Effect of Cyberbullying on Mental Health

Sarah G

EME 2040- 003

Dr. James Hatten

October 2^nd, 2018

 

Annotation #4

Source Reference

O, R. M., Dogra, N., Whiteman, N., Hughes, J., Eruyar, S., & Reilly, P. (2018). Is social media bad for mental health and wellbeing? Exploring the perspectives of adolescents. Clinical Child Psychology & Psychiatry, 23(4), 601–613. https://doi-org.ezproxy.lib.usf.edu/10.1177/1359104518775154

 

Article Type

Article from Clinical Child Psychology & Psychiatry (Volume 23)

 

First Citation

“ “ ( O’ Reilly et al. 2018).

 

Brief Summary

The authors of, Is social media bad for mental health and wellbeing? Exploring the perspectives of adolescents, opened their writing with a background regarding what it means to be an adolescent.

 

Summary

The authors of this article detailed that those who found social media to be a threat the mental wellbeing (particularly adolescents) all were reported to have commonalities in their views of social media. The following three themes were identified and stated in the article:

1) it was believed to cause mood and anxiety disorders for some adolescents

2) it was viewed as a platform for cyberbullying

3) the use of social media itself was often framed as a kind of ‘addiction’.

Many people interview by the author agree that social media negatively effects adolescences (particularly their mental health) but many of them were ill-informed regarding the meaning of the term “mental health”.

The author continued to explain some of the negative attributes or results or poor mental wellbeing as being the following:

• Suicidal Tendencies
• Stress
• Low Self-Esteem
• Depression

The article went on to explain other social media related issues such as trolling and the addictiveness of technology. Adolescent children were interviewed about their understanding of the addictiveness of technology and none of the interviewed children denied being addicted. While these young people did note the truth in the addictive side of technology, they refused to recognize trolling as a regular occurrence stating that it was simply negative people.

 

Significant Quotes

• Sometimes the negative effects of social media are easier to seen in others than in oneself.

“Participants expressed generally consistent negative views about the potential impact of social media on mental health …. the overwhelming consensus among participants was that social media was dangerous for adolescent mental health in a broad sense, mostly referring to the mental health of others rather than their own” ( O’ Reilly et al. pg. 605).

• Social media is an avenue for cyberbullying that is reported to affect nearly a quarter of the US population.

A recent scoping review of international studies on cyberbullying showed a median prevalence of 23%, with social media being the main platform, alongside social networking and other applications (Hamm et al., 2015). Cyberbullying was an issue that participants talked about considerably and felt was a real risk to young people’s mental health and wellbeing. (O’ Reilly et al. pg. 606)

• Beyond being cyberbullied, in the interviews conducted by the author it was discovered that in a general sense, social media has a negative effect on society.

“Participants expressed the view that they felt social media was a risk to mental wellbeing. They identified stress, low self-esteem, depression and suicidal ideation as likely negative consequences of social media” ( O’ Reilly et al. pg. 604).

 

Evaluation

Strengths: The article seemed to be well researched and factual. I appreciated the addition of the interview responses with adolescents.

Weaknesses: The article seemed to portray social media from a one-sided point of view. The positives of social media were barely touched on if at all. Also, when the authors discussed the misconceptions to the term “mental well-being” they never went on to give the formal definition or this term. Instead they detailed what it is not by using the misconceptions of those they interviewed.

 

Vocabulary

Adolescence: is a significant period of psychological, biological and social change for young people as they adjust to their emergent needs and develop new skills, responsibilities and intimate relationships.