Journal 3
Jake Perry
This article talks about depression amongst teens being used by social media platforms. Its written that, teen users of platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and others 66% of them have reported depression. This has jump from 13% to 66% this increased happened simultaneously with the use in smartphones. By 2015 92 percent of teens owned a smartphone. The article moves on to talk about the fact that less teens are connecting with peers on a personal level and more over the internet. This article states that connecting with people through technology is not as emotionally satisfied and that is what is leading to depression is the actual human to human contact. Article talks about FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) which is something I’m sure everyone has experienced but is an experience that is boosted by social media usage. They article moves on to discuss the fact that teenage girls are comparing themselves negatively to the the more famous instagram models which is nothing new. Magazines have been promoting unhealthy body types and expectations for 50 years. The article lists other side effects when it comes to the use of social media such as, lack of physical activity, a lack of concentration and even sleep deprivation. The article ends with a few steps you can take to help lower the risk of depression. Balancing your online and physical social presence, turning off notifications, teach mindfulness of social media and phone free time before bed.(https://childmind.org/article/is-social-media-use-causing-depression/)
This article written by “mental health professionals” made two lists to show the benefits and detriments social media has on a persons mental health as well as their physical health and the health of their relationship with others. The benefits include trust in one another, easy to find role models, spreads happiness to others and makes us happy, which I thought was interesting. It states the social media does make us happy despite the talk about social media leading to depression. The thing is, it makes us happy when we’re using it. Which leads me to believe that we are fully addicted to our devices. Thats the same with any addiction, you’re only truly happy when you’re high or when you’re smoking that cigarette, or when you’re sipping from that bottle. When its not there its all your thinking about, you just wait for your next fix. In terms of physical health benefits the article writes that it positively affects how people manage their health, health apps on your phone and increases in quality of healthcare. Relationship wise is keeps couples in contact when they’re apart, decreases isolation, and reconnects people. Now the detriments. Detriments to mental health include feelings of inadequacy, enhances chances of becoming addicted, poor social skills, anxiety, and depression. Detriments to physical health include, sleep deprivation, provides a quick “hit” like drugs, increased obesity and eating disorders. Detriments to relationships include, distracts people from the people they are physically surrounded by(friends, family, partners), brings out jealousy, decreases empathy, and exacerbates relationship self- esteem.
(https://www.allpsychologyschools.com/psychology/social-media-psychology/)
I watched the remainder of the film started in class “PLUGGED IN : The True Toxicity of Social Media Revealed (Mental Health Documentary)”. It focuses on the affect that social media has on the mental health of young adults, main point being depression. The commentator and interviewer, Richard Grannon, goes around and interviews a psychology professor, a group of students at a university and even the founder of Skillscamp an organization that helps people learn software skills for their businesses. They talk a lot about the design of social media and the predominately evil ideas that lay behind their interface. Companies of social media are creating a delusional community of people that thrive on self promotion. They make their apps to be as addictive as possible. This causes teens to try and make themselves appear in the best way they can and in return they receive little dopamine hits which are likes on a photo. Messaging through social media is also wildly out of control. It gives people the confidence to say horrible things to one another that they would never say face to face. He had the group of college students go 30 days without using their phones at all. Most of them felt better mentally and their self-esteem seemed to go up. They were doing things solely because they wanted to do them and not because they thought it would attracted the most likes. This confirmed Grannons hypothesis, however they did say that it made day to day live pretty difficult. They felt a little isolated and lost, physically lost because they couldn’t use the maps on their phones. They agreed that overall the ways of the world have just changed and its extremely hard to get by socially without using your phone. Something that I found to be particularly interesting was the fact that Richard Grannon has an instagram profile, this wasn’t discussed in the movie, I looked him up. About 5,000 followers. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHzwMLx-rKc&feature=youtu.be)
I watched the remainder of another video from class Depression and the Secret to Happiness. In this film Johann Hari talks about the causes of depression and the fact that the government and many doctors are ignoring the fact that depression is not only a chemical imbalance in your brain but also a result of your environment and your needs not being met. He talks about how people need human to human contact and they need to be noticed and involved and social media takes that away from people in a way that’s disguised as the opposite. He talks about different stories relating to the environment people are living and working in and proving that that in fact was the cause of their depressions.
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=51&v=6R0fTRTIQCE)
A question that I had in regards to this topic was more towards mass shootings. Over the past ten years there has been an incredible spike in mass shootings including school shootings. I wanna know if and how social media has affect that. Is social media a denominating factor as to why there are more school shootings.
These two articles gave me the most useful information. The first “Mass Shootings and Media Contagion Theory: Social Media’s Influence on Frequency of Incidents” by Kristina J. Lee. Breaks down the idea that most shooters are going after the fame. They recognize the attention that other school shooters get and desire the same. They become infamous and remembered. Many school shooters are outcasts, treated unfairly throughout their lives and seeking a way to release revenge on the world that’s treated them so cruel. They see a way to get back at the world and the world will provide them with their own platform in doing so. Everyone wants to be remembered, especially the people who are never noticed. The second source I found was an article from the Washington Post “The Technology 202: Research into links between social media and mass shootings is lacking, experts say” by Cat Zakrzewski. In this article there are multiple sources that are convinced that social media plays a large role in the influence of mass shootings, however there isn’t enough research that’s been down on the topic. With that being said there are many people that believe that there should be more limitations on social media and the internet. It shouldn’t be so easy for the youths of this country to find white supremacy websites online that have the potential to radicalize children. It needs to be safer.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5296697/
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2016/08/media-contagion
My conclusion to my findings is not very secured. I wasn’t able to find exactly what I hope for. Many of the sources I found were all related to the idea of copycats. That social media spreads the news of mass shooters and gives them too many details on the shooting so that the next potential shooter has a mark they can try to beat. This is all true, however I don’t think that’s the significant role social media has on this crisis. I think the news has always broadcasted the shooters and the facts of the shootings that lead to more copycats. I think there is something deeper coming from the usage of social media and the way that it has altered our society. I think if society can play a role in your depression, then it can certainly effect your sanity, self loathing and aggression. I guess my conclusion becomes, we need more research done so we can figure out the best way to prevent this from happening. Also stricter gun laws would probably do the trick, but you know that’ll probably never change. America is fucked.
You must be logged in to post a comment.