Social media is having widespread negative effects on college students. In particular, users are constantly bombarded with endless messages and posts that can distract people — and more than that, disturb them.

“It distracts me from doing my homework and it makes me feel insecure about myself,” said Chelsea Chavez.

Chavez is a 19-year-old student majoring in geography at Diablo Valley College. She said she is active on three social media platforms, which occupy too many of her waking hours. “Half of my day is spent on social media,” she said.

“It has become so addicting,” Chavez added, but it’s now “a huge part of peoples’ lives, where you can’t really put it down.”

According to The Breeze, more than 98 percent of college students are active on social media today. Social media has grown significantly over the past few years and, for many, has become virtually impossible to stay off of.

“Social media has factors that distract students from focusing on their [academic] goals,” said Kevin Pilkon, 18, who is studying communications at DVC.

Many argue that social media is great in the sense that it allows people to keep in touch and see specific content they like. But that content comes with a cost. 

For example, spending too much time on social media can easily have an effect on users’ mental health, from depression to feelings of insecurity.

BMC Psychiatry reports that too much time spent on social media can also lead to college students facing severely reduced productivity as well as increased procrastination in getting work done.

But the seemingly endless, distracting content posted every day makes it hard for young people to ignore.

“It is intoxicating,” said Mufazil Rab, 18, a DVC student studying business.

Rab remains active on six social media platforms, where he’s frequently drawn to look at “a lot of controversial posts” — a process something similar to an addiction, which he knows isn’t healthy.

“It can intoxicate a person’s mind and disturb it,” he said. 

And yet Rab, who spends considerable time daily on these platforms, isn’t able to pull himself away.

“I spend on average around three or four hours every day on social media,” he said. Even though he wants to reduce the time he spends there, it hasn’t been easy.

“I feel like I should reduce my time to two to two and a half hours, instead of three or four.”

For Chavez, the drawbacks of using social media clearly outweigh the benefits.

“I think it honestly does more harm than good,” she said.