For almost all teens in the United States, social media is a fact and way of life. A study conducted by the Pew Research Center revealed that 97 percent of American teenagers have access to smartphones while 45 percent claim that they are always online 'almost constantly (Anderson, 2018) .' In recent years, technological advancements have rapidly evolved, with social media playing a critical role in teens lives. Today, the media landscape is vast and more varied than ever before with teens having access to unparalleled volumes of digital content across multiple devices such as laptops, gaming consoles, smartphones, computers and tablets. As a result, digital technologies have become a universal feature in the lives of young people. The ability to interact with their peers is a notable attribute of social media, which offers new ways for them to create and traverse their social environments. The use of social media by teems occurs concurrently with their evolving sexuality, moral consciousness, developing identity, and physical development. As with every technology, there are advantages and disadvantages. With the ever-growing presence of social media in the lives of teens, and the way it impacts the behavior and mental health of children, parents and guardians must be aware of the risks and benefits for mental health.
Advantages Social Media on Teens Mental Health
Social connection is among the major established advantages of social media, with more than 82 percent of teens stating that social media makes them feel connected with their family and friends. According to a research by the Pew Research Center, 73 percent of teens said social media played a critical role in keeping up with friends and family on a daily basis, and 68 percent reported that it helped in having meaning conversations with their close family and friends (Anderson & Jiang, 2018) . Most teens posit that social media helps them connect with friends and family. According to research, the use of social media promotes an individual's well-being when it is used to promote a sense of belonging and acceptance.
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Social media provides a supportive environment for teens to establish new connections online that they would otherwise not be able to using traditional relationships. Social media provides teens with an environment to explore social status and friendships particularly those that may not have access to communities of similar peers such as those who may feel socially reticent or physically unattractive, LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer), and those living with disabilities. Social media provides these categories of teens with a platform to find online friends, form meaningful relationships, and identify with friends as significant sources of emotional support (Keles et al., 2019) . According to research, having supportive friends or atmosphere online plays a protective role for teens with mental illnesses such as depression.
Advantages Social Media on Teens Mental Health
Smartphone addiction is one of the adverse effects of social media on teens. Smartphone addiction is the overuse of smartphones that it affects the daily lives of teens. This results in the disregard of school activities such as concentration impairment during studies or homework and having a hard time working on planned tasks. Smartphone addiction also results in the social life of teens becoming highly dependent on smartphones instead of their family and friends (Keles et al., 2019) . Thus, most teens become heavily inclined to their smartphones at the expense of physically spending time with their friends or family and feeling as if they have lost their world when unable to use their smartphones. Teens lives become dependent of smartphones and they experience more pleasure while on them than spending time with their family friends (Berryman et al., 2017) . This results withdrawal symptoms if they are not allowed to use their smartphones or they become nervous when they do not have a smartphone.
Research conducted by the Pew Research Centre found that at least 60 percent of American teens have been intimidated or harassed online. The proliferation of the internet and smartphones, and the proliferation of social media has changed where, when, and how online harassment takes place (Keles et al., 2019) . Social media has created opportunities for emotion distress for teens from receiving humiliating, harassing, and threatening text messages from other teens. Cyberbullying in teens leads to psychosocial outcomes such as suicide, depression, severe isolation, and anxiety. More teens report to have encountered cyberbullying on Instagram above all other mass media platforms at 42 percent, with Facebook at 37 percent and Snapchat following at 31 percent (Berryman et al., 2017) .
Solutions to the Impacts of Social Media
Parents and guardians should monitor the time spent on social media use by teens. The act of spending vast amounts of time on social media significantly impacts physical activity and face-to-face interactions or communication that a teenage engages in (Berryman et al., 2017) . In addition, the content consumed online by teenagers and how it is internalized affects their behaviors.
Parents and guardians should set limits in the amount of time that teenagers spend on social media. Research shows that the amount of time spent every day on social media correlated with negative emotions. A study conducted by Riehm et al. (2019) established that teenagers who spent more than three hours daily on social media were at higher risks of mental health problems. Parents and guardians can track, monitor, and block the amount time their children spend on social media. Microsoft implemented the Microsoft Family Safety toolkit that provides a limit in children's devices, applications, and games that limits the amount of time spent on social media (Riehm et al., 2019) . Parents and guardians can also enforce rules such as no social media at least 2 hours after waking up, and to keep away smartphones an hour before bed to enhance physical activity and face-to-face communication among teenagers.
Parents and guardians can encourage the use of social media to their teens for connecting with people who share similar interests, inspire them, and promote a sense of belonging. This improves mental health in teenagers and prioritizes the use of social media as a positive space for them to stay connected with positive groups, people, and accounts. Teenagers positively connecting on social media provides them with opportunities for greater autonomy and independence resulting in increased critical thinking and decision-making abilities (Riehm et al., 2019) . According to the researcher's, these feelings of self-worth and community improve the mental health of teenagers over time.
It is vital for parents and guardians to teach themselves about social media, the ways their children use it, and the common risks to increase their understanding of evolving technologies. Parents should know that thirteen years is the least age required for most mass media websites because COPPA (Children's Online Privacy Protection Act) prohibits mass media websites from amassing information on children younger than thirteen years without parental consent (Berryman et al., 2017) .
In navigating the risks of social media, parents and guardians should have continuous conversations with their teenagers on the use of social media, the risks associated with social media and how to manage them (Berryman et al., 2017) . Topics to talk about include the sharing of personal information and photos, lower the incidences of talking to people they do not know, and make their profiles private. This reduces the chances of tens violating their online privacy.
Conclusion
The impact of social media on teenagers increases the risks for psychological distress, depression, anxiety, and suicide. As digital technologies continue to rapidly evolve, more research is needed on new challenges and opportunities. Parents, guardians, the community, educators, and the federal government should join forces in enhancing healthy social media usage and strengthen its positive impacts on teenagers through education, individual identity, and the strengthening of personal relationships and well-being.
References
Anderson, M. (2018). A majority of teens have experienced some form of cyberbullying . Pew Research Center. Retrieved 7 February 2021, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/09/27/a-majority-of-teens-have-experienced-some-form-of-cyberbullying/.
Anderson, M., & Jiang, J. (2018). Teens, social media & technology 2018 . Pew Research Center. Retrieved 7 February 2021, from https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/.
Berryman, C., Ferguson, C., & Negy, C. (2017). Social media use and mental health among young adults. Psychiatric Quarterly , 89 (2), 307-314. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11126-017-9535-6
Keles, B., McCrae, N., & Grealish, A. (2019). A systematic review: the influence of social media on depression, anxiety and psychological distress in adolescents. International Journal Of Adolescence And Youth , 25 (1), 79-93. https://doi.org/10.1080/02673843.2019.1590851
Riehm, K., Feder, K., Tormohlen, K., Crum, R., Young, A., & Green, K. et al. (2019). Associations between time spent using social media and internalizing and externalizing problems among US youth. JAMA Psychiatry , 76 (12), 1266. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.2325
