Social media has become a very influential medium for information and marketing activities. It transcended the spatial boundaries, throwing the limits and constraints into bits and has trapped the whole world into its web through the lucrative and prolific functions it offers to its users. Interacting with people and posting limitless new ideas and opinions on social media has increased creativity and social responsibility, but has also hurled users into a life of mental fury, restlessness, and social isolation. The speed of providing information at the earliest and providing a bunch of entertainment through various platforms has affected the mental health of teenagers badly.
Dissemination of knowledge, information, and entertainment, in the blink of time, has posed a big threat to adolescent psychology. This approach of intercultural adaptation, not as per the level of citizens, but its easy access has speeded up the process of isolation and has increased various health issues in our present Generation Z who are easy prey to this technological growth. Kids tend to think that it’s their way of living. Mixing reels with real, cyberbullying, MMS, online abuse, nudity, adult content, crime, and drugs, are now very easily accessible to children, and the increasing data confirms it as the outcome of internet culture hurling them in deteriorated mental health, making teenagers suffer from school anxiety, depression, panic attack sleeplessness, childhood fears, persistent sadness and above all the overpowering feeling of loneliness. This paper states how the excessive use of the internet and social media badly damages the mental health of a teenager whose brain is passing through a highly sensitive period between the ages of 10 to 19, a perfect time when identities and feelings of self-worth are forming.
Keywords: Bedroom Culture, Adolescent Psychiatry, Cyberbullying, Isolation, Technological Growth, Panic Attacks
Fatma I, Kishore J. Social Media and Adolescent Psyche. Ind J Youth Adol Health. 2024;11(3):1-5.
