The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health

Depends on how someone decides to utilize it

There's good and bad with social media, I feel we compare ourselves to are seemingly happy friends and family online, we must remember nothing posted online is the full picture. Good as in we can connect to others and speak to people who are experiencing what we are, get advice and wisdom from people with experience.

It has the ability to effect everyone's mental health in one way or another. Many people can have a positive and uplifting experience on social media but it requires following internet safety, ignoring arguments and hate that can be hard to ignore, setting boundaries with how much you're on it, ignoring bad takes that dont involve you, and blocking liberally to curate your space. Not doing any of those things can lead to hateful comments and stressful arguments as well as worse issues like cyber bullying, stalking, suicide bait, ect which obviously can have negative effects. The internet is just a public place, any public space can cause extreme stress if you live there and start picking fights with any strangers that are around. The real issue is that many people give their children access to social media without teaching them anything about how to act so they wind up in bad situations, or adults who were adults when they first started using the internet who also don't know how to handle themselves and also wind up stressed.

It’s good in one aspect it brings to light. The mental health is real, but there are different types of mental health so you have to be careful what you read the tail certain issues to. I still think the social media need to do a lot more for mental health issues, but it’s also a bit of a Cliche at the same time they want to say oh yes, the young girls are tomorrow’s future all women children boys men we all have a different level of mental health issues and I think in a way social media created it as in every girl has to look like this and look good on where this every man has to be built like this is a very dangerous thing social media

Both a detriment and a tool to improve. Virtual therapist visits are great. Mindfulness apps are great. Social networking makes us less alone. 24/7 Crisis lines are available through text or a call. But people can be crueler online than they would ever have the guts to be in person. A good reminder that hatred and intolerance are alive and well unfortunately. People can get addicted to the little bits of immediate validation they get online, to the point where they forget how great and how much more supportive people can be when they live in your neighborhood. My atheist young professional network of friends looked like this: I brought a guy I went on one date with popsicles when he got a fever even though we didn't hit it off. I watched my neighbors pets: cats and turtles. When my friend's kid got cancer, her friends created a calendar to sign up to bring her family dinner which I did: a casserole to be popped in the oven, fruit salad, and chicken nuggets in case the kids didn't like my casserole :) When my friends moved I helped them, when I moved they helped me or sent others to assist. I borrowed a car from a deployed service member while he was overseas and left him a check for mileage and had the oil changed and car detailed on his return and then I watched someone's cat while they were deployed for four months. I picked people up at the airport. I stayed on people's couches until I could sign a lease for my own apartment after time overseas. I spent Saturday's exploring cities through volunteer work with other YPs. Board game nights - we all sat around playing Apples to Apples. This was the BEST life I could imagine. I prefer my diverse group of friends to any romantic relationship, marriage or starting a family. I may be shy but I am a BIG EXTROVERT, despite people tring to say that I have anxiety or am nervous when I am just not. I might be a little excited like Amelie at the thought of new interaction, but it is no heart condition.

I personally have seen mixed messages on social media about mental health issues. I don't really have a full opinion about it, but I do know that I have come across content creates on platforms such as TikTok that have helped me quite a bit.

Social media can be both helpful and harmful to mental health. Helpful could be because of making friends like you, learning new things, etc. Harmful could be cyberbullying, seeing something like gore which could traumatize someone, etc. There's also the point when social media becomes an addiction. Someone addicted to social media will suffer damage to their social life, maybe even jobs sometimes. They will become depressed and be constantly glued to their phone/laptop or whatever they're using to access social media.

Social media definitely has an effect on mental health. With so many people thinking that they can get away with saying the worst stuff just because they're behind a keyboard, it sucks. I got severely harassed by people on Tik Tok (though, what was I expecting? It's Tik Tok) just because of a 5 second video I made, and it made me feel horrible since I already have really bad self esteem issues, and seeing nothing but negativity on a video didn't help with that. I'm okay from it now, but that's just an example

Personally it helps mine. Without social media I would be completely alone and would never find ways to get better