According to Forbes, recent 2024 research in the International Journal of Mental Health Promotion found a direct positive correlation between social media usage and both imaginary audience experiences and social anxiety. This builds on 2021 findings in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience showing high social media users exhibit heightened neural activity during self-judgments. The concept of imaginary audience, originally identified by psychologist David Elkind in the 1960s, describes how young adults feel constantly watched and judged. A 2025 Handspring Health report identifies this as the most recognizable feature of adolescent egocentrism, where young adults develop identity through increased sensitivity to others’ perceptions. The American Psychological Association’s 2021 research indicates social media reinforces performative behaviors like seeking likes and comparisons, creating a cycle where young adults both perform for and watch others’ performances.
Why This Isn’t Just Teen Drama
Here’s the thing – this isn’t just typical teenage self-consciousness anymore. We’re talking about actual neurological changes observed in brain scans. When researchers see heightened neural activity specifically during self-judgment tasks, that suggests social media is literally rewiring how young people process their own identity. And the worst part? This “audience” isn’t imaginary at all – it’s real people scrolling, judging, and sometimes bullying from behind screens.
The anonymity factor makes this particularly toxic. When you combine the feeling of being constantly watched with the knowledge that some watchers face zero accountability for their comments? That creates a perfect storm for anxiety and perfectionistic tendencies. Basically, we’ve taken normal developmental psychology and supercharged it with digital steroids.
The Therapy Blind Spot
What really concerns me is that most therapists aren’t even asking about social media use during sessions. According to that Counseling Today Archive report, there are ways to help clients develop healthier relationships with these platforms, but it’s not standard practice. So mental health professionals might be treating anxiety and depression while missing the very platform that’s feeding those conditions.
Think about it – if someone’s struggling with imaginary audience issues and then spends hours daily on platforms where they’re actually being judged by real audiences, how effective can therapy be without addressing that elephant in the room? The APA research shows Instagram usage specifically correlates with body image issues and disordered eating. These aren’t minor side effects – we’re talking about serious mental health consequences.
Breaking the Cycle
The solution isn’t just telling kids to put their phones down – that’s like telling someone in the ocean to stop swimming. We need to address the underlying psychology. Challenging that assumption that you need to perform for others is crucial, but how do you do that when every notification reinforces the opposite?
Parents often worry about explicit content or strangers, but they might be missing the more subtle damage. It’s the constant low-grade anxiety of performance, the comparison traps, the feeling that your life needs to be curated for public consumption. The good news is that for many young adults, this imaginary audience struggle naturally resolves with development. But social media seems to be stretching that developmental phase into something more persistent and problematic.
We’re essentially creating a generation that never gets to turn off the spotlight. And when the audience is always watching, the performance never ends. That’s exhausting for anyone, let alone someone still figuring out who they are.
