It’s fair to say that young people—whose brains haven’t fully formed—are most at risk of being misled on social media. Gen Z’s use TikTok the way the rest of us use Google: as an information-gathering resource not unlike the library.
What’s interesting is I can’t imagine *not* having access to social media when my mental illness started 18 years ago, nor presently, because while my social anxiety and depression-fueled habit of isolating myself most of the time (I also have physical health issues that keep me from doing stuff at the moment, but that’s neither here nor there) because I’ve failed to find people like me and who like me in my small town. I’ve found a lot of solidarity in spaces online for all sorts of topics, whether it be mental health, gaming, or TV shows.
One day I hope to have a bit more tolerance for socializing or at least being around people, and maybe even have IRL friends, but I’m glad I have this instead of having nothing. I have a lot of people I met online whom I never met in real life that I’m incredibly grateful for. One of my boyfriends as a teenager was someone I met online and actually met IRL three times and it wasn’t a bad experience at all.
That said I don’t think I ever thought to try and gain factual information about anything from social media. When I want information about mental health, I go to a government website or other advocacy network like NAMI. Sometimes I also look straight into the topic of psychology itself through Wikipedia, the APA, and scholarly papers on sites like PubMed. But anything I read on social media, including that which my friends share, is taken with a grain of salt and if I doubt the accuracy of the info, I look it up on Google.
What’s interesting is I can’t imagine *not* having access to social media when my mental illness started 18 years ago, nor presently, because while my social anxiety and depression-fueled habit of isolating myself most of the time (I also have physical health issues that keep me from doing stuff at the moment, but that’s neither here nor there) because I’ve failed to find people like me and who like me in my small town. I’ve found a lot of solidarity in spaces online for all sorts of topics, whether it be mental health, gaming, or TV shows.
One day I hope to have a bit more tolerance for socializing or at least being around people, and maybe even have IRL friends, but I’m glad I have this instead of having nothing. I have a lot of people I met online whom I never met in real life that I’m incredibly grateful for. One of my boyfriends as a teenager was someone I met online and actually met IRL three times and it wasn’t a bad experience at all.
That said I don’t think I ever thought to try and gain factual information about anything from social media. When I want information about mental health, I go to a government website or other advocacy network like NAMI. Sometimes I also look straight into the topic of psychology itself through Wikipedia, the APA, and scholarly papers on sites like PubMed. But anything I read on social media, including that which my friends share, is taken with a grain of salt and if I doubt the accuracy of the info, I look it up on Google.