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Introduction:
In this world where the revolving idea of social media is the cause of every teen’s
problems. Teens everywhere seek the attention and popularity society has given ever since its
existence. What for? Is a question parents and professionals can not answer and most likely not
even teens may have an answer but “just because”. But does the usage of social media affect
teens' lives? Why is this important? Most parents unwittingly ask themselves if they are doing
the right thing in letting their teens use social media. Jean Twenge, Jonathan Haidt, and Kevin
Cummins all write similar articles, discussing the negative effects of social media giving parents
the answers to their questions. Offering parents a professional point of view and allowing them
to expand on their understanding of social media. However, parents can’t seem to find the
correlation between social media’s exposure to the risks and teens.
Summary:
In “Social media is riskier for kids than ‘screen time” writers Jean Twenge, Jonathan
Haidt and Kevin Cummins argue that the increase in psychological issues such as mental health,
depression, and some body image issues in teens are caused by the usage of social media which
comes into play. Throughout the article, the revolving idea of social media causing mental health
emphasizes the negative effects not only on teens but parents as well, making them believe they
should “not worry about their children’s media consumption” (para.4). They began to provide
many comparisons between a variety of sweets and food with social media to give a broad
explanation on how both sweets and social media are addictive. However, the authors believed
that there is a possibility that the increase in social media usage is caused by mental health, but
the more studies done the more percent of teens have been proven to have depression because of
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social media (para.11). They conclude by explaining the need to decrease the amount of social
media consumption to parents to prevent the future risks of mental health issues in their teens.
Claim:
Although most of Twenge, Haidt, and Cummins's rhetorical strategies were persuasive to
his audience and their ideas aligned with most risks of social media, the emotional value of the
articles may have been overlooked by some of the connotations they conveyed throughout the
article.
Paragraph 1:
●The comparisons of social media to other risky behaviors would be surprising but
effective for the audience
●Sweets to social media
●Mental health to social media
●Many articles compare screen time and social media as a whole giving one definition for
both without looking at the differences which once looked at makes one worse than the
other
●P1: Although most unwise activities such as marijuana use, lack of exercise, or even
binge drinking have a stronger connection between teens' mental health, the connection
between mental health and social media is so much stronger.
●P2: The social media industry has formed the way teens interact with each other as well
as caused teens to become more reliant on society's opinion
Paragraph 2:
●The evidence given makes them creditable of their source like their use of
graphs/statistics and evidence from Oxford
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●As different states and countries continued their research between social media and
mental health they found many similarities. Most teenage girls suffer depression and or
body image based on how much social media is used during their day
●Teens are told how and what they should look like causing them to fall into depression
and body image making it hurtful for present and future generations
●Although most articles provide statistics and data to prove social media causes
depression, it can not be determined for certain. Maybe depression causes teens to use
social media for reassurance
●Introduces a counterargument to provide other opinions but still bring back why the
counterargument can be used as evidence for their main idea
Paragraph 3:
●The sentence structure is really strong because it supports the evidence
●Are teen usage of social media impacting their chances of achieving their goals? Is
scrolling through social media more important than interacting with friends and family
for teens for most companies yes to make the most money, but in the viewpoint of the
parents no. Restricting teens from social media before the age of 13 can be beneficial to
their future mental health.
●Conclusion the main argument and sets up parents to furthermore believe that social
media is affecting their teens
Argument:
●The emotional value of the articles may have been overlooked by some of the
connotations they conveyed throughout the article.
●Connotations themselves are kind of repetitive
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●Performative and toxic
●Although I only mentioned these two words there are synonyms throughout the whole
article which can be seen as the same
Conclusion:
Although we can’t be certain if parents will accept or even take in the consideration of
the proposal these authors gave, the authors gave a formal structure but were still able to
accomplish a coherent and recognizable article to persuade parents to take action following the
STAR criteria. Supposing that one article can change the judgments within an entire population
of parents, we can take into consideration looking deeper for an explanation to all of our
answers. But until then, social media can stop the unfolding of future teens.
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