In the duration of time that it takes you to read this paper, there will be thirty-eight successful suicides world-wide (according to figures provided by Luxton). Over the past decade, there has been uprising questions and debates that question if excessive use of social media contributes to addictive behaviors, violence and mental health issues. With ninety-four percent of teenagers using the internet every day, studies show links between social networking and these potential consequences (“Social Media’s Influence on Teen Drug Use”). With overall research and first-hand experience, it’s easy to see that once a person becomes involved with social media, they have a higher risk to addictive behaviors, violence, and mental health issues.
The connection of social media and addictive behaviors have a few factors that come into play. The first factor that surfaces is the basic addiction to social media itself. Which is followed by substance abuse- which includes drug and alcohol addiction. Social media alone is highly addictive. In a survey of 253 undergraduates, they had reported spending an …show more content…
Networks expose users to violence, campaigns, substance use, inappropriate actions and cyberbullying. It was found that users have a psychological need or belief toward media so the content within and indirectness have a toll on a user’s emotions (Valkenburg). Considering the large amount of people addicted to their phones, (whom admit to dedicating sixteen hours of their day to them) the reports of unhappiness, depression and lowering of self-esteem is no surprise (Yust). There are two key components of social media that create the depression and unhappiness of its users, which includes the rise in cyberbullying and the worsening of stress and anxiety