Jimmy Press

19 October, 2017

UWRT 2

Essay Rough Draft

The Problem with Social Media

Social media in our new generation has become more and more popular. About every

teenager that I know has one form of social media. For instance, Facebook, Instagram, or

Twitter are very common and used among a lot of people. 94% of 13-17-year-olds use one or

more social networking site and most teens (89%) have access to smartphones (Weinstein,

396). This being said, there is a lot have positive and negative information. Now what do you

think would happen if someone's social media is filled with negative information? The question

I am exploiting through the viewpoints of psychologist, teenagers, and celebrities from the

question, How does Facebook/ social media affect mental health?

The first source I want to talk about is the psychologist. The argument that they present

has do deal with valuable information and statics about the topic. For example, Neuroticism

also affects people's online social behaviors. For instance, neuroticism is related to a greater

tendency to present ideal and false self on Facebook (Chow & Tak Sang, 278). Neuroticism is a

personality trait characterized by negative affectivity, nervousness and sense of insecurity and it

has long been thought as related to life stress exposure and onset of depression. Chow and Tak

Sang has figured out a scientific term to the reason why someone is going through depression.

Imagine if you were in the shoes of the depressed individual and experience what they are going

through. This is a personality trait that they cannot help, having nerves and insecurity that leads

to stress exposure that is all caused by negative activities. The start to these ongoing events is
caused by the individual is scrolling through their social media. As you can see, social media

has not only to power to cause pleasure, but it has the powers of destruction too. If this were me

and all I saw on my social media was negative post, I would not be in a good mental state. I

think I can say for mostly everyone that they would not be in a good mental state. The view

point that Cow and Tak Sang had provides a good explanation on why someone would become

depressed due to social media. After I analyzed his quote and looked up what neuroticism

means, I understand the individual that has condition. I also asked the reader to put themselves

into their shoes and I put myself into their shoes to fully understand their condition.

The second viewpoint that I want to discuss is the viewpoint of the teenager. One thing

that I would like to point is the time period that the teenager is going through. They are going

through a time where their brain is still developing. They are just starting to figure out their

place in the world. Whether or not they want to go into the work force or get their degree. If one

decides to go to college they have to deal with a tremendous amount of stress. They have to

account for major assignment and testes that if you do poorly on will determine if you get to stay

in the course or not. This stress its self is a lot to deal with, not accounting for the social image

that the teen feels they have to uphold. It seems to me in todays society people spend too much

time trying to perfect their lives on social media. From the viewpoint of a teenager that is

expressed by Mitch Prinstein professor of psychology and neuroscience, psychologist Adam B

Miller, and Jacqueline Nesi that studied in social psychology, states that, within research

examining social media use, there has been a growing recognition of the importance of

identifying such maladaptive online behaviors in the context of adolescents' depressive

symptoms (Prinstein et al,. 2017) This quote is saying that there is an increasing negative

online behavior that is causing depressive symptoms for adolescents. The next view point
comes from Maddie Hollering, a 19-year-old college athlete that seemed to have a perfect life,

but secretly battled depression. Kate Fagan who is a W columnist said that studied Maddies life

and said that, She believes that her depression was worsened by social media. Maddie made it

seem like her life was perfect life on Instagram but what he followers did not see was the

ongoing battel of depression that she was going through. This is what researchers at the

University of Stafford call the duck syndrome. They are hiding their struggles, anxiety, and

depression. It states in the video that 75 percent of mental health condition being before the age

of 24 because of college (abc news). This shows that depression is very high among college

student and that they need to have social media perfection. In conclusion to Maddie, she

seemed to be gliding through the water as a duck appears to do, but underneath the water she was

going to fast that she could not even keep up.

The third and last viewpoint that I want to talk about is the viewpoint of the celebrities.

The first celebrity that I want to talk about is super star Selena Gomez. Selena is a major

superstar that is favored by a lot of people in society. For this reason, I feel that her social media

would be way more overwhelming to handle than a teenager. She has 128 million followers and

is only following 300. This is a great number of followers that people watch her everyday life.

She has to live up to the great image that she gives off, which is beautiful, talented, inspirational.

She has to deal with the constant pressure of upholding this image in which I feel can be

overwhelming. Selena might not seem like it, but she went through depression also. One thing

that Selena says that correlates with social media and depression is, I dont want to see your

bodies on Instagram. I want to see whats in there. This quote is Selena talking to the public

and is saying a lot about the crucial self-image that girls/ guys put on themselves. It is saying

that society is so caught up with trying to make themselves look the best they can that they do
not take care of their mental health. How you look doesnt matter its whats in your heart and

soul. Another thing that shows Selena has been affected by social media is, The 24-year-old

singer recently took a break from social media to treat her lupus- induced mental illness

(youutoube). Lupus is any of various diseases or conditions marked by inflammation of the

skin, especially lupus vulgaris or lupus erythematosus. Selena was so affected by social media

and her skin that she got depressed from it. She was afraid to show her skin on social media that

she could not handle it. This is beneficial to my argument because it show that even the people

who are high up can be affected by social media. I compliment her for taking a break from

social media to get back in touch with her life. The second celebrity that I want to talk about is

closely related to each other. This celebrity is superstar Demi Lavto. Selena and Demi both

started their career at a young age on Disney channel. From then, they both found singing

careers. They both fought the same battle of depression. One thing that Demi did that relates to

social media and depression is when she checked herself into a treatment center for 3 months at

timberline knollswith no communication with the outside world. She said that, not having any

communication was very difficult for her (Demi). For how famous she is on Instagram her voice

is very influential, this can be very stressful for her and hard to keep up with it all. This is what I

feel where Selana had the same problem.

The viewpoints from psychologist, teenagers, and celebrities all had good explanations

for the reason why social media affects mental health. I learned that social media had a bigger

affect on mental health than I thought. Social media affect our teenagers the most being, 75

percent of mental health condition being before the age of 24 because of college (abc news).

It also affects the people that are looked upon by the people as the highest being, celebrities. I

learned what the psychologist had to say about the topic being, Neuroticism also affects
people's online social behaviors. For instance, neuroticism is related to a greater tendency to

present ideal and false self on Facebook (chow, 278). It was interesting to see how neuroticism

and social media correlated with each other. I found that it can affect not only teenagers but also

celebrities. Social media and depression are linked and it a rising problem. The good thing is

that these celebritys had raised awareness to them and is trying to put a stop to it.
 Citations

Chow, Tak Sang and Hau Yan Wan. Is There any Facebook Depression? Exploring the

Moderating Roles of Neuroticism, Facebook Social Comparison and Envy. Personality

& Individual Differences, vol. 119, Dec. 2017, pp. 277-282. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.10/i.paid.2017.07.032

Enistein, Emily, Adolescents Differential Responses to Social Media Browsing: Exploring

Causes and Consequences for Intervention. Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 76,

Nov. 2017, pp. 396-405. EBSCOhost, doi: 10. 1016/i.chb. 2017.07.038.

Nesi, Jacqueline, et al. Adolescents Depressive Symptoms and Subsequent Technology-Based

Interpersonal Behavior: A Multi-Wave Study. Journal of Applied Developmental

Psychology, vol. 51, July 2017, pp. 12-19. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1016/i.appdev.2017.02.002.

Demi Lovato faces her critics. YouTube, uploaded by TheEllenShow, 19 September 2011,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jo9flkW0FFc

Selena Gomez Speaks on Depression & Anxiety at the American Music Awards MTV.

YouTube, uploaded by MTV, 21 November 2016,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KIPvCvUdJA

Is social media causing depression in teens? abcNews, uploaded by abcNews, 2017,

http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/social-media-causing-depression-teens-48979420