Social media is supposed to be about breaking down barriers and bringing people together, making new friends worldwide, and sharing good and bad news with others. Therefore, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that a recent Statista report(1) revealed that around 77% of Americans have some kind of social media profile. 

It’s not all moonshine and roses, though: the overly curated content, the absence of personal relationships, and the increase of cyberbullying are often causing feelings of insecurity, depression, anxiety, and isolation – particularly among teenagers. Without even being aware of it, today’s teenagers are forever comparing their own (perceived) imperfections with their peers’ filtered and photoshopped online lives. Below we look at why is social media addictive, how it can fuel insecurities and cause teen depression, and what can be done to prevent this.

How Can Social Media Fuel Teenage Insecurities And Cause Depression?

Depressed Upset African American Teen Child Girl Feeling Hurt Sitting Alone

  1. Technology depression. Spending long hours in front of an electronic screen such as a laptop or a smartphone can disrupt your teenager’s sleep patterns. And if they do not get enough good sleep, it can cause irritability, moodiness, and a depressed mood that is often referred to as technology depression. The reason phones, in particular, cause sleep issues is that the blue light they emit can suppress melatonin production. This hormone is partly responsible for controlling one’s sleep cycles.
  2. It intensifies body acceptance issues. Most teenagers struggle with accepting the way they look. Since the advent of social media, however, these insecurities have been amplified dramatically. Girls perpetually feel they have to lose more weight, and boys think they must put on more muscle. One of the worst culprits here is Instagram, where nearly every picture has been photoshopped, and everyone seems to be a perfect person living in a perfect world. This is a recipe for worsening teenage insecurities. 
  3. Why is social media addictive? The role of instant validation. We all know the system of ‘likes’ used by many social media platforms. The problem here is that teens easily get hooked on this instant validation. They can watch social media accounts nearly 24/7 to check how many likes appear on a post or photo. If those likes and shares fail to materialize, they are often left feeling unloved, imperfect, and insecure. 
  4. Increased social status pressure.  If all your social media friends are in relationships with equally perfect people, the pressure to be in a relationship yourself often becomes immense. If such a relationship fails to materialize, it could chip away at your teenage son or daughter’s self-esteem and cause insecurity, envy, and even depression.
  5. They become victims of public shaming. Teens often use social media to bully or shame their peers in public. If everyone else has a boyfriend or girlfriend and you don’t, it’s a matter of time before someone starts making fun of you online. For the victim, this can be a traumatic experience that causes major issues with insecurity and self-esteem.
  6. Teens start to compare themselves to others constantly. For a teenager, social media pressure doesn’t stop at the way they look and whether or not they have a boyfriend or girlfriend. Many teenagers constantly compare their cars, homes, clothes, activities, and friends with those of their online friends. And they often become deeply insecure over the perceived imperfections of what is theirs. 
  7. Hiding their imperfections and issues becomes a way of life. Teenagers often may try to hide their feelings of insecurity, depression, or anxiety behind a perfect social media profile. All the images are carefully edited, and all the posts portray a perfect individual living in a perfect world. This has a dangerous side to it: even their parents are often fooled by this pretend perfection, and they fail to notice the signs that deep down, their kid is desperately trying to figure out how to deal with anxiety and depression.

Prevent Social Media From Worsening Teenage Insecurities: Technology Depression

Mother With Teenage Son Sitting On Sofa At Home Using Laptop

Fortunately, there are quite a few ways parents can help ensure healthy social media use. These include:

  1. Set an example with the way you use social media. As a parent, you should teach your teenagers the importance of sometimes staying off social media to spend quality time with your family members and real-life friends. Introduce practices such as phone-free meals and family activities where staying off social media is encouraged, and make sure you set an example.
  2. Teach your teenage children sometimes to turn off social media notifications. If you have a smartphone, you will already know how aggressive developers have become with notifications. If you often ask yourself why is social media addictive, you don’t have to look much further than the constant stream of incoming notifications perpetually demanding one’s attention. Teach the teenagers in your family that, even if they find staying off social media very hard, to at least turn off notifications when studying or with other people.
  3. Watch out for high-risk cases. Teenage girls are often under severe stress by how picture-perfect their friends’ lives look on social media and how imperfect they seem to be. If your teenage girl, therefore, starts showing signs of depression, such as withdrawing herself from others and spending many hours in her room, it might be time for a good old-fashioned talk. No pressure, just show her you understand why is social media addictive, and you don’t judge her. If it starts to look like the situation is out of control, your best option is to consult a good pediatric specialist. If you live in Florida, you are lucky because world-class pediatric specialist Dr. Ana Hernandez Puga practices here.
  4. Introduce a social media curfew. This might be hard to sell to someone who finds staying off social media very difficult, but introducing a no-smartphones, no social media policy after a certain time, e.g. 10 pm, could go a long way to stop your teenagers from becoming victims of technology depression and social media addiction.
  5. Praise your teenage children when they try hard. Parents should make a point of letting their teenage kids know they are proud of them. If they have worked hard on something, praise their efforts regardless of the outcome. 
  6. Teach them to respond to failure healthily. Teenagers, in particular, must learn that it’s fine to try and sometimes fail. And that it’s also fine if others know you failed. The worst thing you can do as a parent is to hide your own failures. That could undermine their security even further in a social media world where they feel they always have to be perfect.
  7. Do not dismiss social media as irrelevant.  To a teenager who grew up in a world where social media always existed, it’s as real a part of their life as going to school or falling in love. Their online friends and what happens in their lives form an important yardstick against which they measure their own experiences. Give attention, therefore, when your teenager son or daughter tells you about the things that happened online today: the breakups, the negative comments, the likes or dislikes. Watch how it affects them and look for signs of depression or anxiety.
  8. Teach your teenagers to question what they see online. When discussing social media with your teenagers, teach them to view what they read and see online with a good dose of skepticism. One way to get the ball rolling is to ask them what they think has been edited or cropped out of their online friends’ social media posts and pictures to make them look perfect. 

That might lead to bigger questions like, are you honestly portraying yourself online? Do you think your friends are? How does looking at all those pictures of perfect people living in a perfect world make you feel? Do you realize that a large part of that is make-believe? A good idea is to also refer them to a site that explains the different aspects of social media and mental health.

The Bottom Line

We tried to cover the most important aspects of how social media can exacerbate teenage insecurities, how to prevent it and how to deal with it. Do you believe that one of your teenage children needs help in this regard? You are more than welcome to visit our website. From there, you will be able to ask for more information or make an appointment.