How Rural Adolescents can Benefit from Social Media

Technology has helped make the world feel more connected, making resourcesstories, and information much more accessible. This impact is significant for those who are physically isolated and may feel like they’re in the middle of nowhere. In the past, news and entertainment was extremely limited to things such as televisions, magazines and newspapers, and going out to explore was difficult because there were very few things close by. Continue reading How Rural Adolescents can Benefit from Social Media

Cleaning Up Your Social Media

It’s easy to feel overwhelmed by social media. With all the different kinds of accounts we can have, the way we can rely on the number of likes and comments we get, and the tendency we have to compare ourselves to others about what we post, social media can heighten feelings of anxiety and/or depression, especially for adolescents today. It doesn’t help that people sometimes endlessly scroll through their social media during depressive episodes or times of increased anxiety, because that’s really all their brains have the energy to do. Continue reading Cleaning Up Your Social Media

#tbt: How Did Teens Use Social Media in 2007?

While the lasting power of things on the Internet is permanent, the significance and popularity of some things are fickle. Even if Facebook is still up and running, notes and middle school photos buried somewhere deep down your feed, you probably don’t use it anymore – what was once one of the most popular website for teens is now only used by 51% of them, with only 10% saying they use it the most often. MySpace is pretty much nonexistent (as well as all the music on the website – one of the main features of the social network, and Tumblr has had a significant decline in users in recent years. Continue reading #tbt: How Did Teens Use Social Media in 2007?

When is Blocking Okay?

We all want to have the best experience that we can on social media. Even if it seems that there’s a lot going at once online, from the 24/7 news cycle to the millions of accounts that we can encounter, we still have the ability to control our experience. We can choose who we want to follow, what topics and tags to track, and can go private so we can limit who we want to engage with. Continue reading When is Blocking Okay?

Using Social Media at Night

It may be hard for some to remember the last time that they got a proper, full night’s sleep. Schoolwork, jobs, and extracurricular activities are just a few things that can contribute to an adolescent’s hectic and busy schedule. Simply put, there aren’t enough hours in the day for people to do everything that they want, and they often sacrifice the time they should be using sleeping to get everything else done.

Continue reading Using Social Media at Night

How Social Media Can Provide Resources for Mental Health Information

We use the Internet to learn about, essentially, everything. All it takes is opening up the browser app of your choice or opening up a new tab, googling whatever you’re interested in, and immediately getting hundreds upon thousands upon millions of results. This can be, without a doubt, overwhelming. There’s so much information to parse through and consider, and sometimes, you may find yourself going to social media sites you’re comfortable and familiar with and do the research there. Continue reading How Social Media Can Provide Resources for Mental Health Information

Help Your Child Determine What Social Media Platforms May be Negatively Impacting Them

How many social media accounts do you have? A Pew research study found that about 75% of adults have more than one social media account. This number is likely to be pretty high in teens and adolescents who grew up with technology and social media. Continue reading Help Your Child Determine What Social Media Platforms May be Negatively Impacting Them

Social Media and Mental Health

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.


Something I realized as I was staying home more and more during the pandemic was that I was constantly on my phone. My addiction to my phone started before the pandemic when I was still in in-person school. I was away from my family and hanging out with friends felt like a chore. Therefore, I spent every spare minute of my time on my phone and the Internet became a place where I could relax and stop thinking negative thoughts for a moment. Continue reading Social Media and Mental Health

Thanks to TikTok, I Started Journaling Everyday

The SOVA Project is happy to feature this blog post written by one in our team of fantastic SOVA Ambassadors—these are young people who help create meaningful blog posts from adolescents’ perspectives. We hope you can use their post to start a conversation with your adolescent.


At the beginning of March, I came across a TikTok that expressed that this account was going to do a 31 day journaling challenge with a new prompt everyday for the month. Since I have been wanting to get into journaling myself, I thought this would be a fun way to try it out. Continue reading Thanks to TikTok, I Started Journaling Everyday