Inadvertent Online Depression Depression is as common amongst teenagers as fleas are on dogs. For an increasing number of youth, the internet is becoming more of a social outlet than the real world and several articles have stated that this may lead to depression. Many researchers and media outlets have emphasized the negative affects that cyberbullying has on teenagers today . While cyberbullying can have a profound effect on young adults, social media depresses many adolescents for reasons other than just cyberbullying. Above and beyond cyberbullying, social media has become an online popularity contest; lowering many teenagers self esteems. It is well knows that cyberbullying can cause depression, in fact” 70% of teens have reported frequently seeing online harassment” (in fact collaborative). However, nowadays even without any nasty comments or mean private messages being sent, teens are still becoming depressed due to online activity. Most adolescents are basing how they see themselves on the amount of likes they receive on a picture or favourites on a tweet. For example, when a young adult views that their friends are getting higher amounts of likes then they are it is a natural occurrence for negative thoughts concerning ones self to run through their minds. The more likes seems means a greater social standing. Slowly the numbers eat away at the confidence of the user, making them feel
Anderson 2 less without a single negative word being typed. Similarly, in the novel Fahrenheit 451 Mildred places her self worth on items that do not reflect her as a person; for instance, how many televisions she owns ( Bradbury,18). Both in the novel and in our society, people often believe that their virtual standing is linked to their own self value and this often causes poor self image. The constant connection to others that social media provides tends to create inadvertent isolation. Prior to the beginning of social media, young people were not bombarded by pictures, tweets and statuses of events they were not apart of, allowing the ignorance of said events to keep the minds of adolescents positive. However in today’s teenage world that is not the case. Young people are continually being visually reminded of the social gatherings they are not attending. These constant visual reminders have a negative physiological effect on many teenagers constant mental need of inclusion. A study by German researches stated that “a