Social Media's Negative Impact On American Youth

Social media itself is a huge danger to society. It causes many suicides within the world because of the cyberbullying and spreading of rumors. “Recent studies have shown that one out of four teens have been the victims of cyberbullying and one out of six have admitted to having cyberbullied someone” (Trautner 1). The internet and social media is supposed to be used to communicate with friends and for searching information, “Kids use technology different than their parents do. Sometimes it is hard for adults to understand that this can even be a possibility” (Trautner 1). It is not supposed to be used to bully someone, especially not to the point where the victim would think about suicide. “One of the statistics that has been highlighted within this news coverage is the threefold increase in the suicide rate for girls ages 10 to 14. The rates for girls in this age group increased from 0.5 to 1.5 per 100,000 during this time period. The increases for boys in this age group were not as high, climbing from 1.9 per 100,000 during 1999 to 2.6 per 100,000 in 2014” (Olsen

The internet and social media have opened so many doors for our generation. Thousands of resources are at our fingertips that 30 years ago would seem impossible. However, this information can be more of a burden rather than a blessing. Scrolling through Instagram you will most likely find images of people with ‘perfect’ bodies in swimsuits. It is very easy to compare your body to these images and not feel confident about yourself. Now put yourself in a young teenager’s perspective, looking at all these images. Their main question might be “Why don’t I look like that?” This raises an issue for teenagers to be more likely to not be comfortable in their own skin, have lowered self-esteem, and body shame themselves. Another issue with social media is the anxiety that can come from it. Today it is apparent that most teenagers using social media platforms tend to be worrying about the color scheme of their profile, number of likes and how fast they show up, their following ratio, regulating the number of posts, the number of followers, number of retweets and many more anxieties. In a weird way, it can be easier to make fun of someone or bully someone behind a screen and not right to their face. This raises another version of bullying known as cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying is the most common online risk for teenagers and adolescence (O’Keeffe 801). Researchers have found signs of depression from the use of social media (802). From repeated and extended use of social media there has been 92% of teenagers ages 13-17 going online every day in the US, negative things are sure to come from that usage (Dunlop 35). As just mentioned, there are major negative effects of social media on adolescence, including cyber-bullying, anxiety, lowered self-esteem, and depression.

Social media seems to be changing how we communicate through society. Adolescents are consumed with media for an estimated 7.5-8.5 hours per day (Georgia, 2014; Giedd, 2012). Instead of interacting with each other face to face adolescents are socializing through their phones (George, 2014). The purpose of the paper was to research how social media affects the brain, sleep, and cyberbullying (Lemola, Perkinson- Gloor, Brand, Dewald- Kaufmann, & Grob, 2014; Mills, 2014; Betts & Spenser, 2017).

A large sum of suicides are indirectly or directly influenced by experiences with online aggression. Suicide is not an uncommon result of tormenting through social media. “The psychological impact [of cyberbullying] can be devastating, and suicide is not unknown among young victims. For some victims, the damage to their sense of dignity and emotional well-being could persist for years." (“Jessica Mendoza”) The effects of online bullying are extremely harmful to children. Any child that is having suicidal thoughts from online bullying is a deeply harmed child. Suicide in teens is not uncommon either. Jennifer Holladay states, “Our study of upwards of 2,000 middle school students revealed that cyberbullying victims were nearly twice as likely to attempt suicide compared to students not targeted with online abuse.” Online abuse it a growing problem with the modernizing society. More and more people at younger and younger ages have more access online, and to social media. This increases the online abuse, and will lead to more and more suicides in teens

What is America’s Youth without social media? Social media is a big part of the American society. Most definitely the youth part of the society. Social Media comes with many pros and cons. It lets you stay in contact with new friends, lets you reconnect with old friends. It’s also a way of creating a mini biography for everyone in the world to see. Social media can be used responsibly or it can dangerous for some users. When used carelessly social networks can cause great damage to anyone. Some people don’t realize when using social media how much information they put out there for the world to see. Young teens can rarely tell when they put their selves at risk when using social media. Social

In 2014-2015 over 21% of teenagers have been cyberbullied. The effects of being cyberbullied include, usage of alcohol and/or drugs, skipping school, poor grades, have low self-esteem, have more health problems, and depression (What is Cyberbullying). Victims of cyberbullying are twice as likely to attempt suicide than those who haven’t experienced cyberbullying. Each year, approximately 4,500 teenagers commit suicide due cyberbullying and bullying. Self-harm is also common to victims of cyberbullying; the amount of teenagers who commit suicide and self-harm due to bullying rise along with the usage of social media.

Today’s society of young Americans are concerned with social media and the trends that are presented, but what makes something a trend? In the past couple of years, it seems like in order for something to be a trend white people have to like it and make it popular. The media portrays to everyone in America that these trends were originated or even inspired by white people, but this isn’t true. A lot of the trends that are happening are actually from black people whether it’s black people’s facial features, appearance or hairstyle. The trends today represent cultural appropriation by offending black people and taking credit for these trends. However, white people think trends are innocent and don’t understand why they can’t do the same things

Statistics have shown that everyone can be victims of cyber bullying, but most incidents occur between the age of 11 to 15 years old, however, some report showed that children’s as young as 10 years old also been a victim of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying can have long lasting effects on its ' victims that can lead to mental health issues like depression, anxiety, stress, and even suicide. Increasing number of young kids and teenagers committing suicide because of cyber bullying and sexting have been coming to the public 's attention. As reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people with approximately 4,400 deaths every year. The CDC estimates that there are at least 100 suicide attempts for every suicide among young people. More than 14 percent of high school students has considered suicide and nearly 7 percent have attempted it, that is why, sadly, there are increasing coverages about cyberbullying case in the media now more than ever. (NOBullying, n.d.) Despite the physical contact or audible insults, cyberbullying can be even more traumatizing and damage have a life time effect on mental health than traditional forms of bullying. Through social media and mobile communications, bullying can now potentially be viewed by all, a victim 's friends, family, and

With the widespread presence of teen suicides, parents can 't help but wonder and worry, but they never find out where the child’s depression came of. A review of data collected between 2004 and 2010 via survey studies indicated that “lifetime cyberbullying victimization rates ranged from 20.8% to 40.6% and offending rates ranged from 11.5% to 20.1%” (PubMed Central) There are several specific ways that social media can increase the risk for the suicidal behavior. Cyber bullying and cyber harassment are serious and prevalent problems, as “approximately 2000 middle school children that indicated that victims of cyberbullying were almost two times as likely to attempt suicide than those who were not” (PubMed Central). Although cyberbullying cannot be identified as the only factor for suicide between teenagers, it increases the risk by intensifying feelings of isolation, instability, and hopelessness. According to the recent study, “approximately 43% of the students report experiencing cyberbullying during their lifetime, and 15% of students admitted to cyberbullying others during their lifetime” (Patchin, 2015). There are even more statistics showing how cyber bullies affect teenagers’ emotion and push them to self-destruction. Nowadays, social media has created virtual

About 80 percent of teens use a cell phone regularly, which makes it the most popular form of technology. Between 1990 and 2004 suicide rates decreased 28.5% among young people, but upward trends were found in the 10-19 year old age group. It is said that only 1 in 10 teens tell their parent if they have been cyberbullied (Hinduja & Patchin, 2010). Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the most used social media, cyberbullying is very common on all of these social media platforms. Most cyberbullies have said that they they cyberbullied someone just to get back at them or because the victim deserved it. Many people think cyberbullying is a serious issue, 68% of teens agree that cyberbullying is a serious problem that needs to be

People today of all ages are more media centered than ever before in our country’s history. There are more TVs in homes than people (Nielson, 2009), 64% of American adults own smart phones (Center, 2014), 74.4% of U.S. households are connected to the Internet (Ryan, 2014), 87% of adults regularly use internet (Maeve Duggan, 2014), 36 % of teens have a computer in their bedroom 33 % of which have Internet access. Youth spend nearly an hour and a half (outside of schoolwork) with a computer each day (Bank, August 2014), and the average American spends 60 hours a week on multiple media devices (Nielsen, 2014). This constant availability to various forms of media makes it nearly impossible to measure the full affect that TV alone has on American

A study conducted by the Pew Research Center in which they discuss teens and their acts on social media, they state that, “…95% of all teens ages 12-17 are now online and 80% of those online teens are users of social media sites” (Pew Research Center). With there being over seven billion people in the world, just think about how many teenagers there are. Information from these teens is being transferred all over the world through multiple forms of social media including: Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google+, Snapchat, Pinterest, and hundreds more. When you use social media, you are using, “forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content” (Merriam Webster). Social media can be a good thing, but there seems to be more of a bad influence than good when it comes to teenagers and their social media use.

The rates of mental health issues in teenagers and young people is increasing, with 20% of the young people in the United States suffering from a mental disorder in their lifetime (Traci Pederson, 2010, Psych Central). This increase must have stemmed from something recent and modern, which many psychologists believe may be the large increase in use of social media, for example Facebook, which has around 1.2 billion active users per month (Whitman, 2015, Medical News Today). This may be damaging the mental health of teenagers in today’s modern society and may be the reason for the increase in mental illnesses. This essay will explore the damaging effects of social media but also what benefits there may be.

Do you ever sit and actually think about the things you post on social media for people to see? “Unless and until our society recognizes cyber bullying for what it is, the suffering of thousands of silent victims will continue.” anna Maria Chavez. 42% of teenagers with tech access report being cyberbullied over the past year Of the 69% of teens that own their own computer or smart phone, 80% are active on social media.The average teen sends 60 texts per day - reducing face-to-face communication skills. Teen texting rate is DOUBLE the adult texting rate .Girls 14-17 text more - 100 per day. 7.5 million Facebook users are under 13 years old, 81% of teens say bullying online is easier to get away with. 3 million kids per month are absent from school due to bullying. 20% of kids cyberbullied think about suicide, and 1 in 10 attempt it.”Most social media platforms and schools have clear policies and reporting processes. If a classmate is cyberbullying, report it the school. You can also contact app or social media platforms to report offensive content and have it removed. If a child has received physical threats, or if a potential crime or illegal behavior is occurring, report it to the police”.

Social media sites allow millions of people to interact with friends,family and anyone around the world. A large portion of social media users are teenagers; researchers and parents both believe that social media is having a multitude of possible effects on teenagers. This literature review will analyze research of the positive and negative effects social media are having on today’s impressionable youth. Much of the research focuses on the age range of 10-16 from well-to-do families and college students. Understanding the online environment that teenagers live in can help parents relate to their children and teach then about the dangers and benefits of being on the Internet.