Social Media and Mental Health

This week's blog post is by Emma Jade, our Vice President, on Social Media and Mental Health.

What social media platform do you use most frequently? Is it Instagram? Snapchat? Facebook? Here’s a challenge – grab your smartphone and hide the app you always open when you reach for your phone in a folder. Leave it there for a bit of time. How often do you end up accidentally opening the app that’s now in the place of the one you just hid away?

I don’t know about you, but the first time I tried doing this, I kept accidentally opening my notes app because it sat in place of where Instagram used to be. I was addicted to Instagram – and I had started to constantly impulsively check it without even realising I was doing it. And this story is nothing new – you’re probably reading this right now and thinking “yeah, okay, I’ve heard about social media addiction a lot already.” We talk about it in a lot these days and we all feel the effects of it from time to time, but what does psychiatry have to say about it?

There are statistics that suggest that people spend an average of two and a half hours on social media every day, and that an estimated 210 million people are suffering from addiction to social media and the internet. One result of this addiction is lots of other mental health issues - several studies suggest that it’s linked to poor self-esteem, depression, anxiety, loneliness, ADHD, and overall decreased mental health. What starts out as a means to stay in touch and up to date with our friends can sometimes turn into us obsessively stalking other people that seem far more perfect than we are, the classic example being imposing photoshop-level standards of beauty upon ourselves.

There are also detrimental effects of a fear of missing out (FOMO) that is exacerbated by spending lots of time on social media. The way we choose to use social media and curate what content we consume and invest our time in looking at will have a massive impact on the way we see ourselves and the world that surrounds us. Not just that, but social media platforms have been designed to be addictive – notification symbols are red because red is a colour that has been psychologically found to catch our attention more than other colours. Instagram has been designed to be easy to refresh to satisfy our mind’s craving for the dopamine rush that comes from seeing new content.

It was found that teenagers who spend 5 hours a day on their phones are 2x as likely to show symptoms of depression. Staying up late on our phones is also linked to much worse sleep quality, and social media addiction has been found to be linked to worse academic achievement. It was also found that people who were more addicted to social media were more likely to take part in certain risky behaviours, such as being on their phone while driving.

At the end of the day, social media is definitely a useful tool and has its benefits. If the COVID-19 pandemic has shown us anything, it’s that technology is a great thing and has allowed us to keep in touch with so many loved ones and maintain relationships. But it’s important to acknowledge the need for balance – letting it reach a stage where social media becomes an addiction may be more detrimental than beneficial. So where you can, try to set aside phone-less time.