Higgins 1

Emily Higgins

Dr. Cassel

English 1201 Online

14 April 2019

Annotated Bibliography

In my essay I will attempt to answer the question, “what is the effect of social media on

the mental health of teenagers?” I will look for statistics on just how many teens are using social

media and how often, then I will look at the statistics on the rising depression rates in teenagers

today. I want to learn more about mental health and look for the correlation between it and social

media. I would also like to learn why so many teens continue to use social media when they

encounter so many things that might upset them or cause them to compare themselves. I also

want to find solutions for what parents and society as a whole can do to help teenagers and their

battle between there smartphones and their mental health.

Ghaemi, Nassir. “Snapchat Depression.” Tufts Now, 17 Apr. 2018.

now.tufts.edu/articles/snapchat-depression.

The article “Snapchat Depression” written by Nassir Ghaemi in 2018, appears on “Tufts

Now,” the news website for Tufts University. The main point of this article is to draw attention

to teen depression that is not caused by biological factors but by social media and the issues that

come with the new digital age. Ghaemi begins with looking at the correlation between social

media and depression stating, “The more depressed adolescents are, the more they use social

media; the more they use social media, the more depressed they are. Which causes which is

unclear, but whatever the cause, it’s a vicious cycle.” He continues, looking at the

psychological side of this issue explaining that teens essentially have the bodies of adults
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with the minds like children. He elaborates on that saying it is not quite that extreme, their

bodies still have growth and maturing to do, and their brains are more developed than a

child but they still need structure and rules. Ghaemi moves on to talk about the problems

that come with marijuana, alcohol and sexual behaviors that are linked with social media.

Last he speaks to parents and what can be done to limit the effects of today’s society run by

the digital media on their teens and why it is so important to do so.

The authors purpose for writing this article was to educate parents on the effects of

social media and what they can do to help. It was written a year ago, so the information is

fairly relevant and not much has changed when it comes to the digital media.

The writer, Nassir Ghaemi, is a professor of psychiatry at the Tufts School of

Medicine. I know the article is credible because the author is a professor and also a lecturer

at Harvard Medical School, he also has his M.D. and M.P.H., he is a credible researcher and

author. The source is credible because it comes from Tufts University, which is a private

research school, there are no ads on the website, there is a clear author and publisher.

I will use this article to describe the amount of social media usage teens are taking part in

and the psychological part of it. I will also use this to show how social media usage can cause an

increase in alcohol, drug and sexual behavior issues and to explain some solutions parents can

use to limit this problem.

Gunnell, David, et al. “Adolescent Mental Health in Crisis.” The BMJ, British Medical Journal

Publishing Group, 19 June 2018, www.bmj.com/content/361/bmj.k2608.short.

This article “Adolescent Mental Health in Crisis” written by David Gunnell, Judi Kidger,

Hamish Elvidge in 2018 is found on thebmj. They begin their article by explaining the rise in

mental health in recent years, stating that the reason could just be more people are coimg forward

and getting diagnosed. They then touch on “generation Z” and how they grew up in the age of
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social media and many other important events that could have caused a rise in depression. They

continue say that we need to look past well recognized things that cause depression and try to

better understand underlying causes of it. We need to look at benefiting of our mental health the

same way we look at benefiting our physical health.

The authors’ purpose of this article is to bring awareness to less obvious causes of

depression and mental health problems and look for other reasons besides what has been normal

in the past. This piece was written in 2018 so it is current.

David Gunnell is a professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at the

University of Bristol, Judi Kidger is a lecturer at the National Institute of Health Research

Biomedical Research Centre at the University Hospitals Bristol NHS Foundation Trust and the

University of Bristol, Hamish Elvidge is the chair of The Matthew Elvidge Trust. They listed all

of their references and I found this article through Google Scholar.

I will use this to help show that social media may not always be an obvious source to

look for mental health problems, but it is one we should be looking to.

Guinta, Maggie R. “Social Media and Adolescent Health.” Pediatric Nursing, vol. 44, no. 4, July

2018, pp. 196–201. EBSCOhost,

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=131366570&site=ehost-live.

The article “Social Media and Adolescent Health” written by Maggie R. Guinta and Rita

M. John in 2018 appears in “Pediatric Nursing.” The main point of this article is to describe the

harmful effects of social media and what nurses need to know in order to better educate their

patients and the patients family members. Guinta and John begin their article with a story about

too much social media usage, transitioning into what the nurse needs to know and why. They

continue with statistics about social media usage among all different age groups. They then move
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on to the harmful consequences that come with social media usage including; cyberbullying,

educational and mental health consequences, sexting and privacy. They touch on the benefits of

social media usage which include; collaboration and tolerance, access to social support networks,

health communication and promotion, and self-esteem and well-being. Guinta and John finish

with the implications this can have on nurses, educating families and what role the nurse needs to

take up when it comes to educating families.

The authors’ purpose for writing this article is to inform nurses of the implications of

social media and what their role is when it comes to educating patients and families on it. The

audience for this piece is nurses, it was written last year so the information is current

The writers are Maggie R. Guinta, MPH, MS, CPNP-PC, who is a Nurse Practitioner and

Rita M. John, EdD, DNP, CPNP, FAANP, is an Associate Professor of Nursing and the PNP

Program Director, both are from Colombia University School of Nursing. The authors have

many degrees and are both part of the nursing field. I found this source on EBSCOhost so know

it is a reliable, scholarly source.

I will use this article for statistics and for a perspective of someone in the health care

field. I will also use this for a counterargument on the benefits of social media.

“Home | MentalHealth.gov.” Home | MentalHealth.gov, www.mentalhealth.gov/.

This website has lots of great resources and many different authors. They have an article

explaining what mental health is, the myths and facts of mental health and many other resources.

They included crisis lines on the website and have pages on what to look for in different mental

health diseases, resources for how to talk about mental health and how to get help. They also

include different articles on different mental health topics.

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The purpose of this website is to educate people on mental health and to show them how

to get help if they need it. The audience of this website is anyone that may be struggling with

mental health or that may have a friend or family member struggling with mental health. The

website was updated recently so it is very current.

The website is owned by the government, so I know it is credible. They just updated the

website a month ago, so the information is very credible, and the research is new.

I chose a whole website as one of my sources because I will use it to explain mental

health in my paper. They make it easy for people to understand and for them to get help so I

think it will be a good addition to my paper.

Karasz, Palko. “U.K. Doctors Call for Caution in Children's Use of Screens and Social

Media.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 7 Feb. 2019,

www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/world/europe/uk-doctors-screen-

time.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FMental%2BHealth%2Band%2BDisorders&

action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=sea

rch&contentPlacement=3&pgtype=collection.

The article “U.K. Doctors Call for Caution in Children's Use of Screens and Social Media”

written by Palko Karasz in 2019 appears in The New York Times. Karasz begins his article by

referencing Britain’s doctors and their solutions for too much social media, a couple of them

being screen-free meals and no phones in the bedroom. He touches on different methods people

have taken on to prevent too much screen time. Karasz says that the University College London

found that social media usage over a long period of time can result in many negative side effects

such as self-esteem issues, online harassment and poor sleep patterns. He also mentions that
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Yvonne Kelly, a professor of epidemiology and public health at University College says the time

spent on social media is not as important as the content they are seeing.

The purpose of this article was to analyze information from different experts and explain

it to the public. The audience of this piece is parents, to explain to them the effects of social

media and what should be done about it.

The writer is a digital editor for The New York Times who uses social media to get

international news our into the world. The source is reliable because he references professionals

and The New York Times is an ad free, reliable news site.

I will use this in my paper to show that the effect of social media is a problem in all

different countries, since this specific article comes from Britain. I will also use some of the

statistics mentioned in this article and solutions for parents.

Kelly, Yvonne, et al. “Social Media Use and Adolescent Mental Health: Findings From the UK

Millennium Cohort Study.” EClinicalMedicine, Elsevier, 4 Jan. 2019,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2589537018300609

This research paper “Social Media Use and Adolescent Mental Health: Findings From the

UK Millennium Cohort Study” written by Yvonne Kelly, Afshin Zilanawala, Cara Booker,

Amanda Sacker in 2018 appears on EClinicalMedicine. This paper is a research study on the

effects of social media on mental health. They used more that 10,000 fourteen year old’s, looking

at the amount of hours girls and boys spent on social media and how it led to online harassment,

poor sleep, self-esteem issues, which relate directly to depressive symptoms. They explain all of

the aspects of their study and record the results.

The writer’s purpose for this research paper was to find statistics for the correlation

between social media and depressive symptoms. The audience for this piece is people that want
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to know the correlation of depressive symptoms and social media through research statistics. It

was published late 2018 so it is a very recent study.

Yvonne Kelly is part of the Research Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at

the University College London. I know this source is reliable because I found it on EBSCOhost

and there are no ads, they also cite all of their sources. They used a large group for the study

which led to better results.

I am going to use this in my paper for statistics and to show the different depressive

symptoms that are a direct link from social media.

McLoughlin, Larisa, et al. “The Importance of Social Connection for Cybervictims: How

Connectedness and Technology Could Promote Mental Health and Wellbeing in Young

People .” International Journal of Emotional Education, vol. 10, Apr. 2018, pp. 5–24.

This research paper “The Importance of Social Connection for Cybervictims: How

Connectedness and Technology Could Promote Mental Health and Wellbeing in Young People”

written by Larisa McLoughlin, Barbara Spears, Carmel Taddeo in 2018 appears in the

International Journal of Emotional Education. This paper is one that focuses on the good of

social media on mental health. They begin by explaining how there is very little research that

shows the positive affect social media can have on mental health. They talk about cyberbullying

and how detrimental it can be on teen’s metal health and how social connectedness through

social media can be a coping mechanism for it. They then explain their study, through a survey

study and reported the results. They came to the conclusion that social connectedness plays a

important role in teens coping with cyberbullying.

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The writers’ purpose in writing this research paper was to bring light to the good that

social media can have on mental health. The audience is people that want to get different sides

on the effect of social media on mental health. This paper was written in 2018 so it is fairly

current.

The Larisa McLoughlin and Barbara Spears are from the University of South Australia

and Carmel Taddeo is from the University of the Sunshine Coast. I found this source on

EBSCOhost so it is a reliable, scholarly paper. They also list all of their references.

I will use this to show a positive affect social media can have on mental health and to

show more statistics that go along with it.