Soical Media Ruins Lives

Social Media Ruins Lives

MiKayla Holmes

Colorado Technical University

Introduction

 Teen tragically kills them self after bullies flood social media with horrible messages. This has been a running headline in our world for a long time. Teen lives are affected by social media and they use it daily. How many kids have committed suicide due to social media? What can we do to stop it? This writing was supposed to be based off how negatively and positively social media affects adults and professionalism; however, I found that teen use is more important and affects so much more.

Body

When I was a teen I grew up with no cell phone yeah, computers where around everyone was starting to get them in the home. Adults where the main users and adults had the cell phones instead of texting we would write notes. I remember when I was 16 and I wanted a cell phone oh, so bad so my mother caved in and got me a pay on the go Cingular phone one of them old nokia phones. As time went on so didn’t the evolving technology around me. Computers started playing a bigger role in our schools, cellphones started becoming little hand attached devices that you just seemed not to be able to put down. Then came social media first with Xanga, then Myspace, Facebook and the list goes on.

Teens are affected today more so then in the early 2000s as social media has become and huge platform. All thought it is still quite controversial on whether or not social media plays a part in the increasing mental illnesses in teens today. Some researchers have associated social media with psychiatric disorders such as depression, anxiety, and even low self-esteem. (Igor Pantic, 2014) As of 2015 92% of teens reported daily online use and 24% reported constantly using social media. According to the Journal of Adolescent Heath, 2017 social media is associated with depression, sleep disturbances, and eating disorders. (foundation, 2017)

It is a fact that teen suicide is on the rise today many teens have even live-streamed their own suicide on many social networking sites such as Facebook and yes even Twitter owned networks. It is no secret that bulling has been around as long as humans have walked this earth. However, in 2015 34% of students reported being cyberbullied and 15% reported cyberbullying someone else. According to a lot of my research I have found that girls seem to be more targeted than boys. The percentage of kids getting bullied on social media is an alarming rates. 71.9% are being bullied in school every year. (foundation, 2017)

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for people between the ages of 15 and 24 with homicides ranking third. (foundation, 2017) According to a study done at Yale University 7% to 9% of bullied victims are likely to contemplate suicide. 80% of teens who take their own lives have depressive symptoms; bullying causes a higher rates of suicide and cyber bullying is believed to lead to thoughts of suicide more than traditional bullying; according to JAMA Pediatrics. There are several kids who have been in the news due to their suicides being closely related or even linked to cyber bullying. (Bullying, 2016)