The Silent Epidemic:How social media is reshaping teen mental health
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The Silent Epidemic:How social media is reshaping teen mental health
Nowadays,every teenager’s world is surrounded by social media. Social media platforms are highly popular, since it is where the youth socializes, friendships are created and news breaks out and everyone is informed in seconds. However, even though social media embraces creativity and socializing,leaders and researchers of public health institutions and organizations have mapped a quieter crisis: a steady increase of digital behaviors and personalities directly linked in with mental health disorders such as anxiety,depression and even insomnia.
Think about it and the adolescent mental health picture is already sobering.In global,one in seven teenagers experience a mental health disorder with depression and anxiety being remarkable illnesses and well-known among teenagers. Suicide is one of the top causes of death for youngsters in this century,underdeveloping the meanings of early support and just simply talking and expressing your feelings and thoughts to your friends,family or a more related to the situation,a phsyciatrist or phycologist. Even though,social media is not the cause of all the stress, it is an important part of every teenager’s every day life.
Puberty is a significantly sensitive stage, in which personality, communication skills and resilience are slowly developing. Spending too much time into social media apps can influence your opinions and the way you see and acknowledge yourself, like body dissatisfaction and also worsen your mental health disorder by some trends and ways of coping mechanisms, which can in their turn influence mental health.
Public Health leaders stress the on-going spending time on social media can make teenagers prefer being in connection to such platforms rather than resting,going for a walk or reading a book. Researchers are making an effort to raise awareness to the fact that platforms in order to get more likes,shares and views are idealizing inappropriate and harmful content, which can create a bad mood to the watcher.
Recently, numerous trends are all about showing off that the creator of a Reel or a TikTok has a "perfect" life, has an amount of money and most importantly “puts it together", which can lead to teenagers stressing and questioning their life choices, not wanting to open up to their peers and seeking that unreal "perfect life".
Therefore, a number of organizations such as the World Health Organization (WHO) highlight that social media can also help,making teenagers feel that they’re not alone, since many of that age will post about similar issues and questions regarding their lives. The real problem is that there is no credibility and safety of what is actually uploaded to the apps,making it a crossway path.
Acknowledging this particular issue, the World Health Organization has started uploading developmentally appropriate guidelines for online mental health information, which are created with teenagers help and participation. Simply, this means that the meaning of "prioritizing safety" is actually followed and respected,creating a safer and friendlier environment for each teen.
Moreover it may sound simple but,listening to teens expressing how they feel or just simply talking about how they’re day went or anything they are open to talk about is significant. The majority of the youth,often doesn’t chat with their parents or guardians due to the fact that they strongly believe that they won't get it, preferring spending their time scrolling on Instagram and TikTok. A key point is treating them like individuals and equal to them,even though their biologically speaking still kids, mentally most of them aren't and starting having every-day conversations and most importantly bonding with them as a parent-teenager relation.
The "silent epidemic", isn't only about how much time a teenager spends his/her time on a screen, but about how much actually social media has become a major-influencing part of youngsters life. If we use social media as a way of properly uploading accurate context about mental health, in order to not misinformation teens and generally the public and creating trends about "seeking help" and "you’re not alone", which can lead the youth to open up and speak. Teenagers are highly influenced and confused and many times afraid to speak, it's time to help them and take action..
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