“Every time I close my eyes, it’s like a dark paradise.” Quotes much like this one found on the popular social media site Tumblr are beautiful and sad at the same time. Young adults use sites like Tumblr to glorify their pain as a way to cope with it. Much of social media today is filled with stories of triumph and stories of loss all focused on one specific mental disorder: depression. Young adults today are becoming increasingly aware of theirs and other’s depressive states and are more willing to talk about it. The disease has become more accepted in today’s society. In conjunction with this trend, teenagers are being diagnosed with major depression more rapidly than in past decades. Depression is not as uncommon as it used to be. So, how …show more content…
Robert Kraut, a researcher from Carnegie Mellon University found, in a study he conducted in 1998, that when people use the Internet for extended amounts of time they tend to feel lonelier and more depressed. In a different study, The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families, researchers found that teens suffering from “Facebook depression” are at a higher risk for developing depressive tendencies such as social isolation. They are also more likely to turn to sites and blogs like Tumblr for “help.” However those sites promote destructive behaviors like substance abuse, unsafe sex and cutting. Many investigators have speculated reasons for why social media may cause depression in young adults. Brandon H. Hidaka, B.A., states that the rise is attributed to a new cultural emphasis on superficial goals like money, relationship statuses, and appearance. On social media teens are able to put out their best qualities. People who use social media put their best foot forward: their best pictures and statuses of success. To onlookers it may seem that these teenagers have perfect lives. Social media platforms have made it easier for young adults to compare themselves and their lives to others and demoralize themselves. Those habits are self-destructive and dangerous to teens …show more content…
Modernity is changes in a country’s society and the culture becoming more modernized. The increase of obesity and a shift in sleeping patterns are changes in society that contribute to the rise of depression. With regards to the deteriorating health of modern teens, Brandon H. Hidaka, B.A., suggests that obesity could be a factor to a rising prevalence of depression. He also claims that poor body image, from diseases like obesity, anorexia and bulimia, are associated with distress and disappointment. A poor body image can negatively affect a young adult’s mind into thinking they are not beautiful enough and therefore not good enough for their friends and families. Sleep is also a contributing factor to depression. According to Depression As a Disease of Modernity the average American adult used to sleep around 8 hours in 1960. Now the average adult sleeps for around 6 hours and 40 minutes during the week and about 7 hours on weekends. Reduced amount and quality of sleep are predictors and signs of depression. The same study also suggests that the rates of depression are higher in modernized countries with better health and socioeconomic statuses. It is counterintuitive that the rate of depression has risen in the United States because of its wealth. Modern times have brought on many problems such as poor body image, sleep deprivation, and
Kardaras, Nicolas. "Generation Z: Online and at Risk?." Scientific American Mind, vol. 27, no. 5, Sep/Oct 2016, pp. 64-9. MasterFILE Premier. Kardars discuss generation z use of social media affecting them negatively. He opens his article with a story of Heidi who becomes addicted to social media when her school issues her a Chromebook. Before Heidi is issued the laptop, she was a sweet innocent girl and after having it for a semester she became someone her parents could not recognize. He states that social media is a “perfect storm” for humans because having a social connection key to “happiness and health”. Having the ability to always use social media leads to hyper texting the illusion of a real connection making it hard for teens to have face to face conversations, making a teens become “glow kid[s]“, someone who is raised on mostly digital social interactions. Facebook depression” can result in the teen to have lower grades and behavior problems in teens. He concludes his article with facts proving that Facebook can become addictive in some people. This source helps support my thesis that Facebook affects teens mental health.
Melissa Healy, a reporter of the Los Angeles Times, in the article Teenage Social Media Butterflies May Not Be Such A Bad Idea, claims that kids who spend lots of time on social media are not the least well-adjusted, but psychologically healthiest. Healy supports her argument by demonstrating how social media is beneficial to a teen’s health. According to a three-year Digital Youth Project, when teengars use social media, it helps them develop important social skills such as communication, grappling with social norms, and developing technical skills. Psychology professor Kaveri Subrahmanyam describes that teens behave the same between offline relationships and online ones, so most teens will use the internet safely. The author’s purpose is
“Recent data estimate the overall prevalence of depression at about 11.1% of the American population, or nearly 35 million individuals (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011). A predictive models suggest that up to 50% of the population will experience at least one episode of depression during their lives” (Life Extension, 2014). Depression has negatively affected the lives of many individuals throughout the world. Look around you there may even be someone close to you that is demonstrating signs of its stifling affects. Depression does not discriminate with its suffocating
Since its inception back in 2004, Facebook has represented a huge potential market for social media efforts by having over a billion users and that number is going to continue to grow every year very fast. But in reality, behind the scenes a number of researchers have shown proof of Facebook being connected to mental health issues like major depression. In Online Social Networking and Mental Health, there is a passage that explains “As it is thought that Facebook may be one of the factors influencing the development of depressive symptoms, it is also, assumed that certain characteristics of online behavioral may be predictive factors in depression identification and assessment. Today, it is clear that SNS (social network sites) such as Facebook can be useful in the early detection of depression symptoms among users” (Pantic). Today, Researchers have been calling this new phenomenon “Facebook depression,” which is
In 1971 the first email was sent. This was the beginning of social media. Social media is a form of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other contents. Social media sites are like fads where people eventually stop using them and move on to the next one. This essay will be about the effects of social media on the mental health of the main users of social media.
Firstly, there have been significant links between our online presence and other aspects of our mental health, which has inspired the subject matter of many recent research studies around the world. There are many psychological and physical factors that affect our mental well-being due to the impact of social media. Depression and Body Dysmorphia being the leading causes, due to the content the individuals are exposed to while online. Even though researchers coined the correlation between social media use and depression as complex. Data was collected from a sample of 340 first year college students, and the findings were that the increase use of Facebook have been associated with higher levels of loneliness. Also the extensive use of Facebook has been associated with higher rates of disordered eating and body image insecurity.
The advent of social technology may bear some responsibility for anxiety and depression in adolescents, teenagers, and young adults. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram -- they are all fun -- until things get out of hand. The 2014 National College Health Assessment, a survey of nearly 80,000 college students throughout the United States, found that 54% of students reported experiencing overwhelming anxiety in the past 12 months and that 32.6% "felt so depressed that it was difficult to function" during the same period. The study also found that 6.4% had "intentionally, cut, burned, bruised or otherwise injured" themselves, that 8.1% had seriously considered suicide and that 1.3% had attempted suicide (Potarazu). Sreedhar uses logos to support how social media have some part in the causes of anxiety and depression in adolescents, teenagers, and young adults. He uses the survey data conducted by The National College Health Assessment to prove his point.
Social media is described, by the Merriam-Webster dictionary (2015), as “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)”. As few as 10 years ago the term social media was yet to be coined, but within that decade the use of these blogs, websites and sharing platforms has increased exponentially with no plateau in sight. From creating Instagram accounts for household pets, to sharing Halloween themed baking ideas over Pinterest, people today have access to social media outlets for almost everything. Today about 74% of people ages 18-65 use some form of a social networking site (Pew, 2014). Facebook takes the lead in social media usage with about 71% of those adults. LinkedIn and Pinterest are tied for second at 28% of users, 26% use Instagram, and Twitter falls last in the top 5 most used social medias with 23% of users (Pew, 2014). In September of 2013 the Pew Research Center measured that 90% of adults ages 18-29 used these social media outlets on a daily basis, which is an astonishing increase from the 9% that was measured in February 2005 (Pew, 2014). Due to the fact that young adults are increasingly involving themselves in these online platforms, it is very important to understand the long term and psychological effects (such as depression, social anxiety,
Is social media affecting the mental health of this generation? The app, Instagram, is popular among millennials. It is a social media platform provide a way to share pictures online. With the ability for others to like and comment on your posts, this can instill pressure to receive a certain amount of likes and comments in order to achieve approval from peers. As stated before, Instagram is a method to see someone’s life through a camera lens. This being said, a person can begin to compare their lives to the one’s they view on Instagram. Feeling as if their life may not compare or be as exciting as one of their peers, one can begin to feel depressed. Ultimately, the use of the social media app, Instagram, causes users to develop self-esteem issues and depression.
People with a mental illness called major depressive disorder (or MDD) feel this way every day. What is troubling is that people with depression might nor receive the treatment they need; in fact, teenage depression is very often over looked. Why? Because their actions are written off as being typical for their age. This casual dismissal of an obvious problem is causing a significant problem in mental health. Teenagers are arguably the most misunderstood arg group. As a generation they are treated like children, being told that what they think and feel is wrong, and yet they are expected to act like fully developed adults. Because of this the reported numbers of teens with depression is rising. According to clinical-depression.co.uk MDD is the leading psychological disorder in the western world and is estimated to be the 2nd most disabling condition in the world by 2020, behind heart disease. Nobody should have to experience this type of suffering. Depression does not just make one feel sad, but depressing thoughts can
The popularity of social media giants such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are on the rise and so is our nation's overall poor mental health status (The State of Mental Health in America). Studies have shown that there is a direct link between our social media obsession and our poor mental health (Walton). Social media can lead to feelings of comparison, jealousy and even delusional behavior. Another effect that social media has on our mental health is that it often leads to feelings of sadness and loneliness. Lastly, social media addiction is one of the many things that affects our mental health. Studies show that social media is often the cause of poor mental health, it can cause comparison, jealousy, loneliness and lastly addiction.
Teen’s emotions are changing every day, and with this comes some major depression. This is because teens may feel like with their mood swings that their peers and people they look up to will not like them. Every teen will experience some sort of mood swing but how they deal with it is up to them. “When a teen starts getting depressed they should talk to either their friends, parents, or a consular to help them with their depression” (Smith). Teens show depression on social media and their peers take advantage of that and nobody even cares most of the time until the person takes their life.
Social media seems to be one of the many hot topics of discussion recently, and consequently many people have the false sense of security that they have a profound knowledge on how it affects the health of the teenage population. A sedentary lifestyle, decreased sleep, as well as other physical health conditions seem to come to mind when one links health and social media. However, there is a much bigger problem that can go unnoticed because it can be impossible to see: the impact it has on mental and emotional health. These branches of health are just as important, and even arguably more important than physical health is. Social media can be utilized to connect with distant friends and express oneself; however, teenagers should refrain from the overuse of social media due to its detrimental effects on their mental and emotional health.
In the article " Teen depression and how social media can help or hurt" by Dr. Melinda Ring explains how social media helped her son see that kid were also facing mood disorder. Social media have a positive and negative impact when it comes to bullying. According to the story 's highlights "23% of teens report they are or have been the target of cyber bullying" and "social media can also be a crucial part of recovery from depression and anxiety". (1) The media allows the user to gain attention from around the world, but it can also ruin someone 's life. The internet allows us to make friends or foe, but no one can trust a person from the internet. Cyber bullying is the bullying or harassing of a person or group of people using technology. Cyber bullying can lead to serious emotional consequences, including depression, low self-esteem, anxiety disorders and suicide. Therefore, the use of technology has a negative impact on bullying
In the article “Social Media is Harming The Mental Health of Teenagers. The State Has to Act,” June Eric Udorie describes how social media has negative effects on teenager’s minds. Udorie confirms her thesis by providing evidence from studies , “A new study has found that teenagers who engage with social media during the night could be damaging their sleep and increasing their risk of anxiety and depression.” June utilizes the kind of dialect where more youthful perusers can get it. Her intended audience is teenagers and also those individuals who can help to address the problem.