The double-edged sword of social media
Social media: something our teens may love, hate, love to hate, be obsessed with, be averse to, the list goes on and on and on. It is something that is undeniably a part of our teen’s lives, in a way that it wasn’t more than a decade ago.
There are so many beautiful parts to social media it has connected people in a way that we’ve never experienced before. People can connect across the world, instantly, over a dog video, a funny meme, or a celebrity tweet. It creates communities of shared interests, allows long-distance friends to connect with each other, and allows far-away family members to be involved in each other’s lives.
Social media is also wonderful for education and social awareness. News spreads faster than ever before, and people can interact with numerous opinions and topics at the tap of a comment section. Headlines are accessible and present, and easy to share with friends. Educational content is now a dime a dozen, and you can find a page or community dedicated to any interest you like, or social platforms designed to help teens succeed in school, and later, in life.
However, social media has a dark side that psychologists are only just beginning to understand. There are multiple studies that show that the higher the time spent on social media, the greater the risk for depression. This cannot be linked to a single social media platform, but it is clear that the more time spent on social media in general, the greater the risk for depression. We know that Gen Z is the most depressed generation ever – up to 29% of Gen Zers report feeling depressed. Social media is not the only cause – the world’s current financial state, current global affairs, the political climate, and more also influence the way Gen Z is feeling – but for parents, social media may be the only feasible thing that they can influence.
We understand that social media breeds comparison and dishonesty; rates of eating disorders and body dysmorphia are rapidly increasing in young people. Many point to the unrealistic life standards that people consistently perpetuate on social media, and the ability to photoshop, pose, filter, and light things to perfection. Social media is nothing but a snapshot of people’s lives – but because of its prevalence, it can seem to be a representation of the whole thing.
How do you balance interacting with something that holds potential value in the form of connection, education, community, and awareness, with something that also increases the risk for depression, eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and comparison?
The answer is that scholars don’t know yet – social media is still new; there haven’t been enough scientific studies on the way that people interact with media to say that a specific method works for warding off the negatives. That does not mean there aren’t strategies to mitigate its impact.
Many parenting experts agree that one of the best ways to mitigate the pitfalls of social media is to create a strong alliance with your teen. Scrutinizing their behavior, butting into their lives constantly, or hovering over their media use will do nothing but cause them to retreat, and hide things from you more. If you want your teen to share with you what’s going on in their lives, and that includes their social media presence, it needs to be made clear that you are a source of love, care, and support. You will not judge them for the content they post or engage with, and you will not force them to show it to you. Allow them to come to you if they need to.
If you are worried that your teenager is engaging in harmful content online – such as interacting with groups that express hate, potentially bullying another individual, or acting in ways that may harm themselves, it is time to get a professional involved. Hovering over them or overly scrutinizing their behavior, will get you nowhere but with a sneakier teen, who is better at hiding what’s going on.
Other than being a safe resource as parents what else can we do? We can educate ourselves on social media – learn how to interact with the platforms our teens love and hate, and how to use them effectively. Go beyond Facebook and LinkedIn. Learn how to create an Instagram account and how to like, comment, share, and save posts. Create a TikTok, and learn what each tab means, and what a page is for you. Browse YouTube, and understand what popular channels look like. Create a Twitter and see what celebrities are up to. The message here isn’t one of encouraging people to adopt a social media presence; but to understand what one looks like and how to navigate it, knowing it will never go away. We cannot be effective and helpful in an environment we do not understand; as parents, we should be going out of our way to understand it.
