Social media is becoming more and more prominent everyday in teens’ lives. 

There are many benefits, but with the highs come the lows. 

Almost every teen has an account on at least one kind of social media platform today. 

Social media is designed to hold viewers attention for as long as possible using psychological biases and desire for validation. 

With the growing popularity of social media, there are also growing risks with mental health issues. 

Social media can lead to increase of anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts in teens among many other significant health ailments. 

A study at the University of North Carolina and Centers for Disease Control says that kids who grow up checking social media become more apprehensive to feedback from their peers. 

The study also shows an increase in suicide rates over the past 20 years. 

Women suicide rates have increased 87 percent and male suicide rates have increased by 30 percent. 

Social media may provide social positives for some users, for many people it is just another way they are targeted by their peers and other people they may not even know. 

Another major problem with social media is cyberbullying. 

Cyberbullying is when someone harasses or bullies another person over the internet, and this can have a detrimental effect on teens’ mental and physical health as well. 

There are many different types of cyberbullying, and some of these are harassment about family, ethnicity, looks, money, and many other things. 

With almost all posts and pictures on the internet being edited to unattainable standards, teens who look up to these seemingly perfect images of people begin to set unrealistic standards for themselves. 

This can also cause body image issues for many young teens who look up to these people.

A study done at the university of Columbia says, “Any kid who is prone to concerns about their self-image and who they are, who is anxious about fitting in or what other people think about them, will inevitably compare themselves to the number of likes, friends, or followers other people have when they go online.”

This increases the anxiety that teens may experience from social media.

 Along with the issue of body image there is also an issue with catfishing. 

Catfishing is when someone pretends to be somebody else and lures someone else into a relationship of some kind over the internet. 

Catfishing is often a result of insecurities in oneself that they feel like they cannot be themselves to others. 

This could be another result of the anxiety that social media causes.

Therefore, one must ask is social media really worth all of the down sides it can cause?