Annotated Bibliography and Research Proposal
student name
Professor X
College Writing 112
28 March 2019
Research Proposal – Dying to Fit In: Social Media, Self-Harm, and Suicidal Ideation Among American Teens
Since Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter’s emergence in the new millennium, the acts of watching and being watched have become second nature to multiple generations of Americans. With the tap of a finger, social media participants can upload photos and videos of their everyday lives, ranging from the mundane to the most intimate. While these platforms offer a limitless space of connection between people separated by miles, time zones, and other variables, these acts of constant voyeurism aren’t without their costs. Fifteen years after Facebook’s birth, researchers have amassed abundant evidence that constant connection can be dangerous as much if not more than it is positive: social media can have significant negative effects on its users, individually and collectively, and the most vulnerable are those aged 21 and younger.
In my paper, I intend to explore the relationship between social media representation of the self and others and its consequence on teen’s self-image and self-concept. More specifically, my paper will discuss the links between social media use and acts of self-harm and suicidal ideation among American teens aged 13-19. Since I was born in the digital age, social media has been as much a part of my everyday life as brushing my teeth; since I signed on to Instagram at age 13, I’ve virtually never known a day without it. However, after witnessing multiple friends in high school experience social media bullying and its after-effects, I became curious about how many people have these experiences and how they respond to them. This opens up broader questions of whether or not social media platforms really are positive parts of our lives, and if not, what we can do to lessen their negative effects.
After preliminary research and my personal experiences, I predict that my suspicion that social media increases the likelihood of self-harm and suicidal thoughts among teens will be well-supported. I have collected multiple formal studies and other sources that share statistics about the rise in these behaviors over the last decade. I plan to use these sources, including specific stories about teens who developed mental health disorders in connection with social media use, to create a thorough discussion of my topic. At its conclusion, I hope that my paper will be successful in providing a quality overview of social media and its ill-effects on teens, including my own suggestions about how we can make these platforms better and less harmful. I hope that readers of my paper will be inspired to think more carefully about their social media use, particularly in terms of how they can interact with kindness and compassion.