Extensive research has shown that social media and that internet can be beneficial to our health; if it’s used moderately. As the academic research from Ando, Sakamoto, McKenna, Green and Gleason shows, individual teenagers whom suffer from social anxiety are able to benefit from online friendships. This in turn, reflects as a positive effect on that person’s psychological health. The articles from Whitley and Cottle mostly argue on how social media affects our health negatively.

 

An argument used from both Whitley and Cottle is that social media can cause depression and cyber-bullying. Cyber-bullying is when technology is used to harass, embarrass or threaten another person. While I do agree that cyber-bullying is a problem, the authors seem to overlook the connection with real-life bullying. It is also possible for real-life bullying to transition into cyber-bullying. Nevertheless, bullying has always been a problem in society; it doesn't require technology for it to occur.

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Most of the time, real life bullying transitions to cyber-bullying. There are many aspects to this that the authors did not keep in mind. Another argument used by both Cottle and Whitley is that social media can be very damaging to an individual’s self-esteem due to society’s standards on body image.

 

According to a report from the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK, CNN’s author of “Instagram worst social media app for young people's mental health”, Kara Fox (2017), informs us that “Instagram is the most detrimental social networking app for young people's mental health”. Apparently, the author of the report, Matt Keracher, states that “Instagram draws young women to "compare themselves against unrealistic, largely curated, filtered and Photoshopped versions of reality,".

 

While this may be true, the same can be said about models, celebrities and photos in magazines; it’s not only limited to social media. Back in the 19th century, society's standards on beauty were the so-called pin-up girls. Many women back in those days strove to achieve the ideal body image; issues concerning self-esteem have always existed.