Social Media and the College Student: A Useful Tool or a Destructive Spiral?

We all use social media in various ways–for educational purposes, connecting with friends, or simply for entertainment. In the past few years, short-form social media has become more prevalent with the introduction of mediums like TikTok, YouTube shorts, Instagram reels, and more. According to YouTube statistics, 74% of adult users watch YouTube shorts regularly, accumulating over 3.5 billion daily views in 2020. Advertisers use this increase in short-form content engagement to move towards one and two-second subliminal ad campaigns! There is a seriously negative impact all of this content can have on young people, however, especially on college students.

Feelings of social isolation, depression, and anxiety have all increased in response to the heavy utilization of social media in the modern age. The World Health Organization (WHO) has even issued statements of concern over the impact social media is having on young minds and their development. We are blessed to live in a world with a wealth of information at our fingertips. On the other hand, however, this can lead to doom-scrolling, the act of consuming a large amount of content over an extended period of time. Its effects are often negative. Another study examined the harms of social media scrolling and how easy it is to be sucked into a stream of content and only realize it when you leave it hours later.

I have certainly felt this downward media spiral myself. You click on a short created by someone you follow, then scroll down to see if there is anything else interesting until suddenly you realize you’ve been looking through media for an hour, if not more. Shorts, as well as other forms of microcontent, are designed to be addictive by grabbing your attention and making you lose track of time. Part of the reason for this is that shorts tend to get the point quickly, which ends up sending a constant stream of dopamine to our brains. More importantly, however, this issue concerns the nature of our attention spans.

A study at the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science showed that the average human attention span is actually about 8 seconds . We focus on long-form content by constantly re-engaging with it, though this is often done unconsciously rather than our attention simply being that length. On the one hand, this means that the idea of our attention spans getting shorter is false. But on the other hand, social media is still having an impact by teaching us how to use the skill of re-engagement less and less. This decrease in an unconscious ability to focus has seemingly led to decreased academic performance and social skills. If you can’t focus during a conversation with your friends, then they are likely to feel ignored or snubbed.

It is important to remember that no one thing is fully responsible for academic performance or social issues, but it is clear that the media has a key role to play in these issues. What should we do about it? After all, it isn’t realistic to avoid all media in the modern age, especially if you are using technology to connect with friends and family over long distances. More than that, there is a lot of good that can be found on the same platforms where all of these problems are arising. Documentaries, news, educational content, and more are all mixed together with short-form, meaningless content. Should we simply get rid of both to stop ourselves from staying addicted to videos designed to do so?

A few solutions posited in several of the studies mentioned above include:

1. Only access YouTube from your computer. Shorts are much easier to avoid from the computer, and most of the issues come from mobile use, which is how 78% of users engage.

2. Don’t keep your phone next to your bed/don’t use social media first thing in the morning or last thing at night. These things impact your circadian rhythm and only serve to cause additional stress and problems that will only encourage addiction and engagement.

3. Reduce the amount of social media accounts you have. Having a few to engage with friends or watch some media on is reasonable and expected, but the more accounts with different apps you have, the more temptation comes along with it. Maybe instead of having YT, Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, etc., you only need one or two.

4. Take time to engage in long-form content. This will help your unconscious mind gain a better grasp on staying focused.

5. Spend time talking to others without technology present. Don’t look at your phone while talking with new acquaintances or friends. Instead, choose to actively engage in what is happening around you.

If all else fails, seek additional help. This can be from a friend or professional, but if you simply cannot find it possible to control your own behavior and you have a problem, seeking assistance from others is recommended. There is nothing wrong with asking for help, and we all need a hand occasionally.