5 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
5 lines
3.4 KiB
Markdown
#rs/class/hea150 #rs/discussion
|
|
- - -
|
|
1. I watched the interview of Savannah Sellers on NBC and read the article on NPR about the effects of social media on the body images of teens. The interview on NBC was on a special about the mental health of teens and the effect of social media. It discussed many of the challenges that young people today are facing. Whether is is a decreased body image, fear of missing out from social media or the fear of a school shooting, one of the primary statistics that was discussed was that 42% of teens experience persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness. The article on NPR that I read was specifically about body image and its relationship with social media use. It discussed a study where one group continued to use social media regularly while the other reduced it to one hour per day. The study found that the group spending less time on social media had more self confidence and a better body image after only three weeks of cutting back social media use.
|
|
2. The question I asked ChatGPT is "I am doing some research on the potential effects of social media on the mental health of teenagers. Could you give me some examples of what these might be with some reasons why? Please provide sources as well." In the response I got, ChatGPT listed both negative and positive effects on the mental health of teens that social media use causes. For the negative effects, It listed most of the common ones that are commonly seen in the media such as increased anxiety, decreased self-esteem, cyber bullying and the fear of missing out. It did discuss some less common points such as sleep quality and mental fatigue, but nothing new to me. The response also talked about some of the positive effects of social media, which aren't talked about as often in the media from what I have seen. It did only give four points on this though, and most of them were restating similar ideas of social media allowing teens to express themselves and find people similar to them. The sources that it provided were good as well, and it referenced sources such as the mental health advisory from the Surgeon General, peer reviewed studies, Hopkins Medicine, the Mayo Clinic and more. Interestingly enough, all of the sources except one from this year were written in 2023. Overall, I think it gave a pretty good response and I liked that it considered the potential positive effects along with the negative ones. There wasn't anything that I hadn't seen before, but I also asked it for a general overview of the topic.
|
|
3. I personally don't use much social media in my daily life, although I know many people who do. I use apps such as discord and slack for team communication, although I don't have any apps like Instagram, TikTok or X. Even without these apps, there are definitely still times where I have a fear of missing out, although I don't think it is quite as prominent as it would be if I was using these platforms. I also know a lot of people that use many of these apps extensively, and there are times where I feel that it goes to far and that it would be good for them to pull back a little. Based on my personal experience growing up in a world so heavily influenced by social media, I agree with the ideas that it can be unhealthy to constantly be seeing what your friends are doing and being exposed to idealized portrayals of others. Although I haven't been involved in any extreme cases of this, I still see many smaller instances of these ideas and can see where they would come from. |