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Taylor Collins
ENG 1201
Professor Stalbird
14 April 19
My research essay will help us furthermore into seeking the answer to the question of,
“Does social media affect teens to have depression and/or anxiety?”. Social media has been a big
topic lately in today’s society. Social Media affects everyone around in many different ways.
Parents don’t want to receive a phone call of them losing a child from cyberbullying or by them
doing self harm. This can even cause children to have lots of health diseases that can never be
changed back to normal. Social media affects our minds and self-esteem. Teens and young adults
are feeling like they can’t be themselves or others will judge them. It causes negative effects that
are leading to even more negative choices. Overall, social media causes depression and/ or
anxiety in teens that can lead up to losing teen lives; we need to solve this problem now before
Almost seven months ago, there was a girl who passed away because she decided to take
her own life. She’s tried to multiples times, but this time was too late. I didn’t know her, but I
had some friends from my school who knew were pretty well. She went to a highschool that’s
about twenty minutes away so even in my community, it hit people pretty hard. One of her best
friends lives in my neighborhood. She was on homecoming court multiple times and had lots of
friends. She loved to paint and was very social. Even though her social media accounts she had
made it seem like she was this happy teenager, she was actually struggling deep inside and she
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just couldn't take anymore bullying she receive from her classmates, on social media and by her
friends. This proves a great quote by Lessor Fuller and Edwin Rolfe, “You can’t judge a book by
its binding”. This metaphorical phrase means that people shouldn't judge someone by their
appearance or by the way they look. The outward appearance isn’t the only thing people should
consider in someone. People need to know someone by their personality, to actually know them.
No one knows what people are going through. Being nice is the best medicine because people
would love be to treated with kindness so everyone needs to make sure they treat others the way
In this bar graph, it shows the percentage of High School students who have attempted
suicide in the last year from freshman year to senior year and in total. From the data I have
received, the cases studied have been proven that females have attempted a way higher
percentage than boys. The most attempted is ninth grade, however this isn’t shocking because
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these are the news kids in highschool and are brand new to the building. This helps support my
thesis because having this graph proves my claim that suicide attempts have increased over the
years in teenagers and this is correlation, as the years go on, technology is advancing and getting
stronger. In the total bar graph, the numbers are really high. When I was a freshman, I was
terrified. My sister was a junior which made me feel a lot better because I didn’t want to get
bullied or made fun of. Social Media issues were really bad in my grade. Lots of people posted
inappropriate images or sayings and they got bullied for it. Sexting was also a big issue in my
grade. There was about five girls that I knew who attempted suicide and were gone from school
for weeks. Overall, no matter the age, suicide affects all ages.
Many people don’t have a clue on what the word depression is. Depression “is a common
and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you
act”( Psychiatry.Org). Another thing is anxiety, anxiety “is longer than usual period of excessive
worry and that a person find difficult to control”(Google.com). Depression and anxiety seem
similar, but they are completely different. Depression is a mood disorder, while anxiety is a
generalized disorder. Many parents commonly miss the signs or symptoms of depression or
anxiety because these types of feelings occur in everyone and seem normal to have once in a
while. These two disorders affects the brain by a stress response caused by a chemical or cellular
level. These disorders can change the way someone has felt in the past or memories they have
stored and could start to lose their memory. These disorders can also lead to threatening choices
Depression affects the brain by how someone thinks, feels and behaves. Depression does
this in the hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus is located in central
area of the brain. This part is all of our memories are stored and regulates the hormone called
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cortisol. Our Bodies release cortisol when we are in physical and mental stress, mostly in times
of depression. The prefrontal cortex is located in the very front of the brain. This is where we
create emotions, make decisions, and form memories. The amygdala is the part of brain that
facilities emotional responses, such as pleasure and fear. These three are the main parts of the
feelings will continuously occur and never seem to go away. Others are helpless, worthless
guilty, hopeless and irritable. Everyone goes through these feelings ,but they don’t stick around
for long periods of time. Depression is completely different from sadness or grief. The loss of a
loved one, getting in a traumatic car accident or losing a job is a normal feeling of sadness. Grief
is a process and unique to every single person because people feel differently in the grieving
process. It’s a painful feeling and is a bowl stirred with mixed emotions and no one wants to be
concentrating, irritability, trouble falling or staying asleep, panic attacks, avoiding social
situations and finally irrational fears. Panic attacks are the number one symptom shown in
anxiety because they are so severe and scary. A girl on my softball team has anxiety. She got
diagnosed a little over two months ago. She reached a really low point in her life and it was
really hard on the softball team because on game day, we need everyone to be hyped and excited
,but she sometimes feels gloomy. She usually tells us what to do whenever she is having a bad
day. For example, after us running sprints, she has to sit down and take deep breaths because she
feels that her heart is beating too fast and she starts to panic. She’s gotten alot better from it, and
she still works on it every single day. Her parents had no clue and neither did her sister.
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Symptoms aren’t shown in people who have been diagnosed. I’m glad that she is getting the help
Norman Berlinger is the author to the book called “Rescuing Your Teenager from
Depression”. Her book talks about how one in every eight students in high school have
depression. The main purpose of this book is the author trying to tell parents to monitor their
children to see any types of signs. The author of this book missed the signs in her own son, who
was diagnosed with depression. It's commonly known for parents to miss the signs of depression
and/or anxiety. This book is a guide for parents to not feel ashamed or discouraged if parents do
miss signs in their children because Dr. Berlinger did as well. Doctors are trying to do a better
understanding in what depression and anxiety look like. Nurses and teachers at school buildings
are in training each year before the school year begins to go over the signs and symptoms to
make sure their students are okay because in a school environment, students want to feel
connected to their superiors and to know that they are in a safe environment.
Many parents don't understand what social media is. Social media is “websites and
applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in social networking” (
Google.com). Anyone who has a phone can download social media and create themselves an
account by just a click of a button. Parent’s don’t have a clue on what’s happening on their
phones, who they’re talking too, what they are posting, what there looking at. Parents and legal
guardians must be doing something wrong because studies are being proven that teens are doing
self harm and putting themselves and others in serious danger by cyberbullying , by social media
and bullying from schools. Sharath Chandra is the author for the article called “Understanding
and Measuring Psychological Stress using Social Media”. She talks about the understanding and
measures on what social media is and how to use it properly. It’s purpose is to demonstrate the
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different types of social media apps that are out there and which ones give the most people stress.
They have proved that Twitter and Facebook are for all age groups in the world. Twitter and
Facebook are known from all ages to use which makes sense on how they are proved to give
Technology has changed and grown dramatically over the years. Sherry Turkle is the
author for “Alone Together”. The reason why Sherry wrote this book in the first place was to
remind the readers to know what social media is realled used for and how to reshape it back to
the way it was made for. It wasn’t made for users to cyberbully, sexting, or just saying negative
things to others to put them down. Social media has been changing over the years and we can’t
let it get any worse than it already is. One of Sherry’s quotes said “We expect more from
technology and less from each other”(Turkle ). This quote caught my eye very easily because it’s
so true. People expect more from social media, people feel more comfortable talking to someone
through social media than in person. People also care more on how many likes they get from a
picture which isn’t the point of social media. People are starting to have social issues because all
they can do is talk over technology, they don't have the courage to talk to others face to face.
“The technology has become like a phantom limb, it is so much a part of them. These young
people are among the first to grow up with an expectation of continuous connection: always on,
and always on them. And they are among the first to grow up not necessarily thinking of
simulation as second best. All of this makes them fluent with technology but brings a set of new
insecurities” (Turkle). The world isn’t ready for what technology is going to bring to teens and
young adults in the future. People are so clued on to their phones, it’s like that’s the only thing
This is a bar graph that represents the amount of cell phone usage teenagers have used on
cell phones, social media and by playing video games. This graph was made one year ago and
they interviewed seven hundred and forty three teens from the ages of thirteen to seventeen. The
red colored graph represents that the teens spend too much time while the orange colored graph
represents the teen trying to cutback the amount of time they are on their phones. From what is
shown, the cell phone was about the same, social media more people have tried to cut back and
playing video games teenagers have tried to cut back. This helps support my thesis because they
got their dada from Pew Research Center so it makes it credible and also teenagers have tried to
cut back the usage part, however forty one percent of those teenagers which is about three
hundred and five of those teenagers are on social media way too much. I’m surprised that social
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media is only forty one percent because I thought it would be a lot more than that. It’s divided to
almost fifthy percent of those teeanges are on their phone yet the other half are trying to cut
back. The problem with these studies are that teenagers could be lying and this data they have
received could be incorrect. The title of the graph even includes “admits” to excessive cell phone
usages.
Social media is supposed to be a fun and nonchalant way for people to communicate to
others and meet new people. Social Media has reached its limit on how much it can handle and
its shown by the amount of teens and young adults who depression and anxiety from social
media. Pamela Rutledge wrote “Does Social Media Push Teens to Depression” and her purpose
was to try and explain how technology will bring new sinaroes that we aren’t ready to deal with.
Pamela gives clues to teens and young adult parents on how to spot depression or anxiety in their
children. Nobody's perfect and again these symptoms look just the same as a child who's been
upset because their friends were being mean to them or the death of a loved one. Social Media
can make anyone lose their mind. It causes so much frustration and anger because not everyone
will agree with what others will say or post on social media. Everyone can share their feelings
and opinions, however it usually leads to arguments because some people won’t keep their
mouth shut and feel the need to comment back at someone. I overthink a lot and if I see
something I don’t like or I hear people talking negative about me, I would think about it the
whole entire day. I take a deep breath and I count from one to ten and then count backwords. It
helps me relax and refocus to what I was doing in the first place. We do need to take these
seriously though because these symptoms could lead up to self harm and suicide.
This a story about a girl who has committed suicide by depression, her name was
Madison Holleran. On August 2, 2017, She decided to take her life by jumping off in the middle
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of downtown Pennsylvania. She got a scholarship for track and soccer at Pennsylvania
University. The talent that Madison had was a gift and she was just a natural athlete. She put so
much hard work to get to where she was at. Her parents said that she was struggling at the
beginning of College because she missed her home and her family. She was acting really off and
just not being herself. Both of her parents thought that it was just her not being used to the new
chapter of her life and not being in a comfortable environment. Living with family members and
staying in the same room for eighteen years gets pretty comfortable. Kate Fagan was the girl who
interview this story. Her purpose was to show others that she had a great life and she got to be a
college athlete. She was really famous for what she accomplished yet she was suffering from
depression and anxiety. No one had a clue what was going on with her. Overall, it doesn’t matter
if someone’s an athlete or a smart student, anyone can suffer from this deadly disease that affects
with our brains. The brain is what controls the whole body. The brain is what we need to keep as
sharp as it can be. Unfortunatly, she put too many negative thoughts and ideas in her head and
encouraged her to take her own life. This wasn’t her fault, this deadly disease controlled her
brain and took over who she really was. Her parents lost their only child. No family needs to let
their child pass away before their parents. The parents blame themselves, but they couldn’t do
anything about it. This was her choice she took because she didn’t wanna handle the weight all
over her anymore. This is another example that people can’t judge others because they have no
Social media is a place where people can express themselves. Users can find so much
more on social media, they can learn from it, and if people are having a bad day, they can go
online and watch a funny video or look at creating pictures. People use social media to find out
new friends, express themselves and to do their jobs online. People make a living off on social
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media. They make an account about their store, post any new deals and have people post about
their clothing to get cash. So many people are abusing the gift of social media and they should be
punished for it. If users are going to use social media in a negative way then they should be
blocked or be disconnected from it. The reason why so many people are so negative online is
because they feel so bad about themselves that they feel the need to behind a screen and be
disrespectful and stubborn. They don’t have the courage to do this in person is because they
don’t feel good about themselves. Cell Phones can take over someone's life, it’s crazy about how
In conclusion, social media is a huge topic in our society. Social media affects everyone
around which negative choices causing negative consequences. From the resources I have
provided in my essay, social media can cause many frustrations eventually leading to the feeling
of “unsteadiness”. Parents can start finding the symptoms in their children and get medical help.
Cyberbullying goes around on social media twenty four seven and there’s not enough ways to
let it go away. From all the information I have added, This is why depression and anxiety are
Work Cited
Teens to Depression?,
22 Feb. 2019.
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https://www.health24.com/Medical/Depression/News/does-social-media-push-teens-to-
depression-20190222-2
Turkle, Sherry. Alone Together: “Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each
Other”.
Vol. 384, Basic Books, Inc. New York, NY, USA , 2011.
http://alonetogetherbook.com/
Sherry Turkle is the author for “Alone Together”.
https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression
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+is+&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j69i61j69i60j69i57j69i60j0.2496j0j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-
8&safe=active&ssui=on
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e=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjw6YnXp77hAhVpjoMKHW4OCEkQ_AUIDygC&b
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tpM:&imgrc=Tk6kklvuF6inmM:
https://www.google.com/search?q=teenage+cell+phone+use+statistics+2018&rlz=1CAKSOU_e
nUS824&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjejaK54b7hAhUDA6wKHdkVCiwQ_
AUIDygC&biw=1300&bih=605&safe=active&ssui=on#imgrc=Otl_vbG5lCph9M: