Social Media: Fueling the Epidemic of Teenage Depression

Written by Vance Voetberg on October 11, 2023. Posted in Current News

The rising prevalence of depression among adolescents has mental health experts searching for answers

Scrolling, tapping, and swiping. It feels never-ending.

For most American teens today, platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube are like black holes they can’t pull away from—with the average teen spending over five hours a day online.

But the price of connection may be their mental health.

Researchers are starting to uncover startling links between social media use and depression. Each additional hour spent on social media sites is associated with more depressive symptoms.

As the prevalence of major depressive episodes among adolescents rose from 8.1 percent to 15.8 percent between 2009 and 2019, mental health experts began investigating the factors contributing to this uptick.

There are many causes of depression, and they often interact, Jean M. Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University, told The Epoch Times. “For example, some people have a genetic predisposition to depression—but they might only become depressed if the environment creates the right conditions,” she said. “Spending a lot of time on social media might be one of those factors.”

Connect or Isolate

Social media may perpetuate depression by doing the opposite of what it was allegedly created to do: enhance community and maintain friendships.

The rise of social media has caused some youth to become less socially adept, isolating themselves behind screens rather than experiencing life authentically, said Roger McFillin, a doctor of psychology, board-certified in behavioral and cognitive psychology.

For example, sports participation has declined significantly since 2008. Only 24 percent of youth ages 6 to 17 engage in at least 60 minutes of physical activity per day, down from 30 percent a decade earlier, according to the National Survey of Children’s Health.

“Why play a sport—something that’s physically, psychologically, and relationally challenging—when you can stay in a world of social media that doesn’t challenge you?” he asked.

Studies affirm this disconnect. People using social media primarily to maintain relationships feel lonelier than those using it for other motives, per a 2023 study published in Health Psychology and Behavioral Medicine.

“While social media may facilitate social contact to a degree, they may not facilitate the type of contact sought by those who use social media primarily for this reason,” the report found. This supports previous findings reporting that Facebook users tend to be lonelier than nonusers.

Genuine engagement occurs in person, Mr. McFillin said. “Excessive social media use perpetuates feelings of loneliness—it withdraws us from the real world,” he added. Young adults with high social media use feel more socially isolated than their counterparts with lower social media use, a 2017 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine found.

Though it promises connection, social media cannot replace in-person interaction. Over-reliance may undermine the real relationships humans need.

A 2023 study published in Brain Sciences reaffirms this. Researchers had 30 participants list 20 loved friends/relatives, 20 loved influencers/celebrities, and 20 people they felt no closeness to. Participants’ brain activity was recorded via EEG as they viewed the names. Brain wave response to loved ones was much greater than to influencers.

“These exploratory findings represent objective empirical evidence that the human brain clearly distinguishes between influencers or other celebrities and close people out of real life even though subjective feelings of closeness and trust can be similar. In summary, brain imaging shows there is nothing like a real friend,” the authors wrote.

Compare and follow

Self-comparison, a psychological process where individuals evaluate themselves by contrasting their abilities, attributes, or circumstances with those of others, is rampant on social media and is a contributing factor to teen depression, Ms. Twenge said.

Exposure to the seemingly “perfect” lives of others online elicits feelings of envy and the distorted belief that everyone else is happier and more successful, according to a report published in Depression and Anxiety.

This can lead to a sense of inferiority and depression over time.

Studies show social media addiction is tied to lower self-esteem, while those with low self-esteem are more dependent on social media—a vicious cycle. Despite knowing that social media worsens mood, people return to it, believing it will fill the void it created, according to a 2014 study published in Computers in Human Behavior.

A 2015 study of over 600 adolescents linked technology-based social comparison and feedback-seeking to depressive symptoms. A correlation was discovered in addition to the impacts of general technology usage, seeking excessive reassurance offline, and previous symptoms of depression.

“Following” the ostensibly perfect lives of hundreds of people on the internet is not what we are designed for, Mr. McFillin told The Epoch Times.

“This goes against the tribal, family-oriented natural order,” he said. Strong social connections, associated with decreased depression, do not form by following someone on social media, he added. “Genuine, life-building connections are made face-to-face.”

How It’s Used Matters

Passive consumption, compared to healthy active use, may worsen mental state.

Passive social media use involves scrolling and consuming content without engagement. Active use means directly interacting—messaging friends, commenting on posts, sharing your own content.

In a 2018 study, researchers analyzed depression rates among 702 social media users based on how they engaged with content. Increased passive consumption significantly correlated with more severe depressive symptoms.

No such link was found for active use. In fact, researchers found a decrease in depressive symptoms among active social media users.

These findings highlight the importance of creation over consumption, according to Mr. McFillin. Passively consuming social media content works in direct contrast to actively creating and challenging our brains, thus, causing depressive disorders, he said.

Engaging our minds through activities like painting, playing music, gardening, writing, reading, and conversing may stimulate joy and satisfaction. Passively scrolling deprives us of these benefits.

“Most of the time, depression is a symptom of a greater problem. We should aim to address the root problem of someone’s depression, not just treat the symptoms,” Mr. McFillin said. Social media could be one of the root causes of teenagers’ depression.

“One in five 15-year-old girls spends more than seven hours a day on social media,” Ms. Twenge said. “So the number who are spending extreme amounts of time is considerable—it’s not a rare issue.”

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Comments (3)

Terry Shipman

October 11, 2023 at 2:42 pm | #

We Progressive Liberal Democrats have the PERFECT answer to this problem. All we have to do is give cross-sex hormones to children, schedule surgery to remove the testicles from young boys and breasts from young girls. What could possibly go wrong with such a strategy?

Reply
- Terry Shipman
  
  October 11, 2023 at 2:58 pm | #
  
  Oops, what I should have said was to schedule surgery to remove the testicles from young girls and the breasts from young boys. This is more in line with our current Progressive thinking.
  
  Reply
Howdy

October 12, 2023 at 1:08 am | #

“Self-comparison, a psychological process where individuals evaluate themselves by contrasting their abilities, attributes, or circumstances with those of others, is rampant on social media and is a contributing factor to teen depression, Ms. Twenge said.”
That is the whole point. If it isn’t money, then it’s looks, followers, or any other way to keep people on their toes.
I’ve seen people give up their freedom of choice in displayed material, or action they had taken, and bend to the followers demands, rather than make a stand and lose a few. The most annoying thing being, the so-called followers, are usually there to help themselves. There’s no loyalty. It’s a prison.

Real life has no meaning when one is permanently distracted by feelings of inadequacy or scared of losing the crowd. It keeps the mind off important matters.

There is no thing as social media, which by definition, is anti-social. The definition of the word “social” is itself almost a relic. People don’t come together, or rally as they did in the past. It’s all finished, and helped by the laughingly titled education system.

Reply