My civic engagement topic is “How has social media affected the poor mental

health of American teens in the past 20 years? How can we combat the rising rates of

depression and suicide in teens?” Suicide in teens is a rising problem in our world

today, and many people attribute it to social media. The youth are the future, and we

need to protect them and figure out how to stop this trend.

Bekalu, Mesfin Awoke. “Social Media Use Can Be Positive for Mental Health and
Well-Being.” News, 28 May 2020,
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/features/social-media-positive-mental-health/.

The article “Social Media Use Can Be Positive for Mental Health and Well-Being.”

by Mesfin Awoke Bekalu was published to hsph.harvard.edu on May 28, 2020. In this

article, Bekalu talks about how social media can be a positive thing if used correctly. He

begins by talking about how social media use often has a negative connotation with it.

He then explains that social media can actually strengthen our relationships with others

and make us happier. Bekalu says, “We know that having a strong social network is

associated with positive mental health and well-being...Social media may provide

individuals with a platform that overcomes barriers of distance and time, allowing them

to connect and reconnect with others and thereby expand and strengthen their

in-person networks and interactions”. He explains that social media can help us to

connect with people when we aren’t able to see them in person. In the article, Bekalu

also acknowledges that if used incorrectly, social media can have a very negative effect

on people. He stresses that social media can be a very beneficial tool, but we must be

smart about the way we use it.

acknowledges the other side of my argument. This will help me to keep my project

well-balanced and unbiased. This article came from Harvard University, and it is very

credible. Mesfin Awoke Bekalu is a research scientist in the Lee Kum Sheung Center for

Health and Happiness, Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Harvard T.H.

Chan School of Public Health. He has a PhD in Social Sciences, and has written a lot of

articles about similar topics. He is very qualified to be writing about social media and

mental health.

Daniels, Micajah, et al. "Social Media and Substance Use Among Adolescents:
Implications for Research." Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education, vol. 65, no. 1,
Apr. 2021, pp. 9+. Gale In Context: High School,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A664491891/SUIC?u=onlinelibrary&sid=bookmark-SUIC&x
id=a60eb34f. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.

In the article “Social Media and Substance Use Among Adolescents” published to

the Journal of Alcohol & Drug Education in April 2021, Micajah Daniels, Manoj Sharma,

and Kativa Batra talk a lot about how the use of social media affects substance abuse

and risky-behaviors in adolescents. Daniels, Sharma, and Batra quoted a lot of studies

that explained the correlation between SMU (social media use), drug abuse, and mental

health. For example, they state, “As reported by the United Kingdom (U.K)-based study

of adolescents, increased SMU has heightened the risk of depressive disorders and

other adverse experiences such as being cyberbullied, poor sleep quality, and negative

body image in this group”. The authors explained that social media users were

categorized into a few groups depending on how they used social media, and it was

discovered that the people in the categories with the most social media use were the
people that struggled with physical and mental health the most. Daniels, Sharma, and

Batra concluded the essay by stating that we need to research this topic more and take

action to make change.

I plan to quote this article in my project because it contains a lot of important

information about social media use in adolescents and how it affects them. This

information will back up my project and make it more credible. There are three authors

of this article, and they are all very credible. They all come from the University of

Nevada, Las Vegas, and each of them specialize in Public Health. They are all well

educated and qualified to write on this topic.

Masarweh, Lexi. “Social Media Negatively Affects Mental Health.” The Baylor
Lariat, The Baylor Lariat, 23 Sept. 2021,
https://baylorlariat.com/2021/09/23/social-media-affects-mental-health-negatively/.

The article “Social Media Negatively Affects Mental Health.” by Lexi Masarweh

was published to The Baylor Lariat on September 23, 2021. In the article, Masarweh

talks about how social media can be detrimental to the mental health of young adults.

She quoted a lot of studies to back up her points, and incorporated the experiences of

young college students to portray how big of an impact social media can have on a

person's life. For example, Masarweh states, “Miami junior Dante Estrada said that

social media has been a part of his life since he was 12 years old and that as he has

gotten older, it has impacted everything from his social life to his sense of humor”. She

talks about how social media has shaped who Dante Estrada is as a person, which

shows how much of an impact social media can have on people. Masarweh concluded
her article by quoting Dr. Christine Limbers and explaining how social media can

mentally drain a person and have a negative effect on mental health.

The information in this article will be useful in my civic engagement project

because it includes a lot of facts and statistics. These will be helpful things to

incorporate into my public service announcement because they help to prove the

validity of the information. While Lexi Masarweh may not have a lot of education in this

area, I still feel that she is qualified to write about this topic because she is an educated

writer. She is a college student herself, so this topic is something that she can relate to

directly because she is young. She also had a good professional tone, and I could tell

that she had done research and knew what she was writing about.

Mir, Elina, et al. “Social Media and Adolescents' and Young Adults' Mental Health.”
National Center for Health Research, National Center for Health Research, 18 Oct.
2021, https://www.center4research.org/social-media-affects-mental-health/.

The article “Social Media and Adolescents’ and Young Adults’ Mental Health”

written by Elina Mir, Caroline Novas, and Meg Seymour was published to the National

Center for Health Research on October 18, 2021. In this article, Mir, Novas, and

Seymour talk about how social media can harm young people. They begin by describing

the different types of social media, and which types are most popular. Then they

acknowledged that there are some benefits to social media, but they counteracted that

with the negative effects of social media. In the article, Mir, Novas and Seymour state,

“Although social media can allow people to reach out and connect with others, it can

also make some people feel worse. Almost 25% of adolescents believe that social
media has a mostly negative effect”. They explain that social media can be helpful in

connecting to others, but it seems that there are more cons than pros to social media.

They explore this topic even further, using plenty of evidence to back up their reasoning.

Then to conclude the article, Mir, Novas, and Seymour give tips for parents and young

people to help them manage social media use and improve mental health.

The information in this article will be useful in my civic engagement project

because it outlines all of the points I plan to make. Some specific information that will be

especially helpful is the tips at the end of the article. These tips will be a great way for

me to show people how they can help solve this issue. All of the authors of this article

are well qualified to write about this topic. They have a lot of education and experience

in psychology and technology, so they know what they are talking about.

Mundell, E. J. (2020, October 27). More evidence links social media use to poorer
mental health in teens. HealthDay. Retrieved November 3, 2021, from
https://consumer.healthday.com/kids-health-information-23/adolescents-and-teen-h
ealth-news-719/more-evidence-links-social-media-use-to-poorer-mental-health-in-t
eens-754691.html.

In the article “More Evidence Links Social Media Use to Poorer Mental Health in

Teens” published to HealthDay.com on October 27, 2020, Mundell presented a lot of

information about the correlation between social media use and mental health,

specifically in teens. He acknowledged how recently there has been a rise in anxiety,

overdose, depression and suicide in young people. Then, he acknowledged the recent

progressions in technology and the widespread access to social media. He explained

this correlation and quoted many reputable studies. For example, Mundell said, “...the
Canadian researchers pointed to two studies -- one conducted in the United States, the

other in Germany -- which found that kids who spent more time on Facebook were more

prone to negative states such as envy and insecurity about their status…”. He then

concluded his article by talking about ways to stop this trend of poor mental health and

teens including limiting social media usage.

The information in this article will be very helpful in my civic engagement project

because it contains a lot of specific facts about my topic. I will be able to use these facts

to spread awareness about the severity of the issue, which will help me persuade my

audience to want to take action. E.J. Mundell is the executive editor of the Consumer

News Division at HealthDay News. He has written thousands of articles about health

and is very qualified to write about this topic.

"A Rise In Depression Among Teens And Young Adults Could Be Linked To Social
Media Use." All Things Considered, 14 Mar. 2019. Gale In Context: High School,
link.gale.com/apps/doc/A580046414/SUIC?u=onlinelibrary&sid=bookmark-SUIC&x
id=5e550a2c. Accessed 9 Nov. 2021.

This piece is the script of a news broadcast interview hosted by Audie Cornish

called “A Rise In Depression Among Teens And Young Adults Could Be Linked To

Social Media Use” published to NPR.com on March 14, 2019. In the interview, Audie

Cornish covers the rise in depression and mental health issues in teens, and talks about

how researchers believe that this is caused by the increase of social media. In the

broadcast Pattie Neighmond, Jean Twenge, and Mary Fristad talk about why this might

be. For example, Twenge states, “Spending time on social media tends not to be in real

time. You're not having a real-time conversation with someone. Usually, you're not
seeing someone else's face. You can't give them a hug. It is just not as emotionally

fulfilling as seeing someone in person”. They explain that when you're spending more

time talking to people on social media than in real life, it inhibits the connections you

have with these people and can be damaging to your mental health. Neighmond also

acknowledges the opinion of someone on the other side of the argument, Robert

Croesner. Croesner does not believe that these mental health issues are caused by

social media, but rather by an uncertainty of the future. Neighmond concludes by stating

that researchers should go into more detail about this topic to find a definite answer.

The information in this broadcast will be very useful in my civic engagement

project because it has a lot of important facts that are easy to understand, and it also

acknowledges the other side of the argument. All of the people who took part in this

broadcast are credible sources. Pattie Neighmond is NPR’s health policy

correspondent, Jean Twenge is Professor of Psychology at San Diego State University

and has written many articles and books about this topic, and Mary Fristad works in the

Department of Psychology at Ohio State University. They are all very qualified to be

writing about this topic.

I found all of the information in these sources very interesting. They helped me to

get a deeper understanding of my research topic and make my argument more valid. I

liked learning about all of the different statistics that go along with social media and

mental health. I found it crazy that there is such a big correlation between the two. I also

liked hearing the different perspectives of many different authors. It helped me to get a

full understanding of all sides of the topic, and it made me more well-rounded. I will
definitely use the strategies I learned while doing this assignment to help me research

other topics I have questions about in the future.