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The increased social media use does, Hellemans says, help people to stay connected with their social groups. It’s higher in young women because they’re inclined to have more social contacts than men and feel the loss of social connection to a far greater degree.
But, she adds, there’s a dark side to that: “We know that a lot of these apps are developed with an intent to keep people engaged, scrolling through these endless news feeds, liking, commenting, posting, as a means to also gain validation.
“But if you spend too much time on social media sites, it can drive anxiety.”
Social media activates the brain’s limbic system, which controls our behavioural and emotional responses, especially those needed for survival.
“You’re feeling good. You’re checking your likes and your status, and people are commenting and liking — all those hearts and you feel that hug of reinforcement and it’s producing all these lovely chemicals.”
Over time, though, and similar to how it reacts to alcohol and other substances, the brain identifies social media as what provides endorphins and dopamine, and it goes into a negative balance when not engaging with social media. “Everything else,” says Hellemans, “is less important.
“It’s escapism.”
And today’s students, she believes, are developmentally unlike university students of 20 or 30 years ago. Thanks in part to “helicopter” or “snowplow” parents who ensure that their children have all the best opportunities without the attendant stressors and barriers, fewer students now have the necessary coping strategies to deal with setbacks.
“They haven’t had the opportunity to fail, to know what it’s like to put in effort and actually not do well, because they’ve always been rewarded for effort. And then they come to university and discover that sometimes effort doesn’t equal the A, and sometimes you don’t do well; life gets in the way and you stumble.
“So we need to be armed and ready with those resources at our fingertips and put them in whatever places we can think of, and universities’ administrations need to be ready to handle it.”
