Persuasive Essay | Seniorthesis2023

How has social media contributed to the rise of mental health issues?

Persuasive Essay

Kate Laing

Do you remember that speech your parents gave you about using phones and how you should focus more on other interests or school work? It's extremely repetitive, right? Most definitely. Yet, it is ignored. They told us to decrease the time on our phones to protect us from the dangers of a small screen that contains an addictive drug, social media. How does something we do not inhale, inject or consume affect us to the point it is compared to an addictive drug? Why do older generations give us lengthy lectures on less screen time? Why is mental health suddenly becoming a hot topic? People have begun to feel more isolated than ever before, yet this is not seen in the older generations. One study focusing on the recent generation's mental health, specifically adolescent mental health, found that there has been an increase in diagnosed mental health issues since the 2000s. Coincidentally social media came about in the early 2000s. Another study says “over half a million either through twelfth graders found that the number exhibiting high levels of depressive symptoms increased by 33 percent between 2010 and 2015. In the same period, the suicide rate for girls in that age group increased by 65 percent” (Miller). Mental health issues are more common than ever and there is one to blame for it all. Social media has contributed to the rise in mental health issues by becoming a main facet of communication, glamorizing mental illness, and creating an addiction.

While social media is society’s way of connecting, it is also our way of disconnecting. Mental illness has increased as social media has become our primary source of communication. The world must admit that communication in the current nation is more effective than it used to be. Before 1957, communication was prolonged and difficult, because “technological innovations resulted in rapid improvement of mass communication,” Everyone heavily depended on newspapers, mail, radio, television, letters, and movies to hear about current news and to communicate with others (Kuehn). Currently, letters are not written and tangible newspapers are not being read as much. Our new way of communicating through social media is fascinating, yet it is all but healthy.

Time on social media has taken up people's daily interactions and created a massive loss in our lives without us even realizing it. As a matter of fact, "increased time spent online is related to a decline in communication with family members, as well as the reduction of the Internet user's social circle, which may further lead to increased feelings of depression and loneliness" (Pantic). Society as a whole has decreased face-to-face contact, which is necessary. As Charles Sharmards argues, "it is not just screen time, but it is also what screen time has replaced, a big protective factor against depression" (Charles). When we communicate in person, it makes us happier overall, because it gives humans personal, spiritual, and social support alongside comfort especially when it comes to facing difficult challenges like mental health. When a human's way of growing and developing gets interrupted by social media, it puts people at a higher risk of contracting a mental health disorder. Younger people now typically do not know healthy connections especially when our "development is now reliant on social media" (Keles). Overall, when younger people use social media, it gets in the way of how they interact, connect, and communicate. While it is simply easy to connect through social media, it is also easy to fall into the trap of fake Facetime interactions that lead to solitude, meaning society is surrounded and in connection by many beings yet still is more alone than ever.

The appeal and attraction to solitude leads to the glamorization of mental health through social media. The beauty in pain becomes beautiful to all who are not in pain but eventually will be in pain because of that beauty. While pain is not pretty, it can be because of the Social Learning Theory, where others' actions and behaviors are discovered by watching what they do. The actions of those portraying mental illness influence viewers on social media which causes a trend that can lead those watching to “imitate the model’s behavior” (McLeod). When scholar Dawn Cheung et al. was younger, "it was cool" to have a mental illness. He saw photos of self-harm, black-and-white pictures of girls with sad, low-standing words. "Many people would 'like' them. Images of sad-eyed teens confessing their struggles with body image. More 'likes'. Suddenly, mental illness was seen as beautiful" (Cheung et al.). If people receive "positive feedback" they will copy and incorporate those actions into their life, because it releases dopamine, a chemical that makes us happy. For example, when someone posts something relating to their pain and receives a like, comment, and someone to check in on them, the person feels recognized. This may cause a cycle where one posts unhealthy facets of mental illness and ends up craving the sympathy of that "beautiful tragedy" that they and others portray because of the attention their actions receive (Cabral). Today, many grow up seeing posts on social media dealing with the ugly, but sometimes beautiful view of mental illness. These posts are idolized. The romanticization of mental illness through social media has caused a considerable increase in mental health issues. It may have even caused an addiction.

Addicts do not get addicted; well that is what they like to say. Mental health is declining as people develop an addiction to social media. Social media-addicted people who do not have access to social media or the internet tend to feel withdrawal. This relates to a drug addiction where people tend to terribly feel the loss of their greatest desire that they can not live without. There are "signs and symptoms that at least partially resemble the ones seen during drug/alcohol/nicotine abstinence syndrome" (Pantic). A social media addiction can however affect how you process pleasure and reward. Mortals begin "chasing that constant reward system" that does not necessarily fill the void of people; instead, it creates that addiction and may cause mental illness ("Are You Addicted"). When receiving a comment or like mortals as a whole feel they have gained something positive. This tends to lead to one feeling valued in a community of acceptance. The dopamine chemicals in the brain can be confusing and cause severe problems with our feel-good feelings, and it is why people can not stay away from what they are addicted to. "For instance a 2019 survey found that 40 percent of U.S. online users aged 18 to 22 years reported feeling addicted to social media." Social media is extremely accessible to all people, and it is the norm for society today. This leads to a huge problem where people who are addicted to social media use it to "improve their mood" ("Are You Addicted"). The dopamine we get from our social media fills that void through the positive reinforcement one receives from others through the media, that awakens our dopamine (McLeod). We often get confused between the reality of what makes us feel good. "The user needs interaction with social media to feel normal" (Murphy). Social media is a troubling issue that leads to mental illness due to the amount of time spent on it, which causes addiction.

It is crazy to think that social media, a commonly used outlet, can affect one's life to this depth. Society has grown to rely on the world of social media, where we often converse while possibly attaching ourselves to what we expose ourselves to. This can be explained through the use of our most harmful drug as it manipulates the people who stare at a screen viewing glamorized content one cannot seem to close out of. While this addiction has replaced our interpersonal connections, mental illnesses are rapidly sprouting from social media. It has essentially created an artificial connection that has spread immensely throughout the world. Our older generations give us lengthy lectures on the use of our phones because of the increased mental illnesses in society that are beyond what they have seen before. The scroll is all worth the while until it captures the brain to change one's emotions, thinking, and behavior. Our mental health is harmed by the blue light shining in our world's eyes.

Bibliography

"Are You Addicted to Social Media?" Lee Health, Lee Health, Accessed Nov. 13th, 2022.

Cabral, Sasha. "Op-Ed: From Stigmatized to Glamorized: Mental Illness in the Media." Upstream News, 8 Dec. 2021, Accessed Sept. 18, 2022.

Charles, Sharmard. "Social Media Linked to Rise in Mental Health Disorders in Teens, Survey Finds." NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 14 Mar. 2019, Accessed Oct. 23rd, 2022.

Cheung, Dawn, et al. "When Did Having a Mental Illness Become Cool?" inspire, 7 Feb. 2021, Accessed Sept. 19th, 2022.

Keles, Betul. "A Systematic Review: The Influence of Social Media on Depression, Anxiety and Psychological Distress in Adolescents." Taylor & Francis Online, 21 Mar. 2019, Accessed Sept. 19th, 2022.

Kuehn, Paul Richard. “Communication Devices in the 1950s: How Did People Communicate before Cell Phones?” TurboFuture, TurboFuture, 23 Jan. 2018, Accessed Nov. 16th, 2022.

Miller, Caroline. “Does Social Media Use Cause Depression?” Child Mind Institute, Child Mind Institute, 14 Apr. 2022, Accessed Dec. 12th, 2022.

Mcleod, Saul. "Albert Bandura's Social Learning Theory." Simply Psychology, 1 Jan. 1970, Accessed Nov. 13th, 2022.

Murphy, Edmund. "Social Media Addiction - Signs, Symptoms, Risks and Treatment." Recovered. Accessed Nov. 2nd, 2022.

Pantic, Igor. "Online Social Networking and Mental Health." Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., Oct. 2014, Accessed Oct. 23rd, 2022.

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