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Eric Myers

Dr.Cassell

English 1201

27 March 2019

Effects of Social Media On Teens

In the 21st century technology has become a very major part of our everyday lives.

From wearing a smartphone on your wrist to sending daily emails at work. Through this

progression of technology more and more people seem to be affected by it. It’s crazy to

think that our parents used to have to send letters or talk on a landline to communicate. As

technology grows it affects more and more age groups from a young toddler playing games

on his/ her moms iPad to an elderly man scrolling through Facebook at the park. When

thinking of this you might wonder if this affects how people think, act, and brain function.

When thinking about this I thought about how much I see my classmates and friends on

their phone. Whether it be during class or going out and having some fun. This made me

think of if there were side effects from so much social media, texting, streaming, and

gaming. The main focus of this paper will be about teenagers and social media usage. Some

of the questions I will be covering in this paper include; How does using social media

affect self-worth? How does spending hours on technology affect brain function? What are

the side effects of this? What are the pros and cons of technology? There are many

questions about this topic. Just keep in mind that there are always pros and cons to keep in

consideration. After doing some research I have come up with a conclusion. Teens have a
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higher risk of stress, impaired brain function, depression, and many other side effects

because of the amount of time spent on social media. Throughout the rest of this paper, I

will be stating why this is as well as counter-arguments against this claim.

To start the teen brain is still developing. The brain will be fully mature at around

23 years old. During this maturing process, the brain is very vulnerable to outside

influences. These outside influences can shape our personality and habits. For example,

many say that they are not like their parents but after taking a test 55% of people would do

the same things their parents have done in a particular situation. This goes to show that

what people see when they are younger translate to when they are an adult. This can be the

same with depression, anxiety, and stress. In this case, the habit of being on social media

for extended periods of time can corrupt brain function. The growing minds of youth are

very susceptible to outside influences in both negative and positive ways. And habit

formation plays a big role in brain development. Good habits can promote things as big as

longevity but as negative as death. Another aspect of a young brain that must be analyzed is

instant gratification. There was an experiment done in 2016 that showed aspects of toddlers

minds which can be shown in parallel with teenagers minds. In the experiment, a

marshmallow was placed in front of a young child about 6 or 7 years old. The child was

told that if they didn't eat the singular marshmallow after 15 minutes he for she could have

2 marshmallows. Now, some ate it and others did not. Now the ones that chose to eat the

marshmallow before the 15 minutes up did not receive another. This experiment shows

how instant gratification can play a role in our lives, especially young brains. Since the

brain is the last thing to mature there is plenty of room for this to happen. It is not always as
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simple and pure as the marshmallow experiment but it still happens. For example, in teens,

instant gratification is very sought after experience. Whether that be drinking or playing on

their phones. In fact, using a cellphone to look on social media for play games gives the

same amount of dopamine levels as doing drugs. From this scientists conclude that it is

possible to be addicted to a cell phone. Dopamine is a chemical that is released in the brain

that gives the sensation of happiness. Levels of this chemical balance can be heightened for

the decrease because of social media. Looking through different posts and articles can

either strike a raise or fall in dopamine. Too much fluctuation can cause long term damage

that would need counseling to reverse the effects. All to say the teens developing minds are

very susceptible to things they look at on social media and should watch what they put into

their brains.

This chart explains the frequency of teens that use social media through the day.

One thing that I notice is the the drop off from more than once a day to once a day. Also

the amount of percentage that teens use it more frequently. But I did notice that there is a
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higher percentage of teens that don’t use social media in 2018 are higher. Overall this chart

is worrisome because of the high percent of teens that use social media all more frequently.

When researching this topic the first thing that I seemed to notice is the amount of

recorded self-judgment recorded by teenagers. 30% of teens said that they felt judged when

posting for using social media. What I mean by this is, teenagers felt judged in a negative

way by the things they posted on their social media. Also, they felt judged when looking at

other more fortunate people's social media. To elaborate, teens left like they were not as

important or as popular to be using social media. This shows that social media can create a

sense of insecurity in teenagers. Insecurity can be simply defined as not feeling

comfortable in a situation. These teenagers are looking down on themselves because they

feel judged or in more extreme cases worthless. One of the main goals of social media is

for people to say look at the things I have. This is the mindset of some people that use

applications like Instagram or Snapchat. Now some people might say that life is not fair

and teens need to have thicker skin when looking on these sites. But this downward spiral

of self-worth doesn't always come from external knowledge. Continuing, 45% of teens

when posting on social media are concerned that people will not like what they post. This

shows that using Social media can affect the way you think the world views them. Usually,

in a negative way, and over time it can have a long term effect. Over time this can create a

panorama to what others think of them. And that is not a good way to live. This epidemic

can be internalized or subconscious. Spending a considerable amount of time can change

the way the brain thinks.

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Some teens filled out a survey and the data point that stood out in the study was that

26 out of 100 teens spend more than 4 hours on their phones a day. This can be anything

from watching movies to snapchatting. This is a scary fact to look at. Knowing that teens

are wasting away their lives and brains. Teens could be getting involved with their school,

sports, or volunteering. Instead, teens continue to waste time playing on their phones. That

is 4 hours that could be spent in other ways. Continuing, the effects of extended periods of

time looking at a screen can harm your eyes and brain. First, the eyes are very sensitive to

the blue light given off by your phone. When using phones late at night it actually tricks the

brain into thinking it’s day time. This delays the release of an enzyme called melatonin

which activated the sleep cycle. Which will result in lack of sleep. The loss of sleep causes

unneeded stress on the brain. The added stress causes an increase in mood swings, anger,

drowsiness, and trouble focusing. Allowing melatonin to be released at the proper time and

amount can remove these side effects. This can be achieved by not being on the device 1

hour before bedtime.

An excerpt reads: Several behavioral indicators of mental and well-being health will

be considered as consequences. These will include mental health symptoms as well as

outcomes that have been theorized to be in parallel to social media use ... suicidal ideation,

anxiety, loneliness, and decreased empathy. (Chloe Berryman &Christopher J.

Ferguson&Charles Negy).

Here is an excerpt from an interview of published author and successful researcher

of teens and social media.

How can social media make teens feel insecure?

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Simmons: Now teens can look at how many friends someone else has and wonder, “Why

don’t I have as many friends as other people?” Teens can look at the number of messages a

friend received for their birthday and think, “Why didn’t I get that many?” Teens can see

friends receiving texts from someone and wonder, “Why did she get more shout outs for

her birthday and I didn’t get as many?” (Borison). So the public nature of friendship can

make teens feel both more connected and intensely anxious and insecure. Parents need to

understand that the compelling drive to stay connected produces good and bad results. The

opinions of others and fear of exclusion can drive teens to be continually connected to their

friends.
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Th

This chart is an example of how the time can affect the brain. In this case

depression in teen girls. There is a parallel relationship between the amount of time and

depression. The more time on social media the more likelihood of depression.

Suicidal ideation is a major problem when dealing with teens. The constant

bombardment of sad thoughts and suicidal thoughts can be caused by social media. These

symptoms can be caused by cyberbullying. 43% of kids have been bullied online and one

of four have experienced it more than once. It is a major problem in schools everywhere.
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When studying this problem I noticed a couple of major things. First, social media is the

number one tool used for cyberbullying. Social media allows access for people to be made

up publicly, as well as privately. Allowing cyberbullies to use multiple ways to make fun to

pick on their victims. The second thing I noticed was 72% of cyberbullies have been

bullied before. When this happens a Chan reaction of bullying happens. After the dominos

fall there is no stopping it. The second thing I noticed was there is little to no parental

control. If a teen gets bullied they are embarrassed and usually do not tell anyone, keeping

the parents unaware of what is happening. Allowing the problem to get even worse and out

of control. And in some cases extreme cyberbullying causes suicide. Which is the leading

cause of death in teens today. Another problem is no restrictions. What I mean by

restrictions is there is no filter on what teens are putting out there for taking in. Teens that

have restrictions on their phone have shown a trend of staying out of cyber trouble. When

there are restrictions it allows teens to know what is wrong and what is right.

Social anxiety and anxiety, in general, is caused by a stimulus that causes prolonged

stress or worry. But more specifically social stress is the feeling of worry that you will not

fit in. Social media can cause social distress by making teens feel self-conscious and

judged. This can happen because of many things but the main cause is loneliness.

Loneliness can affect the brain in a few distinct ways, anxiety, and self-discrimination. As

social creatures, we need interaction with other people. When interacting with other

dopamine is released into our brain causing happiness. But when isolated from others our

dopamine leaves drop. Now, when using technology it is the same way. Many teens are

happy when using their phones because of the social interaction it brings. When a person is
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isolated from that social aspect weather be through bullying or not being accepted by others

it drops dopamine levels. Do to this cause and effect relationship being isolated on social

media it can cause social anxiety. Teens will wonder if they are good enough, why don’t

people like me, or is there something wrong with me. That added social stress is not good

for developing teens. Prolonged loneliness can cause social awkwardness, depression, and

suicide.

All of the things mentioned above come from the number of time teens spend on

their phones. Some ways to combat this can include: parental restrictions, getting out of the

house, join a club, don’t have technology in teens rooms at night, and much more. Thinking

of creative ways to get teenagers off their phones can be nothing but helpful to our society.

It will allow teens to have more integrity, better people skills, and higher functioning

brains. And this will only help teens in college, job force, and life in general. Continuing, a

lot of teens tend to say things behind a screen and not in person. When the phone is

removed it allows teens to treat others the way they want to be treated. In turn, this will

help our school and society in general. In conclusion, teens have more risk of stress,

depression, and decreased brain function due to social media.

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