write a letter to
your frier friend expressing
your concern over'' Smpact of media on
teenagers"
Answers
Explanation:
The Effect of Social Media on Teenagers
Does social media make teens more anxious and depressed? This has become one of the more controversial questions regarding teen use of technology, with studies showing varied results.
Many experts believe that the constant overstimulation of social networking shifts the nervous system into fight-or-flight mode. As a result, this makes disorders such as ADHD, teen depression, oppositional defiant disorder, and teen anxiety worse.
This is borne out by a large body of research linking teenagers’ use of social media with increased teen depression. These studies show that the frequency of a teen’s use of social media has a clear correlation to their mental health. For example, in a 2018 study, 14- to 17-year-olds who used social media seven hours per day were more than twice as likely to have been diagnosed with depression, treated by a mental health professional, or taken medication for a psychological or behavioral issue during the last year. This was compared to those who used screens only about an hour a day.
Increased Teen Depression Linked to Technology Use
Additional surveys of US adolescents show that teen depressive symptoms and suicide rates increased between 2010 and 2015, especially among females. Researchers noted that the increase in social media and overall screen use between those years could account for these changes.
Moreover, these surveys showed that adolescents who spent more time on social media were more likely to report mental health issues. Meanwhile, teens who spent more time on non-screen activities, such as in-person social interaction, sports, exercise, homework, and print media, were less likely to report these issues.
In addition, a CNN study of 13-year-old teenagers and social media found that participants who checked Facebook or other networking sites between 50 and 100 times a day were 37 percent more distressed than those who checked just a few times a day. Those who checked more than 100 times a day were 47 percent more distressed on average.
Newport Academy Well-being Resources: effect of social media on teenagers
New Research on the Screen-Depression Link
However, new research counteracts these findings. A recent study found that adolescent well-being does go down with digital technology use, but by only .4 percent at most.
Furthermore, some research shows that the causality goes the other way: When teens are depressed, they look at social media more often. For example, another new study looked at social media use among 594 adolescents over two years, and 1,132 undergraduate students over six years. Researchers found that social media use did not predict depressive symptoms among adolescents or undergraduates. Rather, greater depressive symptoms predicted more social media use over time, but only among adolescent girls.
Moreover, the Internet also offers the potential to help teens with mental health challenges, notes Jamison Monroe, Founder and CEO of Newport Academy.
“I’m excited about the ability to provide therapy and education to people who would not seek it in person, cannot afford it, or don’t live in a geographic area where they have access to it,” Jamison says. “Technology is going to bring us into a new era of mental health treatment.”