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Annotated Bibliography

How Does Deep Exposure to Technology Impact Adolescents Socially in Western Cultures?

SIDNEY BROCKENBOROUGH

Professor Campbell

UWRT 1103-H04

October 22, 2019

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Annotated Bibliography

Jacobson, Rae. “Social Media and Self-Doubt” ​Media and Tech​, Child Mind

Institute, 2019. Blog Post, ​https://childmind.org/article/social-media-an

d-self-doubt/​, Accessed 11 Oct 2019.

In this blog post, Jacobson expands upon the cognitive behavior of children regarding

their social media usage and self-esteem. She also addresses the measures parents can

take to assist their children in the developmental stages of navigating the culture of social

media. Jacobson covers the issues behind a child’s perception of the idealized images

placed in several forms of media as well as in the daily lives of individuals. She explains

that “With social media, teens can curate their lives, and the resulting feeds read like

highlight reels, showing only the best and most enviable moments while concealing

efforts, struggles, and the merely ordinary aspects of day-to-day life” and those portrayals

only hurt other teens’ perceptions of themselves. Jacobson emphasizes that there is an

unspoken demand for adolescents to conform to a “perfect” standard that emerges from a

fabricated platform. She remarks that several individuals portray a positive and

inspirational image yet hide behind a curtain of emotional struggle. Jacobson continues to

write that the parents of children must be active and diligent in “taking social media

seriously, encouraging children to think outside the (crop) box, modeling a healthy

response to failure, praising (and showing) effort, going on ‘social holidays’, and trusting

people, not pictures.” Jacobson reminds parents that they must convey their love to their

children for them to feel “safe and healthy when they are on their own.” Jacobson is a

staff writer for the “Child Mind Institute”, and she specializes in ADHD and learning
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disabilities in women and young girls. Also, Jacobson holds a master’s degree in

counseling. The “Child Mind Institute” is a credible source for research about minors of

all ages, and its database is a scholarly source for individual yet casual in a presentation.

Also, Jacobson is diligent in citing other professional that validate what she is writing.

She quotes Donna Wick, EdD, the founder of Mind-to-Mind Parenting when describing

the “perfect storm of self-doubt,” and Jacobson acknowledges Jill Emanuele, Ph.D., a

clinical psychologist at the “Child Mind Institute”. In the blog, Jacobson also references

researchers at Stanford University and their phrase called “duck syndrome”. “The term

refers to the way a duck appears to glide effortlessly across a pond while below the

surface its feet work frantically, invisibly struggling to stay afloat.” Through the “Child

Mind Institute's” renowned reliability and Jacobson’s choice to ensure the documentation

of credible individuals, the blog post is a trustworthy source. Because my research is

based on the psychological impacts on self-esteem and anxiety, this blog post offers a

substantial amount of information for my topic. The blog post’s competency is extremely

high; however, some of Jacobson’s points could be argued as subjective. Although

Jacobson attributes most of her parental advice column to Dr. Wick, she does not have

any research that validates the effectiveness of the advice given. Jacobson also chooses to

give general examples of individuals that experience issues with self-esteem, and she

does not cite any specific research. She does hyperlink articles concerning social media

and behavior; however, her links are all connected to the “Child Mind Institute’s”

database. Jacobson’s blog post cannot be immediately backed up by any specific

research. Jacobson also omits the date of the blog’s release, but the “Child Mind
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Institute’s” database employs that all blog posts are updated. Overall, the source is

credible, and Jacobson proves herself to be reputable through her blog post.

Mcinroy, Ian. “Mental Health Top of Mind.” ​Barrie Examiner, The (Ontario,

Canada)​, News Bank Incorporated, 15 Nov 2017. News Story,

https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=WORLDNEWS&docref=n

ews/16830014ED1D3D78&f=basic​, Accessed 17 Oct 2019.

In this news story, Mcinroy focuses on the decline in mental health among teens and

adolescents. His primary purpose is to inform his audience of the prevalence of poor

mental health among young individuals, and he ultimately wants to encourage families to

take part in youth mental-health nights in the cities of Barrie and Orillia in Ontario,

Canada. Mcinroy’s news story addresses the likelihood of poor mental health in children

when they exhibit lower rates of physical activity and eating breakfast daily. He also

acknowledges that younger individuals have an extremely difficult transition to overcome

when growing up and entering into different social groups. Mcinroy is a journalist and

writer for the ​Barrie Examiner​. Ontario’s ​Barrie Examiner​ was a publishing newspaper

until late 2017. It was considered a source of local and regional information for the

people of Barrie, Ontario. In the context of the news story, Mcinroy does not display a

collegiate level of knowledge on the subject; therefore, he could be argued as an

unsuitable author for the topic. Other than his experience as a journalist, Mcinroy does

not exemplify any specific characteristics of mental health professionals. His work is less

credible because of the uncertainty in his credibility, and the unknown reputability of The
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Barrie Examiner;​ however, Mcinroy is purposeful in citing doctors and studies that have

more ethos in mental health than he does. Mcinroy references studies like the “Ontario

Student Drug Use and Health Survey” and the “Simcoe Muskoka District Health Unit”

study on high school students and their mental health. Mcinroy also quotes Dr. Lisa

Simon, who is the associate medical officer of health with the “Simcoe Muskoka District

Health Unit”. Mcinroy cites that poor mental health is common in younger individuals

and "This likely relates to the challenging developmental stage of adolescence, which

includes transition in the school environment, physical growth and development, maturity

and relationships, and a time of exploration, self-discovery, and experimentation."

Including Simon, Mcinroy credits Pat Carney, the senior psychologist and mental-health

lead for the Simcoe Muskoka Catholic District School Board by mentioning that “the

mental health and wellbeing of students is ‘critically important’ and ‘a changing

landscape’ for parents and staff in schools.” By referencing individuals that have a

stronger background in the fields of psychology and mental health, Mcinroy’s news story

is compelling and more credible than if he chose to write the issue on his own merits.

Mcinroy may not display any pertinent signs of credibility in his new story, but he does

establish the credibility of the individuals that he chooses to reference. Overall, the

source is mildly credible. The news story is too short to come to a definite conclusion

about the issue of poor mental health and how to decrease it.
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Oakes, Kelly. “The Complicated Truth About Social Media and Body Image” ​BBC Future,​

BBC,

11 Mar 2019. News Article,

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190311-how-social-me

ia-affects-body-image​, Accessed 25 Sep 2019.

In this news article, Oakes addresses her point of view on the realities of social media and

its impacts on individuals. She elaborates on the effects of individuals that view social

media frequently, and body image concerns people have. Oakes is a freelance writer and

editor for ​BBC Future​ as well as other news corporations like ​New Scientist​, ​Women’s

Health,​ ​BBC Focus,​ ​The Daily Beast​, and the​ i p​ aper, and she served as the science editor

at ​BuzzFeed UK.​ She also holds a master’s degree in science communication. Because

the publisher is “BBC”, the news article is located in a reputable database. Oakes’ work

is also reputable since she has been shortlisted for the “Wellcome Trust Science Writing

Prize”. In her article, she cites a review of 20 papers published in 2016 about the

correlation between photo-based activities and negative self-esteem in physical

appearance; however, this study was not properly cited resulting in the inability to

validate the papers. She also includes another unnamed study that showed 195 young

women different images from social media accounts. The inclusion of other sources is

valuable in a news article; however, sources become ineffective when specific

information is not given to verify the source. Conversely, Oakes mentions that the study

of social media effects are still current and are primarily correlational. She gives the

example of being unable to prove that “Facebook causes someone to have negative
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feelings about their appearance, or whether people who are concerned about their

appearance are more likely to use Facebook.” Although Oakes is vague about some of

her studies mentioned in the news article, she is specific when citing Jasmine Fardouly, a

postdoctoral researcher at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia and states that

“People are comparing their appearance to people in Instagram images, or whatever

platform they're on, and they often judge themselves to be worse off.” Oakes also

includes a study conducted by Jasmine Fardouly and Lenny R. Vartanian called

“Negative comparisons about one's appearance mediate the relationship between

Facebook usage and body image concerns” that analyzed 227 female university students.

In Oakes’ news article, she also chooses to reference Amy Slater, an associate professor

at the University of West England, Bristol who studied 160 female undergraduate

students that viewed certain types of media posts on Instagram and Jennifer Mills, an

associate professor at York University, Toronto who had undergraduate females takes

selfies of themselves with iPads and instructed the participants to upload them. Oakes

news article is credible regarding all of her documented material; however, her work

seems questionable when she mentions studies without any specific information about the

source of the study and where to access it. Oakes’ choice to be extremely specific about

some studies and vague about others weakens the credibility of her news article Overall,

the news article is a reputable source in regards to the author and the publisher, and the

content is most likely credible information.