Mental Health & Social Media

Social media is an outlet teenagers use every day. Social media creates a platform in which it’s easy to communicate and gain connections. However, social media can also take a toll on teenagers mentally. It has become normalized to compare yourself to others on social media which has increased the mental health issues within younger generations. Although social media was created with good intentions people have turned it into a negative atmosphere that is no longer safe for anyone. On top of that, it has become a severe addiction most can’t get rid of which adds to the impact on teenaagers mental health. Research has been done to look into this ongoing issue and a multitude of findings have surfaced.

Elina Mir, Caroline Novas and Meg Seymour argue in their research paper, “Social Media and Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Mental Health'' that social media is used by most adolescents and young adults and has its benefits, but also can cause depression, anxiety, body image issues and cause lack of sleep, lastly, they give tips for parents on how to manage social media with teens. They support their claim by first stating a statistic that claims adolescents truly believe social media has a positive impact because of the connections, and opportunities it provides. Then the authors show statistics that state otherwise indicating that social media can lead to depression, anxiety, disrupt a person’s circadian rhythm due to staring at a screen at night. Afterwards they bring up how social media causes “body surveillance” which is when someone becomes very judgmental of themselves and how they look. The authors then give tips for parents and guardians on how to manage social media in teenagers so they don’t over use it. The author's purpose for this research paper is to inform the readers that social media can be a wonderful tool for adolescents and teenagers, but it can be detrimental to the younger audience if not used properly. They also aim to warn readers to be aware of how long they use it since research indicates the more time spent on it, the more likely you are to experience the negative side effects social media has to offer. The authors use a formal and informative tone in this article to get their point across to the intended audience which is parents and guardians. Overall, the authors use logic and statistics in order to support their claims via irrefutable evidence.

Social media expert, Bailey Parnell, conducted a Ted Talk video titled “Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health” where she argues that social media creates an addiction that leads to anxiety, depression, stress and mainly insecurities. Parnell starts off supporting her claims by using a personal experience of when she took a break from social media, she states that she took a week break from checking social outlets and found herself anxious, and stressed because she didn’t know what was happening. This led directly to her next point of bringing up the statistics that 18 to 24 year old’s spend the majority of their time on social media and constantly compare themselves to people on their feed which causes insecurity. She proceeded to explain the four stressors of social media which are; highlight reels where people only post the best parts of their lives, social currency which is how many likes or shares one person gets, fear of missing out (FOMO) on information, and online harassment. Just like Mir, Novas, and Seymour she also gave tips on how to better control your social media usage. Parnell’s purpose of her talk was to bring awareness to what social media does to people in general and what it does to the youth. She says “Social media can be great once you limit your time and pay attention to who you follow but once you become obsessed with likes and what you don’t have that others do, you become insecure, depressed and much more.” (Parnell) The tone for this video was informative but also personal given how she shared a personal story at the start. The audience for this video was anyone who has social media. Parnell not only uses logic as all her claims had statistics and research to support it and she also uses her credibility as she speaks from her personal point of view in some parts of the talk to persuade her audience into believing her.

Dr. Michael Rich states in an article titled “Influence of Social Media on Teenagers' Body Image” that one of the strongest factors of children’s body image stems from social media. Since teens spend up to almost nine hours a day on social media they become obsessed with validation from other users, in order to fit in and be like everyone else. With all the pressure of how to look and act it can lead to eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia. He supports his claim by stating that teens and tweens spend a ton of time on social media a day where they get exposed to images that are typically filtered, cropped or airbrushed to look unrealistic. The need for validation that tweens and teens feel makes them want to look like those images, although they are naturally unattainable, he proceeds to state that being obsessed with your body image at a young age is detrimental to one’s health and causes eating disorders. He states that many users promote eating disorders, by continuing to post their fraudulent body types, and how this issue can affect anyone from the age of 5 to 25. Dr. Rich’s purpose of this article is to bring awareness to the fact that social media can cause body issue problems in tweens and teens and as a doctor what to look out for in young patients. The tone of this article is stern and informative which proves effective in getting his point across. The audience for this article is parents, similar to Mir, Novas, and Seymours piece, and other doctors. Dr. Rich uses logical reasoning in this article, just like Parnell, Mir, Novas, and Seymour did in their pieces, by providing evidence that was researched and tested multiple times.

The one point all of these authors make is that despite social media's good intentions, it has proven to become harmful to its users. Rather than people using their platforms to connect with friends they unknowingly promote body issues to a young impressionable audience leading them to become depressed or anxious. It is now evident that there is ample amounts of evidence to back up these claims that in turn provide us with logical explanations of social media impacts. Despite the negative aspects, it has also been brought up that there are ways to avoid such negativity and not be hurt by social media like many are. Statistics and personal stories have proven to be the most impactful way to discuss this crucial topic not many want to address. As a society we must do our part in making social media a safe space for all ages once and for all.

References:

Mir, Elina, et al. “Social Media and Adolescents' and Young Adults' Mental Health.” National Center for Health Research, 21 Aug. 2020, www.center4research.org/social-media-affects-mental-health/.

Nierengarten, Mary Beth. “Influence of Social Media on Teenagers' Body Image.” Contemporary Pediatrics, 1 Oct. 2017, www.contemporarypediatrics.com/view/influence-social-media-teenagers-body-image.

Parnell, Bailey, director. Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health? 22 June 2017, www.youtube.com/watch?v=Czg_9C7gw0o&feature=youtu.be. Accessed 24 Feb. 2021.