Have you ever noticed changes in your teenage child’s behaviour after using social media? In the United States, teenagers spend an average of 4.8 hours per day on social media, increasing from 4.1 hours for 13-year-olds to 5.8 hours for 17-year-olds (Gallup, 2023).”
In the digital world, social media is consuming a significant portion of our time every day, especially among kids; they spend hours watching a vast amount of attractive content on TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat.
These platforms might offer creative content to learn, but at the same time, scrolling through empty videos and following stupid influencers could cause them many mental health issues.
If I ask what our kids get through social media and how that affects their thoughts and behaviours, I could say most of the teenagers suffer from comparing themselves to the influencers who show off their seemingly perfect lives on social media, especially their quick money-making, which has affected teenagers and their view of educational attainment versus easy wealth.
In addition to low self-confidence, especially among girls, due to the influx of carefully curated images and videos on social media, which promote unrealistic beauty standards, this makes teenagers feel ashamed of their appearance. Also, they are suffering from anxiety due to fear of cyberbullying and the fear of missing news, and this anxiety leads to a feeling of stress and psychological pressures, which may affect their academic performance and social relationships.
As a parent, I see my daughter spending hours scrolling through fast-paced videos, which affects her by stealing her focus from other skills, especially communication with others. I could say social media should be limited access and controlled by parents, and teenagers should be aware of how to use it. Children can use social media to grow, not to harm themselves.
KHULOD HADAQ
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