Social Media and Teen Suicides Research Paper

Teens and social media they almost go hand and hand can’t have one without the other but is that really a good thing. Social media can be very toxic in the way that people treat others. So the question that comes from that is, does social media contribute to teen suicide. I think that social media does contribute to teen suicide and i think it is because al ot of teens are addicted to keeping up with social media and also i believe that cyberbullies are not being put in the same light as in person bullies are.

Social media keeps you up to date on everything and anything but i think that is also one of the reasons that teen suicide is on the rise, it’s because it is so addicting. Shepherd’s hill academy states that A teen with a social media addiction has an overwhelming desire to participate in the virtual world. The teen will feel internal pressure to check their updates, add new statuses, post a photo, or engage in other online activity. Now this shows that teen social media addiction is real and teens are addicted to it and that is what social media apps want. I mean snapchat has a streak feature that you have to snap your friend everyday to keep a meaningless streak. Now you say how does social media being addicting contribute to someone not wanting to live. well if you are addicted to something then it takes over your life and can drain fun and enjoyment out of it.  Another way that social media addiction can be dangerous is that if you are on it enough you can encounter a cyberbully and that is dangerous in itself. 

Now another reason that i believe teen suicide has gone up due to social media is because cyberbullies aren't treated the same as in person bullies. The law dictionary stated that Efforts by state and federal lawmakers to stop cyberbullying by making it a criminal act have met with legal challenges. A cyberbullying law in New York was recently ruled to be unconstitutional on freedom of speech grounds. good luck if you are in new york and get cyber bullied because they find it unconstitutional for them to put in a law to prevent harassment and other places beat around the bush in the same way. Cyberbullies are free to harass anyone they feel like because no one wants to do anything about it and the consequences are minor if you are convicted like a couple of months. I believe there should be a bigger deal of importance to this cyberbully situation and especially at school if they can put in a no tolerance policy where even if you were trying to defend yourself you could still be expelled then i believe they should put in a no tolerance for online bullying.

Let’s go onto the other side of the argument that all you have to do to stop being cyberbullied is to turn off the phone/ computer. now in my first thing of evidence i explained that teens are addicted to social media and that causes a bunch of stress and maybe even some anxiety. Now why did I just go over my first statement? well you see i wanted you to remember that some teens are addicted to social media and addiction is a slippery slope and wants you to have an addiction it is hard to stop. now telling someone who is addicted to their phone/ social media just to turn it off has the same implication as telling an alcoholic to just stop drinking or telling a drug addict to stop doing drugs. that's why i think this is just an escape goat for when people don't want to take responsibility saying that all they should do i just turn the phone off is a weak argument that shifts the blame onto the person they were to ignorant to help and it also give the bully something to fall back on and they could say something like “all they had to do is tell me to stop” or “they could have just blocked me” it is dumb and irresponible. That's why I believe that cyberbullies should be treated the same and dealt the same as in person bullies.

Now just to illiterate i believe that a lot of teens are addicted to keeping up with social media and also i believe that cyberbullies are not being put in the same light as in person bullies are. imagen in the future your kid gets a phone or some type of device that connects to the internet and the start getting harassed by their peers and it gets so bad that the are having suicidal thoughts or actions and you report them and they just get a slap on the wrist and are told not to do it again mean while your kid gets stuck in therapy for the next 5-10 months. Now I don't know how we could as a collective come together as a group to stop cyberbullies and help kids with their addiction than make a local petition and hope it passes, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't make this more known and more talked about.