Sucked in Social media impacts teens’ mental health
By Layla East, Minh Anh Le, and Zoey Perrine
I
asked Lauren McKenzie ‘24 how much time she spends on social media each day. “Like two hours,” McKenzie said. “That’s a fat lie,” I responded. “Okay, like five or six hours,” she admitted. When McKenzie started her Instagram account in middle school, she already had anxiety about how she was perceived, but social media made it much worse. “I changed my personality after getting Instagram in seventh grade,” McKenzie said. Seeing how people reacted, positively or negatively, to the portrayal of herself through Instagram made her actually adjust who she was. At only 13 years old, McKenzie was already changing herself to fit the media’s standards. Instagram had made its mark on her life. “If I didn’t have social media, I probably would
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The Mix
