Singh, Manvir. “It's Easy to Blame Mental Health Issues on Tech. but Is It Fair?” Wired, Conde Nast, 30 Mar. 2022, https://www.wired.com/story/depression-social-media-tsimane-mental-health/. 

• • This article will most likely serve as my counterargument for my article. Its main argument is that anxiety and depression are not spiking due to the increased use of the internet. According to this article, the Tsimane people of the Amazon are just as susceptible to depression as Americans. In a survey of Tsimane people, they self-reported more feelings of suffering compared to Americans who were surveyed. For the Tsimane, the two biggest predictors of depression were “physical injury and social conflict.” Their argument is then clearly stated, “New technologies may turn us into homebound loners, but by lessening our reliance on bodies and social bonds, they also help buffer us from nature and social drama—vagaries that have likely caused distress since the origin of our species.”

• It is important to have a counterargument in the essay to show that I have considered both sides of the argument. This gave me a better understanding of the opposing side of my argument that social media worsens mental health by giving an example of a group of people who don’t have access to the internet and have worse mental health than Americans.

Twenge, Jean M. “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 19 Mar. 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2017/09/has-the-smartphone-destroyed-a-generation/534198/. 

• • This article talks about the differences between the Millennial generation and the generation this writer calls “iGen.” Teens now spend less time with their friends in real life than before when smartphones were invented. This trend is consistent throughout all teenagers, regardless of their socioeconomic status, race, and where they were born. In fact, 3 out of 4 kids have an iPhone, according to a study done in 2017. The article also points out that this iGen is more susceptible to depression and suicide. In addition, iGen is less likely to do what other generations consider as “teenager things,” like dating, having sex, or even leaving the house.
• This article shows the “cause and effect” of smartphones being introduced to teenagers. The addition of smartphones to this generation have made them much unhappier and are less likely to engage in “teen activities” like going out and dating.

Haidt, Jonathan. “The Dangerous Experiment on Teen Girls.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 14 Feb. 2022, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/11/facebooks-dangerous-experiment-teen-girls/620767/. 

• • This article argues that adolescent girls are the ones who experience the most harm on social media. The percentage of Americans ages 12-17 who had at least one major depressive episode each year has been on the rise, but it is rising at a much sharper rate for females compared to those who identify as males. In addition, self harm rates doubled for girls ages 10 to 14. The article then goes on to say that girls are more likely to use instagram when they’re on their phones compared to other social media platforms and when they step away from their phones, it is likely that they are still thinking about instagram and what others are doing on there.
• This article gives new key terms to further specify who is getting harmed the most by social media: adolescents. Furthermore, teen girls are those that are getting the worst of it.

4. United States

• Mark Zuckerburg
• The Amazon
• Social Media
• The Kids Online Safety Act
• Instagram

5. 

• The most urgent type of problem associated with people using social media is not economic or political but rather social. With an increased use of technology and social media, we have also seen increased rates of anxiety, increased risks of depression, and increased rates of people feeling lonely. This is especially true with teenagers and more specifically adolescent girls. A study done showed that Instagram scored as the most harmful social media for teens. Moreover, the fact that social media increases rates of people feeling lonely can exacerbate and provoke other negative feelings which can turn into forms of depression and anxiety. This can be very damaging to society as a whole, since a society depends on all members of it to continue functioning correctly, and with no stop in social media and mental health issues in teens in sight, this is likely to happen. 

6.

• Considering the sources I have gathered so far, all communities feel the negative effects of social media to an extent, but the group who is most affected by this issue are adolescent girls. This problem exists worldwide, but most articles that I have found on this topic were focused on American teens. This issue started around 2010 (meaning that this problem is comparatively new compared to other issues) and has been getting worse with each passing year, and it has been getting worse faster for teen girls. This problem exists because social media promotes people to compare themselves to others. The problem, however, is that people often tend to post their best versions of themselves instead of their real selves, so people are essentially comparing themselves to a fictitious character rather than who they think that they are comparing themselves to. This problem must urgently be solved now because the mental health of this generation of teens is rapidly deteriorating, which could turn into other problems, like economical.

 7.

• There is a strong correlation between use of technology and social media with rates of anxiety and depression. In a graph shown on “The Dangerous Experiment on Teen Girls,” it plots the percentage of Americans aged 12-17 who had at least one major depressive episode between the years of 2005 and 2010 was somewhat steady, but from 2015 and onward, the rates started to increase, especially for the girls. Another issue that emerges is social withdrawal, or, how Singh describes it with a word in the Japanese language, hikikomori. Social withdrawal has been seen to have negative effects on people as well.

8.

• One common belief that may have caused or contributed to one or more of these effects is the fact that society for many decades has been pushing the fact that women must be seen as attractive. This has not changed with the addition to social media. In fact, I argue that it has made this problem even worse. Now, with social media, girls can be reminded at any point of other girls who they can compare themselves with. As I previously mentioned, there is also a belief that social media is real, but it is definitely not. People post photos of themselves based on what they want you to see. So, taking into consideration this fact along with the fact that women are supposed to be perceived as pretty is the perfect storm for these young girls to feel bad that they do not look the way they want to.

 9.

• Two of the articles that I have chosen were written by scholars. They are Jean M. Twenge, a psychologist who researches generational differences and has written multiple books, and Jonathan Heidt, a social psychologist at the New York University Stern School of Business. In Heidt’s article, he mentions and agrees with Twenge’s article and says they have been working together to find a relationship between teen mental health and social media. It is apparent that Heidt completely agrees with all of Twenge’s points in her article. With this knowledge, I know that it is unlikely that they will ever publicly go against each other’s findings, so if I want to find something that contradicts their findings, I would have to find another writer.

 10.

The problem with the use of social media and teenagers is that social media is changing the older norms and patterns of teenagers that we as a society have had in the past. Some argue that with social media, teenagers have never been more lonely nor with more mental health issues as today. Others argue that social media actually helps distract us from “real” problems that can cause mental health issues. According to those who believe that social media causes mental health issues, this problem takes place everywhere and harms every group that participates in social media. The most urgent type of problem associated with people using social media is not economic or political but rather social. With an increased use of technology and social media, we have also seen increased rates of anxiety, increased risks of depression, and increased rates of people feeling lonely. This is especially true with teenagers and more specifically adolescent girls. A study done showed that Instagram scored as the most harmful social media for teens. Moreover, the fact that social media increases rates of people feeling lonely can exacerbate and provoke other negative feelings which can turn into forms of depression and anxiety. This can be very damaging to society as a whole, since a society depends on all members of it to continue functioning correctly, and with no stop in social media and mental health issues in teens in sight, this is likely to happen. However, some argue that women and teens are far more susceptible to being harmed by it. This problem exists worldwide, but most articles that I have found on this topic were focused on American teens. This issue started around 2010 (meaning that this problem is comparatively new compared to other issues) and has been getting worse with each passing year, and it has been getting worse faster for teen girls. This problem exists because social media promotes people to compare themselves to others. The problem, however, is that people often tend to post their best versions of themselves instead of their real selves, so people are essentially comparing themselves to a fictitious character rather than who they think that they are comparing themselves to. This problem must urgently be solved now because the mental health of this generation of teens is rapidly deteriorating, which could turn into other problems, like economical. This problem happens now because with social media, teens can be reminded at any point of other teens who they can compare themselves with. As I previously mentioned, there is also a belief that social media is real, but it is definitely not. People post photos of themselves based on what they want you to see. So, taking into consideration this fact along with the fact that teens tend to be self conscious individuals, the problem is worsening. For scholarly sources, I want to look at the actual downsides to the mental health issues I’ve been mentioning actually entails and why these are bad things that we as a society want to avoid a whole generation having. That way, the evidence will have scientific backing as well.