Eric Myers
Dr.Cassell
English 1201
27 March 2019
In the 21st century technology has become a very major part of our everyday lives.
From wearing a smartphone on your wrist to sending daily emails at work. Through this
progression of technology more and more people seem to be affected by it. It’s crazy to
think that our parents used to have to send letters or talk on a landline to communicate. As
technology grows it affects more and more age groups from a young toddler playing games
on his/ her moms iPad to an elderly man scrolling through Facebook at the park. When
thinking of this you might wonder if this affects how people think, act, and brain function.
When thinking about this I thought about how much I see my classmates and friends on
their phone. Whether it be during class or going out and having some fun. This made me
think of if there were side effects from so much social media, texting, streaming, and
gaming. The main focus of this paper will be about teenagers and social media usage. Some
of the questions I will be covering in this paper include; How does using social media
affect self-worth? How does spending hours on technology affect brain function? What are
the side effects of this? What are the pros and cons of technology? There are many
questions about this topic. Just keep in mind that there are always pros and cons to keep in
consideration. After doing some research I have come up with a conclusion. Teens have a
2
higher risk of stress, impaired brain function, depression, and many other side effects
because of the amount of time spent on social media. Throughout the rest of this paper, I
To start the teen brain is still developing. The brain will be fully mature at around
23 years old. During this maturing process, the brain is very vulnerable to outside
influences. These outside influences can shape our personality and habits. For example,
many say that they are not like their parents but after taking a test 55% of people would do
the same things their parents have done in a particular situation. This goes to show that
what people see when they are younger translate to when they are an adult. This can be the
same with depression, anxiety, and stress. In this case, the habit of being on social media
for extended periods of time can corrupt brain function. The growing minds of youth are
very susceptible to outside influences in both negative and positive ways. And habit
formation plays a big role in brain development. Good habits can promote things as big as
longevity but as negative as death. Another aspect of a young brain that must be analyzed is
instant gratification. There was an experiment done in 2016 that showed aspects of toddlers
minds which can be shown in parallel with teenagers minds. In the experiment, a
marshmallow was placed in front of a young child about 6 or 7 years old. The child was
told that if they didn't eat the singular marshmallow after 15 minutes he for she could have
2 marshmallows. Now, some ate it and others did not. Now the ones that chose to eat the
marshmallow before the 15 minutes up did not receive another. This experiment shows
how instant gratification can play a role in our lives, especially young brains. Since the
brain is the last thing to mature there is plenty of room for this to happen. It is not always as
3
simple and pure as the marshmallow experiment but it still happens. For example, in teens,
instant gratification is very sought after experience. Whether that be drinking or playing on
their phones. In fact, using a cellphone to look on social media for play games gives the
same amount of dopamine levels as doing drugs. From this scientists conclude that it is
possible to be addicted to a cell phone. Dopamine is a chemical that is released in the brain
that gives the sensation of happiness. Levels of this chemical balance can be heightened for
the decrease because of social media. Looking through different posts and articles can
either strike a raise or fall in dopamine. Too much fluctuation can cause long term damage
that would need counseling to reverse the effects. All to say the teens developing minds are
very susceptible to things they look at on social media and should watch what they put into
their brains.
This chart explains the frequency of teens that use social media through the day.
One thing that I notice is the the drop off from more than once a day to once a day. Also
the amount of percentage that teens use it more frequently. But I did notice that there is a
4
higher percentage of teens that don’t use social media in 2018 are higher. Overall this chart
is worrisome because of the high percent of teens that use social media all more frequently.
When researching this topic the first thing that I seemed to notice is the amount of
recorded self-judgment recorded by teenagers. 30% of teens said that they felt judged when
posting for using social media. What I mean by this is, teenagers felt judged in a negative
way by the things they posted on their social media. Also, they felt judged when looking at
other more fortunate people's social media. To elaborate, teens left like they were not as
important or as popular to be using social media. This shows that social media can create a
comfortable in a situation. These teenagers are looking down on themselves because they
feel judged or in more extreme cases worthless. One of the main goals of social media is
for people to say look at the things I have. This is the mindset of some people that use
applications like Instagram or Snapchat. Now some people might say that life is not fair
and teens need to have thicker skin when looking on these sites. But this downward spiral
of self-worth doesn't always come from external knowledge. Continuing, 45% of teens
when posting on social media are concerned that people will not like what they post. This
shows that using Social media can affect the way you think the world views them. Usually,
in a negative way, and over time it can have a long term effect. Over time this can create a
panorama to what others think of them. And that is not a good way to live. This epidemic
Some teens filled out a survey and the data point that stood out in the study was that
26 out of 100 teens spend more than 4 hours on their phones a day. This can be anything
from watching movies to snapchatting. This is a scary fact to look at. Knowing that teens
are wasting away their lives and brains. Teens could be getting involved with their school,
sports, or volunteering. Instead, teens continue to waste time playing on their phones. That
is 4 hours that could be spent in other ways. Continuing, the effects of extended periods of
time looking at a screen can harm your eyes and brain. First, the eyes are very sensitive to
the blue light given off by your phone. When using phones late at night it actually tricks the
brain into thinking it’s day time. This delays the release of an enzyme called melatonin
which activated the sleep cycle. Which will result in lack of sleep. The loss of sleep causes
unneeded stress on the brain. The added stress causes an increase in mood swings, anger,
drowsiness, and trouble focusing. Allowing melatonin to be released at the proper time and
amount can remove these side effects. This can be achieved by not being on the device 1
An excerpt reads: Several behavioral indicators of mental and well-being health will
outcomes that have been theorized to be in parallel to social media use ... suicidal ideation,
Ferguson&Charles Negy).
Simmons: Now teens can look at how many friends someone else has and wonder, “Why
don’t I have as many friends as other people?” Teens can look at the number of messages a
friend received for their birthday and think, “Why didn’t I get that many?” Teens can see
friends receiving texts from someone and wonder, “Why did she get more shout outs for
her birthday and I didn’t get as many?” (Borison). So the public nature of friendship can
make teens feel both more connected and intensely anxious and insecure. Parents need to
understand that the compelling drive to stay connected produces good and bad results. The
opinions of others and fear of exclusion can drive teens to be continually connected to their
friends.
7
Th
This chart is an example of how the time can affect the brain. In this case
depression in teen girls. There is a parallel relationship between the amount of time and
depression. The more time on social media the more likelihood of depression.
Suicidal ideation is a major problem when dealing with teens. The constant
bombardment of sad thoughts and suicidal thoughts can be caused by social media. These
symptoms can be caused by cyberbullying. 43% of kids have been bullied online and one
of four have experienced it more than once. It is a major problem in schools everywhere.
8
When studying this problem I noticed a couple of major things. First, social media is the
number one tool used for cyberbullying. Social media allows access for people to be made
up publicly, as well as privately. Allowing cyberbullies to use multiple ways to make fun to
pick on their victims. The second thing I noticed was 72% of cyberbullies have been
bullied before. When this happens a Chan reaction of bullying happens. After the dominos
fall there is no stopping it. The second thing I noticed was there is little to no parental
control. If a teen gets bullied they are embarrassed and usually do not tell anyone, keeping
the parents unaware of what is happening. Allowing the problem to get even worse and out
of control. And in some cases extreme cyberbullying causes suicide. Which is the leading
restrictions is there is no filter on what teens are putting out there for taking in. Teens that
have restrictions on their phone have shown a trend of staying out of cyber trouble. When
there are restrictions it allows teens to know what is wrong and what is right.
Social anxiety and anxiety, in general, is caused by a stimulus that causes prolonged
stress or worry. But more specifically social stress is the feeling of worry that you will not
fit in. Social media can cause social distress by making teens feel self-conscious and
judged. This can happen because of many things but the main cause is loneliness.
Loneliness can affect the brain in a few distinct ways, anxiety, and self-discrimination. As
social creatures, we need interaction with other people. When interacting with other
dopamine is released into our brain causing happiness. But when isolated from others our
dopamine leaves drop. Now, when using technology it is the same way. Many teens are
happy when using their phones because of the social interaction it brings. When a person is
9
isolated from that social aspect weather be through bullying or not being accepted by others
it drops dopamine levels. Do to this cause and effect relationship being isolated on social
media it can cause social anxiety. Teens will wonder if they are good enough, why don’t
people like me, or is there something wrong with me. That added social stress is not good
for developing teens. Prolonged loneliness can cause social awkwardness, depression, and
suicide.
All of the things mentioned above come from the number of time teens spend on
their phones. Some ways to combat this can include: parental restrictions, getting out of the
house, join a club, don’t have technology in teens rooms at night, and much more. Thinking
of creative ways to get teenagers off their phones can be nothing but helpful to our society.
It will allow teens to have more integrity, better people skills, and higher functioning
brains. And this will only help teens in college, job force, and life in general. Continuing, a
lot of teens tend to say things behind a screen and not in person. When the phone is
removed it allows teens to treat others the way they want to be treated. In turn, this will
help our school and society in general. In conclusion, teens have more risk of stress,
Working Bibliography
Barrett, Kira. “Social Media´s Impact on Students´ Mental Health Comes into Focus .”
NeaToday , 2018.
10
Berryman, Chloe, et al. “Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults.”
Borison, Susan. “Interviewing Rachel Simmons: The Impact of Social Media on Teens .”
yourteenmag.com/social-life/teenagers-friends/teens-and-technology-expert-advice.
Edwards, Claire. Social Media and Mental Health: Handbook for Teens. Trigger, 2018.
Guinta, Maggie R. “Social Media and Adolescent Health.” Pediatric Nursing, vol. 44, no.
sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=tr
www.imdb.com/title/tt0498329/plotsummary.
Weinstein, Emily. “The Social Media See-Saw: Positive and Negative Influences on
Adolescents' Affective Well-Being.” New Media & Society, vol. 20, no. 10, Oct.
emily_weinstein@mail.harvard.edu;
Giedd, Jay N. “The Digital Revolution and Adolescent Brain Evolution.” Journal of
doi:10.1016/j.jadohealth.2012.06.002.
11
Mills, Kathryn L. “Effects of Internet Use on the Adolescent Brain: despite Popular
Claims, Experimental Evidence Remains Scarce.” Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 18,
O'Donnell, Sara, and Leonard H. Epstein. “Smartphones Are More Reinforcing than
Food for Students.” Addictive Behaviors, vol. 90, 2019, pp. 124–133.,
doi:10.1016/j.addbeh.2018.10.018.
Sherman, Lauren E., et al. “The Power of the Like in Adolescence.” Psychological
“3 Interesting Stats About Teens' Use of Social Media.” Marketing Charts, 2 Oct.
2018, www.marketingcharts.com/demographics-and-audiences/teens-and-younger-105750.