It is interesting to think about how life would be today without social media. Adults, teenagers, and even children are heavily influenced by various social media apps every day. Some of these apps include Instagram, SnapChat, TikTok, Twitter, and many more. Social media can be a fun source of entertainment and a great way to communicate with people. However, there are many sides to social media that people don’t take into realization. Social media can be a lot more harmful than people credit it to be. For instance, many people portray their lives drastically differently online than it truly is in real life in hopes to have people believe they are perfect. Psychologist Jacqueline Sperling at McLeanHospital.org states, “To boost self-esteem and feel a sense of belonging in their social circles, people post content with the hope of receiving positive feedback”. While this can cause people to feel better about themselves by acquiring compliments and validation, it can really have an effect on the people viewing their content. Many influencers tend to do this which causes their followers to feel a strong sense of envy or jealousy. Another reason social media is harmful is because of the effects it has on the brains of teengers. Social media can be a great place for people to express themselves, but this comes with a cost. Many people receive negative comments and feedback from their content that can be known as cyberbullying. Cyberbullying, along with many other factors of social media, has a huge effect on teenager’s mental health and can cause or worsen mental issues including anxiety and depression. It is difficult for people to realize that social media has this effect on them since many rely on social media to cheer them up when they are feeling down. The problem is that many people fail to understand that social media could be making their problems worse. If social media didn’t exist today, it is honestly unpredictable how the world would be. For starters, communication would not be nearly as simple, but it would cause many more real-life interactions rather than virtually messaging people. I strongly believe that not having social media would also decrease anxiety, stress, and heavily decrease the pressure that is on teenagers to fit in or look and act a certain way. Social media has had such a huge impact on teenagers mental health that it has become a very serious issue. It is so overlooked because there can be many plus sides to social media, but there are just as many (if not more) downsides for teens as well. I believe that friendships would be stronger, people would be happier, and many people’s mental health would change drastically if social media did not exist today.