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Jennifer Martinez

13 July 2017

Eng PO50

Social media's toxic ways

Over the years social media has blossomed from giving everyone a short knowledge on

our lives, to giving everyone free access to every flaw under a microscope. Social media is toxic

to our youth because it has skyrocketed the rates in depression, suicide, and eating disorders. It

has become a natural habit while anyone watches a child to give them a phone to just keep the

peace and to keep them entertained. If we as the youth at one point didn't allow social media to

grow on us we wouldn't have to have so much fear for our youth now, including our future kids,

siblings, and little cousins. It is sad to say but if we go to restaurants and we look around we see

all the kids and youth with their phones on and tablets in hand. That is what we have come to.

They have forgotten about their families and the free time they once had in their hands without

having to be next to their devices. The fear of losing each other to social media is a very scary

thing. Social media has become so toxic that it is causing us to lose our youth day by day due to

Depression, suicide, and eating disorders becoming more and more common.

Due to social media's high rates of negativity it has caused our youth too be bitter, and

start to doubt themselves and go into depression. In the article The influence of media violence

on youth Craig A. Anderson states , Indeed, six medical and public health professional

organizations held a Congressional Public Health Summit on July 26, 2000, and issued a Joint

Statement on the Impact of Entertainment Violence on Children. This statement noted that

entertainment violence can lead to increases in aggressive attitudes, values, and behavior,
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particularly in children. (82). The statement noted above states that social media has gave our

youth long term mood swings that cause them to go into depression. The mood swings caused by

social media are long term only because it's something our youth has grown into. Depression has

been noted to be one out of three symptoms of signs of being addicted to the internets

acceptance. Fanni Banyai also states in the article Problematic Social Media Use: Results from

a Large-Scale Nationally Representative Adolescent Sample, states Facebook is one of the

most popular social media among 1317 years old adolescents in the USA [2]. According to a

recent report, 71% of teenage social media users access more than one social media and 24% of

adolescents are almost constantly online due to the widespread use and popularity of

smartphones.(1). This article states that our youth (13-17 year olds) have a 71% rate of relying

on social media.

Social media has caused depression which then leads to suicide. Suicide is the best

alternative to suffering and drowning with all the negative comments social media has to

comment on our lives. Suicide rates have skyrocketed since Instagram became the number one

application to share our best selfies. Suicide has increased because once our youth hits

depression that's when they need saving, but how can they get help when we are all involved in

our phone and have forgotten to communicate. In the article The impact of social media,

written by H. Jenkins says, Social media have affected both how and how often individuals stay

in contact with friends and family members.(H. Jenkins). To have social media is one thing but

to depend on it everyday and lose the communication this world once had is another. Not only do

teens and older people use it to simply share a post but I can guarantee a high percentage of the

population use it to see how many likes, shares, or retweets one can get. To see how popular we
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are or to show off what we have and what others wish they had. Comments in all social media

and gossip on them too are reasons why suicide has increased significantly. We are not there for

each other but rather against each other, therefore it makes many question their existence in this

world. The only way out that they find is to kill themselves because we do not know how to just

show simple love or appreciation for each other. They try to fit in and social media makes them

want to become people that they are not. Then the world shuts them out and they feel hopeless

and non existent which makes them suicidal all because of what others have to say.

Due to social medias high expectations and its priorities on fangirling on Famous people's

body's, relationships and fashion has caused our youth to adapt to an eating disorder. Christopher

J Ferguson states in the article Concurrent and Prospective Analyses of Peer, Television and

Social Media Influences on Body Dissatisfaction, Eating Disorder Symptoms and Life

Satisfaction in Adolescent Girls that , The current study examines television, social media and

peer competition influences on body dissatisfaction, eating disorder symptoms and life

satisfaction in a sample of 237 mostly Hispanic girls.(1). A major issue as to why social media

has become so toxic in the lives of the youth is because now in days everything is about

competition. We see our favorite models, favorite famous people, favorite artist, new styles and

the only thing that matters in that moment is, I want to be just like them. We start to do things

just like them, we eat what they eat, we dress how they dress all to look like them and to have the

body they have. Therefore youth start to starve themselves or eat certain foods that do not give

them the nutrients they need. They start to create a habit in which is called an eating disorder.

They start to lose weight and they eventually start to lose themselves. In the article, Negativity

Bias in Media Multitasking: The Effects of Negative Social Media Messages on Attention to
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Television News Broadcasts, Jari Ktsyri states, We assumed that if negative tweets would

draw more attention to themselves than positive tweets (H1), this increased attention would

occur at the cost of attentional processing of news broadcasts. Therefore it has been proven that

if something is positive it won't draw as much attention, as something that brings someone down

does. How sad? Something can be so great and positive and yet youth in our days can create

anything negative about it and yet, that becomes the popular. That becomes the trend and that

is they key to losing our youth to all sorts of social media.

All in all, Negative outcomes triggered by the excessive use of social media may have a

detrimental effect on the personal, social, and/or professional lives of the users(2) stated by

Fanni Banyai1, in the article, Problematic Social Media Use: Results from a Large-Scale

Nationally Representative Adolescent Sample. This quote states that the negativity that is

betrayed on social media, or even the negative change in attitude and the youth have become

attached to the most dangerous thing due to our lack of verbal communication. All of this is

happening because we let it happen and have chosen to do nothing about it. Going back to the

quote from Fanni Banyai it is said that social media is only negative because of how our youth

has been raised. This whole article shows that no matter the good or the bad in social media it all

falls back to the roots of our youth. Whether our youth has a stable family and life now it will

always fall back to how we were raised and how social media was portrayed to us as we were

growing up until our youth there's no other factor in it other than social media already being

negative. It is encouraged to remind our youth that they are worth it, they are

beautiful/handsome, smart, talented and able to overcome anything. A little word of

encouragement changes the situation more then anyone can think.

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Work Cited

AccessScience Editors. The Impact of Social Media. AccessScience, McGraw-Hill Education,

2016.

Anderson,

Craig A., et al. "The Influence of Media Violence on Youth." Psychological Science in the

Public Interest, vol. 4, no. 3, Dec. 2003, pp. 81-110. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1111/j.1529-1006.2003.pspi_1433.x.

Bnyai,

Fanni, et al. "Problematic Social Media Use: Results from a Large-Scale

Nationally Representative Adolescent Sample." Plos ONE,

vol. 12, no. 1, 09 Jan. 2017, pp. 1-13. EBSCOhost,

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0169839.

Ferguson,

Christopher J., et al. "Concurrent and Prospective Analyses of Peer,

Television and Social Media Influences on Body Dissatisfaction, Eating Disorder

Symptoms and Life Satisfaction in Adolescent Girls." Journal of Youth and Adolescence 43.1

(2014): 1-14. ProQuest.

7 July 2017 .

Ktsyri,

Jari, et al. "Negativity Bias in Media Multitasking: The Effects of

Negative Social Media Messages on Attention to Television News

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Broadcasts." Plos ONE, vol. 11, no. 5, 04 May 2016, pp. 1-21. EBSCOhost,

doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0153712.