Brandon Salamea - Three Ways Social Media Affects The Mental Health Of Teens. by Brandon Salamea

Excessive Social Media Use

brandonsalamea — 2025-06-11 12:07:40 UTC

Teens spend more time on Social Media or their phones in general than time outside their phone or non-electric activities. This may cause Teens to not be separated from the outside world but they are separated from their homes and family. Due to teens excessive hours on Social Media it causes them to have sleep problems, attention problems, and feelings of exclusion in adolescents. Social Media also displays teens having the risk of developing anxiety and depression symptoms.

Harm Done To Teens

brandonsalamea — 2025-06-11 12:19:06 UTC

Harm done to teens can come from self harm, body shaming, eating disorder, A lot of teen harm is considered to be linked to Social Media. According to the Article "How Social Media Affects A Teens Mental health: A Parents Guide", "point to a higher relative concern of harm in adolescent girls and those already experiencing poor mental health, as well as for particular health outcomes, such as cyberbullying-related depression, body image and disordered eating behaviors, and poor sleep quality linked to social media use." This explain that teen harm is mainly related to their bad encounters in social media or bad people.

Algorithm

brandonsalamea — 2025-06-11 12:29:25 UTC

Social Media algorithm is usually seen as a good thing because it promotes videos and content that it believes you would like to see. But according to the article, "How Social Media Affects A Teens Mental health: A Parents Guide", algorithm can have its bad moments, "If a teen searches for any kind of mental health condition, such as depression or suicide, it's going to feed them information about those things, so soon they may begin to think that everyone around them is depressed or thinking about suicide, which is not necessarily good for mental health.” Clearly the quote explains that not only will social media promote depressing thought but it may be the cause of a child hurting themselves.

Cyber Bullying

brandonsalamea — 2025-06-11 12:52:05 UTC

Cyber bullying, is a form of bullying done through social media or online. According to the article, "How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers", cyber bullying causes teens to do questionable things to be accepted, "Peer acceptance is a big thing for adolescents, and many of them care about their image as much as a politician running for office, and to them it can feel as serious. Add to that the fact that kids today are getting actual polling data on how much people like them or their appearance via things like “likes.” It’s enough to turn anyone’s head. Who wouldn’t want to make themselves look cooler if they could? So kids can spend hours pruning their online identities, trying to project an idealized image. Teenage girls sort through hundreds of photos, agonizing over which ones to post online. Boys compete for attention by trying to out-gross one other, pushing the envelope as much as they can in the already disinhibited atmosphere online." This shows the affects social media has on kids and their lives.

Pressure

brandonsalamea — 2025-06-11 12:55:48 UTC

Social media puts a ton of pressure on teens that they shouldn't even have in the first place. This will be explain by the article, "How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers", "Adolescents have always been doing this, but with the advent of social media they are faced with more opportunities — and more traps — than ever before. When kids scroll through their feeds and see how great everyone seems, it only adds to the pressure. We’re used to worrying about the impractical ideals that photoshopped magazine models give to our kids, but what happens with the kid next door is photoshopped, too? Even more confusing, what about when your own profile doesn’t really represent the person that you feel like you are on the inside?" The quote explain what pressure social media puts on teens and how they feel.

Fear Of Speaking

brandonsalamea — 2025-06-11 13:07:47 UTC

Teens have spent so much time on Social media that they find direct communication more difficult and "scary". According to the article "How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers", teens find indirect communication easier and more comforting, "But when friendship is conducted online and through texts, kids are doing this in a context stripped of many of the most personal — and sometimes intimidating — aspects of communication. It’s easier to keep your guard up when you’re texting, so less is at stake. You aren’t hearing or seeing the effect that your words are having on the other person. Because the conversation isn’t happening in real time, each party can take more time to consider a response. No wonder kids say calling someone on the phone is “too intense”— it requires more direct communication, and if you aren’t used to that it may well feel scary." The article states that teens now have become reliant on social media and now fear direct communication.

Parental Help

brandonsalamea — 2025-06-11 13:15:47 UTC

Parents are probably the biggest person in teen eyes to help them through their mental health. Teens may fear expressing themselves to their parents but a parent knows their child best. According to the article, "Social Media and Mental health in Children and Teens", parents can assist their children's mental help by "Parents can help by modeling these behaviors in their own social media use. Children and teens are more likely to emulate what they see, rather than what they are told. Fostering a healthy relationship with social media in the parents’ lives can lead to healthier habits for the family as a whole."

Awareness

brandonsalamea — 2025-06-11 13:18:21 UTC

If teens or parents have awareness of what social media is doing, they can do things to help themselves or others. According to the Article "Social Media and Mental health in Children and Teens", Parents or teens can set rules/continue to spread their awareness, "Discussing the negative effects with children and teens to raise awareness can help manage the effects. Parents (and health providers and schools) may want to suggest the following strategies:

Take regular breaks from digital devices.
Turn off notifications.
Establish phone-free hours and spaces.
Discuss appropriate boundaries and behaviors when interacting online."

Being Healthy With Social Media

brandonsalamea — 2025-06-11 13:23:15 UTC

If teens are able to find themselves to be fine/contempt with social media then the problems caused by social media wouldn't faze you. According to the Article "Social Media and Mental health in Children and Teens", Before anyone chooses to use social they should try find peace with it defaults and be able to ignore them, "“Learning to have a healthy relationship with social media is as important as learning to have healthy relationships with food, exercise and coffee consumption,”