Young people’s self esteem is getting damaged by the ever growing content that they see on social media that is filtered and edited. The stats don’t lie and in the UK, 9 out of every 10 girls with low body esteem put their health at risk by not seeing a doctor or by skipping meals. A survey conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health asked 14-24 year olds in the UK how social media platforms impacted their health and wellbeing. The survey results found that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram were all linked to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image and loneliness.

More than two thirds (68%) of young people surveyed support social media highlighting when a photo has been manipulated. I have personally seen the lasting effects that eating disorders, anxiety, depression and loneliness can have on the lives of young people today. Prevention is better than a cure and I fear that society will not have the resources available to support the growing numbers of young people who are affected.

One solution to this could be to amend the laws for social media platforms, that if content is filtered or edited then this has to be labelled on the post. Do I believe social media is the problem for the challenges in youth mental health? No. Does it exacerbate the problem? Absolutely. 

This solution will help protect our young people's mental health from low self esteem and negative body image. It will also provide some transparance around what is real vs. fake online.

The link to the details of the survey completed by the Royal Society for Public Health is available here https://www.rsph.org.uk/static/uploaded/d125b27c-0b62-41c5-a2c0155a8887cd01.pdf