RAB Source Entry #3 – Zubair Abdullah

ABC. (n.d.). Does social media negatively impact teen mental health?. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gnEpRDh4Y2A&list=LL&index=2 

ABC starts off with social media potentially being a big and important contributor to the “pain and struggles” that young people, more specifically teenagers have. The question they want to solve is does social media negatively impact mental health. Mitch Drinstein, PH. D, chief science director at American Psychological Association says that social media is not one thing, there is many factors that go into social media, like who you are talking to, what is your feed, and what part of social media you’re on exactly. A former social media employee says they saw a big decrease in teens’ mental health. Dr. Drinstein also says that the first two years as puberty is beginning, is the most important time for adolescent brain development and handing them a device makes their brain react in unexpected and dramatic ways. A CDC study from 2021 was conducted and showed that from the time that social media started booming in 2011, the percentage of teenage girls who reported being sad consistently to 2021 was 60 percent. Dr. Drinstein says that it’s hard to get proof that shows what the harm is because scientists must take time to do work. Most companies don’t have public databases so that academics could use that database and understand what behavior is coming out of it. A few companies have allowed their database to be public recently but not every company. Legislation should be passed to make data access easier and more robust so that the research scientists have the data they need to link social media to negative mental health experiences. The social media experience has been net good to most people but for teenagers it’s another story. Dr. Drinstein wants to get the attention of everyone as he thinks that this is an urgent scenario which shouldn’t happen, and word should get out. 

Rhetorical Analysis: 

This YouTube video from ABC is intended for everyone who uses social media and who are parents of young children or teenagers. They show the alert of having a decrease in social media and how it can affect children, but the proof isn’t all there as they want people to help and protest companies to have their database public. They use logos to show proof of teen girls being sad and how it went up nearly 60 percent since 2011.