The epidemic of social media began in 1999, and has continued to expand ever since.  Today it is an exceptionally significant part of 2.3 billion peoples’ lives. Alarmingly, all who use platforms like Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, Facebook, and so forth, are either unaware of the adverse side affects, or are simply too addicted to terminate their usage of these catastrophic apps.

Ever since the boom of social media, a rise in anxiety and depression has afflicted the people of this planet who use such platforms. Naturally, humans compare– the act of comparing itself was a survival trait for our distant ancestors. However, when applied to our modern world, and especially to social media, it brings us suffering. New technology creates a massive space for endless and completely unrealistic comparisons of people intentionally trying to fit an unrealistic image. This type of judgment is extremely toxic to one’s mental state. Why does everyone try to emulate this illusion of perfection and mystery? Because that’s what perpetuates social media’s adoration, and that’s all that the business seeks: everything is about money.

Skyler Smith, a sophomore at Lafayette High School, claims that social media cultivates narcissistic behaviors to its users, distracting them from real-life interactions and people. “Social media is consuming the average person’s time at an alarmingly rapid rate, wasting five to six years of their life-span spent entirely on those apps. However, that’s being said considering the ordinary person spends only about two hours a day on social media, but we all know teenagers spend well over two hours a day scrolling and posting.” Skyler also suggests that social media is clogging the pursuit of knowledge for hobbies and activities all across the table, hindering us by leading users to rely on Instagram whenever they fall into boredom. Think about all the time spent on these platforms that could’ve been used to actually expand someone’s knowledge base.

On the other side of the issue is Lafayette High School sophomore Joey Sims. He explains that these platforms are used to his benefit concerning his pursuit of knowledge. “Social media allows for news and updates to roll in at insanely fast times, I feel more comfortable when I’m informed. Before, people wouldn’t know about events until a few days or weeks after it happened. The world moves and improves faster everyday because of advancing technology and social media.” Joey also voices his sense of being more connected with the people he has on Snapchat and Instagram, and without these platforms that sense of community wouldn’t be possible.

The general obsession people have with social networks is often claimed to be more addictive than that of cigarettes and alcohol. The feeling of rejection when someone blocks/unfollows you, as well as the feeling of empowerment the person receives who is doing the act of unfollowing/blocking, is a direct testament to the immense amount of unnecessary value we put into this entirely fabricated online world. Because people spend so much time and effort on these platforms, it seems inevitable that they’ll become addicted to this feeling of importance to what they do online; constantly seeking for that rush of dopamine that comes with acceptance from others.

Social media creates an alternate universe in which its users have twice the amount of susceptibility to anxiety and depression compared to someone who doesn’t participate in the usage of social media. Also leading us into a vicious cycle of jealousy, social media creates a perfect storm for intense feelings of loneliness and isolation. Generation Z is alleged to be the loneliest generation. While loneliness already leads to chemical imbalances in the brain, exposing us to mental disorders, it also takes a physical toll. Social isolation provokes cellular changes that inflame the immune system, leading to heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and various diseases caused from an overload of norepinephrine through the bloodstream (which loneliness generates).  While the usage of social media isn’t proven to trigger any of these diseases, loneliness is the common denominator of both.

We have been ridiculously fooled by big business. Social media is the only place where we, as every day consumers and people, get to share something that potentially the rest of the world could see. Before, the only possible way to do that was to get on TV or the news; you had to be famous to influence society. Moreover, you had to have money, and lots of it. The geniuses of marketing found a way to make every person who participates in social networking to be their own self-advertisers.

It is not normal or sane to know what everyone is doing at every moment of their life. And that is the basis of social media. It is an excess of information–no wonder it leads to people having higher levels of overwhelming & stressful feelings! Ask yourself: why does the person posting this assume that I care? Its entirely logical that no one who posts things on social media are doing it for themselves, they’re doing so that their followers can see. They are assuming that you want to know what they’re doing. It’s an invasive feeling, isn’t it?