Inquiry Based Essay

Examining Mental Health in the Virtual Era

(How has the overuse of social media platforms affected the way people perceive mental health issues?)

The topic of mental health is like a watermelon and it needs to be broken down into smaller topics. I have chosen this topic, but I have decided to pick out one seed to focus on, I have decided to focus on how mental health is influenced in society. Specifically, I want to examine how the overuse and increasing use of social media through its many platforms has created stigma and even stereotypes about how mental health is perceived. With modern technology always advancing it the ability to be online becomes addictive, a person feels a need to fit in socially and will be willing to do whatever it takes to get attention. There are so many platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Tik Tok or even YouTube where feeling accepted almost feels like a necessity the growing need to fit in and gain followers can be damaging. The more people put themselves online, the more likely it is that they face backlash and negative comments plus forms of bullying.

The topic of Mental Health has been explored by countless media and personnel, it is very important to dive into the issue so there is a better understanding for victims and how they can be helped. One major part of this is to find evidence in scholarly articles, these kinds of pieces can bring the most credibility. One source written by people of the National Center for Health Research entitled “Social Media and Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Mental Health” states that social media can bring positivity to many aspects of a person’s life however they do state that with the rise of social media use mental health disorders among younger youth have increased. In addition to this Dr. Alison Escalante states that “increase use leads to a rise of anxiety and depression”. Due to the overuse of social media younger teens are putting themselves out on a stage and the more views and followers someone gains the more pressure and the more a person craves that attention it can cause someone to develop the need for social validation. According to a slideshow from CBS news entitled “What your Facebook activity says about you” the person is more concerned with a response rather than the quality of the work. It becomes almost like a drug to them it’s very possible that the person is doing more harm to themselves by staying on social media because the more they crave that attention. The more likely it is that they lower and degrade themselves to get it. A person will begin to question their own worth and develop their own self-image as negative and see themselves as less than they are. People can make friends or so-called friends online but in reality, they could be getting abused or even criticized by that person they trust so much. They do not realize that someone they meet online can be a snake in the grass. There needs to be someone there talking to these people straining themselves over attention and followers telling them that enough is enough. Your mental well-being is far more important than likes.

Younger adolescents have a tougher time speaking up about their mental health problems because there is no real concern about these victims. It’s almost liked these problems don’t even matter, the media has painted all these pictures the same way the media has become a virus influencing the way we treat each of those cases. If a person begins to feel like an outsider and if they aren’t being shown the proper care/attention they need from a professional or even a person they confide in it makes them feel more isolated. Popular artists like rapper Logic have increase awareness about seeking help with his song 1-800, the song is of a boy coming out as a homosexual and all the hardships someone can face with finally accepting themselves. Among coming out the boy faces criticism the overall message is to not let those demons takeover a person needs to fight and seek help to save themselves. When that song was first released the following morning, an article reported that the use of the hotline increased by over 30%, mental health affects everyone and the more they put themselves in a bad environment like online the worse they get. But how does one find help if social media puts out those stories first and makes it difficult for the victims to be taken seriously? It is difficult getting help when in today’s society influencers are always claiming that they suffer from issues and take away the true significance from mental health cases. There have been multiple times where Internet personalities talk about these health issues but because they have intentions for themselves and because they follow the norm of society their case is not valid. In most recent weeks a YouTube star named Trisha Paytas came out about the issue of identity crisis but immediately she received backlash and hate, the media and our growing interest in it has created a sort of bystander effect. We see all the people that suffer because of these issues and we can hear the cry for help but we don’t move why is that? It’s because for years now we have been fed the definition of mental health that is developed by the media.

Due to the multiple posts, videos, even films we begin to view these victims through one singular lenses. In some cases, the use of social media or just the internet in general is a coping mechanism for some people. As reported in the book “Mental Health in the Digital Age” published by the Oxford University Press it lists out multiple reasons as to why some people become more attached to a screen, one reason is the fear of anxiety. To some online interaction is much simpler, there’s no pressure of a face to face conversation. For lack of better words, I think a person is shooting themselves in the foot because they already have social interaction issues and anxiety so by continuing the use of the internet and going out on to social media it’s creating a false sense of hope for these people. How are they ever supposed to get better if they don’t allow themselves to, in today’s society people are much quicker to pass judgement so it is very likely that this is the reason people get labeled as “crazy”. A person should not confide in only online interactions. A person should step out and not become attached if they do it will create the effect of drugs, possibly leading to depression. Seeing their lives put online and if the reaction is not what they want it will cause a domino effect of things.

The more research that is conducted on this issue of mental health and social media the more one begins asking the chicken or the egg type question. Is the overuse of social media occur first before health issues or does it occur after? In an article written for the Daily Times called “Mental Health and Social Media” it is reported that out of 11,000 14-year old’s 40% experience stages of depression. With the increasing use of social media, it appears as though there might be an increasing desire to feel accepted. This should be raising questions and it should bring about regulations, there has to be away from people magnifying their conditions on social media. Being a teenager in this day in age the internet is almost essential to some people they treat it like its breathing or the resource of fresh water. The way I see it, the internet and the acceptance that comes from followers and things of that nature are like wildfire, rapidly spreading and can dish out a ton of damage. In a report titled “Digital Mental Health for Youth: New Evidence but Still Much Unknown” it written that this unhealthy addiction to a screen and the online world for most starts at the age of 13 and these kids can use their electronics for a recorded 6.5 hrs. a day. This is a very high amount, but it helps us identify a correlation or an educated guess that the more time someone spends online throughout their developmental stage it can lead them to grow symptoms of mental health illness. They could begin to become more depressed or have increased anxiety, if it comes to this there must be a way to help these victims before they cause a greater amount of damage to themselves. What causes even more concern about this issue is that when kids start using and being attached to a monitor, they are more impressionable, as reported in the same article back in August 2018 there was a viral challenge through the application of WhatsApp that was challenging people to perform suicide. Even things like MOMO were increasingly scary but they also were taking advantage of younger minds. That was when younger kids were scared into following orders performing heinous acts and if they were pushed over the edge, they took their own lives.

One major reason Mental Health is so important to explore and reasons why more people should be getting help is the rate of suicides among adolescents. Specifically, how these issues are presented and reported on. When someone takes their own life, it is tragic, and it causes so much pain. Things like this have been put into different perspectives like the show 13 Reasons Why, as reported by The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that kind of show if seen by a suicidal teen could be perceived as an attractive solution. A scary statistic shows that within 30 days of the shows release 14 child psychiatry sites claim that 95% of these kids have shown copycat attempts of the suicide depicted in the show. This is the problem with letting the media and its multiple platforms run society they begin to corrupt the mind of youth; media has become a cornerstone for some people’s lives. If something is not done about this, there could be more cases like this. Shows like 13 Reasons Why while entertaining also have the ability to heavily influence people into doing something they will regret. The more exposure people have to shows like this they will think that it is a sure way to get people talking about you and get attention, but at what cost?

The amount of people that have developed cases of addictiveness in recent studies have been shown to demonstrate a correlation between overuse of social media and academic performance. People develop addiction constantly focused on being popular and in some cases, they can begin to act bipolar. In an article titled “Social Media and Mental Disorders: When is it time to unplug?” it is stated that within millennials as they have an increased use of social media there is an increase in the amount of reported depression cases. With a title like that it is appropriate to ask when do we say enough is enough? As more studies were carried out more frightening statistics were discovered. When a poll was conducted back in 2015 half of the participants said they cannot live without a smartphone. There have been many years and many people that went years without a phone, as time goes on and more technology and more attention-grabbing apps are made people become glued to the screen. Another thing written in this article is that when a person’s phone is withheld from them, they experience symptoms of withdrawal, this behavior is typically seen in regular drug abusers. These people experience rapid heart rate, higher blood pressure and a very important symptom is high anxiety. This is why social media has brought upon more negative than positive effects. A person can become addicted and they will believe anything they read on media platforms and the more this happens the more their mental health worsens. A recall a while back seeing an image of a boy drawing his parents and the parents’ faces were smartphones. This can damage a child’s relationship with parents possibly creating conduct disorder letting the child lash out because they know that the parent is more concerned with their phone. Social media has become a virus infecting our lives and the way we see our worth. I think people should begin to separate themselves from social media, but it is difficult seeing as how all those apps and stories can reach whatever audience they want.

The one way to help young adolescents comes from parents a child can be regulated by their parents because with controlled exposure adolescents can have better mental health than someone who is one their phone from morning till night. Something else that is very important to watch out for is a person’s development of stalker like actions, with everyone following everyone a person can become obsessed with an ex or a crush or just someone in general. The media is a gateway to a bunch of other negative things. This can bring out things like kidnapping, possible assault and even extortion or blackmail. It is understandable that inventions have positive and negative effects, but ever since social media has been invented and presented to the world it is clear that there are more negatives. People continue to experience addiction and they grow worse and worse, we in today’s world have let this become a regular aspect of life which is alarming knowing that more and more people are getting online and some see that as their only way to live. There should be a way to stop this the more activity that occurs the more mental health will decline and when this happens it will make it impossible for mental illness to be viewed as important. Social media will deteriorate mental health importance there is a way for this to stop but as people continue to use apps and electronics it will be very difficult for people to change their minds on the issue.

Social Media has only become popular in recent years with the introduction of new platforms and new trends every couple of years. However, as this has happened the attention that is given to all these posts and stories is misplaced. We as a people should not buy into the supposed “mental cases” because they have been but onto platforms for publicity and more fame or even profit. We have let electronics and Snapchat stories and Instagram hearts run our lives, people feel the need to be accepted and to be hip. You either get with the times or you get left behind it is true with many things in life, but we have let this go too far. Mental health or illness should not be put onto these platforms because it is not the right attention for these cases. The victims that are suffering need proper help, professional help not the likes and shares of people online. There should be professional intervention and there should be a change in mindset of people we cannot let the media shape our minds and how we see and care about issues.

Works Cited

RESEARCH, N.

Social Media and Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Mental Health | National Center for Health Research

EPISODE 25: MENTAL HEALTH AND SOCIAL MEDIA | OUR FRACTURED MINDS PODCAST

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Social Media Use and Mood Disorders: When Is It Time to Unplug?

“Mental Health and Social Media.” Daily Times [Lahore, Pakistan] 9 Jan. 2019. Business Insights: Global. Web. 9 Nov. 2019.

URL

http://bi.gale.com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/global/article/GALE%7CA568779718?u=cuny_ccny

Torous, John, and Joe Kossowsky. “Digital Mental Health for Youth: New Evidence but Still Much Unknown.” Psychiatric Times, Oct. 2018, p. 36+. Gale Academic Onefile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A574175692/AONE?u=nysl_me_76_tele&sid=AONE&xid=3f8cb28a. Accessed 9 Nov. 2019.

WHAT YOUR FACEBOOK ACTIVITY SAYS ABOUT YOU

https://www.cbsnews.com/pictures/what-your-facebook-activity-says-about-you/3/

https://www-clinicalkey-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/#!/content/playContent/1-s2.0-S0890856717303313?returnurl=null&referrer=null

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