To think social media is storing up mental health issues for the future

[pam290358]

I was watching YouTube earlier when I came across an analysis of a TIk Tok video posted by an influencer by the name of Whitney Leavitt, from the USA. The video is a couple of months old and the ‘content’ featured herself dancing next to her desperately sick baby - in hospital with a severe lung infection and unable breathe on his own. There was music superimposed over the video, and as she was dancing, she was explaining her baby’s predicament with subtitles across the bottom of the screen.

So, while her baby was fighting for his life, she took the time to choreograph dance moves synced to the music, added subtitles, and recorded, edited, and posted it to TIk Tok. And it was monetised. After a huge negative reaction she took the video down and then posted a tearful apology, saying that on reflection it wasn’t the best decision and may have been in poor taste - the apology wasn’t about the child, it was all about her.

I am becoming more and more concerned that young peoples’ desire to become internet influencers, is driving them to think of everything that happens in their lives as ‘content’ to be shared without much thought as to what is and isn’t appropriate, and is inevitably going to lead to a slew of MH issues further down the line. What do others think ?

There will always be completely out of touch people.

Because of social media we’re more aware of it.

My own very personal experience is that many parents are allowing their children unfettered access to the internet and it needs to stop.

Agree, but my point is that social media is actually enabling it.

It’s already happening. I meet young people frequently ( professional capacity) suffering from mental health issues that stem from social media in one way or any other. Wether it’s personal experience eg bullying through Sm, revenge porn or caused by watching someone else’s videos/content: eg Eating disorders.

Like the previous poster it’s worrying how so many young children who have no say or understanding of the internet are happily uploaded by their families. Don’t even get me started on family vloggers….

Yep, more important nowadays to be internet famous doing some inane/crap than be inspired to become successful at a career ie. nurse, doctor, police officer, lawyer etc etc. It’s far easier to post shite than to get up and be out of the house for 10/12 hours and do something meaningful. Sad really, glad my children all got careers before this became the in thing!

I agree but I also think kids will grow up to be even more image conscious and under pressure, due to their parents sharing constant photos of them.

There's no point in telling kids that looks don't matter, it's what's inside that counts etc etc, when the parents are sharing photos of them for likes and love hearts on social media.

Looks do matter to most young people and their parents are reaffirming that constantly.

I'd say the MH problems are often already there, you're just seeing them come out on TikTok etc

It scares the hell out of me how my own children might be affected in the future. I feel like I’m completely losing control of what they view and experience.

I think this is an important point. For various reasons there are mental health problems on display on these sites, and instead of these young people getting the help they need, they are being led to believe it’s normal to feel/act the way they do and encouraged to do things that many will come to regret in time to come.

Surely it’s not a surprise. When every aspect of life is held up to be magnified and those who are influencers determine what is the standard for self worth, it’s not surprising that young people think they fall short and have little self esteem.

Everything that is happening will have an ultimately negative impact on well being and mental health.

Social media can have a positive impact. Unfortunately, what we’re seeing is it’s dark side for many people.

YANBU.

But I would just say that people who post a lot to social media, nevermind so called influencers are already a different kind a breed.

I don’t think social media itself makes people this, or whatever kind of bonkers.
It attracts certain kind of attention seeking people.
The woman you talked about must have munchausen by proxy, some years ago she would have made it all about herself with the people in her life, now she does the same online.

I do feel sorry for all these kids who are exploided. To my understanding in America there are now adults suing their parents for posting them online during their childhood.

Eloquently put. And for me, this video perfectly illustrated that dark side - I simply can’t get into the mindset of someone who is so focused on ‘content’ that they would even think of posting something like this.

I agree, SM is the perfect platform for attention seekers. And the lawsuits surfacing from their actions must have the lawyers rubbing their hands in glee. It’s really disturbing to think where we’re heading.

I think it's more than just publishing the standard crazy that would have existed in society prior to social media.

Attention seeking has always existed but the design of social media is to engineer the commodification of its 'content creators'. They become the product, their lives are the narratives, the likes are their market value - and their children are the unwilling participants offered up for entertainment. It is a weirdness that is specific to the technology.

I think there is a toll on mental health coming. Not just a woman who will look back one day and think - 'what the fuck was I playing at' and the guilt which will follow. But for an entire generation who are building a self or an identity in a dance with this technology which commodifies its users.

Likes and comments create a dopamine surge. It's a natural human reaction to positive social interactions.

However it becomes very distorting when people do things for the likes - it's one thing to do what comes naturally and have fun talking to your friends about it. It's quite another to shape what you do because you want external validation for it.

And it's a distortion of what social media can do. I write, and writer's twitter is obscenely, obsessively focused on blowing smoke up each other's arses to generate "engagement". 9/11 could happen again, and posters would still be shouting DOES YOUR MAIN CHARACTER LIKE TOAST? into the void, and getting dozens of likes and affirmations. I stopped using it because it was robbing me of the intrinsic pleasure of writing.

I did a random tweet about Bargain Hunt that got thousands of likes, on my usually semi-defunct account. I rode that dopamine hit for days :D

This has been a thing for years. I know people who have deleted fakebook and it has been very beneficial to their mental health. I don't think the (small) benefits of social media outweigh the negative impact.

This 100%