Scrolling with Mental Health in Mind
Today, social media functions as a sort of virtual Swiss Army knife—a tool with many purposes adapted to society’s needs.
July 12, 2024
Katie Ousley
Today, social media functions as a sort of virtual Swiss Army knife—a tool with many purposes adapted to society’s needs. “From using Snapchat to connect with friends or TikTok to unwind and laugh, finding recipes for cooking via Pinterest, hunting for jobs on LinkedIn, or staying in touch with family members on Facebook, social media is too useful to go anywhere soon,” said Kit Breshears, communications director for the University of Minnesota’s Earl E. Bakken Center for Spirituality & Healing.
Despite its benefits, Breshears —who has worked in educational communications, advertising, and marketing for more than 20 years—noticed students struggling with social media and their mental health. This spurred him to create a technology and wellbeing class for undergraduate students in 2014.
Due to its extreme popularity, in Fall 2023 Breshears modified the course—now called CSPH 1203: Implications of Social Media on Mental Health—to hone in on social media’s specific impact on mental health. Due to student interest, he consistently raises the class capacity each semester—now up to 70 students—and has had students of every age, from every college at the University, and even students from every campus in the University system.
“At the Bakken Center, we are very aware of the mental health crisis on campus and the large number of students experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression,” notes Dr. Mary Jo Kreitzer, Center founder and director.
Offering courses to enhance students’ overall wellbeing is consistent with the Center’s mission. “It is easy to fixate on college degree requirements, which are clearly very important. Also important is emerging from college a happy and healthy human being,” explained Kreitzer.
The seven-week online class focuses on social media’s connection to and impact on physical health, stress, anxiety, distraction, addiction, and more. It encourages students to explore how social media use affects them and encourages developing skills to have a more meaningful, mindful relationship with it.
Each week begins with a short video lecture by Breshears, followed by a mix of assignments including reflections on how the material relates to them, online discussions with their peers, quizzes, polls, and challenges designed to help students engage deeper with that week’s content. Challenges range from tracking the number of hours they use social media to using an online texting and driving simulator.
It might seem odd that a class focusing on the impacts of social media on mental health is offered online. However, this makes it more accessible for students like Micky Siphakaykham, who graduated in Spring 2024 at the University of Minnesota Rochester. She learned it’s hard to have a healthy relationship with social media because it’s used to “flaunt the best part of our lives for validation, attraction, competition, confidence, and attention, which can negatively affect my self-esteem.” Since doing the self-compassion and meditation exercises—which are a central part of the course’s focus on self-work—Siphakaykham has taken a break from social media and noticed it significantly reduced her anxiety and improved her self-esteem.
A key component of social media platforms’ addictive quality is their design.
This addictive design feeds the cultural norm of constantly being online. Joe Gherity, a graduate student seeking a degree in multidisciplinary studies, took the class in Fall 2023. He believes a class like this should be required for everyone. “The course activities will make you realize how addicted you are to certain social media apps,” he said. Since taking the class, Gherity uses an app that restricts his social media use and noticed that he has more patience and space to think.
Another student, Easton Milne, said that “Kit’s course has had one of the largest impacts out of every class I have taken in my college career.” He initially expected the class to put down social media altogether, but it was far from that. Breshears never encourages students to unplug entirely as it’s not realistic for most. In fact, Milne shared that the course material helped him work on his long-distance relationship with his girlfriend.
“While living 1,500 miles apart can be frustrating because it lessens our ability to see each other in person, using social media apps like Snapchat and Discord allow us to stream movies and TV shows together,” said Milne. “We have virtual dates and dinners that build a sense of closeness.” The impact the class has on students’ personal lives is largely what makes it so popular—along with Breshears’ clear love of teaching.
“Kit’s enthusiasm for the material is contagious,” said Gherity. Siphakaykham noted that Breshears always brought a positive energy and was receptive to what she discussed in her reflection assignments.
Breshears has a unique ability to connect with his students. Many have stayed in contact and share that they have continued using the strategies they learned in class. He explains that “your experience with social media is going to depend on how you use it. My deepest hope is that students who take this course develop tangible skills for managing how social media impacts their mental health and wellbeing.”