In my own life, I have seen the impact of social media first hand. When I was growing up, I was not allowed to have a phone until high school, much less have any social media accounts. So when I did finally have access to social media, I can remember clearly as my phone usage increased a lot. While I can say that it negatively influences my life, I can also say that it has also helped me. When I did not have a phone, I was always the last to learn about any thing. I never had any idea that anything was going on with my friends or with my school apart from what was sent out in newsletters by my school. As I was one of the only ones in my grade without a phone, I always felt like I was somehow less than everyone else. My mental health was really negatively impacted by it. Once I got a phone, I felt like I could be a part of the group again, like I wasn't excluded from everything. That being said, that was more to do with cell phones than social media. Social media is a large part of it, which is why I included it of course, but there is a bit more nuance to do with social media specifically. Social media always seems to be a great idea because you can see the best of everyone. The problem with that is that you never see the worst of everyone else, so you compare yourself -- all of yourself -- to their best, so you always end up feeling worse than before. Now that I have social media and am using it consistently, I can feel myself get jealous of others, whether it's their money, clothes, life, or anything else. Then there is also the issue of how much people use social media. I just now checked my phone while writing this and yesterday I, regrettably, spent almost 3 hours on Instagram. Now, to be fair, I was on a bit of a roadtrip, so I was in a car without much else to do, but it is still way more than it should be. The amount of time spent on social media takes away from time that could be better spent outside, learning, or doing something else fun or productive. So that brings up the question: what can we do about it? Well, these companies are making a lot of money off of their social medias, so there isn't much that we can do to limit or change the social media apps themselves. So, the way I see it, we have two other options: encourage people to do things off of social media and provide a healthier alternative. First, we should make it more enticing to be off of social media. There are a some great ways to do this, for example, encouraging people to go outside with easier access to parks and outdoor spaces. One might do this by giving free nature reserve passes to people ages 13-17 (the most affected age group according to the National Library of Medicine). Second, we should provide an alternative to social media that is healthier. So, instead of algorithmically showing people what will give them quick dopamine so that they stay on the app, show them positive messages for example. It might not be able to fully replace social media, but hopefully can help abate the negative consequences of it. Here is the link to the National Library of Medicine study I refenced: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK594759/