heavy use of social media is linked to mental illness

Question

Youngsters report problems with anxiety, depression, sleep and “FoMO”

Comments

Absolutely social media can affect your mental health in a negative way. It gives us so much information both positive and negative that it can be too much for our brains to process.

Answer 1

Social media usage being linked to youth's declining mental health seems to be a legitimate connection. Many psychologists have published studies detailing the detriments of the over usage of social media, such as a study published by 4 psychologists that is linked on the initial article that shows some of the results of a study done to determine the scientific answer to this question. 

 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269414387_Examination_of_Neural_Systems_Sub-Serving_Facebook_Addiction 

This particular study focuses primarily on the usage of Facebook, but this can be pretty universal across any social media platform that functions similarly. People within their specifed age-range tended to report lower self-esteem and body image in conjunction with high amounts of social media usage. Other viable sources seems to back-up the main articles claims, like ones written by universities, ( https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/social-media-teen-mental-health-a-parents-guide#)

and https://law.stanford.edu/2024/05/20/social-media-addiction-and-mental-health-the-growing-concern-for-youth-well-being/.  Additionally, the American Psychological Association (APA), reports similar findings in their own article here: https://www.apa.org/monitor/2024/04/teen-social-use-mental-health

Comments

Nice job compiling multiple sources for your fact-check.

Answer 2

This article is claiming that heaving use of social media causes mental illness in young people from the ages 14-21. They support this by showing that in the 2017 survey by Royal Society of Public Heath they showed that apps such as Instagram, SnapChat and Facebook have detrimental affects such as anxiety, depression, sleep deprivation and can be exposed to bullying and worries about their body image. Using the link they provided in the article I was able to fact check and see all their sources are reliable and doing some research myself I found multiple resources that also back up their claim such as the National Library of Medicine https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10129173/  one from Standard Law School https://law.stanford.edu/2024/05/20/social-media-addiction-and-mental-health-the-growing-concern-for-youth-well-being/ and one from UC Davis Health https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/cultivating-health/social-medias-impact-our-mental-health-and-tips-to-use-it-safely/2024/05 all also saying how social media has negative effects on young people and the more time they spend on the more it effects their mental health and how they think of themselves. 

Answer 3

The claim made by HARMONY_JAYDEN was that “social media is linked to mental illness” is true. From the article they provided (The Economist Text)teenagers 18-24 years old, deal with loss of sleep, FOMO (fear of missing out on activities and such), bullying, their body image, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. But, this poll was taken in May 2018 so the results now may be different. Although there was a poll done in May 2024 (recently) about social media affecting teens and their mental health, and positive ways to safely use social media (UC Davis Text). Also, using my own personal opinion in this as well, social media plays a big part in teenagers lives, as we are on it 24/7 and feel the need to satisfy our own followers with content, which creates a lot of stress and anxiety for ourselves.

Answer 4

The article "How heavy use of social media is linked to mental illness", published by the Economist in 2018, makes the claim that use of social media has been linked to mental disorders, including anxiety and depression, in adolescents. Not only does this article include evidence by The Royal Society for Public Health, (https://www.rsph.org.uk/about-us/news/instagram-ranked-worst-for-young-people-s-mental-health.html) who conducted the research cited in the article from the Economist, but I also independently verified the claims made in the article. One such claim, that social media affects adolescent's mental health, and can cause anxiety, depression and FOMO, was not only confirmed by the The Royal Society for Public Health study I mentioned, but also by UC Davis's own study; https://health.ucdavis.edu/blog/cultivating-health/social-medias-impact-our-mental-health-and-tips-to-use-it-safely/2024/05. With all the evidence supporting the claims the original article made, it is safe to say that this article is trustworthy.