Research Paper Synopsis- Social Media is causing teens and young adults to develop anxiety and depression.
Research Paper Synopsis- Social Media is causing teens and young adults to develop anxiety and depression.
The last assignment that was given in class was a research paper on whatever topic I was interested about. Could you guess what it involved from my previous posts? There's a trend... and it definitely has to deal with social media. I took this chance to really dive into the risks that social media is having on teens and young adults. What are the two main concerns you ask? They are depression and anxiety. Now some of you may be thinking that there are a ton of factors in life that could cause these two conditions, but social media is at the crux of it.
Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are the applications to blame for teens and young adults anxious behavior because it is an escape from reality. I see a lot of people reaching for their phones and retreating to social media sites in group settings just to pass by time and entertain themselves. Because of this, if teens are spending more than five hours on their cell phones, there was an increase is suicide rates by 48% (Shafer). Spending this extraneous amount of time on social media also contributes to people developing depression. In 2011 there had been a term coined “Facebook Depression” it is defined as “depression that begins with an extreme amount of social media usage and subsequent development of the classic symptoms of depression” (Guinta & John, 197). The second term that developed was “Facebook Envy” which developed “as users compare themselves with others and can lead to damaging life satisfaction among adolescents” (Guinta & John, 197). If people take measures to improve themselves first, and then utilize these social media sites, there would be a dramatic increase in anxiety and depression in teens and young adults.
Some ways that people can reduce or prevent these issues is to set a screen time on their devices that stops them from going on social media sites for a long period of time, as well as social media sites increasing the age from 13 to 18 so that they do not develop anxiety or depression from over reliance on these applications.
Here is a link to a great resource to decipher if a child is experiencing symptoms of depression and how to combat them https://www.psycom.net/depression-teens-social-media
The last assignment that was given in class was a research paper on whatever topic I was interested about. Could you guess what it involved from my previous posts? There's a trend... and it definitely has to deal with social media. I took this chance to really dive into the risks that social media is having on teens and young adults. What are the two main concerns you ask? They are depression and anxiety. Now some of you may be thinking that there are a ton of factors in life that could cause these two conditions, but social media is at the crux of it.
Social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat are the applications to blame for teens and young adults anxious behavior because it is an escape from reality. I see a lot of people reaching for their phones and retreating to social media sites in group settings just to pass by time and entertain themselves. Because of this, if teens are spending more than five hours on their cell phones, there was an increase is suicide rates by 48% (Shafer). Spending this extraneous amount of time on social media also contributes to people developing depression. In 2011 there had been a term coined “Facebook Depression” it is defined as “depression that begins with an extreme amount of social media usage and subsequent development of the classic symptoms of depression” (Guinta & John, 197). The second term that developed was “Facebook Envy” which developed “as users compare themselves with others and can lead to damaging life satisfaction among adolescents” (Guinta & John, 197). If people take measures to improve themselves first, and then utilize these social media sites, there would be a dramatic increase in anxiety and depression in teens and young adults.
Some ways that people can reduce or prevent these issues is to set a screen time on their devices that stops them from going on social media sites for a long period of time, as well as social media sites increasing the age from 13 to 18 so that they do not develop anxiety or depression from over reliance on these applications.
Here is a link to a great resource to decipher if a child is experiencing symptoms of depression and how to combat them https://www.psycom.net/depression-teens-social-media
Guinta, Maggie R, and Rita M John. Social Media and Adolescent Health. July 2018, workmanpep.weebly.com/uploads/8/2/3/8/8238383/social_media_and_adolescent_health.pdf.
Shafer, Leah. “Social Media and Teen Anxiety.” Harvard Graduate School of Education, www.gse.harvard.edu/news/uk/17/12/social-media-and-teen-anxiety.
Comments
Post a Comment