Blog 2

Social media affects our lives in a lot of different ways, and not all of them are good. One major downside is how it can impact mental health, especially for younger people. It is very common for people of all ages to get sucked into social media and become absorbed with what it seems other people have that you don't. Spending a lot of time scrolling and comparing yourself to others is linked with more symptoms of depression and anxiety. According to a study from JAMA Psychiatry, showed that teens who spend more than three hours on social media each day were more likely to report internalizing problems like anxiety and depression compared to teens who spent less time on these platforms. (Riehm) Social media use can be linked to real emotional harm


At the same time, social media has helped people speak up and be heard in ways that weren’t possible before. It gives everyday people the ability to share their experiences and bring attention to issues without needing traditional media. According to the Pew Research Center, social media has become one of the main ways young people get involved in social and political conversations (Auxier and Anderson). A strong example of this is the Black Lives Matter movement. Through hashtags and shared videos the movement was able to reach millions of people and bring attention to issues of racial injustice that might not have gained as much traction through traditional news alone.


Another big effect of social media is how easily misinformation can spread. Some posts go viral before anyone checks whether they’re true, and that can lead to people believing things that aren’t accurate. Pew Research has found that many Americans see inaccurate news online and find it hard to tell what’s real and what isn’t (Vosoughi et al.). Now with AI advancing it is very easy to believe something that is not real. A famous example of this is the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where Facebook user data was used without consent to influence political opinions and spread targeted misinformation during elections.


Social media has both good and bad sides. It can harm mental health and spread misinformation, but it also gives people a way to connect, share their voices, and support causes they care about. How beneficial it is really depends on how we use it and how aware we are of the risks.












Works Cited:


Riehm KE, Feder KA, Tormohlen KN, et al. Associations Between Time Spent Using Social Media and Internalizing and Externalizing Problems Among US Youth. JAMA Psychiatry. 2019;76(12):1266–1273. doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2325


Auxier, Brooke, and Monica Anderson. Social Media Use in 2021: A Majority of Americans Say They Use YouTube and Facebook, While Use of Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok Is Especially Common among Adults under 30. Pew Research Center, 2021. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep63502. 


Aubin, Christopher St. “Support Dips for U.S. Government, Tech Companies Restricting False or Violent Online Content.” Pew Research Center, 14 Apr. 2025, pewrsr.ch/3RhkXXh.

Comments

  1. Brendan's BlogFebruary 28, 2026 at 8:50 PM

    Hey Caitlyn
    I feel that your view regarding people being able to voice their opinions on the internet to be somewhat inaccurate due to companies like meta systematically silencing users online that are voicing opinions about topics like conflict in Palestine, where companies like meta use tactics like , as stated by Human Rights Watch “shadow banning, the significant decrease in the visibility of an individual’s posts, stories, or account, without notification, due to a reduction in the distribution or reach of content or disabling of searches for accounts.”. this is just one of the ways that meta silences users that share opinions that conflict with the company or its values, and I feel that going into the future these issues are only going to get worse, with our freedoms online being mere illusions.

    Sources: https://www.hrw.org/report/2023/12/21/metas-broken-promises/systemic-censorship-palestine-content-instagram-and

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