Remember back when you were a kid. Your only worry is when you are going to see your friends again and when your next sport game is. Now we are growing up and we are worried about far more. We are worried about our grades in school, how well we are doing in our sports or clubs, and most of all, we are worried about social media.

As teenagers it is natural for us to think about how many likes our post are getting, or trying to find the best pictures to post on our story, but there was a time that we never even thought about those things. Social media is consuming our free time, and we tend to think about it even when we are supposed to be doing other things.

We are always told social media is rotting our brain away, and in some way that is true, but it is also a place to feel that you belong. I have found throughout my research that social media is a fight between social health and mental health. Social health in social media is the relationships you make online with people, and the way you feel when you find a group that you belong to. On the other hand, mental health in social media is how video or things online affect you emotionally, or the way things affect you psychologically. Even though these two things are different in many ways, they do actually have places they overlap.

Well being

Social media is the place that can affect your well being for both good and bad. The social health aspect of social media is very beneficial for well being because it allows people to feel like they belong, and then allows them to feel a sense of joy. In Column: The Impact Social Media on Society states, “A Harvard study found that routine, positive social media use is linked to higher well-being and lower feelings of isolation.” This Harvard study reveals the way how social media really helps relationships grow, which ultimately helps well being. Meanwhile, mental health affects well being by causing sadness and anxiety. It causes people to start feeling bad about themselves, and due to that feeling of stress and depression because of social media.

Relationships

How does social media affect relationships? explicitly states, “Social media can affect all types of relationships in both positive and negative ways. It can help people stay connected, but it may also lead to lower-quality in-person time.” On one hand, Social health affects relationships by strengthening them. It allows relationships that cannot be prospered in person, to still grow stronger even if it is online. People who don’t have a way to talk to each other in person can still communicate without face to face contact. On the other hand, mental health affects relationships by causing a decrease in quality relationships, and have already made relationships decrease overall. For many social media is the place to talk to others without the social anxiety aspect, but when social media is the cause of anxiety it cause relationship falter.

Social Media Impact

Social media impacts people in many different ways, and different people are impacted differently by certain things. Social health can impact people by making new connections. Social media is very good at making new friends online and finding people who have a similar interest as you do. This makes people have a new found confidence in the new friends they have made, and newly found people to support you. On the other hand, social media impacts peoples mental health by causing lower self esteem for people. It makes people feel less confident in themselves, and have a bad outlook on themselves. “Another study looked at data on more than 12,000 teens in England between the ages of 13 to 16. The researchers found that using social media more than three times a day predicted poor mental health and well-being in teens.” as Teens and social media: What’s the Impact? found in a study taken by teenagers in England. This truly shows how social media has different impacts on different people.

Overall, Social health and mental health as both seen on social media, and affect all people who have any form of social media. This overall circles back to say, social media is good and bad in many ways, but the balance between is the key to using social media in a way that is not harmful for all people.