Mental Health in the Age of Social Media
By: Reno Bianco | Published on: September 30, 2026
September is Suicide Prevention Awareness Month. Due to the pervasive nature of social media algorithms, most of you have figured that out by now. You’ve likely seen a man post about the simple ways you can prevent someone else from taking their own life, and another one mentions how he failed to do those things for his best friend. However, despite all the aesthetic carousels you’ve seen on how to show up for your friends when they are experiencing mental health struggles, nobody talks about what struggling with your mental health actually feels like and why it feels so isolating.
In the recent study, “Why do adolescents attempt suicide? Insights from leading ideation-to-action suicide theories: a systematic review,” researchers found that when teenagers experience a lack of belonging compounded with feeling burdensome, there is an increased risk of suicidal ideation. In a disconnected society where young adults are increasingly online, and teenagers are losing their third spaces, community and ability to interact, there is a real threat to mental health.
In an interview with a TJU student regarding his experience, he stated, “My problems felt so unique and foreign that I didn’t even know how to start talking about them.”
When people don’t have the language to speak about their struggles and lack the resources to heal, we see a society where suicide is seen as a legitimate option. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), nearly 40% of students experienced persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness, 28.5% experienced poor mental health, 20.4% considered serious attempts of suicide, and nearly 10% attempted suicide.
In a TikTok posted by the Good Noticings Podcast regarding Hayden Panttierr’s death, host Claire Parker stated, “When Hayden Panttierr was going through her crisis, nobody was there supporting her, and people were mad at her. When people act out because of mental illness, we get very mad at them. And when they die, we go ‘why wasn’t anyone supporting them during the mental illness?’…The truth about mental illness that I feel has gotten lost…is that it does make people unlikeable and difficult to support. And that’s why it’s so stigmatized.”
No one has ever taken suicide as the “easy way out” of their hardships. It happens because they feel like they’re burdening people. We live in a constant fear of being too much while simultaneously not being enough. We’re scared to talk about something more than once because we can’t afford to have people get sick of us. We act out due to mental illness in a way that drives everyone else away. We’re alone in a way that only we can fix, yet we consistently think that everyone else will fix it for us. We firmly believe we’re not getting enough, but we struggle to see that we’re not putting anything in.
According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (ASFP), suicide is the second leading cause of death for young adults in the United States. Suicide related deaths were four times higher among males than among females in 2024, which clearly implies a certain social standard prohibiting men, specifically young men, from speaking up. We must talk for ourselves, think for ourselves, and act on our own behalf. Feeling alone, feeling like a burden, starts with the thought that we don’t deserve to be; and this is simply untrue. We throw ourselves into this downward spiral, in which every checkpoint we hit, we tell ourselves there is no way to stay still. We romanticize staying still because, as things move, they deplete. We struggle to see how motion can be positive. Being there for someone means giving them a moment to simply exist. It means giving them the chance to figure these things out on their own, but not alone. It means not allowing someone to convince themselves they can’t do it, to succumb to self-doubt. It may take time to realize you can, but I promise you that you can. Give yourself some grace, but also give it to everyone around you. We must grant forgiveness with the same energy we use to ask for it. Let yourself be grateful for every win you have in life, recognize the good still being put into the world, and do it yourself, too. Don’t be afraid to be vulnerable, because everyone’s life changes for the worse without you in it. The same people you’ve put so much effort into are more than willing to do it for you. Reach out to someone, and let them watch you figure it all out.
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