One click and he could walk away. His finger hovers over the mouse, yet his eyes stare into the screen, as each notification only seems to get harsher, mocking, taunting and jeering at him. He knows he should leave, but he can’t do it. The thought of logging off, cutting himself off from the only group of people he knows feels like an impossible task. Despite the constant harassment, this community is the only place where he’d ever felt a genuine connection. He persuades himself, maybe things will be better tomorrow. Yet deep down, he knows they won’t. And yet, he still can’t get himself to leave.
With approximately 200 million active monthly users, Discord is a popular communication platform where students can join public or private servers. While originally intended for gaming, it has also become a space for collaborating on homework and staying connected with friends.
Like many others, sophomore Rohan Tare started using Discord during the COVID-19 pandemic when the number of Discord users surged. As students sought ways to maintain connections with their friends through the online world, Discord provided a space that, while an imperfect substitute, mirrored the experience of hanging out with friends in the real world. For Tare, this experience felt far more authentic than other social media platforms.
“I feel like Discord, especially with close knit groups of friends, feels a lot more personal,” Tare said. “I think there’s a lot more of a personal connection. I think it’s a form of making people just feel more involved.”
Senior Luke Vennerberg, who started using Discord in 2017, has become friends with many users worldwide. The ease of connecting with others with shared interests made it easy for him to become involved in many different communities.
“It’s easier to find people who are interested in the same thing as you online, because you’re not limited to the physical ‘I have to go somewhere and meet these people.’’’ Vennerberg said. “You can run into people from all over the world.”
Like Tare, Vennerberg believes that Discord servers feel like a more genuine community compared to other social media platforms.
“The whole server thing is somewhat unique, because it’s like a social media app designed around what are essentially massive group chats with different channels that you can talk about topics,” Vennerberg said.
On the surface and for the majority of users like Tare and Vennerberg, digital communities can create a sense of belonging. However, according to Alva Tang, a professor of psychology at the University of Texas at Dallas (UTD), while some individuals can reap significant benefits from virtual communities, others may still find it difficult to form meaningful connections online, which can compound feelings of loneliness.
“There’s this sort of rich get richer and poor get poorer hypothesis,” Tang said. “If you’re already extroverted and have a lot of friends, spending time online actually helps you with those friends and strengthen your connections, but if you don’t already have a lot to begin with, looking for friends or spending too much time online might actually harm you.”
Aside from contributing to potential feelings of isolation, platforms like Discord can also carry the risk of cyberbullying. As a communication-based platform, Discord is generally perceived in a better light by parents as opposed to other social media platforms. This can lead to them overlooking the potential negative content on Discord as opposed to platforms like TikTok or Instagram, which tend to carry a more negative stigma among parents.
However, cyberbullying is still a prominent issue across all platforms, and Discord is no exception. Cyberbullying has been linked to significant mental health struggles, especially for adolescents already dealing with insecurities. Due to the anonymity behind Discord, some users may feel free to use abusive and harmful language without fear of repercussions.
“Anyone can create a Discord profile that has no contact or nothing to do with their personal information, and then they can just get away with saying or doing the most terrible stuff,” Tare said.
A 2024 study by Drs. Tyler J. Thompson and Sahil Munjal, two psychiatrists at the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine at Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, reported two cases of adolescents who were admitted into psychiatric units after experiencing cyberbullying on Discord.
In the first case, a young 12-year-old girl attempted to commit suicide, and in the second case, a 16-year-old girl experienced worsening depression and suicidal thoughts. In both cases, the victims identified cyberbullying on Discord as the driving force behind their worsening depression. The study found that although Discord is a communication-based platform without algorithm-based content, it still poses similar mental health risks as other social media platforms. Despite this, the second patient reported that she would continue to use the platform because she said it was “the only way I talk to people.”
Because the virtual world has become such an integral part to people’s daily life, many individuals may find it hard to walk away from online platforms, even after experiencing cyberbullying. In fact, the number of people deemed to have a technology addiction is rising, a growing concern as people are becoming increasingly dependent on online spaces, which can have many consequences in the long run. Most prevalent among adolescent males, technology addiction is defined as the habitual, compulsive need to constantly be online. Factors such as one’s impulse control and socio-economic background can contribute to this addiction, and it can cause individuals to become increasingly disconnected from the real world.
“Some of the research does suggest that if you spend too much time online, it’s related to depression and anxiety over time,” Tang said. “So if you spend too much time online today, if I measure you again for your depressive and anxiety symptoms, you’ll have more the next time.”
COVID was a large driving force behind this increased dependency on the online world, and the pandemic has had a lasting negative impact on some people’s social well-being.
“During COVID, teenagers did spend more screen time online compared to before the pandemic,” Tang said. “After the pandemic, a few studies have also shown that these high amounts of screen time have stayed in some of the teenagers, and some of them also report having poorer social skills.”
Despite the sense of meaningful connection that Discord servers can offer, Tare believes that no virtual experience can replace the value of real-life interactions.
“I always believe that in person is much more important than online,” Tare said. “I don’t think just talking to people in a server is a good way to maintain a good friendship. I think that aspect of actually interacting with them in person is a lot more important.”
For those who depend exclusively on digital interactions, Tare emphasizes the importance of overcoming self-doubt and pushing beyond their comfort zone of virtual spaces. If left unchecked, excessive time online can prevent individuals from truly experiencing life beyond the screen.
“I think there are a lot of people that are always online and avoid interacting, or people who have a lot of social anxiety or are socially awkward,” Tare said. “But I think to overcome that you can’t just stay online and try to develop it. You have to get uncomfortable, and you have to talk to people in real life.”
