I recently started scrapbooking again for the first time in over ten years. This is a big deal for someone who grew up making greeting cards, personalising notebooks, and who declared at age four that I wanted to be an artist. Creativity is in my bones. So why did it take years for me to rediscover a hobby I used to love?
The answer is devastatingly simple: social media.
Social media has negatively impacted my creativity and mental health. When I got my first smartphone at age 16, I joined Instagram, played Candy Crush and set up email notifications. Around the same time, my creativity began to wane and my mental health worsened. I had unwittingly ushered in an era of emotional dysregulation.
A correlation with poor mental health
Scientific studies show similar findings: increased social media use correlates with increased risk of poor mental health in youth and young adults. Additionally, adolescent girls may experience negative outcomes such as disordered eating, body image issues and low self-esteem.
I can relate. When I first joined Facebook, the feeling of FOMO (fear of missing out) caused my self-esteem to dip. As classmates posted their good times online, I felt like my social life was lacking. I sometimes felt like I had no friends.
My teenage journal entries reveal a girl trying to figure out who she was, while contending with online ideas of who she should be.
