What if I told you that your phone is ruining your mental state? Five seniors watched the documentary “The Social Dilemma” created in 2020 on Netflix in Mr. Klute’s Careers class earlier this school year. It focused on how social media is destroying people’s mental state. Essentially, if you have any type of social media you are being monitored very closely. Social Media app creators have data collected on what you are looking at, how long you look at it and have the ability to develop more content around what you spend the most time looking at. Slowly you become more and more addicted. They create a more enjoyable experience for you to make you crave wanting to come back
According to “Social Media and Mental Health” by Lawrence Robinson on the Help Guide website, last updated in October 2021, lacking strong emotional connections can pose a serious risk to your mental health. This can make you feel lonely and isolated causing more anxiety and depression, all because of the apps you have on your phone. In the documentary, a teenage boy made a deal with his mom that he could last a week without his phone, and if he made it, he could get his screen fixed. Seeing the notifications come through and not being able to view them drove him crazy; he ended up cracking and not making it to his goal. Although technology has been very beneficial in many aspects, such as reuniting families or finding donors across the world, we must acknowledge the potentially harmful effects caused by social media.
Since technology is so new there is no research done on the effects it has on people long term, but the short term effects have shown us plenty to be scared of in the future. In such a short amount of time, people can become addicted to social media and not even realize it. You find that in all of your free time you are spending on social media. To check how much time you spend on social media follow these steps: while on the home screen of your device, tap on the Settings App, scroll down until you see Screen Time, and tap on this heading.
While social media apps could inform you of distant relatives or friends’ lives, it could also be slowly tearing you out of your own reality and destroying your mental state. Do yourself a favor now and delete social media while you still can.