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"Unfortunately, simply cutting off social media isn’t necessarily the answer" explains Isabella Nnabuike, a category editor at Surge.ng.
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| Learn to recognize the warning signs of anxiety disorder and help your kid keep social media use healthy and productive. Photo: Huffpost |
From cyberbullying to FOMO to cruel comments, social media can be a land mine for kids. Issues we parents never had to worry about, such as an intimate photo texted to the entire school or Instagram videos of a birthday party we weren’t invited to, are now a risk for many tweens and teens.
With kids’ digital well-being a concern, researchers are exploring potential links between social media and the rise in teen suicide rates, tech addiction, and loss of real-life social skills. And many parents are wondering: Is social media causing my kid to have anxiety?...
Some research has observed a relationship between social media use and anxiety in kids, but it’s difficult to know if and when media is causing anxiety or whether kids who are anxious are turning to social media as a way to soothe themselves or seek support. How kids use social media matters, too: Social comparison and feedback-seeking behaviors have been associated with depressive symptoms, which often co-occur with anxiety.
Of course, it’s common for kids to feel anxious sometimes. But there’s a big difference between occasional anxiety and an anxiety disorder that requires professional care. If your kid is overly self-conscious, has uncontrollable and unrealistic anxiety, is unable to make it go away, and avoids things, you may want to seek help.
(Learn more about anxiety in kids at the Child Mind Institute.) For these kids, social media may act as a trigger for ― though not the root cause of ― their anxious feelings. There are also kids, who, for a variety of reasons, may be more sensitive to the anxiety-producing effects of social media.
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Source: Surge
