With social media being so popular in our everyday lives, I think we can agree that it has brought many endless good things for our society. We are able to spread news about ourselves, see news regarding others, and communicate in an easy and efficient way. But it has also brought many bad things. Studies have shown that kids growing up in the 21st century have higher levels of anxiety and depression, and after taking a dive into Visitation Students’ experience with social media, I can confidently say that social media impacts our mental health. 

To look closer at how Vis students are affected, I sent out a survey for all the students to fill out about their experience with social media. This survey led me to see the downside of the impact it has on students’ lives. 

The most popular social media through our high school is Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. Most people said they spend hours a day checking these apps to see the newest trends. But it has come to a point that it is such a routine it is the first thing we check in the morning and the last thing we check at night.

Students started to share their downsides of these apps. Some quotes from students, 

“it makes me feel like everyone else is living a perfect life and i start comparing mine to what i see on social media.”

“I think there is beauty to social media that allows us to connect but I also think social media can make people feel insecure, lonely, & not enough.”

These quotes were sharing how social media made them feel. They expressed the beauty in it but shared that the overwhelming environment can turn toxic very fast. 

My final question asked why people post on social media, the number 1 response from students was, “I do it for validation.”

Social media is breaking our students down. We are looking to share the best of everything so the person through the screen will think we are enough. Yes, there is an immense amount of beauty on social media, but it can be hard to find at times.