Social Media, The Best and the Worst

In 2022 a study conducted by Headspace, a leading national youth mental health service provider, found that more than half of young people felt their mental health was getting worse, with 42% of youth feeling that social media was by far the main cause.

Doctor Sarah Youngson, Chair of the Blackwood Youth Action Inc (BYA) shares her thoughts about social media.

“Social media has both positive and negative aspects. The risks are that it can cause young people to compare themselves with others’ ‘best lives’, contributing to an increasing sense of inadequacy, low self-esteem and poor body image.

“Spending too long on social media is associated with higher levels of depression, anxiety, FOMO (fear of missing out), isolation and psychological distress.

“It is also associated with cyberbullying.

“When young people spend too much time on social media, it impacts on their life balance; taking time away from healthy activities such as getting enough sleep, eating well, being physically active and spending time with family and friends.”

“On the flipside, there are some significant positives associated with social media use for young people,” Sarah continues, “In providing opportunities for communication and social connection between family and friends, in finding new friends and communities with similar interests as yours.

“It’s a powerful tool in helping to raise awareness about important issues, and being an outlet for creativity and self-expression, and it can be the first place we look to discover sources of valuable information, like mental health services.

“As adults, parents and carers of young people, we need to educate ourselves about the positive and negative impacts of social media, encouraging and supporting our youth to make healthy choices about their online activities.”

BYA recommends to our young people:

Monitor how much you use social media and limit how much time you spend on line. Reflect on how you feel after you’ve been on social media…if it’s not making you feel good, think about changing your use.

Reflect on whether your social media use is impacting on your sleep, diet and or exercise. If so, consider: turning your phone off at certain times of the day; don’t take your phone to bed; disable notifications at certain times of the day (especially at bedtime);

Limit how frequently you check your phone (e.g., only every 15 mins);

Take a screenshot of any posts that make you feel uncomfortable and report it to an adult you trust.

For more information, check out https://www.esafety.gov.au/young-people

Social media is here to stay so we need to armour our youth with resilience against the worst of it.

Taryn Brumfitt is the 2023 Australian of the Year and she is an advocate for young people’s mental health issues.

The body image activist, director, writer, and speaker has been campaigning for a shift in body image culture and she’s taking that message to school children with a program called Embrace Kids.

When accepting her award she warned us about the influence social media is having on our youth, “Seventy per cent of Australian school children consider body image to be their number one concern,” she says.

“We weren’t born into the world hating our bodies; it’s something the world has taught us.

“Let’s turn around that 70 per cent of Australian school children who don’t like their bodies into a number that doesn’t even exist. Let’s get this right for our kids.

“Good Food, exercise we enjoy and a proper sleep are what keeps us happy and enjoying life.”

Social media is a wonderful democratising tool which allows everyone to have a say, but it also is one of the most disruptive forces which our world has seen. It has given voice to those that cyberbully, those who marginalise the minorities, has given exposure to those who espouse a way of life which is cruel and demeans women and has no place in Australia, and it has unleashed a rewarding way for scammers to take advantage of us.

It’s a new world in which we need to tread lightly.