Khendra Barton

Professor Plange
RWS 1302
Social media and Mental Health
General Analysis Draft
Introduction

“When it comes to social media, there are times I turn off the world, you know. There are

just sometimes you have to give yourself space to be quiet, which means you’ve got to set those

phones down.” (Michelle Obama) Social media had been growing a lot over the years and has

been affecting people’s mental health in the process. Many researchers and social media experts

have found many ways of how social media can negatively affect a person on a daily. People

have put so much time and effort on it and for some people it has become a problem. It has

gotten a lot of people to develop anxiety or depression and their self-esteem has gone down a lot.

Social media has good sides to it as well like how there are new ways to show off clothing and

people can connect long distance. However, there are people who turned those positive things

into negative things. People have turned certain things on the internet into a sensitive subject.

There are been more negative things about social media surfacing the more updates or new apps

are created like Tik Tok for example. Social media has turned into a daily competition between

people and it is making others feel bad about themselves. People are finding more ways to create

struggles among the internet, and it gets a more isolated feeling to it. I will be analyzing the

mental effects that social media gives and use two genres to help me explain this topic better.

The first one I chose is a typography in which is an article called “How Can Social Media Affect

Your Health?” This focuses on the different ways it can affect your health mentally and

physically and give you ways on how you can use social media in a more positive manner. The
Second genre is an iconography in which I chose a ted talk for this. The ted talk video is called

“Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health?” The speaker is a social media expert named

Bailey Parnell. She is talking about her personal experiences and how it has affected a certain

age group. She will give details on how it affects certain groups like women and how we can do

better to make social media a little bit safer for ourselves. She also explains the obsessions and

how it feels like a harmless part of our daily lives. 18-24

Structure and Delivery

In the first genre, “How can Social Affect Your Health?”, the purpose is to inform the

reader of the affects social media can have on a person and ways you can stay healthy on social

media. In this article it briefly explains the mental issues that occur and how it can lead up to

physical issues. “People use social media for many things, such as socializing, finding, and

sharing information, shopping and simply as a diversion. Some of these activities are fairly

neutral while others may cause strong emotions.” (Paragraph labeled Emotional Impact) There is

a link within the paragraphs of blue colored words that lead to more paragraphs of the different

health issues and what the cause of them are. It explains the different ways people use social

media. It also gives tips on how you can still use social media, not completely shutting off, and

how to use it in a healthy positive way so you can stay healthy and be more productive. On the

top of the page, it shows an athletic with a selfie stick and the different emojis as medals on his

chest.

In the second genre, “is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health”, The purpose is to

inform the reader of the different groups that takes into effect of social media. Bailey Parnell first

gives a monologue about how people sound when they are using social media and the thoughts

that they carry with them. She then starts giving an explanation of how it affected her and gave
examples of why she decided to take a break and log out. “I was still experiencing Phantom

vibration syndrome. That’s when you think your phone went off, and you check, and it didn’t.”

(1:23/14:44) She next explains the diagnoses of mental health issues and who is on social media.

She explains the daily struggles and stressors of what they see and hear. She gives photo visuals

of the kinds of things post on social media and how people compare themselves to other people

they see online. She shows the different groups of people and how they are affected like gender

and race for example. She shows pictures of different people who fell victim to social media and

explains how they reacted after the use of it. She explains the emotional appeal to it and shows

the many ways in a power point of the ways we can avoid some of the issues she states and how

we can do better when using those platforms.

They are both similar because they both give the different effects social media can have

on people and what the causes of those are. They both explain the emotional appeals and the

addiction that occurs between people that are using it on a daily. The difference is that the article

does more go in depth of the different health issues that can occur both physically and mentally.

The Ted Talk mostly gives the emotional effects people go through and more on what makes

people so addicted to it. It also explains more of who is affected and how people think while they

use it. She uses her own personal experiences and what she has seen on the daily in posts and the

article only gives mostly facts of the issues. They both talk about ways we can solve the issue for

ourselves so we can be healthier and stress less about what we see on the internet.

Audience and Purpose

The Ted Talk was targeting an audience of ages 18 to 24. She explained how this group

of ages was mostly affected by this. Her purpose was to inform about the issues at hand in a way

that the audience can see if they relate to it or not. She was also trying to persuade those who
have the obsessions and addictions of the aspects of social media to take a look and see if they

were happy with how they handle social media and if they don’t to try to take better care of their

selves, so they won’t go crazy and actually develop those mental health issues. She wants to

encourage the audience to see certain parts of social media topics in a different perspective and

open their eyes on opportunities to create a better and stressful lifestyle when using it positive so

they can feel safer and happier.

The article was also targeting an audience of ages 18 to 24. The person who wrote the

article wanted to inform the audience the many different ways that social media can affect

mentally. It gives a list of the many mental disorders and emotional effects that can surface with

an explanation of a cause and effect set up. It also gives an explanation of the different ways we

can also use social media in a healthier sense.

They both have a purpose of trying to get readers to not take social media as a way to

hurt yourself. “Did that Facebook scroll make me feel better or worse off” (12:36/14:44) If you

have difficulty getting off social media, try productivity apps that limit your access to certain

sites. If you have a serious addiction problem, seek professional help. (last paragraph) They want

people to take a look at what it does to them and how they change with it and to learn the many

ways to improve on it.

Rhetorical Issues

The ted talk video is credible because the speaker’s is a social media expert, and her job

is to research the different aspects of social media like the benefits and issues of it. She uses

pathos to appeal to the audience’s emotion of the people who was affected by it. “18-year-old
Tyler Clementi who took his life after his roommate secretly filmed him kissing another guy,”

(8:04/14:44) there were a couple of other stories she stated, and these would make people feel

bad about how they use the internet or the things they post. People are insecure and are always

comparing their selves to other people in which they rack their brain over why they couldn’t

have or be more. She uses logos to give proof on the matter of who is affected or if anyone

wanted to get rid of their social media but couldn’t because they didn’t want to miss out. “7/10

students would get rid of their social networking accounts were it not for fear of being “left out

of the loop.” (7:05/14:44) They can’t stand being left out but they get sensitive when they see

something bad that they relate to and wish that so many things about them could change. Ethos

she uses is the people that is affected like the LGBQ or women because females or anyone else is

told that we have to dress, act, or look a certain way to be accepted into society. If we aren’t to

the people’s liking we are shamed into being us so people try to change themselves to be what

others say is “a better version.”

The article gives logos on the different ways it can hurt people. Many people get addicted

and it can lead to the stress and distraction of reality. Social media can be something that they get

so addicted to that they can’t put it down and it can cause them to be so distracted that they

forget to take care of their selves. They won’t sleep and they won’t exercise because they are so

focused on it. Staring at the screen so long can give them eye problems and if they don’t exercise

because of it then they will start feeling fatigue once it’s time for them to start moving again.

“People who are addicted to social media may experience negative side effects such as eye

strain, social withdrawal or lack of sleep.” (Paragraph “ways that social media impacts your

health,” bullet point 1)

 They both use words like depression, anxiety, belonging, and insecurity to emphasize the

emotion so the reader can understand the common feelings people have while using social

media. There are still many good things about social media so they both state of not calling it

quits but to take into account of what to do to help make it less dangerous for yourself.

Conclusion and Synapses

I believe that the ted talk achieved its purpose because it gives personal experiences and

proof of people who have been affected by it. She gives groups of who it effects and why it

affects them and gives a monologue of how people speak or think when using it. She also gives

the rates and percentages of what groups of people use it and how many are affected by it. I think

that maybe if the article gave more credible sources it could have better served its purpose. Yes,

it gave information on what could happen to people but if it gave information like how many

people it actually happened to then it could give more of an impact to people.

References

DiRenzo, A., & Contributor, F. (2020, March 30). How can social media affect your health? |.
Retrieved February 15, 2021, from https://sysomos.com/2016/10/27/can-social-media-
affect-health/#:~:text=Addiction%20to%20social%20media.%20People%20who%20are
%20addicted,can%20have%20a%20negative%20impact%20on%20your%20health.

RyersonU, T. (Director). (2017, June 22). Is Social Media Hurting Your Mental Health? [Video
file]. Retrieved February 14, 2021, from https://youtu.be/Czg_9C7gw0o.