JUNE 1 • 2023 | 25

plans. Thus, it is a vicious cycle.
In a Journal of the American 
Academy of Child Adolescent 
Psychiatry article titled 
“Patterns of Social Media Use 
Among Adolescents Who Are 
Psychiatrically Hospitalized,” 
experts explain that adolescents’ 
use of Snapchat “has critical 
implications for youths’ 
psychosocial development. 
Research increasingly supports a 
differential susceptibility model 
of media effects, whereby certain 
adolescents show an increased 
risk for negative effects of social 
media use. In addition, youth with 
suicidal thoughts or behaviors are 
more likely to experience cyber 
victimization and may be at risk for 
exposure to suicide-related social 
media content.” 
Teens are still developing 
important psychological aspects 
of their being and persona. Many 
young people desperately want 
others to believe their life is 
wonderful, so they post photos and 
videos to Snapchat to cause jealousy 
among their peer group. Studies 
show that Snapchat users very 
infrequently post photos and videos 
when they are depressed or sitting 
alone without friends around. They 
tend to only post when they are at 
social gatherings, on fun vacations 

or generally enjoying “the good 
life.” 
This is not an accurate expression 
of their actual lives and experiences, 
but it is a fabrication only showing 
what they want others to see. This 
causes envy and animosity among 
Snapchat users. According to 
Melissa Magner, in her article about 
social media’s negative implications 
on teens’ mental health, “It is 
important to understand that social 
comparison is especially prominent 
in the lives of young people who 
are simultaneously developing their 
ideas about who they are and where 
they fit in amongst their peers.”

WHAT CAN BE DONE
While clinical depression and 
anxiety have plagued humans 
since the beginning of time, we 
are currently seeing a mental 
health crisis among teens who use 
Snapchat regularly. What can be 
done to curb these negative mental 
health effects? Snap (the parent 
company of Snapchat) is a publicly 
traded company. It has a moral 
responsibility to ensure its product 
is safe for its users, the majority of 
whom are impressionable teens. 
Snapchat should remove its “Snap 
Map” feature that shows where one’s 
connections are located using GPS 
as this would help minimize the 

FOMO feelings among Snapchat 
users. Additionally, Snapchat should 
limit the number of connections 
a user has. This would keep users 
from seeing what people outside of 
their core friend group are doing.
Snapchat must make changes 
immediately to its platform. 
Likewise, parents must do more to 
understand how Snapchat works 
and the detrimental effects it has 
on this highly impressionable 
generation. Users of Snapchat, 
especially adolescents, must seek 
to change the way they use the app. 
They should try to limit content 
that will cause others to feel left 
out, which leads to depression and 
sometimes suicidal tendencies.
They should attempt to show 
more realistic portrayals of their 
activities rather than sugarcoating 
their experiences of filtering reality. 
We all must work together to 
ensure the social media experience 
of our teen generation is a positive 
one. Their mental health depends 
on it and the future of our society is 
at stake. 

Rabbi Jason Miller is a local educator and 

technology entrepreneur, who writes the Jews 

in the Digital Age column for the Jewish News. 

Joshua Miller will begin his sophomore year 

at Michigan State University in the Fall. He is a 

Media and Information major in the College of 

Communication, Arts and Science.

SNAPCHAT

