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Isabella Sanchez

Storer

English 3 Honors American Literature

November 24, 2019

Social Medias Impact on Teen Depression

Everyone has a right to happiness and a right to connect to the people around them. These

basic human rights are taken away by social media. Millions of teens around the world exile

themselves from society because of the way social media makes them perceive themselves.

Social media makes humans grow farther apart from each other because it harms people mentally

and physically all over the world. Why do we keep allowing these sites to damage our society?

Lives are being taken daily due to the causes of social media, depression is a serious mental

illness and we cannot allow the next generations to be misled as well.

Studies have linked the use of social media to depression, anxiety, poorer sleep quality,
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lower self-esteem, inattention, and hyperactivity, often in teens and adolescents. In a research by
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Pew Research center it was discovered that, “51 percent of teens visit social networking sites on

a daily basis, more than a third of teens visit their main social networking site several times a

day, and 1 in every 4 teens is a heavy social media user, using at least two different types of

social media each day” (Anderson/Jiang). Because of this, teens’ developing brains are not only
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vulnerable to so much time online, but because they often have difficulty self-regulating their
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screen time, their risks can increase. Teenagers are more susceptible to cyberbullying, peer
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pressure, and sexting which makes the online social world treacherous at times. All of these
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things lead to the biggest problem: depression. In another study at the University of Pennsylvania

that included 143 students, where they were randomly assigned to one of two groups: one that
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would continue their socialt mediat habits as usual or one that would significantly limit access to
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social media. “What we found overall is that if you use less social media, you are actually less
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depressed and less lonely, meaning that the decreased social media use is what causes that

qualitative shift in your well-being” (Mammoser). Social media use can be associated with an t t t t t t t t

intensification of the symptoms of depression, including a decrease in social activity and an

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increase in loneliness.
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What causes thet depression? What causes the decrease in social activity and an increase
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in loneliness? One of the biggest causes is that social media provokes an awful lot of negative
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self-comparison. For example, comparing oneself to others and deciding that their lives must be t t t t t t t t t t

happier or better than yours. “The problem is, even if you judge your life to be the better one,
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you’re still not likely to feel happy about this, because any kind of self-comparison has a

negative effect on one’s moods. And if you feel some envy while you’re scrolling through your

friends’ photos, you may be picking up on a real link between social media use and depressed

mood. Feelings of envy may be the mediating link between Facebook use and depression: In

studies that manage to control for envy by eliminating it as a factor, Facebook use doesn't

correlate with depression in the same way” (Soerio). Survey studies have suggested that t t t t

Facebook use leaves over 60 percent of users feeling inadequate, thet ability to feel good about
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oneself, to have healthy self-esteem, is compromised by social media use.

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Another source of depression may be what teenagers aretnot doing while they are
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spending time on social media, including physical activity and things that generate a sense of
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accomplishment, like learning newt skills and developing talents. Kids who are spending a lot of
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time on devices are not getting much in return to make them feel good about themselves, “If
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you’re spending a lot of time on your phone, you have less time for activities that can build
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confidence, a sense of achievement and connectedness” (Miller). As teenagers continue to waste

their time on things that do not help them physically, they are also hurting themselves mentally.

One of the most common contributors to depression in teenagers is sleep deprivation, which can
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be caused, or exacerbated, by social media. “Research shows that 60 percent of adolescents are
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looking at their phones in the last hour before sleep, and that they get on average an hour less

sleep than their peers who don’t use their phones before bed. Blue light from electronic

screens interferes with falling asleep; on top of that, checking social media is not necessarily a

relaxing or sleep-inducing activity” (Miller). Almost every social media platform is in the t t t t t t t t

business of keeping its users online as long as possible in order to deliver as many
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advertisements to individuals as possible. Social media applications utilize powerful algorithms

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to serve content to users that they are more likely to engage and interact with, so users stay on
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the site longer. Once the servers identify what algorithms are most used, they continue to
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produce those, so the social media user is drawn in to continue to use it.

The best way to solve this problem is to attack it silently. Yes, we can take into

consideration the banning of all social media sites. But, what good would that do? A much easier

solution would be for the parent or guardian of a teen to be aware of their adolescents’ actions,

and to keep an eye on them and to check up on them. It is up to everyone to research the biggest

signs of teenage depression, because there is a pandemic spreading through social media and it is

up to us to change that.
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Work Cited

Anderson, Monica, and Jingjing Jiang. “Teens, Social Media & Technology 2018.” Pew

Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center, 30 Nov. 2018,

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2018/05/31/teens-social-media-technology-2018/.

Mammoser, Gigen. “Social Media Increases Depression and Loneliness.” Healthline, Healthline

Media, 14 Dec. 2018, https://www.healthline.com/health-news/social-media-use-

increases-depression-and-loneliness.

Soeiro, Loren Ph.D. ABPP “Is Social Media Bad for You?” Psychology Today, Sussex

Publishers, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/i-hear-you/201906/is-social-

media-bad-you.

Miller, Caroline, and Child Mind Institute. “Does Social Media Cause Depression?” Child Mind

Institute, https://childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/.