Brog 1

Devin Brog

Gardner

Foxy 4 for 4’s

29 October 2020

The Unaddressed Effects of the Youth Addiction

Social media is an application or website which enables people to share personal

content of their lives for others to see. It is used all around the world by billions of

people. On average, social media is used for two hours and sixteen minutes everyday

(On The Line). This number is still growing but many people don't know the health

effects social media has. Social media can be used as a great tool, but has many

positive and negative effects. With social media so prevalent in society today, it brings

up the question: Do the positive benefits of social media outweigh the negatives?

Social media has many positive benefits to human life. First, it can help to create

relationships with people you would otherwise have never met before. Tinder is a great

example of how social media creates relationships. Tinder, along with other apps, is a

dating app that shows you people who are also looking to date who are in the same age

and area the user is looking for. Once you get a “match” you are able to chat with that

person, and a relationship starts to form. Dating apps aren’t the only form of social

media that allows people to connect with each other. Snapchat, an application that

allows people to send pictures and texts to one another, is another great app that allows

us to connect with each other. Social media not only allows us to create relationships,

but also to maintain them. Snapchat does a great job of this by using streaks, a number

you get by the side of the person's name that tells you how many days in a row you
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have talked. This tool helps everyone stay connected on a daily basis, because if you

don’t talk to them for a day, you lose your “streak.” Social media is also a great resource

to help raise awareness. With so many people using social media on a daily basis, it

has become a lot easier to relay messages. An advertisement company used social

media to bring awareness to mental illnesses. This company posted a picture of an egg

with the only goal of becoming the most liked post on Instagram. It accomplished this

goal in just nine days, receiving more than fifty-two million likes (On The Line). This

company then posted a picture of the egg ‘cracking under pressure’ to raise awareness

to mental illnesses. Another time social media was used to raise awareness had to do

with Lugaritz Disease. They accomplished this by starting the ALS Ice Bucket

Challenge. This challenge had someone pour a bucket full of ice water over their own

head. Once completed, they would nominate three other people to also complete the

challenge. This challenge became very well known, and helped raise a bunch of money

to go to research for the disease. There are many other benefits of social media. Some

are included in this survey by the Royal Society of Public Health. This survey asked

fourteen to twenty-four year olds the impact social media had on different aspects of

their lives. This survey is represented in the chart below.

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Fig 1, Royal Society for Public Health. "Like, obsessed." ​The Economist​, 18 May 2018,

Accessed 20 Oct. 2020. Chart.

As seen in Fig. 1, it is easy to tell that there are both positive and negative impacts

social media has on people. The positives include real-world relationships, awareness

of people's health, community building, emotional support, self-identity, and

self-expression. All of these things are very beneficial for people to have healthy lives.

Although there are many positive impacts of social media, there are just as many

negatives. As seen in Fig, social media has negative impacts which include sleep,

F.O.M.O, bullying, body image, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Second to sleep is

F.O.M.O. which stands for fear of missing out. Many people get this from looking

through others' posts, and feel like they are missing out. This makes them feel like they

aren’t enough. Also, even though social media was designed to increase social

interactions, a recent survey showed that the more time people spent on social media,

the more likely they were to feel anxious, depressed, and even lonely (On The Line).

This shows that too much time spent on social media can lead to negative impacts on
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mental health. There is also abusive behavior that happens on social media. A survey

done by The Pew Research Center concluded that one in every six teenagers have

experienced at least one of these abusive behaviors; name calling, spreading false

rumors, receiving unsolicited explicit images, being tracked by someone other than their

parents, physical threats, and having images shared without their permission (Online

Degrees). These have a bad impact on teens mental health, and can lead to depression

and other mental illnesses. Social media also causes us to be insecure. Katanu Mbevi

talks about how we become insecure in her Ted Talk about Social Media. She states

that people post their ‘highlight reel’ on social media. A highlight reel is a compilation of

people's best and brightest moments in life. Others then look at these and compare

themselves. This causes them to become insecure about themselves. This makes them

have a bad self image, and overall makes them less confident people.

I believe that social media is a great tool with many valuable resources. This tool

can have a positive impact on our lives if used in the right way. It helps us connect with

the world we live in today. The problem comes when this tool isn’t used responsibly.

This tool can then have a very negative impact and start to hurt our mental health.

In my opinion, the solution for social media and its impact on our health comes

from education. If kids are educated early in life, before they have even been introduced

to social media, it can help them be more cautious while using these apps. Social media

is a great tool that we are blessed with in today's society. This tool is complicated, and if

not taught how to use it in the right way, it can be very dangerous to our mental health.
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Works Cited

“Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health.” ​University of Nevada, Reno​, 30 Dec. 2019,

onlinedegrees.unr.edu/online-master-of-public-health/impact-of-social-media-on-

youth-mental-health/.

Royal Society for Public Health. "Like, obsessed." ​The Economist​, 18 May 2018,

www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2018/05/18/how-heavy-use-of-social-media-is

-linked-to-mental-illness. Accessed 20 Oct. 2020. Chart.

Mbevi, Katanu. “Impact of Social Media on Youth | Katanu Mbevi |

TEDxYouth@BrookhouseSchool” Youtube, 14 Jan. 2020,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soHn6t_jjIw​.

“Pros and Cons of Social Media.” ​On the Line,​ 2 Dec. 2019,

ontheline.org.au/mental-health-blog/pros-and-cons-of-social-media-for-mental-he

alth/.

Cohn, Carolyn. “The Health Benefits of Social Media.” ​CompuKol Communications​, 12 Apr.

2011, www.compukol.com/the-health-benefits-of-social-media/.