SINGAPORE: Fourteen-year-old student Nadheeruddin Tajuddin spends about four to five hours a day on social media, sometimes until the wee hours of the morning, which leaves him waking up the next day feeling “not that great”. At times, he even finds himself getting dizzy or sick after consecutive weeks
Commentary: Teens are drawn to social media challenges - here’s how parents can get them to think twiceMost of the nine teenagers, aged 13 to 18, whom TODAY spoke to acknowledged that being on social media has affected their mental health in varying ways — from skewing their perceptions of beauty, to reducing their attention span, self-esteem and ability to process emotions.
While not being on social media has been healthy for her in a way, it does make her feel like she is missing out on some things at times. Most of the nine teenagers, aged 13 to 18, whom TODAY spoke to acknowledged that being on social media has affected their mental health in varying ways — from skewing their perceptions of beauty, to reducing their attention span, self-esteem, and ability to process emotions.
He finds that social media could still be a good platform for keeping in touch with friends whom he does not see often, or who do not live in the same country. Instead of looking at the amount of time he spends on the apps, Aqil said that he is more cautious about what he posts. The World Health Organization, which produces the International Classification of Diseases , has also not initiated any formal working committee to look into social media use disorder, said Ms Pang of Visions by Promises.ICD, it requires the gathering of sufficient research data, with consistent outcomes from around the world, about the condition’s diagnostic criteria, severity assessment and its treatment recommendations.
Dr Jeremy Sng, a lecturer at Nanyang Technological University’s School of Social Sciences, said: “Many studies have claimed to find links between social media use and mental health issues, but the causal direction of these studies is actually unclear.” Dr Loh from Promises Healthcare added: “For social media, it has been around for barely past a decade, so we are still trying to understand downstream implications.”When does social media consumption morph into social media addiction?
“Before I would call any behaviour an ‘addiction’, I look at three different factors — tolerance, dependency and dysfunction,” she said. Mr Mark Rozario, a clinical psychologist at Mind What Matters, added that while the disruption of one’s daily routine or schedule can be a clear sign of risk, another signal is if one is also spending more time on social media than initially planned.
To protect Singaporeans from harmful online content, Parliament passed a law in November which empowers the authorities to issue directions to online communication services to ensure local users are protected from content such as sexual violence and terrorism. “While preventing the use of social media would seem like a simple solution, it would also create a feeling of isolation from their peers, creating a feeling of Fear Of Missing Out ,” said Ms Goh, echoing the sentiments of youths like Nadheeruddin and Natalie.
“Hence, although I think we’re capable of managing our social media usage, parents should still check in and remind their children to strike a balance between social media and their offline lives.” Since there is no escaping from a rapidly digitalising world, parents, professionals, policymakers and social media companies alike will have to navigate the myriad challenges, alongside children and youths’ exposure to, and use of, the various platforms, experts told TODAY.
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