Anxiety in Teens Rising: Social Media a Major Trigger

Today's teenagers grew with social media likes and comments and they tend to see validation more from social media. That is why they are always under pressure to impress their social media followers. They do freaky things to trend and get social media likes. And that is not good.

There is no denying the fact that social media is one of the major cause of anxiety for teens today, they tend to let what they see on social media put them under unnecessary pressure.

I don't have teens in my house, but my sister is raising teens. From what I have seen, I think social media is the biggest contributor for anxiety among teens. That's because they watch celebrities and influencers and start idolizing these social media influencers and take them as their role model. Sadly most of the time these people are promoting wrong beauty standard or wrong notion about relationship, lifestyle, and career choices.

I grew up right around the time social media was just starting out, with sites like MySpace and Friendster (I think thats what it was called). It wasn't nearly as bad as it is today with social media though. Back then it was new, fresh and some people didn't care to deal with it. Now days kids are almost garaunteed to jump onto social media because all of their friends are doing it. And now with phones in every kids hands, that means they all have access to social sites, including sites like tiktok.

Kids definitely need a digital detox every once in a while. A lot kids were born into the internet world and are stuck in it. And some just can't get away with it. Which is why I think it's more important than ever to take the phones and tech away for a while. Just to get them to see that phones and social media is not the only thing to worry about in life.

Teen anxiety has certainly been rising, and we can put all the blame on social media. In a 2023 Surgeon General’s report it was stated that excessive social media doubles the risk of depression and anxiety among teens. Girls are affected most.

One main reason for the rising case of anxiety and other mental health issues in teens is due to Fear Of Missing Out or FOMO. Teens seem to be doing a lot of nonsense things just because they fear of missing out.

I had a similar problem. I was always obsessed with making money on the net. However, it was an unrealistic goal that wasted my time. In fact, I should have just been working at a regular job while doing my daydreaming on the side.

I’ve noticed anxiety rising in teens, and social media plays a big role. Constant comparison, cyberbullying, and information overload create pressure and fear of missing out. While social media connects, it can also harm mental health.

When a teenager scrolls through social media and sees a beautiful dress, they save the picture. Why? They desire to buy that same dress. They may not know if the person that posted the picture rented that dress, they would start making plans to get that dress. And that's just one of the many dresses and other things like that they have saved from social media. Why won't they live with anxiety?

I don't think this is the case. In my time, when technology was just starting out, there were also several people who already had anxiety, and if you talk to older people where technology was not implemented in their lives, they also had anxiety. I don't think the increase in anxiety is due to this. Rather, I think it's because, as we know of its existence today, there are more cases of people who have anxiety.