New generations, that are digital natives growing up with social media, experience more advantages to developing a healthy and positive social lifestyle with the use of social media. With helpful guidance around social media use, youth can grow to enjoy a healthy online and offline social life that complement each other. It has been shown that youth become more prosocial or commonly known as altruistic, feeling more empathy and care for others and acting in ways that are encouraging or helping (Bhadra, S. 2023). Social media also helps youth develop positive identity and peer engagement and this outweighs the possible negative consequences of anxiety and depression (Yalda T. 2017). Denworth in her article The Kids Are All Right looks at the overwhelming use of studies that create a fear of technology as is a common myth in society dating back to Socrates when he said writing things down weakens the memory. Denworth would like to pinpoint what is causing mental health variants among the youth other than the use of technology. Denworth reminds us of studies around addiction and the use of social media, when people are satisfied with their lives, they experience less addiction. I find this true in my young nieces who are finishing high school and in university that seem to have very rewarding lives and use social media to complement their lifestyles and goals. For someone like me that experiences different types of anxiety I must monitor my social media use as it can start to echo my social anxieties, this does not mean social media is the culprit of my angst. I also found I became more prosocial with my introduction to social media, even changing jobs and working in a homeless shelter. Mental health issues exist, and it is not wise to try to blame the rise of this issue on social media (Denworth, L. 2019).
The word prosocial originated in the 1970s when scientists were speaking of the opposite of antisocial behaviour like when studying the bystander effect. This study from India shows how online communities strengthen their relationships from friendship to romantic interactions and school or work, that these interactions help create a better society where people help, and do not always succumb to the bystander affect. There are challenges of addiction and other negative forces that detract and strengthen antisocial behaviours, however, this is not the growing trend. The focus groups and studies found that social media helped youth with learning disabilities and sexual identity, also that more youth were reflecting their offline life online, strengthening their identity. This study highlights prosocial attitudes and actions and social media use. It also looked at the negative influences and addiction that the youth face that disturb them and they grow to learn from and to be supported by the appropriate professionals like teachers etc. That this helping tendency was encouraged and evident offline. I found my own prosocial behaviour has increased with the use of social media even with my social anxieties like by adopting a cat from the Humane Society. (Bhadra, S., et al 2023).
There is an interesting study that looks at social media marketing campaigns to Millennials to study their responsiveness in helping causes such as breast cancer and homelessness, neither of which they might perceive as an immediate risk in their lives. It rates their empathy and gender differences in their response to the campaigns that do not take into consideration the type of advertising or what organization they are affiliated with just to whether Millennials responded. It also looked at the gender differences, that could be influenced by the general idea that women tend to be more empathetic. I find this type of empathy is needed in lasting friendships and interactions as they mature. I found this to be true in my own development after working at a newspaper where I was introduced to social media, I went through my own growth then worked in production with the marketing and communications team at a local homeless shelter. I found this position strengthened my relationships and tendency towards being empathetic to all walks of life and not just advertising or sensationalist news like in the newspaper. (Paulin, M., et al 2014).
In the Kids are Alright article, Denworth is more interested in making social media use available to all, especially to those living in lower economic situations. Pointing out the fear people had with TV among the youth and now the youth share their own videos and messages with media. Also, that this debate in society can go back in history to when people burned books in fear of their influence on people and to control society. Would it not be better to teach people how to be interpreted information and perhaps their own thoughts and feelings about these influences? The Kids are All Right article also advocates for better use of studies to pinpoint what is causing mental health variants among the youth rather than the use of technology. Again, for me that experiences different types of anxiety I must monitor my social media use as it can start to echo my social anxieties, this does not mean social media is the culprit of my angst. I feel this is a calm and rational look at the use of technology and media over time and the collective response to it that examines how studies can be used to raise any type of fears that the researcher is trying to heighten. Mental health issues exist, and it is not wise to try to blame the rise of this issue on social media, technology, or books. (Denworth, L. 2019).
The article Benefits and Costs of Social Media in Adolescence looks at youths’ development and the benefits and costs of social media. ‘Identity development, aspirational development, and peer engagement’ are some of the ways social media benefits youth. It seems online can echo offline friendships, identity, and be part of healthy development and increased self-esteem. It helps the developing person understand themselves and get clarity and helps with learning disabilities and with sexual identification. Some of the costs included in this study were ‘cyberbullying, depression, social anxiety, and exposure to developmentally inappropriate content.’ I feel the article brings up a great point that most social media sites are for profit and that they may not always care about the social causes. However, I feel people police themselves and each other on social media and bring about positive change and ethics. The article makes some good recommendations, like questions, when is a good age to introduce social media to children? I feel for me I have made mistakes socially on social media while under the influence and going through a break up it was not disastrous, but I was not proud of my behavior so I felt I did learn something, and to me social media is like having your own digital scrapbook where you can look not only at your identity but your history of events, feelings, ideas and friendships, it can be a wonderful thing to share and learn from. When open to feedback from peers and getting through feeling embarrassed, hurt, excited or angry. (Yalda T., 2017)
Another 2021 study not only looks at time and frequency youth spend on social media, but it also looks at the type of behaviour they engage with four areas of ‘self-disclosure, self-presentation, lurking and social monitoring.’ The hours spent were of little effect and frequency to increase prosocial behaviors. Self-disclosure with girls increased peer victimization and being prosocial. With more self-presentation type of posts there seemed to be an increase of internalizing problems and less prosocial among younger children and boys. Lurking increased internalizing problems. These findings help create guidelines for adults and professionals when dealing with the youths’ instabilities of adjusting to social media and socially offline. It can help when dealing with things like depression and anxiety. I found this study to be done with care and concern for the young people that were given questions to answer about their online use and their feelings. I feel with some of my social anxieties I could relate to some of these issues young people face, so it’s nice to have awareness around the possible pitfalls and be nurturing in ways youth on and offline with these issues of feeling victimized or internalizing problems leading to depressed states. (Swirsky, J. M., et al s2021).
Social media is still young, just about 20 years old and the younger generations brain development may be affected using technology and just developing different than previous generations. This study also claims that the fear of social displacement from social media use may not to be feared. The study showed that social media consumption took an hour out of youths’ days that they would spend socializing in person in cars, movies etc. This article did not know if the people experience the same amount of support online as offline, but I feel a good question depending on their nature or needs. I feel once I felt supported by friends on and offline I felt more secure and able to handle social media and friendships with less anxieties or fears and with better boundaries while feeling more grounded in being empathetic with them. (Allen, S., 2019)
Some of the further studies could look at the role of parents and teachers; how they help and hinder not only mental illness, but attitudes towards friends and society? Other studies could look at culture and economics in the youth’s development and how positively they are adjusting to the demands of society. Or is society changing to meet their growing needs? Like how we value more work life balance now as a society. More guidelines and awareness could be created for behaviours around peer victimization, self-disclosure and internalizing negatively leading to depression online or offline. Perhaps more studies and awareness could be done to police and deter cyberbullying. Overall, the emphasis on creating more care and positive concern within communities needs to be encouraged – yet not demanded – creating a type of compassion fatigue or perhaps desensitizing youth to negative and positive actions out there. With awareness and support, youth could be seen as part of maturing, to develop resiliency in dealing with these challenges and adversaries. Overall, with the right support, technology and social media can add positively to development.

 
References
Allen, S. (2019) Social media’s growing impact on our lives. American Psychological Association, Retrieved from https://www.apa.org/members/content/social-media-research

Bhadra, S., Kumar, S. (2023). Impact of social media on forming individual’s prosocial behavior and related challenges among youths in college. Indian Journal of Social Psychiatry, 39 (2), 153-161 DOI https://doi.org/10.4103/ijsp.ijsp_309_20

Denworth, L. (2019). The kids are all right. Scientific American, 321 (5), 44-49. Retrieved from https://lc.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=139246768&site=ehost-live&scope=site

Paulin, M., Ferguson, R. J., Schattke, K., & Jost, N. (2014). Millennials, social media, prosocial Emotions, and Charitable Causes: The paradox of gender differences. Journal of Nonprofit & Public Sector Marketing. 26(4), 335–353.

Swirsky, J. M., Rosie, M., & Hongling, X. (2021). Adjustment correlates of social media engagement among early adolescents. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 50(12), 2265-2278. Doi https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-021-01421-

Yalda T. Uhls, PhD, (2017) Benefits and costs of social media in Adolescence. American Academy of Pediatrics, Retrieved From https://publications.aap.org/pediatrics/article/140/Supplement_2/S67/34168/Benefits-and-Costs-of-Social-Media-in-Adolescence?autologincheck=redirected