Social media harms girls’ mental health, report warns

Kelly Dines noticed her teen daughter’s behaviour start to change during the pandemic. She was spending more time online. This increased desire to do fitness classes online or go out for a jog and then all of a sudden food content was being pushed to her phone. Being in and out of hospitals over the past four years for anorexia treatment interrupted the teens education. Her world just kept shrinking and shrinking with hospital visit after hospital visit. Missing more and more school. I mean she should be graduating from grade 12A. Growing concern worldwide. According to a new report from UNESCO, girls are much more affected by social media, negatively affected images, in particular the body image, the feelings and the emotions. These causes are far higher for girls than for boys. The latest report pulls together existing studies, including World Health Organization’s report that found teen girls mental health is under greater strength. Than that of boys. And Facebook’s own research that says 32% of teenage girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse, a trend doctors have been noting for years. There are certain gender norms and certain stereotypes that are inherent in our society that are magnified in these algorithms and on social media. So if you have a phone and you have social media on your phone, you can get it anytime, whereas you wouldn’t always have. A magazine? So it’s the volume and the intensity of the information. Experts say banning or restricting specific social media apps may not be the best solution. These will just find other platforms. They hope. Raising awareness of the harms may help parents have more honest conversations with their kids. Deanna Sumanac Johnson, CBC News, Toronto.