Student Voices on the Harm of Social Media

Despite criticisms and mentioned negative effects in the previous chapter, just over half (51.9%) of surveyed students said that they still chose to use the social media platform they believe to be the most detrimental to mental health.

The most common response for students who chose “yes” was a stated fear of being left out. For those who chose TikTok as the most harmful, it was frequently stated that they felt the need to keep the app to be able to stay on top of current trends. Others spoke of how they gained benefits from using the platform in regulation. Regulations helped against TikTok’s purposefully addictive algorithm, with screen time providing a firm barrier against overuse. 

•  “Even though it has negative things, it’s easy to block it out, if you’re able to stay on the right side of TikTok it can actually help you learn and grow in some ways.”

• “I continue to use TikTok mainly so I can know all the trending jokes and not feel left out. I’ve added a screen time limit of 30 minutes per day to avoid using it for extended hours.”

Students who chose Instagram said that the social benefits kept them on the app–insights into the lives of their friends and the celebrities they look up to was valuable enough to risk the negative mental effects. A sense of being “in the know” about pop culture topics was very important to students who reported regularly using the app. Without the app’s presence, connections between friends and fan groups would be completely lost. Students combatted the harmful aspects of Instagram by taking precautions after posting their own photos–deleting the app for a few hours or days afterwards.

•  “I keep using Instagram because I don’t want to miss out on something my friends or any celebrities/sports teams I like post. I also like to post about things even though it can be a source of anxiety because I want to share what is going on in my life. Sometimes after I post I will delete the app for the day or a few hours so I can’t constantly check.”

Other students said they kept the apps simply because it was now mindlessly a part of their routine. While they might prefer to be doing something else, scrolling through social media has become muscle memory to them, and the habit is not easily broken. 

•  “Honestly it doesn’t even feel like a choice anymore- at this point I am using it automatically. I use it when I’m bored or waiting in line, but sometimes I also use it to procrastinate, which can be bad. For precautions, I don’t have any specific ones for the app, but I do limit my screen time and make sure not to follow any questionable accounts, and always fact check everything extreme that I see.”

Pressures to use platforms has kept about half of NAI’s surveyed students on the apps they know to be harmful. While some take precautions to avoid the more toxic parts of apps–screen time limits to avoid overuse, deleting the app after posting to avoid obsessing over audience response–others have given up on eliminating the platforms from their lives entirely. For many, the temptation of instant access to millions of posts and the fear of being left behind outweighs the fear of the platform’s consequences. Others fear the consequences enough to give up the app they believe to be the worst, but stay connected through other apps. With so many different dangers across dozens of available apps, one begins to question if social media is really worth it.