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Lynzie Hartshorn

Professor Stalbird

English 1201

23 March 2019

Social Media is Causing Depression and Anxiety.

The day of face to face conversations, mail, and telephone calls has emerged to

a communication style of texts, DM’s, Snapchats and posts. Millions of people in the

world use social media to communicate with others and to be informed about any

topic. Through internet applications, users are connected to information, people, and

advertisement 24 hours a day. The social media platform has evolved our lifestyle.

The founding fathers of social media could not have predicted the overall impact it

would have on our behavior. The social media platform has had an impact on how an

individual processes information about themselves and others. With an increase of

mental health cases among young adults in the past 7 years, it would not be irrational

for experts to not investigate the effects of social media and mental health. An

understanding of social media origins, how individuals use the application and how

mental issues could arise from social media is needed to help create preventative

measures for future users to develop a healthy relationship with media platforms.

The concept of social media has been an evolutionary process with its origins

in the late 20th century. However, the emergence of Facebook users in 2006 really

propelled social media on to a new platform. Facebook set the tone for all of the social
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media apps used today. Facebook is a photo/video sharing app that your “friends” can

see what you post, those friends can like, share, and comment on post. Every app

created after that has the same similarities with the app Facebook. The app Instagram

is a photo/video sharing app that you can like, comment, add to your story (which is

only online for 24 hours then disappears), go live (streaming what you are doing), and

direct message to people. Instagram is the newer Facebook with little details

Facebook does not have. Twitter is kinda a different form of Facebook. Mainly used

for just making comments that people make. Although, Twitter can share videos and

photos as well.

With competition among different aps, creators searched for ways to keep their

user engaged. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter implemented things such as the like

button and the endless scroll. To a user these applications may seem minor however,

the implementation of these features was set to keep the user on. For example, the

endless scroll keeps the anticipation of the user high making the individual wonder

what will be next. By creating addictive features, the user will stay on the app longer

and more frequently. The more user frequency, the more capital investment. With the

intent of financial gains, these features have had an impact on some of the user’s

mental health. The co-founder of the like button gave an interview to BBC which she

stated the she began associating the like button on Facebook with the her self worth.

This social emotional connection has helped evolve these platforms from a “group

chatting and sharing” platform to marketing and advertisement of an individual.

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Individuals have found fame and success on social media by becoming a social

media influencers. Social media influencers are basically the models for Instagram,

Twitter, and Facebook that make it seem like a great time to be apart of that app. They

usually get 100,000’s of like and comments, they end up getting paid by the apps.

They will display advertisements for company that is displayed uniquely different

then than a tv commercial or advertisement page. In correlation with tv and magazine

ads, people are subjected to images that may not display real life. Users are being

subjected to unrealistic standards of success and happiness.(Child mind institute).

However, users are being subjected to these standards that are not seen through

models and famous people but through their peers.

The media platforms have created a sense of validation for its users. They are

able to compare themselves to others gain a sense of validity. However, there is

another side to this: comments. Comments can be left on post that a user may display.

Since these comments can be made by anyone they are subjected to anyone’s

opinions. For example, social media influencers have been known to struggle with

mental health after being on the platform for a period of time. They are subjected to

comments that can be hurtful and downright disrespectful. People start telling you to

“kill yourself” or “you’re not talented”.

Unfortunately, these comments can cause people to really think about

themselves in a negative manner. They start to believe they are not good people. The

negative comments start to stand out more than the positive ones. Since any user can
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be subjected to vulnerability of the media platform, there has been correlation to

depression and anxiety among its users.“Anxiety was shown to have risen again by

another 5 percent.” (Collier). Each year the polls tend to go up for anxiety and

depression in the United States. There is no strong evidence the social media itself

causes depression or anxiety but there is evidence that suggest the platform can

contribute to mental health issues.

Studies have found that there is a rise in suicide among teenagers and young

adults. Researchers have indicated that these young adults and teenagers have had

few real social interactions. Since they are on their social media platforms

continuously, researchers have said that there is a low physical activity, concentration

levels have decreased, sleep deprivation, and low self esteem. With less opportunities

to interact with people on a real interaction face to face, the social media interactions

do not fill the void of a user and leave the user feeling empty. On the flip side,

researchers have found that with there is an interaction on a real level and the

individual wants to push emotion to the side they will use the social media as an

escape.

According to an article in Washington Post, there are “a relatively small

number of people are diagnosed as addicted, the negative impact of social media is

apparent whether it’s deemed clinical addiction or not.” Just like any addiction,

there are possible steps that users can take to help reduce or eliminate depression and

anxiety social media contributes. One possible solution to the social media addiction
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is to control the amount of time you are on your phone. Although it is hard to claim

when people started to observe the correlation between social media and mental

health, a lot of reports suggest findings in 2012 and 2013. Ways to solve these

problems are controlling the time you spend on a phone, ask why you are on social

media right now, and individual responsibility of messaging on social media.

Setting time limits on your daily use of social media and engeneral your phone.

The average person gets on their phones “80x a day” (SWNS). If you were to cut that

in half you would be saving much time and not worrying about what is on social

media. People took surveys on how often people check their phones, “A study by

global tech protection and support company Asurion found that the average person

struggles to go little more than 10 minutes without checking their phone. And of the

2,000 people surveyed, one in 10 check their phones on average once every four

minutes.”(SWNS). The bigger the number they got you would have thought it would

rise the time even more, not cut it more than half. Not saying to cut down your time

from going from 10 min to 3 hours, but slowly taking the steps. Slowly easy yourself

from 10 minutes to 20 minutes then to 40 minutes. The survey also showed that “ As a

matter of fact, 31 percent feel regular anxiety at any point when separated from their

phone and 60 percent reported experiencing occasional stress when their phone is off

or out of reach.” (SWNS). Phones are used so much in our lives that it is becoming a

need to feel safe.

Separation anxiety is becoming real with these devices we did not need 20
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years ago. Everyone everywhere has access to a phone or at least a cell phone. This is

where the strategy comes in plan to slowly disconnect from your phone and other

devices. By doing all of this you can slowly start clearing your mind and learn how to

interact and communicate better without the phone and social media that you are

using on a daily basis.

Taking a break from the apps also eliminates the view of negative comments.

Getting away from messages that make ones self worth low can help reduce the image

of not good enough.

If a user chooses to disconnect from the social media world, they will have to

prepare themselves for the change they will go through to process and gain

information. The individual will not get their news and hear from people as they once

did. They will have to have new strategies to gain information. Just because someone

reduces the time on their phone, does not mean others did. An individual will have to

inform people about their choice so people can still reach out. A new plan will have to

implemented for work, social events, or even emergencies.

Social media has “empowered people to have a voice... “ (Rutledge). This has

been huge on social media especially with politics these past few years. This mainly

has been going on in the Twitter world. It is fast an easy to say what you want to say

with the people that are following you. Without social media we could not do that.

Another solution to social media and depression is by asking yourself why you are

addicted to social media. “Ask yourself: Why do you open Instagram and Facebook in
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the first place?”(Bentley). Most people answer with “I do not know, I just like

scrolling through my feed.”, there is always a reason for what you are doing

(Bentley). You need to find the cue of why you are doing this. Are you bored, stressed,

overwhelmed, etc.. Once you find the cue of why you are doing this you can slowly

start to think and talk out your problems or replace being bored with doing something

active. This will help out with your depression and finding the route to where it is all

beginning from.

Although, sometimes you are just checking the feed as a get away time. This

way you are keeping yourself busy while you are waiting for something to happen or

you are just waiting on someone to come over. Sometimes the feed tends to calm

people down and set a good vibe for some people. Like how some people like to read

in their free time, some people like to watch tv in their free time, and some like to play

sports in their free time. You just have to be cautious of how much time you are doing

and how many times a day you are doing it. It is not bad to get on social media on

your free time, but it can start to become a habit. It really just depends on you and

how you can control the way you are using your social media and screen time.

Online bullying is a huge affect on depression on social media. The companies

of the social media apps have tried to help out with this topics; however, a lot is based

on individual and their choices. Some people tend to understand it, some people tend

to not understand it. Could people start caring more about this topic, taking it more

seriously. It all depends on the users and how they are treating the situations. If a user
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is constantly harassing the same person, commenting terrible things about them. The

person who is being harrassed could just block them, unless you are a bigger account

you can not just block everyone who comments something negative because that

would just take up to much time. Could the social media companies do more to

prevent these things from happening. Yes, they could by censoring words out from the

comment sections, like negative ones that make people upset about themselves and

what they are doing.

The user can cut off any time they want it is their choice to pick up the phone

and go on the app every day for a lot of time. Blame the app because they can do a lot

more to help sensor out the negative comments and negative post about someone or

something. The companies are in charge of what is put out on the internet everyday

and they make it positive as possible. The companies can only do so much, so then it

is up to the users. The companies made report buttons for the user to use when a

comment or picture is not nice or inappropriate for some of the users. The creators are

doing a lot to try to keep the negative aspect away from the apps, but there is still

more that can be done then just the report buttons. The creators could put the a

restriction on what people comment depending on their ages. This would help younger

kids see less inappropriate things out on the internet and sensory them from online

bullying.

Online bullying is one of the toughest things to go through because the user

feels like they can get away with saying things because they are not face to face with
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the person. Thus causing the online buller to think he is not actually hurting their

feelings or think it just okay to say it because they are not face to face. The creators

and user can help report these accounts to try and make social media a more positive

place. Even though people might keep just make hate accounts you can keep reporting

them and eventually they will not find it amusing anymore.

The idea that the addiction of social media exists higher in the younger

generation than the older generations are false. A study that the New York Times,

reported out showed that those whose ages range from 18 - 49 had the same amount of

social media usage. The report did share out that those who were over 50 was less

about half the amount of usage. This report is significant because it displays that all

ages can be affected.

However, in a research conducted by Elon University they found that with

generations that are of older ages they have some better skill sets for face to face

interactions than the younger generation. The article suggests that the younger

generation will change forever how humans interact and communicate with each

other. With such change insight, the research suggests that professionals also continue

to research how technology will change the human development. For the tech world

has a powerful impact on the psychological and brain development.

In conclusion, my research on social media usage as informed me how

powerful the platform can be. Addiction is addiction. The platform can be drugs,

alcohol, smoking, gambling, and social media. The behavior responses to a stimuli
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can have an effect on mental health. I have self evaluated and reflected on my own

use. By inquiring on the intent of my usage, I have found my screen time go down. I

spend less time scrolling if my intent is in place. By understanding the power of

distraction and effects of ADHD, the reduce of multi tasking has gone down. If I am

working on something, I try not to pick up my phone to check the apps. Also, by

turning off the notifications I find that I do not check my phone as often. When I

comment, it is always positive. I live by my grandmother’s saying, “If you do not

have anything nice to say, then say nothing at all.”

Support systems for addiction is crucial. Information about addiction is crucial.

Currently, this public service announcements about social media addiction is little if at

all. It takes knowledge for change. One should be observant that social media could be

a catalyst for someone’s depression and anxiety. As studies began to emerge more and

more, education on user responsibility and accountability should be taught. Many

youth are unaware of the power and impact their platform has. Even with the

increasing amount of cases in court dealing with bullying on social media, many

youth continue to use the platform in a negative way. In the end, these applications

have had an impact both positive and negative on our lifestyles so it is up to the user

to be conscientious of their intent of use for this is just the beginning with the rise of

artificial intelligence and virtual reality.

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This image shows how we are using social media as our comfort blanket. Anytime we

are lonely we go to these apps to help us feel safe, needed, and happy.
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This picture is showing how social media is stuck on our brains. It can be annoying

and make you want to go insane when you do not have it. This shows the main apps

that are on our minds majority of the time and these are the most used apps as well.

Work Cited

Barr, Sabrina. “Six Ways Social Media Negatively Affects Your Mental Health
without You
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Jan. 2019,
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health-negative-effects-depression-anxiety-addiction-memory-a8307196.html.

Bentley, Carey. “Five Steps To Break Your Social Media Addiction.” Forbes, Forbes
Magazine, 2 May 2018,
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbescoachescouncil/2018/05/02/five-steps-to-
break-your-social-media-addiction/#1217ba6138be

Bromwich, Jonah Engel. “Generation X More Addicted to Social Media Than

Millennials, Report Finds.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 20 Jan.
2018,
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Communications Elon University, 2019,
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