Effects of Social Media on Adolescents Mental Health

For every cause in life, there would always be a positive or negative sides and effects if it is looked at thoroughly.
No doubts social media has great effects on the society we are in and on the users particularly the Adolescents as in the case of this prompt.

Social media platforms like X (formerly called Twitter), Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook etc has been great platforms where people meet, chat, discuss, connect, and as well enter into trouble that they may not end up getting free from.

Let's look at the part of the Negative effect first

If there's anywhere you can get firsthand rumors or spreading of false information, it is on the social media platforms. There are some people who are specifically destined by themselves to be pilots and broadcasters of false information or rumors and they are nonchalant of either it's causing fears and anxiety to people or not but where the problem also lies is that, there will always be an iota of fact in their rumors which would cause the audience to feel convinced that the information is true.

A typical example was some months ago in this same year 2025, a viral message was being broadcast around that HPV vaccine was about to be out for girl children between the ages of 9 and 14 (which is true) but that no parent should allow their girl child to be given as its a form of killing the cells or eggs that would make the girls get pregnant in the future because the government are looking for means to reduce the rate of childbirth. MEANWHILE this information wasn't right because the HPV vaccine was actually out to ensure that every girl child is safe and prevented from any future cancerous diseases but since this message has been shared and broadcast, most girls that heard or read this message refused to get vaccinated be cause of the fear of not being able to bear children when they are ready while parents also refused their children from getting the HPV vaccine.

The worst of it is that at the end of the message, you would see "forward this message to 20 of your friends and family if you don't want them dead" and then the chain of myths and misconceptions continues in no particular order.

On another part, you would definitely find some people on the social media space, who are originally made to bully people either young or old on their posts or because they commented something against their own thoughts. I've seen people come out to cry on social media or acting left out because of the hate speech they receive on their social media platforms by the so called fans or commenters association. Thankfully there's a law on ground for cyber bullying and hopefully this act would reduce to the minimal rate if not terminated totally.

Just Like a friend of mine would say; social media life is different from real life. Most Adolescents have ventured into what they are not supposed to do because of the lifestyles of people they follow in the social media space, be it the content creators or celebrities. They want to be like them, they want to live like them and with this, the fake life some are practicing to live in is worse than a plastic surgery that went wrong. The act of comparison of lifestyles has made most adolescents' reasoning gone wild and ready to do anything. Peer pressure not backing out either
Probably if there was no social media, they would have grown to live their true life and not influenced by the lifestyle of others. Maybe

Lastly on the negative effects, I was discussing this with some friends sometime this week about a small guy who entered into trouble just because he went on social media to act carelessly. Probably he might have been sentenced to prison or remanded if he's yet to be 18 years of age over abusing a naira note that is no longer usable to citizens to purchase anything but is yet to be scrapped out of the Nigeria currency which is the 5naira note.
Who would believe that a promising future would smell prison because of a currency note that's no longer useful for the citizens but it probably happened because the accused wanted to acquire more followers as a content creator, trend and be known but unfortunately he was known in detention. He entered into a trouble that would cost him money, time and his freedom unlike his mentors or role models in content creation who did it and went away scot-free.

Positive Effects

The sweetest spot of social media platforms for adolescents is meeting and connecting with people from different places, regions and countries. People who in the next 50 years of their lives, might not be able to meet with them or know them.

Social Media has helped young businesses to grow, talents to be discovered, adolescents who wants to be content creators to gaining a larger audience, reducing the rate of idleness or dependency and many more.

Secondly, most masses or citizens find the social media space to be their airing opinion space. It's a fast place to go to share what they feel (as long as it's not a cyber crime act or cyber bullying) and this has actually taught the Adolescents on how to speak up for themselves. They can't be silenced like the previous generations.

Likewise, the show of love and affection to so many sick lives which would have been lost if not that their health issues were posted on the social media space and philanthropists stood up to assist and ensure that they get treated and get well has deposited act of kindness in the mentality of the Adolescents. They are not only seeing social media space as a place to protest against bad leadership of a country alone but a place to render help for those in true need.

There are various opportunities to learn, unlearn and relearn on the social media space either it is academically or socially.

Social Media may have its positive and negative effects on the mental health of the Adolescents but I would say it depends on what the Adolescents choose to go with and that is why parental guidance is very paramount in this case. These adolescents don't have to be left alone because parents feel like it's a gen-z century. They still need the guide to choose rightly and not enter into a present or future trouble.
The people they follow on social media space needs to be monitored and their social life being guarded.

It all has to do with the parent/guardian to ensure that their children/wards are not fully dependent on the social media as their only means of being happy or getting a better life because what if probably the social media spaces are banned and there's no place to be a content creator anymore or to being a social media manager or ambassador.

In general comparison, adolescents are like clay that is to be mould to anything the Potter (Parents/Guardian) wants. So the result of what we mould with them is what they turn out to be.

I'll be dropping my 🖊️ here on the prompt by SciFi multiverse for week 23.
Thanks for reading through 🤗

All images generated using AI

Posted Using INLEO