot.microsoft.com scite.ai. (2025). ChatGPT, OpenAI. https://chat.openai.com/chat

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