Essay About Social Media Harmful Effects on Youth Mental Health

In this century, humans can barely live without the digital world. When we wake up until we go to sleep, we depend on them unconsciously. Since millions of years ago, technology was developed to make humans' lives easier, and it is now being integrated into our lives even faster nowadays. Social media, for example, was developed only 2 centuries ago and has now become one of the most important parts of our generation. It expands our horizons, connects the world to each other, and has become a platform for small individuals to voice their opinions. However, we cannot deny that there are negative effects of social media. According to Social Dilemma, social media companies have been manipulating their users to spend the longest time possible on-screen, and this has had negative effects on the users. As a result, many people decide to delete their social media accounts for various reasons, and the consequence of doing so for our generation appears promising—it would strengthen human connection.

One important reason why people decide to delete their social media accounts is because they decrease productivity. According to The Social Dilemma, social media is selling our changed behavior to companies through advertising. To achieve that, they use algorithms that observe our interests, personality, and even mood and would then put up content based on that information with the aim of intriguing us and keeping us on screen the longest. Moreover, the algorithm system has the effect of time distortion, making us spend more time on social media than we think we do. Most recent research showed that, in 2022, the average time people spend on social media is up to 2 hours and 22 minutes per day, which is 62% more than 10 years ago (BroadbandSearch). Nowadays, we have the habit of picking up our phones whenever we see them. Students and workers want to check their phones during class and office hours. Consequently, the overall productivity of social media users decreased. TeamLease World of Work Report pointed out that average people’s productivity was lowered by 13 percent solely because of social media usage (BusinessToday.In). Now, the number of those who not only have this habit of checking their phones all the time but have had this habit turned into an addiction is definitely going to be much higher. Like any other addictions, it uncontrollably affects people’s daily functioning and, therefore, to break out of it, some people may decide to quit cold turkey by deleting their accounts. And as addicting as social media is, those people would decide not to risk letting it manipulate and have control over their lives again.

Social media’s toxicity to mental health is another crucial factor that motivates some people to quit using them permanently. Even though it is true that social networks are a platform to receive news and to stay connected to people, many agree that their negative effects outweigh their benefits (Williamson 2021). This is partially because it is the kind of platform on which people put their best selves forward and we automatically compare ourselves to others; her job seems better than mine, he looks better than me, and the list goes on. Some might say social media is not the sole reason for this, since it’s human nature to do so. However, it definitely makes the action easier and the impact is greater compared to what we used to do in daily life before social media blessed the world. It has blinding effects that trick us from seeing reality as it is. While scrolling through our phones, we constantly feel insecure about ourselves. This feeling has a direct impact on our self-esteem, an overall opinion of ourselves, and could lead to many mental issues such as depression and anxiety. At this point, the benefit of connecting people to others seems to have turned out to be harmful instead, because the more people you connect with online, the more people there are for you to compare yourself to. Therefore, there is no doubt that many people would choose to quit social media for good to preserve their mental health. A YouTube comment under the video by BBC Ideas, Why People are Choosing to Quit Social Media | BBC Ideas, is a great example. "I'm a 23 year old Male, deleted all social media when I was 20 years old after being depressed and anxious, comparing myself constantly to others and not feeling good enough. In those 3 years my mental health has improved dramatically. My life has changed substantially for the better and I wish I did it sooner (Sauce 2021)". The comment not only received over 900 likes, but many replies also stated that they had had the same experience.

One of the things our generation would achieve if we quit social media permanently would be humankind's stronger connection. Deleting social media means we stop looking down at our phones all the time and have the opportunity to look around more. What we would almost certainly discover are people close to us who we may have neglected while engrossed in social media. With more time, we are able to learn about these people and build a deep human connection through sharing memories and caring for one another. Although this means there will be fewer people for us to know and connect with, it is important to learn that quality surpasses quantity. Also, getting to know people around us in real life makes us see them more as humans. Without acknowledging only the beautiful cover of a person through social media, we see people as the way all humans are, good and bad, with failure and success. Consequently, we are able to understand and empathize with them, which is the key to human relationships. Empathy would become part of people's daily life and where there is empathy, kindness follows. This can, then, be applied universally. Even though, as far-fetched as it may sound, spreading kindness toward others may be how we will be able to come together and improve as humankind.

In conclusion, there are important reasons that account for many people’s decisions to quit social media permanently. For one, social media addiction decreases their productivity, and in response, they quit it for good to avoid relapse. Another is that social media affects people’s mental wellness, and when this issue outweighs the benefit, it is reasonable to turn away from social media forever. As a result of this action, we are able to form deep connections with others around us which may lead to the reconnection of humankind as a whole. As for our country, Thailand, there are 56.8 million social media accounts which is equivalent to over 80% of the country’s citizens (Kemp 2022). However, for Thai people to permanently delete their social media accounts may not be easy. Many Thais rely highly on social media to receive news because, due to the country’s political situation, televisions are believed to be controlled and censored by the government. Moreover, social media have been acting as an important tool for individuals to deal with the country’s infamous corrupted system. Therefore, there are still other contextual factors for Thai people to take in to decide whether to quit social media and the impact of the action on the society may also be different.