How I See It.

According to the PewResearchCenter website, 90% of young adults use social media. Teenagers spend most of their time surfing on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and many others. Why? It is obvious that people are looking for someone who they can communicate with through social media because they cannot socialize with real people. This virtual communication might become the reason for low self-esteem and development of depression.

Users of social networks constantly talk to their virtual “friends” and then compare themselves with them, starting from on appearance to the brand of different clothes and technology. Undoubtedly, most of people who use social media are trying to present themselves in an ideal way without any negative. Thus, they show others their successfulness and superiority. It causes addiction to social media which can lead to change of mood, fear, depression, and other mental disorders. Those people, who are communicating with virtual ones, are prone to experience feeling of inferiority and jealousy. Teenagers can feel jealous only by looking at others’ pictures, reading their stories and everything that is happening in their life. While other people post different photos of their “ideal” life, others start feeling not happy for them, but angry and envy.

Another reason for depression can be addiction to social networks. Teenagers feel necessity in being always “online”. So they need to reply all messages all the time and see how many “likes” they get so far. “Likes” become very popular among all the social media. Teens are ready to do everything to get “like” and positive comments on their pictures or other posts. Race for these “likes” can simply lead to the first stages of depression. Those who do not receive the desired number of “likes” or comments begin feeling that they are worse than others and not so popular. There is no doubt that it makes teenagers experience different negative feelings.

Communicating virtually can cause teens to explore in a dangerous environment, most of the time allowing them to be a target of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is a type of bullying that happens through the electronic devices and it can be both a text message and a Facebook message. According to Larissa (2014), might include different acts such as “impersonating a victim online or posting personal information, photos, or videos designed to hurt or embarrass another person”. Teens, who have been bullied in any way, usually run a greater risk of anxiety and depression in its worse way – suicide thoughts and attempts.

In spite of the fact that social networks help people to expand their communication and keep in touch with others, it does not make a person more sociable. People who can only talk to virtual “friends” are not considered to be communicative; it just means that they have problems with communication with real people. Furthermore, as it is said above, constant social media usage can increase risk of different diseases and one of them is a serious one – depression. 

References

Perrin, A. (2015). Social Media Usage: 2005-2015. Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech. 28 Nov. 2015.

Hirsch, Larissa. Cyberbullying. KidsHealth – the Web’s Most Visited Site about Children’s

Health. The Nemours Foundation, 1 June 2014. Web. 30 Nov. 2015.