Social media platforms have become a way of communication, and a way to build a social life. This leads to teenagers feeling obligated to download, and be active on social media.

Social media is a form of digital communication, entertainment, and sharing one’s ideas with other people. 

There are multiple pros to social media — the positivity it can spread, content creators’ income from the platforms they’ve built, and the promotion of businesses.

Although, the cons extremely outweigh the positive aspects of social media platforms. 

The three main harmful effects of social media on teens are on their mental health, sleep, and exposure to inappropriate content. 

Mental Health Effect

Different causes of mental health effects in the teenage mind include cyberbullying, self-deprecation through comparison, and anxiety increase.

Cyberbullying is harassment or humiliation through the digital world. 

Whether it’s through the use of AI to generate face images, creating fake accounts to anonymously name-call, or sharing private images, all of these issues are a form of cyberbullying that causes a multitude of mental problems in young teens. 

In the 2025 Pew Research Center study, 1 in 5 teenagers say social media sites hurt their mental health.

A big downside of social media is the constant stream of hate and negativity, and ultimately, putting others down for “a good laugh”. 

Kieran Groves, junior, is active on different social media platforms, especially Twitter/X.

Groves said, “All I see on Twitter is making fun of people and hate. It’s honestly sad to see all the negative stuff on there.”

Seeing hateful content toward and from others makes teens more anxious and defensive, even in safe real-world settings.

Another mental health effect of social media is self-deprecation through comparison. 

A famous quote by Theodore Roosevelt says, “Comparison is the thief of joy.” On social media platforms, there is this fake idea of what people should look like, and it becomes a constant cycle of comparison of oneself and what makes someone “attractive”. 

Because of this idea of “socially acceptable attractiveness”, teens begin to follow trends. This puts them in a loop of constantly changing themselves to fit the current trend. 

The biggest issue behind social media’s expectations is the fake images that come from content creators and their posts. These social media posts highlight the best parts of someone’s life, capturing all of their good angles, with the best lighting.

These fake images are the building blocks of comparing oneself to what they see online, and are the start of the path to struggles with mental health. 

The consistent exposure to highly edited content online can distort a teenager’s idea of body image and beauty, and severely affect not only their mental health, but also, at times, their physical health. 

Sleep Effects

Right before bed, just opening a social media platform to check notifications can turn into hours of constant scrolling because of the constant dopamine rush that comes with every scroll.

Michael Ramsey, junior, shares the struggle behind constant scrolling late at night. “I’m always up super late because of TikTok, and it’s actually very addicting.”

According to the 2022 American Academy of Sleep Medicine study, 80% of the total population admitted to losing sleep due to the liking, swiping, and scrolling that comes with viewing or participating in social media.

On top of that, the exposure to blue light right before bed disrupts a teen’s natural sleep cycle. 

The blue light emitted from a phone lessens the production of melatonin — which is necessary for the body to sleep. 

Teenagers’ minds are going through their most important developmental stages while they are sleeping. With a poor sleep schedule, teenagers struggle with emotions, decreased social skills, and lack of effort in school. 

Scrolling through the easily accessible, endless digital world near bedtime keeps the brain awake — which ultimately makes it harder for teens to relax and fall asleep. 

Exposure to harmful content

The final main negative effect of social media is the exposure to inappropriate or harmful content. 

At the press of a couple of buttons, there is an endless  amount of content people can view. The easy access is which leads to a lot of inappropriate exposure to content that young teens should not always see. 

Alexa Jewell, junior, did not download social media apps until she was an upperclassman. Jewell shares how she is glad she was not exposed to as much as those around her from a young age. 

Jewell said, “I think social media has a big impact on your young mind, and if you’re exposed to bad things early enough, then it can be really harmful to your mental health.”

Harmful content can include graphic violence, sexual material, promotion of eating disorders and self-harm. 

Many social media platforms take advantage of the young curious minds of adolescents and push emotionally inclined content onto a teen’s feed, whether it is appropriate or not. 

The algorithms of these social media apps are designed to maximize the amount of screen time for users. Therefore, they push unnecessary content onto teens’ screens that they are not looking for. The curiosity of the teenage mind is what keeps them engaged in this unnecessary, and ultimately, inappropriate content. 

Over time, constant exposure to inappropriate content alters and manipulates a teenager’s undeveloped mind causing their baseline of reality to be distorted. 

A manipulated mind can allow inappropriate behaviors to seem “okay” and normalized in a teenager’s mind because of the sheer amount of violence, bullying, and explicit content they see. 

Overall, social media platforms take advantage of the young, curious, easily manipulated teenage mind. Teens’ mental health is extremely affected by social media platforms and their negative features.