Social Media Ban
By: Claudia Hernandez
Social media has easily embedded itself in our daily lives and has become the modern day drug of our society. Everywhere you look someone is on their phone either swiping right for new relationship matches or adding a picture of their untouched meals to their profile pages. These sites have become the new obsession of our society that are leading us into one of history’s biggest downfalls. Social media has been linked to personality and brain disorders, reason for the alter in children’s brains and behavior, making them more prone to depression; and for facilitating cyberbullying leading to adjustment in societal norms. Since the first launch of social media, recent studies discovered that longer exposure to social media sites tend to lead to symptoms of social isolation, body dysmorphia, and depression among U.S. young adults.
In the article “Social Media and Adolescent wellbeing” by Paul Best and Brian Taylor they explain how in our new generation we are starting to push our youth into a more digital world which is starting to leave an impact on our future generation. Best and Taylor stated “In addition, it has been suggested that children today require more support, training and coping skills to prepare them for a more complex and technologically advanced society”. Best and Taylor describe the obsession that most adolescents have with social media are starting to leave a permanent effect on its users. Spending a great amount of time on social media can put a major setback on a person’s social skills considering there is no face to face contact leading to great deal of social isolation. Many people base their lives on unrealistic views formed by the hatred clouding social media pushing them to feel jealous, depressed, or maybe even feel suicidal about their own life considering it is not as “perfect” as those they see on their social media pages. As stated in the article “Impact of social media on the health of children and young people” by Deborah Richards, “Other studies have shown that young people who use Facebook more often show narcissistic tendencies and that social media encourages young people to be ‘loners’ ” it is glorified to isolate yourself from others on these platforms which leads to major issues and setbacks of one’s own social skills. In addition to social isolation, social media has also been found to be associated with the degradation of one’s self-image. Instagram usage was associated with greater concern about body image and social acceptance.
Not only does social media strip us of our mental health but it also goes as far to make us change ourselves physically. As of 2019 more than half of app users have gotten physical alterations done to themselves to fit into these “social norms” that social media influencers have contributed to greatly. Deborah Richards claims in her article how rates of cosmetic surgery are increasing across the world thanks to media influencers on these apps like instagram, where there are guidelines to be considered an “IG Baddie” a popular, good-looking individual with a high number of followers. In the article “ Impact of social media on the health of children and young people” Richards states “The study reported that ‘self‐esteem was negatively related to frequency of status updates, Facebook intensity and update intensity, suggesting that the more frequently people go on Facebook and update their status and the more meaning they attribute to having Facebook/status updates in their lives, the lower their self‐esteem’ ”. This is leading to more than half of social media users to be branded with body dysmorphia. We now live in a society where it’s all led by the internet, apps that set a certain image for users to follow and if one dares not to they are shamed and initially cyber bullied into emotional problems, body dysmorphia, low levels of self-esteem , and the desire to have plastic surgery. Cyberbullying has helped tremendously in enforcing certain images upon our society that are slowly peeling away at who we truly are as a person and encouraging depression.
The article “ Is physical inactivity associated with depressive symptoms among adolescents with high screen time?” by Asaduzzaman Khan discusses the importance of acknowledging the increase of depression among our upcoming generation. In the article Khan makes sure to identify the colporate behind the incline of adolescents committing suicide which is linked to depression from these social media apps. About 25% of social media users mainly adolescents ages 11-19 have reported delirious depressive symptoms associated with high screen time. The suicide rates amoung teens have increased by 50% since the start of social media, with cyberbulling being the colporate. Best and Taylor also discusses how teens are more likely to express themselves online which can lead to a number of different types of backlash which leads teens to go into a reserved depressive form that sooner or later becomes suicidal thoughts “The literature suggests that teens are more willing to disclose personal information online and, in general, displayed more emotionally empathic online communication than adults”. Cyberbullying is one of the main leading reasons behind suicides. Khan expressed “Odds of depression was double for high screen time with insufficient activity.” With this being said kids are starting to become addicted to the gratification that comes with having these social platforms which can quickly turn into bashing others online resulting in cyberbullying, concluding in them harming multiple parts in their developing brain and behaviors.
In the end, social media has been the main leading cause of mental illness and has created a free space to allow mental illness to skyrocket. These social networking sites have done a huge harm in our modern day society. It has established certain “social norms” that in the end have caused a great deal of not only mental illnesses but physical and permanent ones as well.
Work Cited
Best , Paul, and Brian Taylor . “Online Communication, Social Media and Adolescent Wellbeing: A Systematic Narrative Review.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, June 2014, www-sciencedirect-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/science/article/pii/S0190740914000693?via%3Dihub.
Khan , Asaduzzaman. “Shibboleth Authentication Request.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, 3 Jan. 2017, www-clinicalkey-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/#!/content/playContent/1-s2.0-S1755296617300078?returnurl=null&referrer=null.
Richards, Deborah. “Impact of Social Media on the Health of Children and Young People.” Shibboleth Authentication Request, 26 Nov. 2015, onlinelibrary-wiley-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/doi/full/10.1111/jpc.13023.
