Likes, Lies & Lonely Nights: Unpacking Social Media’s Toll on Teens

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I just can't imagine how life might have been without social media, maybe we would still be stuck in the old school lifestyles, moving from home to work without being glued to our phones or pcs all day. Our eyes and ears wouldn't be everywhere like an eagle. Although it really benefit us in many ways, the downside is getting worse day by day and this is really affecting our mental health, one of the negative effects that really bothers me is how our personal growth is fixed to social media, back in the day, adolescents do have real people they look up to, whenever they have issues, they always meet with elders around them for advice or possible solutions but nowadays, all issues are taken to social platforms for advice and in return, they get different kinds of solutions which are either good or bad. Nowadays, the rate at which we compare ourselves to other social media users is astonishing, we get pressured for no good reason, just like the quote said "Comparison is the thief of joy", people compare too much especially for the wrong thing. I almost fought a female friend who love scrolling through instagram, I didn't see anything bad in it at first until she started wanting everything she came across, even things that aren't useful but as long as she see it on someone, she always want it.

Recently, Fomo (fear of missing out) has trending and the fact that it is for the wrong reason is what make it sad, nowadays, you see boys under 18years dreaming of owning cars, balling up and down or renting his own apartment without a legit job or hustle, simply because they saw other young people online living that lifestyles, this influence them negatively, put them under pressure and they engage in illegal activities using social media, scamming people out of their hard earn money just to feel among and life this fake lifestyles.

If you are an Instagram or twitter fan, you will always see how people engage in cyber bullying and they are having fun with it, these are things social media is indirectly allowing and there seems to be no way to curb these acts. I recently came across this post on tiktok, a woman who had just given birth made a post on Tiktok about her husband getting her a freezer as a push gift, honestly I didn't know people do receive gift for giving birth apart from the affections etc. Instead of people to be happy for, most female's comment were just full of hate, most were like why should her husband get her a freezer that he will also be using, push gift should be person and only for her etc. That really surprise me because that woman who just gave birth might be growing through postpartum depression etc and just decide to share something online to lift her mood but instead, got hit with negative comment. The last aspect is the Sleep disorders that come with it, social media consumes so much of our time that we lost track of hours, this really change our sleep pattern and the screen time also is too much, I once check the total hours I spent steering at my screen and I was shocked, if I'm not surfing the net, I'm watching movies or playing game, I just hope I don't end up using glass one day.