There was a time when watching the MTV Video Music Awards felt like a shared cultural experience. People watched performances and acceptance speeches as they happened, and the biggest moments became conversations at school, at work, and among friends the following day. Missing the live broadcast often meant genuinely missing part of the experience.
That is much less common today.
Someone can skip an awards show entirely and still know most of what happened by the following morning. Performances are clipped for TikTok and Instagram, celebrity looks are posted within minutes, memes appear almost immediately, and commentary can spread faster than the original moment itself. A multi-hour event can essentially be condensed into a few minutes of content selected by an algorithm.
The VMAs are just one example of a much larger change in how we consume entertainment and information. Social media has made culture more accessible and personalized, but it has also changed how we pay attention, form opinions, compare ourselves to others, connect with people, and respond to the feeling that we might be missing something.
These changes can affect both teens and adults. Understanding them does not require treating social media as inherently harmful. Instead, it means becoming more aware of how our digital habits influence our mental and emotional well-being.
From Shared Experiences to Personalized Feeds
Before social media became part of everyday life, there were fewer ways to consume major cultural events. Large groups of people watched the same television programs, listened to the same radio stations, and encountered many of the same news and entertainment stories.
Today, algorithms personalize much of what we see.
Two people can follow the same awards show without seeing remotely the same content. One person’s feed may be filled with performances and music. Another may primarily see celebrity fashion, while someone else’s feed focuses on controversy, humor, or criticism.
Personalization has benefits. It helps people discover communities, artists, interests, and perspectives that may otherwise be difficult to find. For teens in particular, online communities can provide opportunities for identity exploration and connection with peers who share their interests.
However, personalized feeds can also mean that people increasingly experience culture individually. Instead of everyone seeing the same event and discussing it afterward, each person receives a version shaped by their previous clicks, viewing habits, likes, and interactions.
This can create an interesting contradiction. We have more access to what other people are doing than ever before while still feeling disconnected from meaningful shared experiences.
Social Media Has Changed the Way We Pay Attention
Watching a full awards show requires sustained attention. There are performances you may not care about, acceptance speeches, commercials, transitions, and slower moments.
Social media largely removes those parts.
Instead, users are shown the most entertaining, emotional, controversial, or visually interesting moments in rapid succession. A performance may be reduced to its best 20 seconds before the feed immediately moves on to something completely unrelated.
Over time, people can become accustomed to having stimulation readily available. This can show up in ordinary situations, such as checking a phone during a movie, scrolling while watching television, opening an app while waiting in line, or reaching for a device whenever there is a quiet moment.
This does not mean that short-form video automatically causes attention problems. Attention is influenced by many factors, and the relationship between technology use and mental health is complex. However, becoming aware of our own habits can help us recognize when constant stimulation is making it difficult to stay present.
We Now Experience Other People’s Reactions in Real Time
Social media has also changed how quickly outside opinions become part of an experience.
After a major VMA performance, thousands of reactions can appear online almost immediately. Before someone has fully formed an opinion of what they watched, they may already be seeing comments calling the performance amazing, embarrassing, overrated, disappointing, or iconic.
That constant exposure to other people’s opinions can influence how we interpret our own experiences.
Humans naturally look to other people for social information. We pay attention to what our peers approve of, criticize, value, and reject. Social media dramatically increases the amount of this information available to us.
For teenagers, this can be especially relevant because adolescence is a developmental period when belonging and peer acceptance can carry significant emotional weight. Adults are not immune to these pressures either. Online trends and commentary can influence what people believe they should wear, enjoy, purchase, accomplish, or even think.
Taking some time to experience something before reading the comments can create space to develop an independent reaction rather than immediately absorbing the consensus of a feed.
Social Comparison Has Become Harder to Escape
Celebrity culture existed long before Instagram or TikTok, but social media has made comparison more immediate and continuous.
During an awards show, viewers are exposed to celebrities wearing professionally styled clothing, makeup, hair, and designer fashion. Social media extends that exposure long after the event ends. A single red-carpet appearance can become thousands of photos, videos, edits, rankings, beauty tutorials, reaction posts, and comments about someone’s appearance.
Research has linked upward social comparison on social media with outcomes including lower self-esteem, anxiety, depressive symptoms, and negative feelings about oneself. This does not mean everyone who follows celebrities or watches entertainment content will experience these effects. It does mean that repeatedly comparing ourselves with highly curated images can influence how we evaluate our own lives.
For teens, comparison may center around appearance, popularity, friendships, or social status. Adults may compare careers, relationships, finances, bodies, homes, parenting, or where they believe they “should” be at a particular age.
A useful habit is paying attention to patterns. If certain accounts consistently leave someone feeling inadequate, anxious, or dissatisfied with themselves, muting or unfollowing those accounts can be a reasonable mental health boundary.
FOMO Looks Different in the Social Media Era
Fear of missing out, commonly called FOMO, is not a new experience. Social media has simply expanded the number of things people can feel they are missing.
In the past, someone who missed the VMAs might hear about the biggest moments the following day. Today, social media provides continuous access to events, trends, conversations, parties, vacations, relationships, achievements, and everyday moments happening in other people’s lives.
There is always something new to catch up on.
This can create pressure to remain constantly informed and available. For teens, that pressure can involve keeping up with group chats, trends, memes, social plans, or what classmates are discussing. For adults, it may look like repeatedly checking social media throughout the workday, scrolling late at night, or feeling strangely disconnected after spending a few hours offline.
The problem is not simply wanting to know what is happening. It becomes more concerning when checking feels compulsive or begins interfering with sleep, concentration, responsibilities, relationships, or emotional well-being.
Being Connected Online Is Not Always the Same as Feeling Connected
One of social media’s greatest strengths is its ability to connect people.
Someone who feels isolated in their immediate environment can find people who share their interests and experiences. Friends and family members who live far apart can stay involved in one another’s lives. Online communities can provide education, humor, creativity, and support.
At the same time, consuming information about people is different from interacting meaningfully with them.
A person can spend hours seeing what friends, celebrities, creators, and strangers are doing without having a meaningful conversation with anyone. That can create the unusual experience of knowing a great deal about other people’s lives while still feeling lonely.
Digital connection and in-person connection do not have to compete with one another. Ideally, technology can support relationships rather than consistently replacing opportunities for deeper interaction.
Mission Connection is here to help you or your loved one take the next steps towards an improved mental well-being.
How to Build Healthier Digital Habits
A healthier relationship with social media does not necessarily require deleting apps or setting extreme limits. Small changes can make digital habits more intentional and help people recognize when their online experiences are affecting their mental health.
1. Experience something before checking reactions
When watching a movie, concert, sporting event, awards show, or new episode of a favorite series, try spending some time with the experience before checking social media.
This creates space to develop your own opinion before being exposed to hundreds of other interpretations.
2. Pay attention to emotional impact, not only screen time
Screen time alone does not tell the entire story.
Ten minutes spent messaging a close friend can have a very different emotional effect than ten minutes spent comparing your appearance with influencers.
Notice which accounts and activities leave you feeling entertained, informed, supported, anxious, angry, excluded, or inadequate. The emotional quality of your online time can be just as important as the amount of time spent there.
3. Create opportunities for single-tasking
Watching television while scrolling, eating while answering messages, and switching constantly between apps can become automatic.
Try occasionally doing one thing at a time. Watch an episode without scrolling. Eat a meal without your phone beside you. Listen to an album without opening another app.
These small moments can help strengthen awareness of how often attention is being divided.
4. Make your feed work for you
Social media feeds are influenced by what users follow, watch, search for, and interact with.
Mute or unfollow accounts that consistently trigger unhealthy comparison or negatively affect your mood. Seek out content that supports your interests, makes you laugh, teaches you something useful, or helps you feel connected.
Curating a feed is a form of setting boundaries around what receives your attention.
5. Protect sleep from scrolling
Late-night scrolling can easily extend bedtime, particularly when there is no natural stopping point in an endless feed.
Creating a phone-free period before bed, charging a phone away from the bed, or using app limits can make it easier to disconnect. Sleep plays an important role in emotional regulation, concentration, stress management, and overall mental health.
6. Turn online moments into real conversations
Social media does not have to remain passive.
Send a funny video to a friend and talk about it. Watch an event together. Discuss a new album with someone. Share something meaningful with a family member.
Using digital content as a starting point for interaction can turn consumption into connection.
7. Get comfortable with occasional boredom
Quiet moments do not always need to be filled with content.
Leaving the phone alone while standing in line, taking a short walk, sitting outside, or waiting for an appointment gives the brain a break from continuous input.
It may feel uncomfortable at first, especially if checking a phone has become automatic. That discomfort can also help reveal how strongly the habit has become associated with boredom or downtime.
What Parents Can Take Away From This
For parents of teenagers, focusing exclusively on screen time can make conversations about technology feel like a battle over rules.
Understanding what a teen is actually doing online can provide more useful information.
A teen may be watching funny videos with friends, learning about an interest, comparing their appearance with influencers, participating in a supportive community, experiencing cyberbullying, or doing several of those things within the same hour.
Parents can create more productive conversations by showing genuine interest in the online world their teen inhabits. Learning which creators they follow, what trends they enjoy, what makes them laugh, and what content makes them uncomfortable can provide insight into their emotional experiences.
Boundaries are still important, particularly around sleep, safety, privacy, and age-appropriate content. However, conversations about the emotional impact of social media can be just as valuable as conversations about how many hours are spent online.
The VMAs Changed, but So Did the Way We Experience Culture
It is easy to say that events like the VMAs simply do not have the same cultural impact they once did. The bigger story may be that our relationship with entertainment has fundamentally changed.
We no longer need to watch an event from beginning to end to participate in it. Social media can deliver the most memorable moments almost instantly, along with thousands of opinions about what those moments mean.
That access comes with benefits. We can discover music faster, connect with people around shared interests, participate in conversations from anywhere, and experience cultural events in ways that were impossible before social media.
It also creates new challenges.
Our attention is constantly being requested. Comparison is always available. There is almost always something new to catch up on, and being exposed to hundreds of people online does not necessarily protect us from feeling lonely offline.
The goal does not have to be using social media less simply for the sake of using it less. A more useful goal may be learning to recognize when technology is supporting our lives and when it is beginning to interfere with them.
For some people, healthier boundaries and more intentional habits may be enough. For others, excessive scrolling, comparison, isolation, anxiety, depression, or difficulty disconnecting may be connected to broader mental health concerns.
When changes in mood or digital habits begin interfering with sleep, relationships, school, work, or everyday responsibilities, additional support may be helpful. Intensive outpatient treatment can provide structured mental health support while allowing many teens and adults to remain connected to their homes, families, schools, work, and communities.
Social media is unlikely to disappear, and neither is our desire to participate in the cultural moments happening around us. Learning how to engage with both in a way that protects our attention, relationships, and emotional well-being is becoming an increasingly important part of taking care of our mental health.
Find Flexible Support at Mission Connection
At Mission Connection, our team of licensed mental health professionals goes beyond traditional treatment and provides life-changing care. We offer several options for effective outpatient treatment, including in-person programs at our locations in California, Virginia, and Washington, virtual telehealth, and a hybrid program that combines in-person and virtual care.
We create a structured care plan for every patient that consists of evidence-based therapies and medication management if appropriate. Mission Connection is Joint Commission-accredited. We also accept most major insurance providers, so that your recovery is not hindered due to financial issues.
Reach out to us online or call us at 866-833-1822 to find out how we can support your well-being.
