By A. Reynolds, C. Sliwoski, K. Palileo, K. Mclenithan & S. Huhn
In today’s digital age, social media is integrated into the fabric of college life. From sharing study tips to connecting with classmates, platforms like Instagram and TikTok have become essential tools for students navigating the academic landscape. However, alongside the benefits come potential drawbacks, as the constant stream of notifications and curated feeds can affect students’ focus, mental health, and social interactions.
The Rise of Social Media
Social media as we know it is the forefront of this generation. It’s something that has taken the world by storm and been something that most people have adopted into their everyday lives. It all started out in the early 2000s with platforms like MySpace and LinkedIn. Both started in 2003 and paved a new path and idea for others to take advantage of. Shortly after was the introduction of Facebook and following after was Youtube, Reddit, Snapchat, Twitter, and much more. Today not only is social media a way to connect with people, but it’s also a way to connect businesses to people.
Social Media Addiction
With the rise of social media’s popularity came a rise in its importance as well. Especially for younger generations, social media has become essential for social interaction. This had grown for years, but peaked during 2020 with the quarantine and global lockdown. As a result of this isolation, many people have experienced social media as their sole way to communicate with people. The dependency that humans had on social media, caused a significant increase in social media usage. This is where the conversation and research around social media addiction stems from. “Many studies have found that habitual social media use may lead to addiction and thus negatively affect adolescents’ school performance, social behavior, and interpersonal relationships” (Pellegrino 2022). This increased time spent on social media can have many harmful effects for the users.
Psychological Factors of Media Addiction
There have been many studies showing the negative psychological effects of social media. “Mental problems like anxiety, FOMO, and insecurity” (Rani 2023) are some of the most commonly reported. However, there are many studies reporting more symptoms “such as suicidality, loneliness, and anxiety” (Pellegrino, Stasi and Bhatiasevi 2022). Unsurprisingly, seeing a constant stream of content about how everyone is doing better than you has increased feelings of hopelessness and insecurities. Also, many social media algorithms promote specific types of content and many users struggle to guess what will succeed. This is essentially gambling with fame and can cause people to spend a lot of time chasing it. This whirlwind of algorithms and negative psychological effects combine to cause people to spiral downwards while spending more time on social media.
Physical Factors of Media Addiction
While many people can point to the psychological effects of social media addiction, there are also many physical factors that can be affecting people without realizing the cause. With the large presence of social media in today’s world, there are bound to be side effects. The generation of individuals in college or of college age right now grew up with the rise of social media and usage has become normal. “If a lot of time is spent on social media, it can be hard to figure out just when it is being used in a harmful way” (Pellegrino, Stasi and Bhatiasevi 2022). Due to the amount of time spent on social media, people have reported effects such as eye strain, back pain, and headaches. This is caused due to the position that people are viewing media from and the duration in which they are doing it for. Computers, phones and almost any device you have access to media on emit blue light which has been shown to lead to headache after prolonged exposure. “How we position our bodies while at computer desks or scrolling on our phones damages our spine and neck. In fact, for every inch you move your head forward, the weight of your head increases by 10 pounds per inch” (Miller and Hoffman 2024).
Social media addiction may also lead to negative psychological issues. “Harmful social media use has been associated with unhealthy lifestyle patterns (for example, not getting enough exercise or having trouble managing daily obligations) as well as life threatening behaviors such as illicit drug use, excessive alcohol consumption and unsafe sexual practices” (Pellegrino, Stasi and Bhatiasevi 2022). In terms of your usage or consumption of media, it should be done in moderation. However, there is also a gray area where it’s unsure of when someone might cross that threshold of overuse of media.
Personal Reflection
As you can tell, social media is everywhere and plays a huge role in a lot of people’s lives. As a group, we see this issue is extremely relevant, and there needs to be something in place to stop the harmful effects of social media. Having the harmful apps deleted as a whole is not enough to solve this issue. Social media has such an addictive factor that users will find other ways to satiate this need. With the immense negative impacts that social media has on mental health, we must focus our efforts on finding a successful solution. We have all experienced these negative impacts in one way or another. Something that has helped some of us is when social media influencers show the rough part of their life and the issues they struggle with. This helps the users see they are not perfect and they are just like everyone else. Most influencers only show the good parts of their lives because who wants to show the bad parts. However, they do not understand that by just showing the good it creates a false sense of reality. With that being said, we hope that the future of social media turns into showing your daily struggles and successes. We all know no one is perfect and everyone has issues, so why did social media become a place where you just show your successes. It also needs to be a place where you show your issues and how you overcame them, so your audience can see that and feel motivated instead of discouraged. We hope social media becomes a positive place where people come together, and it becomes a safe space instead of a dark one.
Conclusion
In closing, it’s clear that the relationship between students and social media is a complex one. Support mechanisms need to be prioritized to foster healthy digital habits and use, including fostering awareness of the psychological and physical impacts of excessive use and providing resources for seeking help. By working towards the creation of a healthier and more balanced relationship with social media, we can envision a future where social media enhances rather than hurts the college experience, allowing students to stay successful and stay connected.
Works Cited
Miller, J., & Hoffman, K. S. (2024, January 31). Social media addiction side effects – how it can harm your life. AddictionHelp.com.
Pellegrino, A., Stasi, A., & Bhatiasevi, V. (2022). Research trends in social media addiction and problematic social media use: A bibliometric analysis. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13(1017506).
Rani, P., Mehta, S., Kathapalia, J., & Tyagi, R. (2023). Impact of Social Media on Physical and Psychological Health of the Students. Indian Journal of Health & Wellbeing, 14(1), 48–52.
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