#IHaveAMentalIllness: Social Media's Affect on Mental Health
By: Kate Laing

A small phone screen has taken control of human minds and daily lives. Social media has glamorized mental health and created an unhealthy addiction for society. This has led to dramatic mental health issues that are coming to a head by the second, especially since social media has come into play. Our brains can become addicted to the dopamine we get when receiving a positive response online. To improve societal suffering there are many ways to cope including meditation, coloring pages, positivity notes, therapy, medication, nature, animals, etc. While mental illness is more common in the Gen Z generation it is actually multi-generational. This leads to the theory that social media has increased the percentage of mental illness and worsened our society’s overall mental health.