Social media has removed the stigma surrounding mental health issues, which is a huge improvement for society. Mental difficulties are no longer shameful or expected to remain hidden, but welcomed, and many new avenues for help have been introduced. With my time on social media, every time I scroll through Instagram or TikTok, I see a post regarding mental health with millions of views and thousands of comments. According to Mashable, “by all counts, there have never been more people reporting mental health issues than there are now, especially among the young people who dominate social media. »
Although the negative connotation surrounding mental health has been reduced, it has triggered trends with serious consequences. The influx of information published about mental health can be misleading and false, and may lead viewers to self-diagnose their illness. Trends can also downplay serious illnesses and blur the lines between just being sad and actual mental illness. Mental illness can be seen as a trend, and specific trends encourage and glorify mental health issues.
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Additionally, each of these aspects continues to negatively affect and distort younger generations’ perceptions of mental health, as social media use increases in these age groups. Sprout Social’s 2021 report showed that “sixty-five percent of Gen Z consumers have increased their use of social media over the past year.” Due to the unfortunate consequences these trends produce, this future could be harmful.
Persistent mental health content on social media has led to a phenomenon of self-diagnosis. McGovern Medical School reports: “As therapy providers, we have seen an influx of people seeking treatment for personality disorders that they have self-assessed and diagnosed based on social media content. » Self-diagnosing from what you see online has many dangers, because fabricated information is all over the Internet; Social media allows everyone to post whatever they want, so anyone can pose as whoever they want to be – including a doctor or a so-called “mental health professional.”
Along with this, McGovern Medical also raises the point that “young people are quick to believe what they see on the internet without carrying out further research”, which is concerning as the 2022 Statistica study shows that the main source Generation Z’s source of news and information is social media. . Believing false information and self-diagnosing can lead to adopting incorrect labels that do not accurately reflect your experience or symptoms.
According to the Life Adjustment Team, a group of psychiatric rehabilitation specialists, incorrect diagnosis can “exacerbate feelings of anxiety and depression, increasing the risk of harm, suicide and other dangerous behaviors.” . Additionally, a wrong diagnosis can cause you and your loved ones unnecessary stress and anxiety. Overall, the phenomenon of self-diagnosis influenced by mental health trends conflicts with the overall goal of getting help when needed.
Social media has desensitized us to the subject of mental health as a whole; we seem to have forgotten the vital distinction between feeling sad, a typical human experience, and being clinically depressed. Jinan Jennifer Jadayel co-authored a 2017 study that tracked social media posts about mental health. She reported to Mashable: “If healthy people are convinced that they are depressed, they end up identifying with glamorous social media posts, making the phenomenon even worse. »
Additionally, Mashable mentions that “social media has increasingly blurred the line between what is authentic and what is performance – even within ourselves.” Trends have also glorified mental health as a popular experience, because “while posting about our upsetting vibes may seem more real, for some it might just be a new way to fit in online.”
One aspect of Jadayel’s study focused on Instagram and Tumblr posts that glorify mental illness with specific toxic hashtags. Research suggests that portraying these illnesses as attractive on social media results in more people identifying with these false claims. Mental health trends can be destructive and lead to all kinds of harm.
The harmful effects of mental health trends are concerning for younger generations and the future. Rola Jadayel, another co-author of the previous social media study, cited reports that “more and more teenagers are convinced that depression, anxiety, anorexia and bipolarity are ‘cool’.” » or can make you “special”. combined with social media use is dangerous, as the medical journal JAMA Network analyzed CDC data showing a dramatic increase in suicide rates among Americans ages 15 to 24.
The harmful effects are demonstrated once again in the American Psychiatric Association report, which notes an increase in anxiety and depression among baby boomers in recent years. These trends pose serious problems that must be addressed before more lives are lost.
To address these current issues, we need to integrate mental health education into schools to help younger generations understand what is real and what is fake on social media and navigate the internet more carefully . Additionally, social media companies need to improve their algorithms to limit misinformed and toxic content. Most importantly, younger generations need to know that if they are struggling, the right thing to do is to seek help from medical professionals who will guide them to the right diagnosis, instead of relying on social media .
Lily Blankenhorn is a freshman writing about the effects of modern technology on society. His column, “Tech Talk,” appears every other Thursday.
