A large number of teens across the globe possess cell phones as well as unlimited internet availability. This has enabled them to download their preferable social media apps and websites from the many available categories. The media has also given them an opportunity for accepting friends’ and followers’ requests, which consequently enable them to access individuals’ profiles, posts, and photos.
Why are teens addicted to social media?
The aspect given here acts as a most convenient means for keeping in touch with friends and family. However, when it comes to teens, particularly those who use social media, they are highly susceptible to bullying. Besides, whenever a teen becomes a social media addict, his/her homework, self-esteem, and real-life social interaction are likely to be impacted. Do you want to know how social media addiction is affecting teens? Then read this article to become informed.
What is social media addiction?
Scrolling via social media is increasingly becoming a highly popular activity over the last decade. Although it is not problematic for the majority of people to use social media, a huge population has become addicted to engaging in social networking sites in a compulsive manner. Social media addiction statistics show that approximately 40 to 50% of teens across the globe are currently meeting the criteria of social media addiction facts show.
The addiction can therefore be defined as a behavioral obsession that is driven by an uncontrollable urge to use or log in to social media, as well as devoting so much effort and time to it to the extent of impairing other important areas in life. It is important to keep in mind that real teens who are addicted to social media get everyday real-life destruction, as well as real-life relationship destruction, from friends and family hence ending up with stress.
Causes of social media addiction
Addictiveness
Online media and social media, in general, are addictive in a specific world sense. This is backed up by the idea that the firms that run the current highly successful social networking websites and apps work towards enticing people into their platforms. They also maximize the amount of time spent by people on the given platform. In this, the time spent by people online dictates the number of ads to be run and the profit that is likely to be got from the given product. So, it is the business in the end since any pronounced online platform is developed for brutal efficiency so that people can keep visiting it.
Self-esteem and stress
Digital media can be a pretty good tool as it gives people an opportunity of staying in touch by having instant communication irrespective of being miles away. It is also an incredible tool for receiving feedback from customers, engaging with communities, and many others.
However, it incentivizes a voyeuristic look into the life of many teens by editing their good reputation. It achieves this by making an individual’s life seem more alluring and exciting than it really is as compared to others. The notion given here shows that addiction can take advantage of individuals’ social competitiveness sense, thus making them feel less attractive or outclassed.
Social anxiety
Social media provide real teens who cannot communicate in person with a calm environment for expressing their feelings. Although this is a positive move, it cannot address social anxiety issues. This is backed up by physical effects and negative emotions of online consumption and excessive screen time.
How social media addiction is affecting the teens
Inadequacy about your appearance or life
Even if most teens know the image they could be viewed on social media is manipulated, it can still make them feel insecure about what could be going on in their lives. Similarly, many people are aware that most of their social media followers share a mere highlight about their lives but rarely show the real point about their experiences.
However, the notion may not lessen an envy or dissatisfaction feeling whenever you are scrolling airbrushed photos of your friend. The same is applicable when viewing photos about their holiday on their tropical beach or reading about new promotions at work.
Facebook depression
This is an emotional disturbance that goes in line with the use of social media. It mainly rises whenever the teens are made to develop bad feelings toward their counterparts on social media which makes them end up falling into a depression named Facebook depression. The desire to be accepted, fit in, and stand out by their Facebook colleagues causes them to have this kind of emotional disturbance.
Anxiety
Many people are always curious to know the progress of others instead of spending their time on their own. This makes individuals who spend their time on social media fall victims to anxiety and depression as it affects their moods and thought processes. Notably, descent mental health is recommendable for both studying and personal life. This is why teens are recommended to spend approximately a half-hour each day on social media rather than the whole day.
Cyberstalking
Irrespective of being used to connect people today, smartphones have paused very big negative effects on teens. For instance, those who keep on sharing locations make it easy for their social media friends to know their residing areas. This habit is highly prevalent with the teenagers who keep on updating their status, sharing what they could be listening to, watching, reading, and their places of check-ins.
This move is not only addictive but also makes them become hyperactive as they always look forward to new updates from their followers. As a result, they are obliged to check for every alert and notification that needs to be responded to as they believe there is a necessity for timely despondence.
Furthermore, they find new social media friends without even taking a rest. Of course, the resulting connection is virtual, which cannot only result in anxiety but also cause depression. Some of them will feel lonely if such virtual friends fail to respond on time or whenever they are not online.
This is coined to the fact that they take almost every aspect very seriously, including any text or status. Parents should intervene in this case by holding a healthy conversation with their kids so that they can direct them on the way of dealing with various life situations.
Sleep deprivation
Adolescents have the capability of staying active in social media for a very long period, especially if they are not prompted to stop. If they do this during the time of sleeping or before sleep, then there is a high likelihood of their sleep being disrupted. This may result in some parts of the body failing to function normally.
Low self-esteem
Some teenage girls start to make the comparison between themselves and celebrities after spending time on social media. This makes them develop a desire of wanting to look pretty, slim, and rich just like them. Considerably, there is no problem with admiring the people whom they consider a role model.
However, such imitation can have a negative effect on their dignity and self-respect. In most cases, girls who have developed a habit of spending most of their time on social media to look like celebrities get isolated. This means that many of their friends fail to accept them, thus ending up living a lonely life.
Poor concentration
Negative effects of social media, particularly among students, can be identified easily during its initial phase. Various tasks, an example being classwork, homework, and schoolwork, sometimes needs high concentration. Unfortunately, many real teens have developed a habit of performing such tasks and simultaneously using social media.
The majority of them opt to multitask, but in a real sense, it is not. Instead, the aspect is a constant interruption which results in big effects on attention, thus lowering learning and performance.
Self-harm and suicide content
In addition to being addictive, social media can result in self-harm and suicidal thoughts. This is backed up by the idea that social media teenagers are responsible for doing anything so that they can get any attention. So, whenever they witness someone doing self-harm to get attention, these real teens can copy-cat the same without even having second thoughts. The reason for doing it is to show to either portly their bravery or due to their poor mental health.
How to treat teen social media addiction
Talk therapy
This would involve doing one-on-one psychotherapy whereby the professionals would be expected to realize the means of dissociating their behaviors. In this, the teens would be guided on realizing the effects of social media. This way, they will be able to balance their life and online media.
Family therapy
This involves working with the teens and their families. A group therapy session is carried out here to implement changes to help the whole family have a healthier use of social media.
Other treatment
In this, therapists and psychiatrists apply a large repertoire in helping the teens to deal with their addiction to social media. This includes various forms of therapy and other alternative treatments, such as yoga, meditation, and others.