Social media negatively impacts mental health

“Omggg! I know they did not just post here again, I wished I had her body maybe I should get surgery, girl.”

“Pshht girl, no you are perfect the way you are, sis stop checking the internet. Their bodies aren’t even real.”

With social media being available to everyone across the globe, these platforms have their pros and cons in how they affect society. Not everyone uses social media, but social media is a platform where it has a bunch of apps connected to people everywhere. You can post pictures, start a business, be a model, promote food, etc. You can also learn what’s going on around the world and ways you can help like with BLM and the End SAR, or problems with LGBTQ community. The internet is a big help, but it can also be evil with cyberbullying and trolls. If you don’t know cyberbullying, it is bullying people over the internet, and trolling is just messing with someone for clout.  A prime example of how social media influences and has a terrible effect on people. At the start, it was all fun to post a pic on the gram or tweet what you’re doing. But people — Now it’s different. It’s business, models and a bunch of other good things. Then there are online bullies. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but not to the point where you are bringing someone else down and telling them they’re not worth it and that they need to change themselves or that they’ll never make it in life.

Social media has affected people poorly and has affected people’s mental health, especially women, according to an article. Age did not have an effect but gender did; females were much more likely to experience mental health than males. Females are more likely to experience mental health issues from social media than men. Females are more affected by society than men because — not to say men don’t get body shamed — but mostly females do. Unfortunately, some people leave rude remarks under women’s comments saying ”lose weight” or ”gain weight.” They set such high expectations. Social media should uplift people, not talk them into thinking their body is not good enough and mentally causing them to be in a terrible state. 

Don’t get me wrong, social media is not 100% a bad thing. It’s also a good source to use for help. Not everyone watches tv or reads newspapers anymore, but the media does a good job with making pages about world problems and how you help by making donations or simply sharing a post that could spread across the world in seconds. Especially with Black Lives Matter, people were protesting everywhere and across the states. There were people making events and planning protests everywhere to go out and fight for rights, but they used it through the media. Also, the End SAR, which was when the people in Nigeria called the media for help because the Nigerian police were using very violent ways against their people and threatening their lives. They then reached out to the media and got the help they needed from people, including celebrities. Social media can also help spread new ideas, like through TikTok, which offers cooking, hair ideas, home ideas, and many DIY things. 

That is not what social media was made for, people may say. If you’re sensitive, stay off the internet, but in all honesty, social media is not a place for people to get on there to troll and bully people. It’s for fun, and if putting others down is fun to you, then you need to check yourself and open your eyes to reality because no one is perfect. We should use the media for positive things only; but of course, there are always bad people.

In all reality, Love yourself social media is just the internet. It has affected people’s lives in a bad way, but don’t let it affect yours! Social media may have affected our lives for the better or worse, but always do what makes you happy, even if that means deleting all social media and having contact with the real world. Social media is just for entertainment. You don’t need or have to be on there. Do what makes you happy and avoid getting your vision messed up because of the cruel ways of society.