Modern media — internet media and social media websites and pages — is considered one of the most researched, studied, and scrutinised human phenomena. It is also one of the most problematic phenomena over which people everywhere on the planet have disagreed. Why?
Simply because people in every corner of the globe use social media platforms, and they do not use them in the ordinary way they use other tools and devices such as the refrigerator, the television, the light bulb, the car, and so on.
The truth is that there are psychological, social, and cultural factors that define and direct the relationship of today's human being with their smartphone — which is now the primary means of connecting with life and the world — and with the most important social platforms, on which it is rare to find a person without an account, such as Instagram, Facebook, email, and TikTok. Without exaggeration, the phone has become the single most important point of contact with life, people, services, desires, needs, and necessities.
I recall asking a group of young students about the person or thing they could not do without. Strangely, without any prior agreement among themselves, they unanimously agreed that the phone was the one friend they could not live without.
This level of attachment — or addiction — is precisely what makes a person turn back home, sacrificing an hour of their time, just to retrieve a phone they forgot. This addiction to social media platforms, and to all forms of content broadcast through them and received by millions of adolescent girls and boys, adults, and children around the world, does not pass without consequence.
On the contrary, it causes numerous cases of addiction to pornographic and violent content, in addition to anxiety, depression, and feelings of inferiority that arise from the comparisons some people make between themselves and what they see and follow online.
This does not mean that social media is the sole cause of adolescent anxiety — even recent studies do not claim that. Rather, they indicate that social media has become a significant factor that increases the likelihood of these disorders appearing or worsening in certain groups of adolescents and young people, particularly with heavy use or use driven by social and physical comparisons.
Numerous studies have shown that repeated exposure to images of fashion influencers, models, and digital filters increases adolescent girls' dissatisfaction with the appearance of their bodies and their perceived level of attractiveness. This in turn leads to higher rates of anxiety, eating disorders, and depression among teenage girls.