Teens and the Social Media Challenge

The Topic

Times have changed, and the parenting environment of 100 years ago is much different from today's generation growth environment for teenagers. The children's play activities and social stratum have immensely changed due to the integration of cultures and technological changes. Teenagers experience significant physical, emotional, and social changes as part of their developmental transitions. The rise of fast technological development coupled with cloud computing has led to various changes that affect the development of teenagers. Today, teenagers have access to video gaming and social media and, in some cases, earlier before they turn ten years. The overall benefits of technology, video gaming, and social media are irrefutable. Wartberg et al. (2020) explain that some psychologists believe the absence of control measures that can limit teenagers’ usage of social media exposes them to the risk of suffering increased depression and anxiety. The question on whether heavy video gaming and the use of social media increases the tendency of teenagers experiencing depression and anxiety stills lingers.  

The Controversy

The usage of social media among teenagers and gaming elicits varying opinions among various stakeholders. Many practitioners support that heavy gaming and social media use are good for teenagers to keep them mentally active and evade vice characteristics. On the contrary, there are those factions that consider it an ingredient for depression and mental illness, and anxiety among adolescents. 

Pro side of the Controversy 

Whereas there are arguments that heavy gaming and high social media use among teens has more negative impacts than positives, there are those who support teenagers engaging in heavy video gaming and in using social media. Video gaming is beneficial to teenagers in their development. Wang et al. (2019) found that strategic video games help teenagers to enhance their problem-solving skills as they role-play during the games. The games also improve the moods of teenagers, enhance their relaxation, and ward off anxiety. Garcia-Oliva & Piqueras (2016), in their study, found that the increased tendencies of depression and anxiety among adolescents were not because of heavy gaming or the use of social media. They state that the adolescent boys were more involved in video gaming; hence, they were most affected by the overuse. Pluhar et al. (2019) note that teenagers that play video games for longer night hours suffer more anxiety and depression than those who don’t. They further state that such teenagers can alleviate heavy gaming by engaging in social media engagement through quality social engagements with peers and mentors. They argue that stronger networking circles and quality friendships among teenagers help them easily open up to their challenges and easily cope with life changes. Video gaming and social media use are fun and engagement that is good for the teenagers' well-being.            

Con Side of the Controversy 

Carras et al. (2017) affirm that teenagers that engage less gaming and social media interaction show less anxiety and depression problems, unlike their counterparts that engage in more gaming and social media interactions, which show higher depressive symptoms. Moreover, they note that male non-social gamers had more anxiety, whereas their female counterparts showed less rejection and anxiety. Adolescents’ greater social media use and heavy gaming lead to online harassment, low self-image, and poor sleep patterns that increase the tendencies of depression and anxiety among teenagers (Kelly et al., 2018). The screen time and depressive symptoms are more rampant among teenagers who spend most time gaming than those who don’t game or spend less time gaming and social media. Li et al. (2019) explain that change in sleep behaviors is a potential remedy in reducing depressive symptoms among adolescents that engage in heavy video gaming. Video games in an uncontrolled environment without parental regulation have shown to lead to such vices as attention problems, obesity, and poor academic performance in school. Moreover, long-term video gaming among young people weakens their brains, setting them up to the risks of mental illnesses such as dementia. In the end, the negative side of the over-use of video gaming and social media use among teenagers is a high likelihood of depression and anxiety. 

Tentative Thesis Statement

Teenagers who engage in heavy video gaming and social media use have a high tendency to experience depression and anxiety more than the teenagers who engage less in video gaming or have low social media use.  

References

Carras, M. C., Rooij, A. J., Mheen, D. V., Musci, R., Xue, Q.-L., & Mendelson, T. (2017). Video gaming in a hyperconnected world: A cross-sectional study of heavy gaming, problematic gaming symptoms, and online socializing in adolescents.  Computers in Human Behavior , 68, 472-479.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.11.060. 

Garcia-Oliva, C., & Piqueras, J. A. (2016). Experiential avoidance and technological addictions in adolescents.  Journal of behavioral addictions , 5(2), 293-303.https://doi.org/10.1556/2006.5.2016.041. 

Kelly, Y., Zilanawala, A., Booker, C., & Sacker, A. (2018). Social media use and adolescent mental health: Findings from the UK Millennium Cohort Study. EClinicalMedicine, 6, 59-68. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eclinm.2018.12.005. 

  Li, X., Buxton, O. M., Lee, S., Chang, A.-M., Berger, L. M., & Hale, L. (2019). Sleep mediates the association between adolescent screen time and depressive symptoms.  Sleep medicine , 57, 51-60. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sleep.2019.01.029. 

Pluhar, E., Kavanaugh, J. R., Levinson, J. A., & Rich, M. (2019). Problematic interactive media use in teens: comorbidities, assessment, and treatment.  Psychology research and behavior management , 12, 47. https://dx.doi.org/10.2147%2FPRBM.S208968. 

Wang, H.-Z., Sheng, J.-R., & Wang, J.-L. (2019). The association between gaming addiction and depression, social anxiety, and rejection.  Frontiers in public health , 7, 247.https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2019.00247. 

Wartberg, L., Kriston, L., & Thomasius, R. (2020). Internet gaming disorder and problematic social media use in a representative sample of German adolescents: Prevalence estimates, comorbid depressive symptoms, and related psychosocial aspects.  Computers in Human Behavior , 103, 31-36. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.09.014.