The U.S. Has A Mental Health Crisis Linked to Social Media

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The presence of mental health illness among young adults and adolescents is startling. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey shows persistent sadness, hopelessness, depression, loneliness and suicide ideation among high schoolers are common and pervasive – close to 30%. Ample research also shows that excessive social media use can contribute to poor mental health.

Politicians like Hawaii’s own Sen. Brian Schatz are not only making the link between excessive social media practices and poor mental health, but they’ve also introduced age-requirement legislation to access social media to deal with this modern health crisis.

Clearly, not all social media users become addicted to it and there are abundant benefits to social media. For our supplement cover story, we explore this healthy balance, go over the warning signs when addiction and negativity are taking over, and provide tips from experts on healthy social media usage. Make no mistake: social media is here to stay as a technological and cultural expression. Now with over 3 billion users worldwide and growing, the crossroads of where we’re at is to make that transition from embracing social media as a modern communication form to living with social media as only one form of healthy communication. Story on S4