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Sydney Taylor

Hailie Bryant

Expository Writing

October 6, 2020

Social Media and How They Affect Mental Health Disorders

Social media is a way for any user to quickly create and share content with their friends,

but over the years, it has become a negative impact on mental health. Social networking is a

progressively growing thing, and as it grows mental health declines even more. I chose this topic

because of a recent documentary I watched called “The Social Dilemma,” it went into depth

about teenagers today who are consumed by their phones and social media. The documentary

discusses how the media has reprogrammed civilization to be overdependent on their phones and

social media.

I can relate really well to this topic because I have seen in my life where I focus too much

on the negative aspects of social media, and it has caused me to feel bad about myself. Instagram

is a popular platform in today’s society, and a lot of people depend on how many likes and

comments they receive on their posts. They think that likes are what makes you a “popular”

person and this has become a negative thing for teenagers in today’s society including me. Now I

catch myself waiting for how many likes and comments I get on when I post on Instagram. I

don’t get a lot in general, which is good with me, but I assume that just because I don’t get 200+

likes means that I am not good enough. I start to think why I don’t get that many likes or why

doesn’t anyone like me, and I mentally put myself in this bubble that closes everyone off.

Looking at how many likes a person has on their post is one case where social media has badly
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influenced my mental health and many others. Some of my friends think they aren’t pretty

enough or will never be liked by a lot of people.

Another social media platform, Snapchat, can have a negative environment. People can

post selfies, videos, or use a variety of filters to make them look better or add something exciting

to their post. People can do many different things that change the way they look and hide who

they really are on the outside. I tap through what people post on their stories and depending on

how they look, I stop on their post and stare at it for a while. I start to compare myself to them

and think why am I not like that. Sometimes I only post something so that someone will swipe

up and compliment me. I shouldn’t need to post something to know that I am valued or try to

match society’s standards. From personal experiences using Snapchat and Instagram and

watching ​The Social Dilemma​ is why I wanted to find more about how social media has affected

mental health disorders.

After deciding to research this topic, I started asking myself questions about social media

and mental health. The first thing I thought of was ‘why was social media bad for teenagers’ and

‘why has social media increased anxiety and depression’. I used APP search and Proquest to help

me find credible sources that would be good for my research. I found a few good scholarly

articles, but now I need to look in depth and see if they actually help me support my question.

The articles, journals, and books I looked at all had a similar conclusion that social media has

influenced young adults' mental health in a negative way. These have supported my argument

that social media has a negative impact on teenagers' lives. Some resources I found have said the

opposite of what I support, they have found evidence as to how using social networking sites do

not cause a negative effect on mental health disorders and can be used in a good way. I wanted to

include the counter argument, so readers would know that I acknowledged the valid points of
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others who believe social media is not bad. Overall, I believe that social media has a negative

effect on mental health because it has caused an increase in depression and anxiety, resulting in

children feeling isolated and having lower self esteem.

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Annotated Bibliography

Abi-Jaoude, Elia, et al. “Smartphones, Social Media Use and Youth Mental Health.” Canadian

Medical Association Journal, vol. 192, no. 6, 2020, doi:10.1503/cmaj.190434.

“Smartphones, Social Media Use and Youth Mental Health” by Elia Abi-Jaoude

addresses the issue for the rise of smartphones and social media by many young adults

and children. Abi-Jaoude discusses how social media has been made to affect young

adults' sense of self through describing how people became envious of others while

scrolling on Facebook. She also considered if there is an addiction to social media and if

this affects mental illnesses. Abi-Jaoude mentioned the percentage rises in moderate to

serious mental issues for teenagers and while that was rising, social media was becoming

more popular. This journal appears credible because the author uses evidence from a

variety of cross-sectional, longitudinal, and empirical studies on the smartphone and

social media usage. This source can also be a little biased because some of the studies use

a variety of criteria to state whether or not someone is actually addicted to something.

Depending on the circumstance a participant may be “addicted” but in reality they are

not. This journal was to be found useful because it gives information that proves social

media has had an impact on a person’s mental health which supports my argument that

social media is a negative influence.

Barthorpe, Amber, et al. “Is Social Media Screen Time Really Associated with Poor Adolescent

Mental Health? A Time Use Diary Study.” Journal of Affective Disorders, vol. 274,

2020, pp. 864–870., doi:10.1016/j.jad.2020.05.106.

The journal, “Is Social Media Screen Time Really Associated with Poor Adolescent

Mental Health? A Time Use Diary Study,” Amber Barthorpe studied 13-15 year olds and
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their use of social media. She discovered that the more they used social media it was

more associated with self-harm, depression, and lower self-esteem. No matter the time of

the day or day of the week, the association between social media usage and self-harm was

similar. Barthorpe analyzed data from the Millennium Cohort Study to look at social

media screen time and mental health outcomes. According to Barthorpe’s results, she

explained why there was an association and how in the future, people should look more

for other mental health outcomes and how they engage with social media. The

Millennium Cohort Study helped the journal appear credible because it was from the

National Institute for Health Research. The journal is useful to my research paper because

it provides support that social media does have a negative effect on mental health issues.

Social media has caused people to harm themselves and make them feel worse about who

they are.

Berryman, Chloe, et al. “Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults.”

Psychiatric Quarterly, vol. 89, no. 2, 2017, pp. 307–314.,

doi:10.1007/s11126-017-9535-6.

In this journal, “Social Media Use and Mental Health among Young Adults,” Berryman

studies the tendency for young adults to engage with social media or vaguebooking

(unclear messages that seem alarming to get attention) to say something about their

mental health. The outcomes of all these posts lead to the conclusion of adolescents

feeling lonely, isolated, having social anxiety, or even being suicidal. Teenagers don’t

come out and say they are feeling depressed because they don’t want to be bashed on.

Berryman’s results of this study conveyed that social media was not predictive of mental

health function, but through vaguebooking it was. Vaguebooking was predictive and
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because of this it is now looked as a warning sign for serious mental health issues. This

journal seems credible because the author graduated with a degree in psychology and the

research she composed backed up her student thesis for her senior year at college. This

supports my research paper because the journal goes into detail about how social media

plays a big role in young adults' lives and how it has influenced a person’s mental illness.

Coyne, Sarah M., et al. “Does Time Spent Using Social Media Impact Mental Health?: An Eight

Year Longitudinal Study.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 104, 2020, p. 106160.,

doi:10.1016/j.chb.2019.106160.

The journal, “Does Time Spent Using Social Media Impact Mental Health?: An Eight

Year Longitudinal Study” by Sarah Coyne highlights that time spent using social media

had no relation to anxiety or depression changes over the course of 8 years. Coyne tested

the hypothesis that time engaging with social media might displace better activities for

proactive mental health somewhere else. Her results state that increasing time on social

media had no influence on making mental health issues worse when looked at the

individual themself. This journal is credible because the author spent 8 years studying if

there is a relation between social media and mental health. The journal also used

information from the Family Studies Center at BYU, the School of Family Life, and the

College of Family Home and Social Science at BYU. This journal will be useful because

it tested the association between time spent using social media and anxiety and

depression, following the transition between adolescence and adulting. It also supports

the counterclaim that social media does not have an effect on mental health.

Gao, Junling, et al. “Mental Health Problems and Social Media Exposure during COVID-19

Outbreak.” Plos One, vol. 15, no. 4, 2020, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0231924.

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“Mental Health Problems and Social Media Exposure during COVID-19 Outbreak” by

Junling Gao focused on how much the citizens of Wuhan, China were exposed to social

media sites during Covid-19. Gao assessed mental health problems before participants

were exposed to social media and examined their association of what happened

afterwards. Gao’s results of this assessment was that there was a high frequency of

mental health problems, like depression and anxiety, that was associated with social

media exposure during Covid-19. This source seems credible because the author

conducted a cross-sectional study among Chinese Citizens who were 18 years or older.

This is a little biased because he did use a survey to do a rapid assessment which results

in some people lying when taking the survey. This supports my hypothesis that social

media is a bad influence because by the citizens being exposed to social networking

platforms, their mental health has declined.

O’Reilly, Michelle, et al. “Potential of Social Media in Promoting Mental Health in

Adolescents.” Health Promotion International, vol. 34, no. 5, 2018, pp. 981–991.,

doi:10.1093/heapro/day056.

“Potential of Social Media in Promoting Mental Health in Adolescents” written by

Michelle O’Reilly centers the article on the growing popularity of young adult mental

disorders, like depression and social anxiety, that poses a challenge for education and

healthcare systems globally. The goal for O’Reilly was to use social media as a leverage

tool to positively promote mental health among the young adults. These people

frequently depend on using social media to find information about mental health

disorders and how it would help themselves. By promoting social media platforms in a

positive way, they were able to conclude that this could change adolescents' lives. The
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article is credible because O’Reilly was a part of the Green Institute of Child Health and

is an expert in this field of study. This article is useful to my paper because it would

support the counter argument that social media can be a positive influence to mental

health issues.

The Social Dilemma Documentary. Directed by Jeff Orlowski. Exposure Labs Production, 2020.

Netflix, https://www.netflix.com/search?q=social%20dilemma&jbv=81254224

“The Social Dilemma” by Jeff Orlowski exposes the overuse of social media and how it

has influenced today’s society. Orlowski focuses on the reprogramming social media has

done to the community in the United States to make them dependent on it too much.

Orlowski discussed how bad push notifications are and how that keeps a person glued to

their phone. The documentary focuses on one student who tried to put their phone away

for a week but gave in a couple of days later because of one notification that popped up.

He grabbed his phone and then he was sucked in again. He then isolated himself from his

family because he was stuck in a continuous loop of scrolling through his feed. As the

documentary continued, you could see the student’s face and in his action’s how social

media was affecting him. This documentary is credible because Orlowski interviewed

many people that worked behind the scenes in programs like Facebook, Twitter,

Instagram, etc. This documentary is useful to my argument because it supports the fact

that people are consumed by social media and that it affects their health.

Pantic, Igor. “Online Social Networking and Mental Health.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and

Social Networking, vol. 17, no. 10, 1 Oct. 2014, pp. 652–657.,

doi:10.1089/cyber.2014.0070.
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“Online Social Networking and Mental Health” written by Igor Pantic communicates the

controversies between whether or not social networking sites cause an increase in

depression, anxiety, or other mental illnesses. Pantic focuses on the findings regarding

the connection between social media platforms and mental health issues. According to

Pantic, he concluded that even though social networking has gotten progressively bigger

and changed the way people communicate and interact, that does not mean there is a

relation between normal human behavior and mental disorders. This article appears

credible because the author used information from an Institute of Medical Physiology and

went to a school for medicine at the University of Belgrade. This supports my paper

because it addresses the controversy of how social media in a way can negatively

influence mental health. Mental health has gotten worse and social media can be a

leading cause of it, but that does not mean they are associated.