A few issues with social media that I have noticed prior to doing research is that social media can lead to higher social anxiety, a decline in amount of sleep because of time spent on social media, as well as cyberbullying. I personally can attest to being affected by or noticing all three of these issues. I have mild social anxiety and I find it easier to express myself online and this can be downfall. If I rely on social media for connections and communication I will eventually lose my ability to easily have social interactions in person. It is extremely important to obtain and improve the ability to have interactions in person because this allows for better opportunities in life and jobs. Along with social anxiety I personally can explain how social media leads to a decrease in my amount of sleep. As I stated in the first paragraph I start and end my day on social media. This means at the end of my day I want to sit on my phone and watch TikTok, scroll through Instagram or Facebook, and waste my time aimlessly. TikTok is one reason I lose sleep because when I begin scrolling and watching videos I find it hard to stop, I tell myself only two more videos" and then end up watching two more hours of videos instead. This is not healthy because it causes me to stay up later, sleep in to late hours of the day, and become very unproductive in my day. Often I dismiss the lose of sleep and pay no attention to the way that it may actually be affecting my mental health. Sleep is tremendously important to both mental and physical health. I feel terrible when I sleep away half of my day because I feel unproductive, this feeling of being unproductive causes me to have feelings of laziness and I beat myself up because of it. I know it is common among my age group to stay up late and sleep our days away but is there a correlation between a lack of sleep/ sleeping unproductively and anxiety or depressive issues?

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