A Study of The Impact of Twitter and Facebook on The Psychological Health of Teenagers

I feel there are certainly more than one purpose contained within this selection. The first being to bring awareness to such issues. Many people find such social medias to be harmless, and almost everyone utilizes at least one or the other. However, as we can see from this article, they can cause many strains to one’s mental health. Another purpose I feel the author is pushing, is to decrease use of such medias, or ban them altogether. Adolescence is a very difficult time in young peoples lives, and these added medias contribute even more stress to them. Both purposes can easily be given to this article presented for analyzation.

Initially, the author proclaims that results were based upon a survey that outreached to people in the age bracket of 14 to 24-year old’s. This ten-year difference in age showcases, that such ages are most detrimental to the harmful effects of the social medias. Denise Campbell, the author of Facebook And Twitter Harm Young Peoples’ Mental Health utilizes several objective means of backing up the information that she is asserting. Amongst these issues of social medias such as Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat, users within this age bracket feel anxiety and inadequacy during and after use. In her article, Campbell stated: “Instagram has the most negative impact on young people’s mental wellbeing, a survey of almost 1,500 14- to 24-year-olds found, and the health groups accused it of deepening young people’s feelings of inadequacy and anxiety” (Campbell, p.1, 2017). Within this quote, audiences can see the objective demeanor of the author, the survey concluded these results, rather than personal or bias sources.

Many other facts were provided by said author as well. Quotations given by Shirly Cramer, who is the executive of Royal Society for Public Health were keyed into this essay. Showcasing, that the author is objective, using facts and backing them up, compared to being subjective in nature. Cramer stated: “It’s interesting to see Instagram and Snapchat ranking as the worst for mental health and wellbeing. Both platforms are very image-focused, and it appears that they may be driving feelings of inadequacy and anxiety in young people” (Cramer, p.2, 2017). Throughout the article, audiences are made aware, that these findings were the product of surveys and polls alike. Manipulation of the results is both highly unlikely and not beneficial either, therefore, audiences can testify that these results are indeed credible.

Not to mention, that experience with such medias, can certainly bring approval and belief to such assertions. When one is on Instagram or Facebook, they are viewing a lot of photos and ads. Such ads and photos generally appear to involve positive aspects of life, rather showcasing the negative components. And let’s face it no one’s life is perfect, but such medias given the ability to perceive life to be. Nothing feels worse than coming home and logging into Facebook to see the nearly perfect Abercrombie models in adds, or that one friend who is visiting their third country this week. Personally, I agree with what the author has to say. Although, I am an avid user of such mentioned accounts, I primarily use them to keep contact with family. In my opinion, social medias can bring upon mental health issues as discussed in this article, however, one must come to terms that no one’s life is perfect, whether or not Facebook shows this or not. We each have issues, whether we look flawless or have tons of money. By understanding this, one can use medias without having the associated mental health issues.