The Psychological Impacts of Excessive Internet Consumption

According to studies, approximately over 20 percent of teens experience depression before adulthood. The pandemic further increased the depression rate as daily exposure to the internet through social platforms increased, causing many teenagers anxiety. But how exactly? 

If you have seen videos titled “5 Life Tips From Rich Person” or “This is the Rich People Lifestyle,” you are very likely to find dozens of videos made around this topic. In fact, most of them get millions of views.

There is nothing wrong with videos that motivate and help teenagers. However, a good purpose does not lead to good results. As exposure to this content increases, so does the average screen time for teenagers; it turns out that these videos didn’t help them much but rather boosted the anxiety by creating desires and pressure for them. After a teenager has been on YouTube and other social platforms for hours, they could feel their desires for success.

However, they also feel overloaded with pressure as they now have this mindset that they have to become successful. This pressure is so strong that it causes teenagers to escape it by putting themselves back into the internet as it brings them joy and fun. It ultimately consumes them more, causing them to feel pressured and anxious. We can’t just blame it on the Internet as other factors lead to psychological problems other than the Internet. Identifying them will be critical to help you psychologically, and here is what you could do to help.

First, get more sunshine. Sunshine is proven scientifically to boost your emotions. You could check out more information here.

Second, change your environment so that nothing could remind you of bad memories. You could easily recall bad memories you have had before by seeing or hearing something that reminds you, whether it’s how messy your room is or your unfinished school work. It would greatly help you with your emotions if you could rid your environment of any triggers of bad memories.

Third, this is cliche, but more exercise and communication with your family and friends greatly helps you digest your bad emotions such as depression and anxiety.

Stay safe.