The Dangers of Social Media: Depression, Negligence, and More

This essay explores the negative implications of social media, including depression, negligence, and impaired social interactions. It provides solutions to these problems and emphasizes the importance of educating oneself on the dangers of social media.

RUNNING HEAD: DANGERS OF SOCIAL MEDIA 1
The dangers of social media
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The dangers of social media
INTRODUCTION
We are living in the world where social media is the norm and the order of the day. There
are different social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter Instagram among others.
According to statistics there are over 8 billion users of different social media. Social media is
associated with different negative implications such as depression and lack of sleep .In order to
educate children as a nurse or a patient, there are different strategies that ought to be used (Batra
& Langenfeld, 2017). This includes having a one on one session with the children. They should
also use threatening images of the social media so that the children develop abject fear of the
social media. Another strategy is simply educating them on the potential negative implications so
that they can limit the time they spend on the social media. The negative issues associated with
social media together with their solutions are described in the subsequent parts of the essay.
Social media leads to negligence among the home based care givers. Social media is
quite addictive and it makes some members to ignore their responsibilities. There are times when
certain family members are sick and are in dire need of care from their family members such as
parents. However, some of them engage to the social media for long time until they forget
providing medications or food to the sick individuals (Langenfeld, Cook, Sudbeck, Luers, &
Schenarts, 2014). This therefore leads to worsening of the health problem. The solution in this
form of negligence is the use of alarms. The alarms should be set at a certain frequency where
the patient is supposed to get the drugs. The alarm would then alert the care provider who will in
return do the necessary.

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Social media leads to depression. According to a survey conducted in United States of
America on teens between 13-15 years ,it was established that 67% of those who are very active
on social media undergo depression .The study established that the reason for depression is the
unrealistic expectations about their life ("Management Connections: Social media use presents
unique risks for health care professionals," 2012). Many of the social media users often post
exaggerated lifestyle that teenager’s dream of experiencing such lifestyle. Those teens who end
up not living such flashy lifestyle or visiting nice places that some of their friends visit and post
on social media leads to depression. The solution in this is providing counselling to the teens to
come to terms to reality about their lives. They should not have high expectations in their life as
failure to achieve would eventually lead to depression.
Social media leads to impaired physical social interactions. Majority of the children and
teenagers tend to spend too much on social media platforms where they eventually start relying
on online friends .Online friendship is not healthy at all as it diminishes the physical friendship
which is known to boost the mental well-being of children (Richards, Caldwell, & Go, 2015).
The solution in this case involves educating the children and young adults of the negative effects
of online friendship. Besides, some online friends hide behind appealing profiles and end up
duping the children. Duping further makes the children more depressed once they learn of it.
Children also spent too much time on social media until they lose focus at school.
Social media is associated with sleep deprivation. Studies revealed that addiction to
social media deprives the teenagers of their sleep. Sleep is very healthy and ensures maximum
productivity .The solution in this problem is educating the teenagers on the benefits of sleep .It is
recommended that children and young adults should sleep between 7 to 8 hours.

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CONCLUSION
We are living in a digital where social media is the order of the day. There are different
social media platforms such as Facebook, twitter and snapshot. Despite social media being
beneficial, it is associated with other negative implications. Studies link social media with
depression, lack of sleep negligence and lack of physical social interactions. There should be
solutions to this problems so that they don’t negatively affect the teenagers or the children.

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References
Batra, R., & Langenfeld, S. (2017). How Can Social Media Get Us in Trouble? Clinics in
Colon and Rectal Surgery, 30(04), 264-269. doi:10.1055/s-0037-1604255
Langenfeld, S. J., Cook, G., Sudbeck, C., Luers, T., & Schenarts, P. J. (2014). An
Assessment of Unprofessional Behavior Among Surgical Residents on Facebook: A
Warning of the Dangers of Social Media. Journal of Surgical Education, 71(6), e28-
e32. doi:10.1016/j.jsurg.2014.05.013
Management Connections: Social media use presents unique risks for health care
professionals. (2012). AORN Journal, 96(1), C5-C6. doi:10.1016/s0001-
2092(12)00619-9
Richards, D., Caldwell, P. H., & Go, H. (2015). Impact of social media on the health of
children and young people. Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, 51(12), 1152-
1157. doi:10.1111/jpc.13023