Background Information
The New York Times has an editorial contest every year where students from all over can submit their own editorials on any topic they choose.There were 10,509 students that submitted their own editorials and the editorials were only allowed to be 450 words long. This editorial was written by me for the "Sixth-Annual Student Editorial Contest: Write About An Issue That Matters To You" during 2019.
More information here!
EDITORIAL
Have you ever scrolled through Instagram or Facebook for hours, only to find yourself feeling deflated afterward? Do you catch yourself on social media obsessively checking your likes, followers, or retweets? As a teenager, I am unrelentingly exposed to the harmful effects of social media daily. I overhear my peers comparing each other's followers and stressing about how many likes their new post received. Social media use has grown exponentially since 2010 and continues to do so; however, social media users and researchers alike are beginning to consider the impact of social media on mental health.
Research suggests that social media is damaging to mental health and promotes self-absorbed behavior facilitated by psychological addiction.
Studies indicate the use of social media and adoption of smartphones correlates with the increase in depression and suicide in recent years. A study of over half a million teenagers published by SAGE Journals identified an increase of 33 percent in depressive symptoms reported between 2010 and 2015 as well as the suicide rate in teenage girls increasing by 65 percent. The study’s evidence correlates to the growth of mobile data use: in 2015, 92 percent of young adults owned a smartphone according to The Child Mind Institute. While correlation does not mean causation, the correlation seems far from coincidental. Social media does have positive effects, such as the ability to be connected to others for constant communication. However, even this potential upside is flawed. Sherry Turkle, a professor at MIT, states in her article “The Flight From Conversation” published in The New York Times, “‘We’ve become accustomed to a new way of being “alone together’”. Professor Turkle explains that by having the ability of constant connection, we have now allowed ourselves to lack in social relationships with our friends and family by being distracted by our smartphones.
Social media is a social slot machine: without a doubt addictive, creating a compulsion for self-validation with likes and an unhealthy obsession with self. “Social media centers around one primary goal: promotion of the self,” reports Zack Carter Ph.D, “When you begin to rely on text messages, comment threads, private messages, tweets, and other social media communication to validate your self-worth, you can become easily addicted with the need to satisfy this validation …”. It is time to rethink our relationship with social media and to educate ourselves about the addictive and harmful mental health effects. We must also be wary of how social media communication can (ironically) diminish our social lives and focus on building authentic relationships through face-to-face communication rather than hiding behind our artificial facades behind our screens.
Resources (APA format)
Turkle, Sherry. (2012, April 21). The Flight From Conversation. The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/opinion/sunday/the-flight-from-conversation.html
Carter, Zach. (2017, June 3). Are You Self-ie Absorbed? Psychology Today. Retrieved from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/close-proximity/201706/are-you-self-ie-absorbed
Miller, Caroline. (2017). Does Social Media Cause Depression? Child Mind Institute. Retrieved from https://childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/
Twenge, J. M., Joiner, T. E., Rogers, M. L., & Martin, G. N. (2017, Nov. 14). Increases in Depressive Symptoms, Suicide-Related Outcomes, and Suicide Rates Among U.S. Adolescents After 2010 and Links to Increased New Media Screen Time. Clinical Psychological Science, 6(1), 3–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/2167702617723376
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