Published an article: How TikTok is Influencing Mental Health 

TikTok and Social Media: Teens influenced by mental health influencers 

Psychological effects of social media on youth 

TikTok usage among teens can drive negative psychological outcomes.

California’s Attorney General Rob Bonta announced a nationwide investigation into TikTok and its effect on young users’ mental health.

Social media companies are under investigation for contributing to a national mental health crisis. 

Sacramento is currently weighing how far the state should go in regulating big tech companies.

What are the potential psychiatric effects of social media usage?

TikTok’s algorithms can create a problem for teens by leading them to self-diagnose based on their social graph. This can lead teens to create an identity around mental illness while they are still in the development phase, or to perpetuate more extreme forms of mental illness that they may not have. For example, psychiatrists on TikTok that are shown to teens over and over again can lead teens to self-diagnose that they have a psychiatric illness- despite the teen never having been diagnosed by a medical professional. Social media has a tremendous impact on teens, during a critical time when they are still forming their identities.

Social media can serve as a mechanism to share positive work out into the world, but if you are using the channels to share gossip, hate, toxicity or negativity, you are most likely leading to the destruction of others’ self-esteem. Build someone up instead of putting them down. People who put others down do this because they don’t feel great about their own self-esteem. They use social media to regulate their self-esteem at the expense of others. This is called cyberbullying.

In a world where there are thousands of stories to tell, focus on telling your own, and not someone else’s. The best way to tell if a user you engage with on social media will be harmful to your self-esteem is to notice if they respect boundaries. If they do not respect your privacy, confidentiality or boundaries about things pertaining to your own life, this will wreak havoc on your self-esteem and mental health.