Did you know that recent figures show 88 percent of the U.S. population uses social media, of which 90 percent actively engage with and contribute to multiple social media platforms? Unfortunately, research demonstrates that both adult and youth social media users report greater mental distress.
So, why is this so important?
According to the World Health Organization, depression and anxiety have increased by 25 percent in just the past two years. While this is due, in part, to the pandemic, many of the changes were in motion prior to Covid and resulted in a lack of social connection. In the short term, social media platforms are useful and necessary. However, in the long term, continued heavy usage may contribute to the state of mental health we see today.
People often ask how the use of social media contributes to depression. Here are some answers:
- The average person spends more than three hours on their phone each day, including approximately two and a half hours on social media.
- Research shows that doing anything repeatedly for extended amounts of time causes physiological changes in the brain (Keum, 2022).
- Social media does something called “capture and scatter” your attention, meaning when we hit refresh, constant new information enters your brain. Thus, you are constantly excited and rewarded to see new information and posts (Korte, 2020).
- Studies show this ability to capture your attention is detrimental to your memory (Keum, 2022).
- Heavy social media users perform worse on cognitive tests, lose their ability to multitask, and need to exert more effort to stay focused. In fact, heavy social media use shrinks parts of the brain and affects the neuroplasticity of the brain (Korte, 2020).
- Further, social media makes you feel as if you want to come back for more. It provides immediate rewards in the form of a dopamine release (the happy hormone) every time you post or get a notification from the app.
- This constant barrage of shallow rewards rewires your brain to want more of what caused that dopamine release.
- This also means that when your brain does not get the dopamine release, you experience sadness.
The brains of heavy social media users look like those of people addicted to drugs or gambling, according to studies that utilized fMRI scans. Further, those who use multiple social media platforms have higher odds of experiencing both depression and anxiety symptoms (Primack et al., 2018).
What parents should know about how social media impacts the littles
While social networks do connect us, they often also distract us from connecting with those right in front of us, leaving many feeling disconnected and isolated. In fact, 32 percent of children report feeling “unimportant” when parents use their phones during meals and family time.
Parental use of mobile devices during playtime with their children can lead to significant levels of child distress. A study of 50 infant-mother pairs indicated that infants showed greater unhappiness, fewer positive emotions, and were significantly less likely to play with toys when their mothers looked at their devices for as little as two minutes (Myruski et al, 2017).
The American Academy of Pediatrics updated its media guidelines for younger children, taking into consideration that neural pathways form strongest in younger years and translate into later developmental results. These guidelines include:
- For children under 18 months, no screen time.
- For children 18-24 months, parents should choose only high-quality media and watch it with their child.
- For children 2-5 years, less than one hour per day of high-quality programming is recommended with parental supervision.
So, what can we do?
These statistics may make you feel like there is nothing we can do to overcome this fast-moving bullet train of technology. The good news is that in a 2020 study, spending just one month away from Facebook leads to a significant improvement in emotional well-being. Researchers studied over 1,600 American Facebook-using adults who spent an hour on the site. Deactivating their Facebook accounts led to a significant increase in emotional well-being. This well-being included a reduction in loneliness and an increase in happiness (Allcott et al., 2020).
It is encouraging that the study shows that we can detoxify our minds and then move forward from there. This may look like deleting the apps from your phone or just removing the notifications. For others, allowing themselves scheduled times of the day to check in on social will do the trick. If these data points have troubled you, make a plan to do something about it. For me, I deleted notifications on all social media.
Practical tips
- Do a check-in to see how you utilize social media. For your children, lean in to see how they spend time on social media. Maybe even connect through social media—start the conversation with “Show me what you’re watching on TikTok.” Then, share something that you found funny on social.
- Talk about frequency, and do not be a hypocrite. If you walk around with your phone in your hand most of the time, take stock. Also, do not expect that your children will do anything differently. Yes, we use it for work. Yes, we are adults. Yes, we pay for the service and the phones. And yes, we can all be more present!
- Moderation is the key—we all spend too much time on our devices at this point, so doing something different will be hard. Go slow, be kind to yourself, be a good role model for the behavior you want to see, and celebrate the success.
- Identify alternative ways to connect. Rather than everyone going their separate ways in the evening, schedule a walk in the neighborhood or family game night—yes, even teens are up for family game night with actual board games.
How TV Lies to Us About Romance and Attraction 
Do UV Tanning Beds Really Prolong Lifespan? Social media is here to stay, so we need to find a way to balance the associated benefits and risks. Our world has become more accessible, and we can connect with people near and far. It is important to keep in mind that we need to focus on living in the tangible world as well as the virtual world. Having authentic connections with people will support better mental health. According to U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, “What often matters is not the quantity or frequency of social contact but the quality of our connections and how we feel about them.”