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The Effects Of Social Media On Young People

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Is Social media responsible for the increase in Mental Health issues in young people?
The rates of mental health issues in teenagers and young people is increasing, with 20% of the young people in the United States suffering from a mental disorder in their lifetime (Traci Pederson, 2010, Psych Central). This increase must have stemmed from something recent and modern, which many psychologists believe may be the large increase in use of social media, for example Facebook, which has around 1.2 billion active users per month (Whitman, 2015, Medical News Today). This may be damaging the mental health of teenagers in today’s modern society and may be the reason for the increase in mental illnesses. This essay will explore the damaging effects of social media but also what benefits there may be.
One of the main mental illnesses which has increased in young people is eating disorders. The rate of eating disorder admissions to hospitals has nearly doubled between 2010/11 to 2013/14, from 959 to 1815 (Whitworth, 2015, BBC News). The person interviewed in the article, Freya Chandler, believes that the cause of her mental illness may be due to feeling guilty about herself and wanting to be skinny due to the pictures she saw on various social media sites. Social media sites in today’s society put a lot of pressure on teenagers in the modern day to have the ideal figure and be skinny for example the models displayed on social media sites, such as Facebook, which is why a mental illness

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