Social Media and Mental Health

Social Media and Mental Health

Introduction

In today’s digital age, the mental health struggles of children and teenagers have greatly increased, especially with the increased access that these age groups have to different social media platforms. This has created a situation where this population proportion has seen an increase in the challenge towards the mental and, at times, physical wellness of teenagers and children. While social media can be viewed as an interactive tool that can bring value in the sense of access to different parts of the world and different individuals, it has also led to negative exposure in the sense of creating a platform for issues such as cyberbullying and addiction (Deibert, 2019). In fact, teenagers and children nowadays face different mental issues, including those related to aspects such as depression, anxiety, and other such aspects. These issues are of great interest to the general functioning of society because they relate to aspects that inherently will affect how society is shaped as these children grow older and become adults. This paper explores the idea that the increase in the unregulated utilization of social media platforms is one of the biggest reasons child and teen mental health struggles.