1. Depression

Social media has been a huge factor in people's lives, especially now more than ever because of the pandemic. From personal experience, I have suffered from depression and have overcome it, but time and time again I would visit doctors and therapists and they all linked social media as a factor to my depression. As social media advances and more news is being told to us, more platforms are being created to share our lives and this is all causing a wave of emotions for all age groups to take in and it can cause depression in our lives. Now that we can see the news from the click of a button, we see all these terrible stories, food shortages, people dying, and the pandemic outbreak, it is causing us to feel more, express ourselves more, and overall is leading to depression. studies have shown that social media has age groups from 16-33 that spend most of their time on social media, chance of depression has substantially gone up.

2. Anxiety

From time to time we as humans sometimes have our schedule so packed or so much going on in our mind we have these moments of panic or sudden anxious feeling that seems to be uncontrollable for a period of time. That is anxiety that we experience and it comes because of all sorts of things in our lives. Social media can cause anxiety in our lives and we sometimes don't even know it. When we look at our phones chances are you scroll past at least one current news topic or some notification telling you something. Eventually these build up and cause lots of unwanted stress in our lives. With personal experience, I use to have bad anxiety, and because I shortened the time I am on my phone, I have noticed a dramatic impact on my anxiety. Social media can also cause anxiety because we as humans now with handheld access to technology are constantly wanted to check our phones, is actually causing more anxiety because we are constantly wanting to check to see if something has popped up on our screen.

3. Fear Of Missing Out ( FOMO )

The term F.O.M.O or fear of missing out, is a term we use when expressing ones fear of missing out on something much like an event or game or even something as silly as a status update on facebook. We as humans have naturally developed this habit having access to social media at our fingertips. I bring this topic up because this never was a thing before phones, computers, and the latest television sets came out. This all stems because we are naturally impatient. Social media is affecting this side of our mental health because everything is given to us instantly and we developed a very bad sense of impatience. I think this is one of the larger if not the largest impact social media has on our mental health today.

4. Social Media Can Lead To Addiction

Addiction caused by social media use is steadily rising in the youth and teen age groups, and slowly has been shown in older age groups. The more technology is advancing, the more people are so called "adapting" or moving on and getting with the newest generation. This is causing an addiction because we now have games, news, and fun things constantly stimulating our brain and it is easy to access as well. This is causing it to be addicting because we don't want to put down the phone, or tablet. Social media is also causing addiction because it is proven that these apps are professionally designed and marketed to draw people in, and get them hooked. They use ads, in app purchases, and appealing platforms as forms or temptation to lure in the consumer to want to use it constantly day in and day out. There are even apps that may seem like they are worth the consumers time, because of all the raving reviews and high star ratings, but in reality you have to pay halfway through the experience just to continue. You might want to try to stay away from these apps and limit your social media use or try to schedule your use to avoid current or future addiction.

5. Social Media Apps Are a Platform For Cyberbullying

Since the creation of facebook, twitter, email, and public chat rooms, children, teens, and even adults have found a way to convert their real life bullying and blackmail techniques into online bullying. The studies have shown that male social media users are more likely to engage in the act of cyberbullying than females. These children and kids now have access to chat rooms and apps like facebook and twitter where you can publicly say whatever you feel like, even if it is about someone. This is considered freedom of speech when looked at it technically but in reality these kids hide behind the screen because they will attract a mass audience to publicly oust or say their thoughts about someone. The schools are not directly responsible because it is not on school ground but now many schools are taking action to prevent these incidents from happening. This is directly a consequence from social media because they are designed in such a way even if the creator didn't directly intend to make it that way.

6. It Creates Jealousy

Social media apps today are now designed to let people put out some of the best pictures they have and document them with a word capped summary of the contents of his/her picture. This created a domino effect, leading people to be jealous because of other peoples lives. This is a vicious, and dangerous thing because what some people don't realise is that not every lifestyle or person we see on social media is necessarily true. We have to look at every account, profile, or avatar carefully because not everything someone posts is true. I used the domino effect reference because one person's life can lead another person to be jealous or want to compete and leads to posting fake or altered realities so they can look "better". I think taking breaks and just living the life you were given can lead to less jealousy in ones life.

7. Leads to Communication Issues

Ever since the Invention of first text message in December 3rd, 1992 social media has been a form of communication, and has been advancing ever since. Now since 1992, texting and communicating has been so seamless and contactless it almost has no heart felt meaning to it. Back before these inventions, people where always forced with the scary and grueling task of face to face interaction, and for some it was terrifying and for others it was glorious due to possible popularity or good looks. People actually had to be good at talking in order to communicate, and now children would rather text than call or speak to someone face to face. These issues can even interfere with relationships and love aspect of mental health. They can cause someone to be completely emotionless and socially awkward to the point to where they cannot have a boyfriend, girlfriend, partner or whatever they choose to label it as. The point is Social media is causing our communication skills to decline.