In today’s world, the abuse of social media has quietly grown into one of the biggest threats to our mental well-being. What makes it even more worrying is that many people don’t notice the changes happening inside them. The shift is slow. It starts with harmless scrolling, just a few minutes here and there. But after months and years of it, the mind begins to change. People suddenly realise they can’t focus the way they used to. They compare their lives to what they see online, and their confidence slowly drains away. The damage doesn’t happen in a day, but it builds up until it feels normal.
This problem affects everyone, but the younger generation is hit the hardest. Teenagers and adolescents, already going through emotional changes, now live in a world where the phone has become the centre of their lives. Instead of real conversations, they choose likes and comments. Instead of playing outside, they spend hours scrolling. Many of them lie about their age just to access platforms meant for adults, exposing themselves to harmful content they can not understand or handle.
Parents should guide their children, but a lot of parents are also victims of the same habit. It is hard to caution a child when the adult is just as addicted to endless scrolling. How can a parent tell a child to reduce screen time when the parent is glued to a phone at home, during meals, or even at bedtime? The truth is simple: many parents are guilty of the very behaviour they want to correct. Children learn more from what they see than what they hear, and today’s children are seeing adults who can not disconnect.
Schools are not left out of this crisis. Teachers who are trying to maintain discipline, now face parents who defend their children’s misuse of phones. It is sad to see parents storm schools to fight because a teacher seized a student’s phone during class. Instead of supporting discipline, they encourage the same behaviour that is harming their children’s future.
The result of this silent crisis is a society filled with mentally exhausted people. Anxiety, depression, loneliness, and low self-esteem are becoming common, even among very young people. We now have more mentally unstable individuals walking around, not because they were born that way, but because their minds have been stretched beyond what they can handle.
Communal life has also faded. Gone are the days when neighbours sat outside to talk, when families bonded after dinner, and when children played freely with one another. Today, meaningful engagement has been replaced with hours of screen time. People sit together but do not talk. Everyone is present, yet absent. The world feels more connected but more divided at the same time.
If society will heal, both parents and children must learn to set boundaries. We must remember that life feels calmer and richer when the screen is not in control. Until we make that choice, the cycle continues, platforms grow, people shrink, and we call it “normal.”
Good content!
"Anxiety, depression, loneliness, and low self-esteem". These are definitely problems, if were not careful we'd be in a generation of very timid, non-confrontational people.