Adolescence is arguably the most stressful and pivotal period in one’s life. You are not an adult, but you’re not a child either. You are confused, stressed, and scared. You start thinking for yourself for the first time, you begin to see and analyze the world around you and realize that it is not as beautiful and magical as you thought it was in your childhood. There is endless pressure from your family, peers, school, and society. Your body is also going through countless physical changes. When you find out that the reality you live in is extremely harsh, it’s only natural to want to escape it. And in today’s world, where gadgets are ubiquitous, and where social media is widespread and abundantly popularized, they serve as the best escape from reality.
This explains why we are so fond of using social media and more so, extremely prone to becoming addicted to it.
Apart from this, the other reason why we are so drawn to social media lies in the fact that social media platforms are designed by top product designers using cutting-edge neuroscience to quite literally guarantee that users spend as much time as possible on them. The user interface is specifically designed to keep the users glued for long periods of time.
One such feature, that has gained widespread attention and popularity in recent times, is Short-Form Content. You can find them on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and so on. The psychology used to develop this feature is very fascinating.
1. This form of content tricks you into believing that you will spend less time on them as the duration of individual videos feels short. The users are drawn to this, as their thought process convinces them that these short videos will not consume much of their time.
2. Scrolling - a tactic used to keep the users stuck for long periods of time. This gives the users an easier and lazier alternative to finding new videos to watch, which in turn, keeps them hooked.
Once you start watching and scrolling on this form of content, hours can slip by unnoticed and you lose your sense of time. The short-form content traps you into scrolling endlessly by creating a false illusion of time saved. But in reality, you end up wasting huge amounts of your precious time - time that would be well spent on other fulfilling activities.
This has even more disadvantages to it. As you scroll through several of these short videos, you go through a number of emotions in a short span of time. Once you scroll to the next video, you forget the previous one you watched. Once you put your phone down, you will be unable to recall what videos you just watched and what message you took from them. Watching excessive short-form content reduces your memory, concentration, and attention span. It takes away your ability to focus on things for a considerable amount of time. This can be extremely harmful, especially to adolescents, who are actively involved in the process of crafting their lives.
Another damaging factor of social media is that it exposes you to the lives of millions of people across the globe. This causes you to constantly compare yourself to others on the web. On social media, you only get to see the positive side of everyone’s life. You start wondering why others’ lives are so perfect unlike yours. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. Everyone has their own struggles. You are just unaware of them. So many adolescents start feeling bad about their bodies and appearance, accomplishments, and skills and question their abilities. It’s not difficult to get sucked in and get addicted to this kind of negativity at such a vulnerable age. This leads to a lack of productivity and confidence during a crucial part of their lives.
A recent study found that out of 4.59 billion social media users worldwide, 63% are teens, which accounts for a huge number, and this makes it all the more important to make sure that especially teenagers are digitally well-educated. Adding to the significance of the matter is the fact that adolescence is an age where the brain is highly receptive and sensitive. Hence, adequate care must be taken to protect oneself from the toxicity of social media.
On one hand, none of us can deny the benefits of social media. It serves as an excellent tool for communication, promotes social interaction and collaboration, fosters a sense of connection, helps people express opinions and ideas, and serves as a platform for advocacy and activism. But on the other hand, one cannot neglect the harmful impacts on young minds. Used properly, it can be a powerful tool to enhance one’s quality of life, if not, it can cause enormous ruins.
One of the main problems with social media is the lack of regulation and information surrounding it. As US Surgeon General, Vivek H Murthy rightly says, and I quote “We’ve allowed social media to be unleashed on large sections of the global population without fully understanding its impacts; we’ve essentially conducted an experiment on the world and unfortunately, many of the results have not been positive. We’ve just put this technology out there, with no safety guardrails”. This statement rightly brings to light the large scale of adverse effects that social media has brought about - mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, and ADHD, cyber bullying and cyber crimes, exposure to unsafe content, etc. UNICEF finds that over 30% of teenage social media users face online violence. It’s also evident that social media does not just have a massive impact on our health, but also on the economic productivity of society as a whole. WHO and other international bodies show how this crisis is majorly impacting the youth.
However, social media is here to stay, and it is not an entirely bad thing that it does. But, it is a double-edged sword. The consequences could be highly damaging and irreparable if necessary precautions are not taken.
Proper guidelines should be provided for anyone who begins to use social media. Children should be taught how to handle the online world from a young age. It is also important to provide them with a safe space where they can express their feelings and report any unsafe episode without hesitation. Support from family and friends is key. Spending quality time with trusted people, building meaningful connections and experiences, focusing on oneself, and building self-confidence helps augment a positive environment for adolescents not just to survive, but to thrive. It’s extremely crucial to help adolescents combat addiction by nourishing their mental strength which makes them want to face reality rather than escape it.