Reflection

Most people spend significant time on social media:

• The majority spend between 1 and 10 hours daily, with only a small percentage have more than 10 hours
• which is roughly 84%
• This shows that social media takes major part of our daily routines without even realizing it
  • “Social media is awesome for me! Why do I say this? Because when Tik Tok was banned I was down bad 🫠. So naturally when it came back I was happy again. This, I would conclude, it makes my mental health better!”

Mental health perceptions skew toward average or negative:

• A combined 65.4% rate their mental health as “not good nor bad” (42.5%), “bad” (23.3%), or “terrible” (9.6%).
• While only 24.6% report their mental health as “great” or “good.”

My data shows how we need balance and awareness around our social media habits. Promoting better and healthier online habits, while also addressing the mental health concerns that are affected by our social media habits. Showing all of this information hopefully will prompt people to get a deeper understanding into the amount of time spent on social media. Specifically those who spend 10 hours and up daily will likely be at higher risk for more negative effects instead of mainly the positives.

Social media has drastically changed the way we connect, communicate, and share our lives. While it offers remarkable benefits; for example gaining new relationships we otherwise would have never been able to have before, providing easy access to information, and created many different communities. Although the impacts that it has had on mental health is a very complex and an evolving discussion.

For many, social media serves as a source of inspiration and support. It can provide a platform for self-expression, connection, or a place where they feel comfortable and belong. But on the flip side, it also can introduces challenges for others like comparison, cyberbullying, or feeling like you’re not enough. Studies have shown that using social media too much that it has been proven that it can lead to anxiety, depression, mess up sleep patterns, and lower self-esteem. The constant pressure to come across as “perfect” online image often results in stress and emotional exhaustion.

Reflecting on this will help balance keeping and eye on their screen-time and our habits. Social media isn’t intentionally harmful, while it can easily be misused but it’s how we engage with it that matters. By creating balance and healthy habits because of its prominent role in our lives. With finding a balance we can use its benefits while not harming our mental health. I aim to create awareness, reflection on our habits, and provide possible tips to help. Overall we can work toward a healthier relationship with social media; one that’s healthy and we only take the positives, instead of diminishing and is harmful torwards our mental health.