The Mental Monster… Phones & Social Media
By: Pooja Patel
Tags: Teenagers, Mental Health, Social Media

It’s 6 A.M. Your alarm rings. Not the analog alarm that sits on your nightstand, but the one on your phone. You continue to snooze until you wake up. First things you grab is your phone. Check if you got any text messages, snapchats, likes on a post, scrolling away. You realize that your “phone is dry”. You feel upset and lonely, THAT early in the morning. Instead of getting up, opening up a window, or admiring/being grateful for the fact you woke up, you start the day off with a :((. This is just a description of the impact of our phones on 5 minutes of our day out of the 24 hours. Now, there’s a lot of places where I could start talking about social media and our phones from but let’s start from childhood. I am grateful for this one thing. This one thing is the fact that I was able to have a proper childhood. Now, what do I mean by proper childhood. Yes, I am still in my “childhood” technically, but the world today forces kids to partially grow up/mature too fast. If I dig deep into my baby and little kid stage, I can see myself playing with my little kitchen, playing outside, playing made up games like superheroes, family-family, cops and robbers, and foster kids. Half of these games, we made up in our head and played till we were about 10–12 (no shame in that). Yes, in other ways I was not able to be a kid due to personal problems, but my friends/cousins and I knew how to create this imaginary world for ourselves. We went to family parties, saw a new girl, and instantly clicked. We all became friends, no expectations, no inclusive criteria, nothing. Simply, playing with whoever was around and wherever. It makes me sad to see that all my younger cousins and strangers around me glued to their OWN phones or their parents phones. Now, I’m not saying that Roblox isn’t a creative app, but it’s become an addiction. They don’t know how to become friends or interact with people on their own. Their entire identity is based on trends/looks that aren’t exactly real. And I’m not trying to say that they should be trading Loom bands or something, but I want to show how detrimental the phone is to little kids. Yes, times have changed and we aren’t living in 1785, but shouldn’t they be able to recall these memories of when they made a fake dinner for their parents using their kitchen set? Now, I want to fast forward to teenage years. Let’s just skip the gap in between, because we’ve established that difference from childhood that will continue to carry on. Teenage years. the most impulsive years of a person. We can confidently say that more than 80% of people have a phone by or get one during teenage years. Let’s paint another picture. You and your friends are going out to watch the sunset, capture the view, and spend some times with the people who are your ride or dies. You get to the location- the parking lot, watching the sunset, but not with your eyes. Through your phone. I know you’re thinking how would they be seeing through their phone if they are there. This means that their taking pictures of the sunset, posting on their snapchat stories, using filters, spending the entire time trying to capture these moments on their phone, and not in their head. They have lost another memory that they should have captures in their head as a memory. And, I will be honest, I’m guilty of this too. It’s become second nature to whip out your phone and take 10000 pics/videos. There’s nothing wrong with taking pics, but what’s wrong is the fact that no one is enjoying the moment. They are all worrying about if the saturation on the picture is good, if a certain someone will see it. No one is just taking a step back to actually ENJOY the moment. Part of the reason why is this fake reality/aesthetic the online world has created. This “ideal body type”, this “aesthetically pleasing sunset pic”, this “instagram worthy pic”, and these models that little girls and guys see on social media. They are told to become like them, to do anything to become curvy like them. But remember curvy means skinny waist to the point your hands wrap around them, but make sure your thighs are thick. Make sure you have abs and muscles, but not too much otherwise “you are a steroid user”. These harsh and unreal expectations that we are growing with have seriously messed up our mental, physical, and social wellbeing. Social media is not the only thing crushing these things, but it’s the main topic right now. I want you to think about how many hours you spend on your phone, check your screen time. I’m pretty sure most of the hours you spend are on social media or entertainment. And social media can be a positive platform in the “front yard” but it has been doing a lot of harm in the “backyard”. “I wish I had an ass like hers”, “I wish my biceps looked like his”, “I wish my lips were as full as hers”. You see a 10 year old walking around, looking like a 24 year old. It’s not her fault, but it’s the impact social media has had on her. These messages that have been continuously jammed into our heads and the generations to come. It’s not easy to live in a world where you wake up to constant comparison because it really does fuck up your mental health. Your confidence disappears, your bright dimply smile is gone, your ability to make a world for yourself, all gone. Phones and Social Media… a necessity, but a living, breathing monster.