By Darcy Leigh Clark
Since the early 2000s, the sphere of social media has consistently grown both digitally and in terms of usage, resulting in an increase in specific side effects for Gen Z.
As social media emerges as a prominent form of communication and connectivity, it brings both positive and negative side effects, which three Louisiana Tech University students feel passionately about. Additionally, the director of counseling at the school shared insight into this topic, as the university’s counseling services have historically and presently aided students grappling with generalized anxiety and major depression stemming from the impacts of social media on mental health.
Given the widespread influence of social media, college-aged students nationwide constitute one of the most significantly affected demographics, with the majority of students engaging across multiple platforms and averaging approximately 1 to 3 hours of daily social media usage.
“If my time is money, and I’ve invested four hours a day in social media, is that a good investment? Is that a good investment of my time? – most often the answer is no,” said Ashley Owen, director of counseling at Louisiana Tech University.
Owen emphasized the importance of this question for personal evaluation of time management. According to Owen, the negative effects of social media tend to increase with usage. However, individuals who maintain a purposeful approach to social media usage often experience more positive effects in their lives.
“Social media becomes negative when it is utilized to compare ourselves to others,” Owen said.
She said she believes that while social media in moderation can serve as a source of inspiration and motivation, it is essential for individuals to conduct self-analysis to determine how these platforms should be utilized to maximize positive effects.
Gabe Rivera, a Tech student, recently opted to eliminate his social media accounts, recognizing the harmful effects and lack of productivity it brought to his life.
“I realized that it was becoming an addiction in my life. I just found myself scrolling, doom-scrolling for hours on end,” said Rivera.
However, this is not the experience of every young person, as for many, social media remains their primary mode of communication and connectivity.
“If somebody struggles with being on it constantly and it’s just like messing up their entire life,” Rivera said, “each person has to evaluate themselves and be like, is this good for me, or is it bad?”
Social media is not disappearing anytime soon, and as time progresses, young people are becoming more cognizant of the dangers associated with increased digital usage in their everyday lives, as it distorts the lens through which they view life.
“I’m bad about caring what other people like, or how many likes do they have,” said Tech student Avery Dipboye.
Social media not only distorts one’s self-perception but also influences dopamine levels, potentially leading to confusion in personal lives as users strive to distinguish the emotional impact of significant life events from the gratification of receiving likes on social media, Owen said.
“We’re so accustomed to having that release of dopamine and so it could be that we get to a point where our wedding days are not, those big, those big days and laughs are just not the same because we’re so accustomed to that instant gratification,” said Owen.
Social media parameters and awareness are crucial to maintaining mental health, as the absence of personal boundaries can lead to declines in anxiety and depression, Owen added.
“It’s not the root cause,” she said. “It definitely can exacerbate the symptoms that they are experiencing.”
It is clear that social media is capable of many great things, but simultaneously it is capable of diminishing the value of human relationships and decrease the quality of valuable people skills.
“I just feel a lot more present with people I’m actually close to because I’m not looking at people that I haven’t talked to in years,” Rivera said. “And wondering what they’re doing, but I’m just being intentional with the people that I do know that I see every day and work with.”
The negative side effects of social media do not come with a multi-step plan to fix the situation and are not going anywhere, but the user is faced with a choice of how they will navigate their usage and value of social media.
“We do this here at Louisiana Tech in our first-year experience course; we discuss the dangers of internet usage, privacy concerns, and social media,” Owen said. “Continuing to integrate these topics into foundational courses during the freshman year is crucial.”
