Within the last two decades, social media platforms have taken the world by storm. However, as more people incorporate apps such as Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook into their daily lives, the negative impacts of social media have become increasingly apparent. What was once supposed to serve as an online platform for users to express themselves freely and share authentic moments from their lives has quickly spiraled into a cacophony of unrealistic images and mindless entertainment. 

   The tendency to compare oneself to others is innate. Test scores, jobs, appearances… it’s natural to want to understand how one fares in contrast with others. However, the photoshopped pictures and idealized routines that flood social media often provide grounds for unhealthy comparison. According to the National Library of Medicine, “Comparisons made on social media are more likely to be upward as many users tend to present an idealised version of themselves and their lives. Thus, social media users are likely to believe that others are happier and living a better life than they are (Chou & Edge, 2012). Upward social media comparisons have been linked to negative psychological outcomes such as low self-esteem and depression” (pmc.nimbi.nlm.nih.gov). Social media’s potential to foster habits of negative comparison can only further harm its users. Additionally, social media does not only alter one’s perspective of oneself, but of the world around one.

   Long term use of apps such as TikTok, that revolve around addicting, short form videos, have led to a decrease in attention span for active users. According to a study conducted on the gradual decrease of attention spans due to social media use said, “…producing and consuming more content results in shortening of attention spans for individual topics and higher turnover rates between popular cultural items. In other words, the ever-present competition for recency and the abundance of information leads to the squeezing of more topics in the same time intervals as the result of limitations of the available collective attention” (nature.com). As social media users consume mass amounts of content in short amounts of time, they grow to expect that same high speed flow of information in their daily lives, resulting in the lack of ability to pay attention for longer periods of time. 

   Social media has the power to amplify, and even induce anxiety and depression, especially among teens. According to the Harvard Graduate School of Education, “Through likes and follows, teens are ‘getting actual data on how much people like them and their appearance,’ says Lindsey Giller, a clinical psychologist at the Child Mind Institute… She’s seen teens with anxiety, poor self-esteem, insecurity, and sadness attributed, at least in part, to constant social media use” (gse.harvard.edu). Constant social media use can lead to one feeling isolated from the outside world and having a fear of missing out, resulting in higher levels of both anxiety and depression.