Project 1

Topic: The effects of social media on teenagers physically and mentally

McHugh, Bridget Christine et al. “When Social Media Traumatizes Teens.” Internet
research 28.5 (2018): 1169–1188. Web.

When social media Traumatizes Teens

This articles central argument is that social media has begun to make a detrimental impact on
adolescents’ self-esteem and has increased the risk for depression. The article utilizes several
figures and tables to show the psychometric properties and descriptive statistics. Another table
shows the main effects and interaction effects of risk frequent and coping behaviors on PTSD. In
addition to tables, the article used a web-based diary design to showcase the study with details of
how the study was done and what the results were. This article was published in 2018 so it is
relevant as this issue still carries to this day as social media has gotten more and more popular.
Now that there are new social media apps like TikTok and many others, an increased amount of
people are using social media and entertaining it. I would like to utilize this article to show how
while social media has many positive effects when it comes to marketing and helps the business
industry, it also can also negatively impact the mentality that teenagers have as they begin to
compare themselves to others.

Woods, Heather Cleland, and Holly Scott. “Sleepy teens: Social Media Use in Adolescence Is
Associated with Poor Sleep Quality, Anxiety, Depression and Low Self-Esteem.” Journal of
adolescence (London, England.) 51.1 (2016): 41–49. Web.

Sleepy teens: Social Media use in poor adolescence is associated with Poor Sleep Quality,
Anxiety, depression, and low Self Esteem

This articles central argument is that social media use Is strongly correlated to various aspects of
wellbeing in adolescents. Not only has social media heavily impacted the amount of sleep
children get, but it also really depreciates one’s self-esteem and confidence. This article is
created through a study taken place of about 467 Scottish adolescents to see how social media
use relates to sleep quality, self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. To show the results of this study,
this article uses tables of the means and standard deviations of subjects like poor sleep quality,
overall social media use, nighttime specific social media use, emotional investment in social
media, self-esteem, anxiety, and depression. In addition, there are tables of the correlations
between all these subjects and the hierarchical regression. This study shows that poor sleep is
strongly associated with nighttime specific social media use as kids feel the need to stay awake
and it shows that anxiety and depression are most strongly associated with emotional investment
in sites. Self-esteem is a big issue today, as kids want to compare themselves to others, forgetting
that everyone is different and has different genes. Instead of embracing their uniqueness kids
often revert to depression and not eating to be like others. I could use this as a piece of my
“puzzle” to show a resolution that kids should stop comparing themselves as everyone is
different and has different genetic makeup.
The Relationship between Facebook and Instagram appearance-focused activities and
Body Image concerns in young women

Cohen, Rachel, Toby Newton-John, and Amy Slater. “The Relationship Between Facebook and
Instagram Appearance-Focused Activities and Body Image Concerns in Young
Women.” Body Image 23 (2017): 183–187. Web.

This articles central argument is that social networking sites are related to the body image
concerns in young women as these networks show what society thinks the ideal women looks
like. These social networking sites have caused many women to feel as if the only way to look
like the ideal skinny woman is to not eat. This article is created using a study, as a total of 259
women from the ages of 18-29 were asked to complete questionnaires about body concerns with
the use of social networking sites. To show results this article uses data to show proof that there
is a correlation between the use of social media and body dysmorphia.
This study compared the body image concerns of those who did use social media like Facebook
and Instagram to those that don’t use social media regularly. It was found that those who do use
social media have more body concerns and aren’t as confident compared to those that don’t use
social media. This is most likely because those that don’t use social media only worry about
themselves and have more confidence compared to those that do use social media and compare
themselves other people.

Relationship between Social Media use and disordered and eating behavior among female
university students in Qatar

Khaled, Salma M. “Relationship Between Social Media Use and Disordered Eating Behavior
Among Female University Students in Qatar.” Journal of health and social sciences 4.1 (2019):
59–72. Web.

The articles central argument is that intensive use of social media, particularly Instagram, was
positively associated with increased disordered eating behaviors among young women. This
article is created using a study and its results. For this study about 1418 undergraduate female
students living in Qatar were assessed on the different social media platforms they used and on
topics like body image, body mass index, and socioeconomic status. The aim of this study was to
assess the relationship between social media use and disordered eating outcomes among Arab
women. The results were shown with confidence intervals, correlations, and tables that show the
different p values of all the topics that were assessed. I can use this statistical proof as a piece to
my “puzzle” to make the details and research more valid. Instagram and other image based social
media platforms with majority of posted photos related to peers, fashion, selfies, and food,
extensively expose young women to unattainable body images. This leads to disordered eating so
people feel as if they will be able to reach these unattainable body images. A very common
eating disorder is Anorexia as people begin to stop eating to reach a certain goal. By doing this,
the body starves as it is not getting the nutrients it needs to perform the body’s basic functions.
Eating Disorders and social media

Dutta, Dr. Sanchari Sinha. “Eating Disorders and Social Media.” News, 28 Mar. 2022,
www.news-medical.net/health/Eating-Disorders-and-Social-Media.aspx.

This articles central argument is that eating disorders, derived from concerns about body weight,
shape, food, can lead to severe health complications and are commonly found among adolescents
and young adults. Studies show that the social media apps that are more photo based like
Instagram, snap chat, and TikTok have a greater impact on this younger generation. This article
uses many different facts and studies to prove its validity. For example, it says that “The study
has found that about 52% of girls and 45% of boys opt for skipping meals, heavy exercise, and
other behaviors associated with eating disorders. Of all participants, about 75% of girls and 70%
of boys have been found to have at least one social media account, with Instagram being the
most common.” These facts used in this article can be used as a puzzle piece to show how social
media can have very negative effects on body image and can affect one’s self-confidence. Many
uses social media to look like the ideal depiction of a woman and they try to be like them. This
article is relevant because now that social media I s getting more popular by the day, young
generations are starting to use these apps very early on which can really impact their mental and
physical health growing up.

Research Proposal:

My topic is about the negative impacts that social media has on teens mentally and physically.

Personally, I have used social media since for about 5-6 years now which has allowed me to see

that although there are many positive impacts social media has brought to society, this image-

based networking has also caused many negative impacts on teen health. Social media is very

important these days as technology is evolving and companies are now reverting to social media

to advertise and market their new products and ideas. Social media helps mass communicate as

millions of people can see a post at once. With this advantage to businesses, I feel as if many

don’t realize just how bad the internet can also affect society in negative ways. Social media

really impacts the way teens think of themselves and their overall self-confidence. My exigence

shows the alarming prevalence of eating disorders and depression among adolescents and young
adults, given their associations with sever health complications. In my opinion, the leading cause

of these eating disorders are the photos these social media networks show that propel teens to eat

poorly to reach a certain body image. If less people used social media, there would be less

comparing in society. This would help the amount of people that change their eating habits and

patterns and suffer from anorexia or bulimia nervosa.

I haven’t really found one space that I could examine for my primary research, but I am

thinking about using YouTube because people are able to post videos and explain their firsthand

experiences. In the past I have come across some videos on YouTube that have showed people

explaining to their audience how they have mentally suffered which caused many physical issues

concerning their appearance and body weight. I not only could use these videos as primary

evidence, but I could also use the comments in the comment section, as many people like to

share their own experiences as well. I could also use reddit, however, I feel that YouTube would

be better to use for this topic as millions of people experience these eating disorders and like to

share them with others so people can relate to them or can understand what they were going

through. With the comment section on YouTube, however, it is more restrictive than Reddit

would be so if I wanted to use comments as a primary resource it would be better to use Reddit

then YouTube. Even with that, I still could use both for primary research and both display

firsthand witnesses or have people that have experienced bring affected by social media. Twitter

is also a source I could use but I feel that people generally aren’t posting videos about

themselves. Usually, people share posts about other topics on Twitter and there is a lot of bias

that comes with is as people share their opinions freely. I feel that I wouldn’t really be getting

any primary sources or evidence from Twitter like could using YouTube or Reddit.
 For my secondary research, I currently have 5 articles. The first 4 articles that I got from

the UCF library are all peer reviewed but the last article, “Eating Disorders and Social Media” is

not. It provides some statistics for how many are affected by eating disorders due to the increased

use of social media. The article ends in a remark saying, “excessive use of social media may be

associated with higher thoughts and behaviors related to eating disorders.” It also says that to

help reduce this number, “The recommended minimum age for having a social media account is

13 years. Surprisingly, the influence of social media on eating behaviors has been observed

among adolescents younger than 13 years.” This article provides a solution saying that there

should be an age limit, so kids aren’t exposed to this boy imaged media at such a young age. The

other 4 of my articles are created through the works of different studies. “Relationship between

Social Media use and disordered eating behavior among female university students in Qatar” is

one of the peer reviewed studies that focuses on how Instagram and other image based social

media platforms with majority of posted photos related to peers, fashion, selfies, and food,

extensively expose young women to unattainable body images. I could use this to explain how

people tend to compare themselves to what they see online. The article “The relationship

between Facebook and Instagram appearance focused activities and Body image concerns in

young women” I could use for data as in the study they found the correlation between the use

of social media and body dysmorphia. This correlation was very high signifying the correlation is

strong and social media has a very strong impact on body image and eating habits. Another

article, “Sleepy teens: Social Media use in poor adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality,

anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem” can be used to show data of how social media can

affect teens mentally and can lead to depression and lack of proper sleep. For example, article

uses tables of the means and standard deviations of subjects like poor sleep quality, overall social
media use, nighttime specific social media use, emotional investment in social media, self-

esteem, anxiety, and depression. In addition, there are tables of the correlations between all these

subjects and the hierarchical regression. The last peer reviewed source is an article that also

discusses how social media can affect kids mentally. “When Social Media Traumatizes Teens”

utilizes several figures and tables to show the psychometric properties and descriptive statistics.

Another table shows the main effects and interaction effects of risk frequent and coping

behaviors on PTSD. In addition to tables, the article uses a web-based diary design to showcase

the study with details of how the study was done and what the results were. It concludes by

explaining that social media has begun to make a detrimental impact on adolescents’ self-esteem

and has increased the risk for depression. Although I have these sources I would also like to

research more about the positive effects of social media because it could help me balance the

negatives and provide more reasons to why people use social media more and more. I think that

with the use of more primary research with comments and YouTube videos I can get better

information and stronger evidence to support this issue.

I don’t think this is my first time with a formal research argument and research proposal,

but I don’t have a lot of experience with them. I think my main concerns are just repeating

myself if I have sources that discuss similar ideas and topics as other sources. In addition, I’m

concerned with having enough strong evidence. I feel like I could find some stronger pieces of

evidence to support my research topic. I believe that if I analyzed more sources that show the

positive sides of social media, I may be able to find several other different perspectives when it

comes to affecting people mentally and physically. Overall, I think this project can be a little

confusing as I am just not used to this type of work, but I think I will get better at it by

practicing. I like this topic a lot, however, because I can really relate to it in many ways as my
sister was affected by social media a couple of years ago and social media is a huge part of what

I want to do in the future which is Marketing.