Research Paper about Dangers of Social Media on Adolescents

Over the past decade, social media has increased the amount of adolescents feeling depressed and having sleep deprivation. Some people believe that this is just simply not true, but it has been proven to be one of the leading causes. When it comes to social media, you see a lot of people who look happy and successful, but they are the complete opposite. People love to show how much money, shoes, and clothes they have just to impress people who have negative views on them. People spend so much time on social media trying to please others and pretend to be happy when in reality they’re tired and just mentally killing themselves. This leads to social media being risky to adolescents because it then causes depression and sleep deprivation.

Does Social Media Use Cause Depression? by Caroline Miller

Social media is the main cause for adolescents having depression. Teens are constantly on their phones, browsing through social media. They’re just scrolling their lives away with a touch of a button. Many teens compare themselves to others on social media and degrade themselves because of their looks. Teens compare themselves to the people that society views as attractive and acceptable. This leads to teens feeling depressed and then having suicidal thoughts. The article above states that “A 2017 study of over half a million eighth through 12th 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, 10). This goes to show that social media has played a huge role in the amount of teens being depressed and then committing suicide throughout the years, therefore making social media risky to adolescents.

Social media has put a major chokehold on adolescents. Teens are unable to accomplish daily tasks because their attention span is dedicated to checking social media. Social media is so addicting for teens that they have lost hours of sleep because of it. The article states that “Research shows that 60 percent of adolescents are looking at their phones in the last hour before sleep, and that they get on average an hour less sleep than their peers who don’t use their phones before bed. Blue light from electronic screens interferes with falling asleep; on top of that, checking social media is not necessarily a relaxing or sleep-inducing activity. Scrolling on social media, notes Dr. Hamlet, can easily end up causing stress” (Miller, 32). This is what you call sleep deprivation, lack of sleep due to many reasons, but the main one being social media. When teens complain about not getting enough sleep, waking up super late, missing out on the day, or being late for school, sleep deprivation is the main cause and they tend to be more grumpy and stressed throughout the day because of it.

Some people say that social media is actually beneficial because they are able to stay in touch with friends and family, meet new people, promote their businesses, make a living off of it, shed light on injustices, motivate people, and most importantly keep them entertained.

In closing, it is important to take breaks from social media. When I first started using social media I immediately noticed how people were showing off how much money, followers, shoes, and clothes they had. This made me feel like I was a nobody because I didn’t have as many nice things as the people on social media did. I felt like I didn’t accomplish anything and had nothing to be proud of. Then I came to the realization that I shouldn't feel unhappy because people on social media have more than me. I also realized that the majority of people on social media will do anything for attention and to make it seem like they have it all. This is just because people feel the need to be better than others and have some type of validation. For these reasons that are presented in this argument, social media can be very deceiving and it's best to just not let it take control of your life.