It’s been ten minutes since you posted your new profile picture, but you’ve opened and re-opened Facebook at least eight times. How many likes has it gotten? Is this even a good enough photo? Have you been changing your profile picture too much? These thoughts race through your head as you desperately wait for the little red notification that someone has liked your profile picture. You may also seem uncool if you don't have the newest iPhone or Android.

Social media anxiety has become an increasingly common phenomenon among social media users. Medical News Today found in a study that teens with high emotional investment in their social media also reported having issues sleeping, lower self-esteem, plus higher rates of anxiety and depression. Meanwhile, in a study of 7,000 moms by the Today Show, 42% report suffering from “Pinterest stress.” After clicking through thousands of photos of exquisite decorations and delicious recipes, mothers reported not feeling adequate or creative enough for the pins they see.

Today you see more people with their phones constantly in their hands taking and posting their latest selfies. But you also see a lot more people that are socially awkward and do not know how to hold a conversation, which is correlated to the increase in social media and phone use. Since life itself is becoming more advanced in technology, people are finding more and more reasons to avoid actual human interaction. With online shopping, food ordering, classes, and chat rooms, is there truly a reason to associate with real people? Teenagers nowadays think that having a conversation face to face means being on FaceTime or Skype with their friend talking. Little do they know that is not a face to face conversation. The increase in social media and electronic use has led to the decrease in human contact which has led to the increase in anxiety found in teenagers and young adults.

When it comes down to going on a job interview, teenagers have no idea how to formally talk to their elders. Social media has destroyed the proper vocabulary and respect of today's generations. There are videos on Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook of teenagers disrespecting older generations such as grandparents or just random older people on the street. This looks as if those teenagers were not raised properly, which they haven't with the increase of social media and electronics. The disrespect that teenagers show towards other humans is unfathomable and repulsive.

While walking down the street, if you even do happen to come across a teenager that is getting some fresh air, 9 times out of 10 you find them with their cell phone either in their hand or against their ear. This is what they call going out. Even going to school has become completely digitalized for kids today, with schools giving out personal laptops and tablets for classes instead of the traditional notebooks and pens. By going completely digital schools are assisting the downgrade of society as it once was. The only type of interaction teenagers get with each other is comparing social media posts and sharing them with one another.

Although the social media is causing teenagers and other users to become for disrespectful and repulsive, it is also causing an increase in anxiety. Spending most of the time on social media causes a lack in communication skills and interaction. People are so used to being able to do everything from the screen in front of them that they forget how to communicate in the outside world. So when they are actually forced to communicate with people for job interview or other reasons their anxiety gets the best of them. Having to actually communicate with people leads to the fear of failure which causes anxiety in people.

Social media also causes anxiety because it adds to the fear of missing out on the fun things happening and the fear of being compared to everyone else. When there is a raging party, there are bound to be photos posted on all the social media platforms and for the one person not invited to the party their world is crushed. They begin to get anxiety because they missed out on the fun that everyone else had and was forced to view their fun in photos posted by everyone else at the party. While you are at home posting pictures of you snuggling with your dog on a Friday night, all of your peers are posting photos of them at the coolest party in town. This leads to fear that you will be compared to everyone else and made fun of for not being cool enough to go to the party.

Don’t take it lightly if you’re experiencing anxiety from using social media. Taking care of yourself is more important than the amount of likes you get. And remember, nothing is ever as good as it seems on social media.