The relation to mental health and social media.

Growing up in a time where social media is a very relevant thing today brings a load of potential issues within the mental health of the our youth.

Ever since the start of social media geared toward teenagers like AOL, MySpace, etc, the threat of cyberbullying has always been apparent. I didn't experience either of those, but I was a child during the rise of Instagram and Facebook. I remember almost begging my mom to let me download Instagram, and when she finally gave in I couldn't have been more ecstatic. I've had issues before regarding bullying, but it was never an online thing. I usually didn't interact with the people who had the potential to spread things about me on the internet in real life.

When thinking about this, my mind drifts to the movie Cyberbully, starring Emily Osment. I remember the movie being very, very sad and with the rise of social media, it was too realistic. I think either I wasn't exposed to it, or it didn't happen, but my school didn't really have any cyberbullying incidents.

But now, I do wonder if such exposure to social media at such a young age can effect the mental health of people when they grow up.

I currently am diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder, I'm not ashamed to admit it, but I wonder if my time on social media so young contributed to it whatsoever. The main issues I had when growing up weren't on social media, but either in person or over text. It was never an issue of someone saying bad things to me, or spreading rumors about me online, it was more that maybe we were young, and that we didn't know how to express our emotions correctly, so we were impulsive.

Regardless, I do think that being on social media so young didn't help much in the way of having healthy coping mechanisms or whatever else I could have done right.

I had friends in school, and I had a healthy family dynamic (sorta), but I found solace in the online groups I found through video games. I think this is where it started to go downhill. People you meet online can be great, I have some people I've known since 2016 that I'm still great friends with, and that I talk to daily, but the majority of people I've met online have either disappeared, or I've been 'voted off their island'. I did nothing wrong in my eyes, which anybody can say to any conflict, but I was simply 'voted off' because of my closeness to the main 'issue'. It's a long story, maybe another time I can talk about it.

This all happening while I was dealing with high school, then Covid, then college has all culminated into a simply terrible time.

I'm still struggling, and slowly, possibly getting better, but it all makes me wonder if I never got as much into social media as I did, would I be better? Would I not be like this? Could I not struggle as much as I am?

I also wonder if other people struggle with this. They got on social media too young, grew too attached, and struggle with their mental health.

I could also relate this to my last post about Ethel Cain. She had mentioned that she had been part of that degenerate subculture online. I think there is definitely some kind of problem with people going through developmental stages so harshly exposed to social media. The attention it gives, the people you can meet, it's all so addicting.

I don't really know where I'm going with this, I just needed to get it out somewhere.