Are we underestimating the effects of mental health on people? Everyone knows and cares about these horrible diseases that no one ever deserves to have, like cancer, but lost among all of those diseases is one that no one is paying attention to. The one that’s right there inside our heads. Mental health is often overlooked as one of the many problems of this generation, but that doesn’t mean it’s not here and making a big impact on many people’s lives. In fact, according to Sarah Fadar of the Anxiety Disorders Association of America, in the United States alone, nearly 40 million people have some shape or form of an anxiety disorder. Of those 40 million people only around 37% of them get the help they need. Anxiety and depression levels have been steadily rising for the past couple of years, leaving some experts scrambling to find what might be causing this increase. When they began looking one certain topic came up that soon could prove to be directly affecting many people’s mental health negatively: technology. There has been a direct correlation between an increase in smartphone use and an increase in people’s anxiety and depression levels. The longer someone is on social media the higher the chance is that they could have an anxiety disorder or depression. Is this just a coincidence? Most people don’t think so. Social media is negatively affecting people’s anxiety and depression levels, in more ways than one. It the things like the overuse of technology, the number of likes we get on our pictures, struggling to have the perfect feed, cyberbullying and being jealous of other people’s lives that can put some of us over the edge, causing us to spiral into the world of depression.

One factor in depression and anxiety levels is the overuse of technology. According to the Behavioral Health Of The Palm Beaches, people who spend more time on their smartphones were nearly 2.7 times more likely to be depressed than those who spend little time on their phones. On average, people spend around 4.7 hours every day on their cell phones, checking social media nearly 17 times. That’s nearly ⅓ of our overall time every day spent on technology. Smartphones can get to be very similar to a drug; they can become addicting really fast, and once someone’s hooked it’s really hard to stop. In fact, according to Sarah Fader of the Anxiety And Depression Association Of America on March 20, 2019, nearly 20% of people with social media accounts can’t go more than 3 hours without checking their phones. Nothing good has ever come from overusing a cell phone. If someone’s on their phone too long they may begin to have temperamental behavior, be more prone to moodiness, see an increase in materialism, and even have an increased chance to have sleep disorders. The overuse of technology plays a major role in mental health, an example of this is worrying about how popular our page is on social media.

Another thing that factors into teen depression and anxiety levels is the number of likes and comments someone receives on their pictures. People will sometimes base how they view themselves entirely off of the number of likes they get on a picture. If they get less then the normal amount they begin to believe they aren’t good enough. They start to think that no one likes them, and they aren’t special. Some people are already depressed and seeking support from their friends on the internet. When they don’t receive any positive results their state continues to get worse and worse. Even something as small as not getting enough comments and likes on a picture is enough to send someone over the edge. According to Dr. Prem Jagyasi of Global Newsstream on March 27, 2019, it has been proven that people’s brain can be activated by watching the number of likes they got on a photo increase, which basically helps people focus better. While that is great and all, what does this mean for people that don’t get as many likes on their pictures? Do they struggle to focus in classes, at work, or just in everyday life? In truth, it doesn’t really matter how many likes someone gets on a photo, but most of the time that’s not how society views it. Anxiety may affect the pictures that people like on social media themselves as well. The “Herd Mentality” is a term which basically says that people think if they like the pictures on social media that are socially acceptable they will automatically fit in, according to Psychiatry And Behavioral Health Learning Network on May 21, 2017. This is, of course, a false label, but there are people that believe in this sort of thing. Unfortunately, the number of likes people get on their pictures isn’t the only thing people may have anxiety over.

Struggling to have the perfect feed is another thing that can increase anxiety levels in many people. Usually, people like to post what they think others will like when we all should just be posting what we enjoy instead. Caroline Miller of the Child’s Mind Institute compares social media to a smoke screen. “People can mask all of their issues behind pretend perfection, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t there.” They are just hidden where no one can see them. Hiding behind perfection could lead to what’s called “Imposter syndrome”. “Imposter syndrome” according to Megan Dalla-Camina of Psychology today is basically is when a person realizes the contrast between their real personality and the one they put out there for everyone to see. A lot of that comes from photoshop. Most pictures are photoshopped in some shape or form, usually to make their situation look way better than it really is. Imagine taking thousands of pictures and editing them only to realize in the end that they aren’t good enough. People take thousands of photos, yet when people look at their pages they only have around nine pictures. The rest didn’t make the cut, probably because that person was too worried about what other people would think of them if they posted that photo. I think people just need to post the photos that they like because no matter what there will always be someone out there who doesn’t like what we post.   

The third thing that factors into depression and anxiety is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is one of the biggest factors in depression. Being constantly knocked down over and over again on the internet can take its toll on many people. Cyberbullying is almost becoming the new normal on social media. When people are angry, they feel the need to take it out on other people. In a 50 patient study from Adolescent Psychiatric Patients, nearly 20% of the people in the study were found to be cyberbullied in some way. That's around 10 of the total amount of people, which doesn’t sound like a lot, but when it comes down to it that’s really 1 in every 5 people. Cyberbullying can cause a dramatic increase in suicidal thoughts, and unfortunately, it’s not an uncommon thing for anyone at any age to experience. In fact, according to the Center on Media and Child Health, approximately 34% of kids have admitted having experienced hurtful behavior online. Cyberbullying is probably the more common causes of depression, but one of the biggest causes of anxiety is something that’s completely different.

The biggest thing that I think is involved with anxiety levels is having jealousy of other people’s lives. People can be jealous of anything from the amount of money someone has to how many friends someone might have. The term for this is called “Facebook envy”, which according to Bazian of the National Health Service, it’s basically the feeling that someone gets when they think that their friend's life is more interesting and worthwhile than theirs. This can lead to an extreme loss of self-esteem and confidence and a dramatic increase in anxiety levels. It is important to note, however, that no one’s life is as amazing as it seems on social media. Almost everyone only posts the amazing parts of their lives and doesn’t hesitate to keep all of the bad things off of their feed. No one’s life is perfect, and some of the people with the best feeds can actually have some of the worst lives. Being jealous of others is probably the biggest thing that affects people’s anxiety levels.

Some of the most common things that increase depression and anxiety levels are overusing tech, the number of likes on pictures, trying to have a perfect feed, cyberbullying and being jealous of other people’s lives. There are so many things that contribute to anxiety and depression levels, this is just grazing the surface. The fact of the matter is that this is an issue and it needs to be addressed before it becomes a big problem for everyone. Anxiety is already affecting 40 million Americans alone. Why should we continue to see this number get higher and higher? It is a fact that an increase in technology use causes an increase in anxiety and depression rates. We can’t deny all of this overwhelming proof that cell phones are negatively impacting people’s mental health? This isn’t something that can be ignored for much longer. I’m not saying that we need to get rid of technology, just maybe find another solution that will keep everyone happier and healthier. The bottom line is depression and anxiety are real illnesses that affect people, and we need to figure out a way to solve this problem soon.