Social Media Mental Harms

Kardaras, Nicolas. "Generation Z: Online and at Risk?." Scientific American Mind, vol. 27, no. 5, Sep/Oct 2016, pp. 64-9. MasterFILE Premier. Kardars discuss generation z use of social media affecting them negatively. He opens his article with a story of Heidi who becomes addicted to social media when her school issues her a Chromebook. Before Heidi is issued the laptop, she was a sweet innocent girl and after having it for a semester she became someone her parents could not recognize. He states that social media is a “perfect storm” for humans because having a social connection key to “happiness and health”. Having the ability to always use social media leads to hyper texting the illusion of a real connection making it hard for teens to have face to face conversations, making a teens become “glow kid[s]“, someone who is raised on mostly digital social interactions. Facebook depression” can result in the teen to have lower grades and behavior problems in teens. He concludes his article with facts proving that Facebook can become addictive in some people. This source helps support my thesis that Facebook affects teens mental health.

Social media has been widely used in the United States and the rest of the world. These sites influenced the way we communicate, but, what about our health? According to the National Center for Biotechnology, researchers have found that the use of social media has increased the number of psychiatric disorders

It has become extremely common for an individual to sign into their Facebook account, and see a picture that they feel exposed a little too much. Check into their Instagram account, and regret letting everyone know what their location was. Feel uncomfortable, or bullied by a tweet that a person posted to their Twitter. Per Farheen’s article on negative effects of social media “participating in social media sites such as these can make you feel more connected” (Sagheer 1). It is not okay for individuals to feel victimized due to the negative effects of social media. Social media tends to distract, humiliate, and destroy one-self through entertainment. If people would donate more time to things more supplemental to their growth, and limit their use of social media, then maybe people would stop walking over the harm that social media presents to our community. Monitoring the time invested into social media will help eliminate most of the detriment, privacy issues, and bullying flowing through today’s society.

Did you know social media can change you? Social media can cause problems with your health? In the article, “Student examines negative effects of social media on teens” by Aurelie Krakowsky and “The Upside of Selfies: Social media isn’t all that bad for kids” by Kelly Wallace talks about social media, but clearly it’s harmful to people. Social media is for people to enjoy on a daily basis and be updated on what is happening in the world; however it can be harmful to your health and even your education. It can lower kids self esteem and make them feel uncomfortable about themselves. It can also cause health issues and distant yourself from the people around you.

Social media: a blessing or a burden? It gives the ability to like, comment and interact with any person at any time. A platform with recent growth and popularity, Instagram, reaches copious amounts people. Expectedly so, controversy has arisen from the decade of social media and this form in particular. Research has found Instagram to have the highest overall negative effect on mental health (Cramer & Inkster, 2017). Through analyzing human psyche and critiquing data, this paper will seek to explain the negative mental health outcomes resulting from the use of Instagram.

Some people may wonder what effect social media has on people worldwide. Many people are using social media daily and because of that, they might not know the effects that can be lurking behind a screen and causing harm to their mental health. Social media has many negative effects on mental health. Some people could think that mental health and social media has no relation, when it does. It is a fast-growing issue with many “cause and effect” reasons behind it. Each cause needs to be recognized along with the effect it has on the people who use social media.

Social media has been an essential piece of peoples’ lives around the world. Social media can be used for either interactive websites or even entertainment websites for people. Today, social media can come in many different forms like blogs, forums, podcast, photo sharing, social bookmarking, live broadcasting video, and more. Social media sites can spread news of engagements, divorces, and even break ups. We also hear about job gains and losses, political news, or even the news of life and death where it can be easy or hard to become overwhelmed. Today there are many different reasons and opinions on why social media can cause an effect on mental health especially on major depression. People of different age groups can access social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to observe posts and entries that people can put on these sites every day. Some of the entrees and posts people

In 1971 the first email was sent. This was the beginning of social media. Social media is a form of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other contents. Social media sites are like fads where people eventually stop using them and move on to the next one. This essay will be about the effects of social media on the mental health of the main users of social media.

The use of social networking sites is rising at great rates. According to a report conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2012, ninety-five percent of individuals aged 12-17 use the internet; and eighty-one percent of those use social network sites (Pew Interest). Although it is known that social media can have a useful impact on lives, often times people forget that with a positive comes a negative. The continual use of social network sites will impact teen lives more negatively than positively because they can cause huge distractions from valuable and critical pursuits like education; they can also cause mental health issues and a reduction in communication skills.

In a growing world where technology has become an essential source of communication, special attention must be placed on the potential hazards of social media. The relationship between an individual’s social media habits and mental health is complex. In this report many concepts will be explored thoroughly such as, the effects of social media on mental health, how it is concerned with substance abuse, the advantages and disadvantages of social media and which social media site is cyberbullying occurred on the most.

Social media is described, by the Merriam-Webster dictionary (2015), as “forms of electronic communication (as Web sites for social networking and microblogging) through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos)”. As few as 10 years ago the term social media was yet to be coined, but within that decade the use of these blogs, websites and sharing platforms has increased exponentially with no plateau in sight. From creating Instagram accounts for household pets, to sharing Halloween themed baking ideas over Pinterest, people today have access to social media outlets for almost everything. Today about 74% of people ages 18-65 use some form of a social networking site (Pew, 2014). Facebook takes the lead in social media usage with about 71% of those adults. LinkedIn and Pinterest are tied for second at 28% of users, 26% use Instagram, and Twitter falls last in the top 5 most used social medias with 23% of users (Pew, 2014). In September of 2013 the Pew Research Center measured that 90% of adults ages 18-29 used these social media outlets on a daily basis, which is an astonishing increase from the 9% that was measured in February 2005 (Pew, 2014). Due to the fact that young adults are increasingly involving themselves in these online platforms, it is very important to understand the long term and psychological effects (such as depression, social anxiety,

The popularity of social media giants such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook are on the rise and so is our nation's overall poor mental health status (The State of Mental Health in America). Studies have shown that there is a direct link between our social media obsession and our poor mental health (Walton). Social media can lead to feelings of comparison, jealousy and even delusional behavior. Another effect that social media has on our mental health is that it often leads to feelings of sadness and loneliness. Lastly, social media addiction is one of the many things that affects our mental health. Studies show that social media is often the cause of poor mental health, it can cause comparison, jealousy, loneliness and lastly addiction.

Social media seems to be one of the many hot topics of discussion recently, and consequently many people have the false sense of security that they have a profound knowledge on how it affects the health of the teenage population. A sedentary lifestyle, decreased sleep, as well as other physical health conditions seem to come to mind when one links health and social media. However, there is a much bigger problem that can go unnoticed because it can be impossible to see: the impact it has on mental and emotional health. These branches of health are just as important, and even arguably more important than physical health is. Social media can be utilized to connect with distant friends and express oneself; however, teenagers should refrain from the overuse of social media due to its detrimental effects on their mental and emotional health.

From "thintastic" blogs to suicide stories, social media has become not only a source of conversation but a gateway to harmful suggestions that many teenagers see and believe to be allowable, when in fact the situations proposed are dangerous to those who attempt them. Statistics show that 20% of anorexic teenagers will die prematurely, and 80% of teenagers who commit suicide are depressed (South). Social media has glorified and brought to attention eating disorders, depression, and suicide among teens that might otherwise not become a statistic in these critical categories.

Social media is one of the most common ways for people to communicate anywhere and at any time in modern society. Some people think that it is beneficial to have in society. Although, many people are starting to see negative effects arise from the use of social media as well. These negative effects are increasing and becoming more problematic every day. The disadvantages of social media far outweigh the advantages. Social media effects everyone in society, especially teenagers by negatively impacting their lives, face-to-face interactions, and mental health.