People Aren’t Creating Anymore – And it’s Affecting Their Mental Health

Photo credit: DimaBerlin, Shutterstock

***

Do you feel as if you are absolutely glued to your phone? Do you find yourself scrolling on TikTok for hours on end before closing out of it, only to open up Instagram reels or Twitter and begin the process all over again?

You’re not alone. Over 93% of Americans use social media every day, and of those surveyed, 46% admitted to using it for over 3-6 hours at a time. The science is in: it’s destroying your mental health. 

By consuming media content, whether it is television shows, movies, or short-form videos, you are tapping into the reward center in your brain. Social media especially abuses this neurological process through digital footprints and machine learning algorithms that are able to tailor your feed to what is most likely to keep you on the platform. This can be positive media, like educational content or cute animals, but it can also be harmful media, like social conflict, hate speech, hyperpoliticization, or even extreme violence. In other words, constantly scrolling online can make you addicted to your own dopamine. 

This phenomenon is corroborated by the increase in mental health issues over the last two decades. It is important to note that this is not just an American problem. A study in the United Kingdom found that there has been a massive increase in rates of depression, anxiety, and stress in adolescents and young adults in the same period.

According to another study, about 40% of today’s teens reported persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, with women, LGBTQ+, or members of racial minorities making up the majority of this statistic.

There is a correlation between increased social media and smartphone use and the rise in mental health issues in young adults. This relationship makes sense when considering how most people use their phone to see the majority of their news; why would you turn on the television or unfold the newspaper when the entire world is in the palm of your hand? With the proliferation of the 24-hour news cycle, social media has become hyperpoliticized, leading people to fall deeper into “doomscrolling” and become stressed when online. Unsurprisingly, the majority of those affected are young adults, with 56% of Gen Z and 43% of Millennials reporting that they believe social media is more relevant to them than traditional media, like TV shows and movies. 

So what can you do? It might feel impossible to put the phone down and stop the doomscrolling; especially because these platforms were designed to keep you addicted and online. First and foremost—as with most addictions—it is important to acknowledge that you have a problem. While it may not seem like it, phone, social media, and dopamine addiction can lead to various side effects, both psychological and even physical, making it akin to an addiction to drugs, alcohol, or other vices.

If you persistently intake information with no form of creative outlet, you are building up stress inside of you. By having some sort of hobby in which you create something, whether it be poetry, painting, or pottery, you are able to give that energy that you have taken in a physical form. 

In fact, it has been scientifically proven that picking up a creative outlet can help improve your mental health and even your subjective well-being. In a 2021 Malaysian study, scientists found that creativity and well-being have a symbiotic relationship, in which one’s well-being can help promote creativity, and one’s creativity can be foundational to their well-being.

This is not an impossible problem. We can and should get off the internet and connect to the world around us. Social media corporations will do everything in their power to prevent that from happening, from showing you mind-numbing AI-generated content to fry your dopamine receptors, to forcing you to watch violent and hyperpolitical videos to make you too anxious to log off, at the fear of losing your next “hit,” or in this case, swipe. 

Our creativity led to the creation of the internet and the modern smartphone, and creativity can save us from our addiction to them. 

***

This article was edited by Ayden Suber and Ella Keddy.