negative effects of social media on mental health

Scrolling might leave you envious of your social circle’s lives, including their: Social media offers plenty of opportunities to compare yourself to others. Social media could negatively affect mental well-being by: Making you feel bad about yourself But you might have less awareness of exactly how.

You might already know social media can potentially hamper mental health. The key to using social media well involves finding ways to lessen the downsides and amplify the upsides. In other words, social media could be both harmful and helpful. Yet, like anything, Frank goes on to say, the coin has two sides.

“Social media often gets a bad reputation for being a contributor to negative outcomes,” says Britt Frank, a licensed psychotherapist and author of the book “ The Science of Stuck.” Whether you recently started using social media or have had an active presence for years, you’ve likely come across plenty of mentions about its potential negative impact on mental health.īut contrary to what many people may suggest, social media isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In the United States alone, 72 percent of people reported using some type of social media in 2021, according to Pew Research Center.Ī 2018 study found that almost 70 percent of the participants reported checking their social media in bed before going to sleep. After all, social media use is pretty widespread. Maybe you pop back in throughout the day for quick check-ins - but before you realize it, you’ve scrolled through recent posts for nearly an hour. Do you start your day by checking your social media accounts? And end your day the same way?

Negative effects of social media on mental health