According to the article “Social Media’s Impact on our Mental Health and Tips to Use it Safely,” social media can cause cyber-bulling, FOMO, among many more problems for mental health. Some would argue that social media is their way of escaping reality for a minute but there are many problems when it comes to getting online and doom scrolling. If social media is not used safely, it can be really damaging to our overall mental health.

Cyber-bulling is one of the many problems that social media causes. In 2020, 44% of all internet users in the U.S. said they have experienced online harassment. Cyber-bulling can cause a multitude of problems. Many people don’t realize that what they consider a “joke” will be someone else’s breaking point. According to the Exploding Topics Article by James Martin, in 2025 over 26% of American teenagers had experienced cyber-bullying over the previous 30 days. That was just in 2025 alone. Even more problems arise when we bring up the fact that many kids have problems with self esteem due to bullying online and offline.

FOMO, the fear of missing out, is the tendency to experience anxiety over missing out on rewarding experiences of others. Many studies show that social media can heighten the feeling of FOMO. According to the article “28 Impactful FOMO Statistics (2025),” around 14% of people have a ‘major’ fear of missing out on opportunities like the best price and also have FOMO on social events and job opportunities. FOMO in itself is already bad but it can cause other problems for people such as debt, anxiety, and a feeling of loneliness. Almost 40% drive themselves into debt while trying to keep up with their social groups. This is another great reason as to why we would be so much better off without social media.

The long-term effects of social media can be just as bad as the short term. A study done by Melissa G. Hunt, Rachel Marx, Courtney Lipson and Jordyn Young showed that when college students were asked to limit their screen time on social media platforms to 10 minutes per day, the results were that the limited use group showed significant reductions in loneliness and depression over three weeks compared to the control group. “Our findings strongly suggest that limiting social media use to approximately 30 minutes per day may lead to significant improvement in well-being.” Overall limiting your screen-time by a few hours can really help your overall well being. I think we can all learn from these studies and statistics that social media is no good for our mental health.

“SNS — Social Media Never Stops” by Seoyoon Jang Credit: Courtesy of the artist