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Amelia Aganad

ENG 111

Professor Williams

29 November 2021

Social Media: The Silent Killer

“Multiple studies have found a strong link between heavy social media and an increased

risk for depression, anxiety, loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts” (Robinson).

Social media has become a huge problem among teenagers and everyone who uses it. It had a

positive reason behind being created, however, it now has a dark shadow casted on it. It leads to

depression, eating disorders, and a negative decline in the majority of areas in one's life. It hurts a

person more than helping them, and causes one to compare themselves to others. It can be fun

and positive, but it damages a lot of people's mental health.

The opposing side claims that social media is better for a person and does not lead to

disorders that harm a person's life. They state that it is a positive outlet for people and help

people get away from their real lives. People are also more in the know, and news is spread

faster: “With so much of the global community being nearly constantly connected to social

media, delivering news alerts on social media channels reaches more people faster. News outlets

can share breaking stories, alerts and other important bits of news instantly with their followers”

(Agrawal). They believe that the world can be more open and connected. They even think that it

is better for teenagers to be in the know, and that they should be influenced by the news out in

the world. However, this can also be very cynical.

As proven in society, everyone knowing all the news that is out there is very negative. It

is dark and twisted to know everything that is happening in the world, and in this country’s
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government. In addition, social media news is wrong half of the time and it is very difficult to

know if it is factual or not: “Media trust worldwide has dropped by 8% between 2020 and 2021”

(Djordjevic). The world is a dark place and knowing everything that is going wrong is difficult to

see. Seeing all this information would take a toll on a person's mental health. This idea roots

back to the idea presented on how social media does not make people feel better. There are many

studies on how social media is terrible for humanity’s mental health: “Since the release of

smartphones, mental health concerns have increased in children and young adults. The rate of

adolescents reporting symptoms of major depression in a given year increased by 52% from

2005 to 2017. From 2009 to 2017, it grew by 63% in adults ages 18 to 25” (Clark). There is so

little actually shown on social media and it makes everyone’s lives seem so positive. People end

up comparing themselves to other people's lives and thinking that they live a life so much more

boring than everyone else's. You never see the negative and hard parts of anyone's life and

assume you have it worse than a lot of other people.

There are many effects of social media on people. One being in the know more than you

need to. You see others hanging out or see the negative things happening in the political world

and it makes you more upset than you need to be. It is a lot easier to be ignorant and to ignore

things like this as it really makes you happier over all. You do not have to know about

everything going on and social media ruins that. You also compare yourself to other people more

than you need to. You see that other girls have better bodies, you see that someone else goes on

more vacations than you, you see other girls have more expensive items and clothes, etc. These

thoughts can lead to bigger issues such as depression and eating disorders, and even suicide in

some cases. It really hurts the mental and physical health of a shocking amount of people.
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With the rate that everyone uses social media on the daily, these effects will not stop

occurring. Social media will continue to promote such negative ideas and hurt everyone who

uses it. There must be a movement towards helping prevent this, and more advocating for mental

health on social media platforms. A lot of people struggle with depression and eating disorders

even if they do not show it. Social media needs to be changed into a safe place rather than being

the black hole it is today.

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Works Cited:

Agrawal, AJ. “It's Not All Bad: The Social Good of Social Media.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 18

Mar. 2016, www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/03/18/its-not-all-bad-the-social-good-

of-social-media/?sh=3653a91f756f.

Clark, Maria. “40+ Frightening Social Media and Mental Health Statistics.” Etactics, Etactics |

Revenue Cycle Software, 9 Dec. 2020, etactics.com/blog/social-media-and-mental-

health-statistics.

Djordjevic, Milos. “27 Alarming Fake News Statistics [the 2021 Edition].” Letter.ly, Letter.ly, 1

Apr. 2021, letter.ly/fake-news-statistics/.

Robinson, Lawrence. “Social Media and Mental Health.” HelpGuide.org, Help Guide, 7 Oct.

2021, www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-health.htm.