Argumentative Essay: Mental Health of Teens and Snapchat Usage

This argumentative essay, written for an English 2 course in Fall 2018, investigates the adverse effects of Snapchat on the mental health of teenagers. The essay begins by introducing Snapchat as a popular platform, but then focuses on the negative impacts, such as anxiety, depression, and body image issues. It references a survey by the Royal Society for Public Health highlighting the link between social media use and mental health problems, particularly among teen girls. The essay discusses how Snapchat's emphasis on photos and filters can lead to feelings of inadequacy, loneliness, and the fear of missing out. It also includes a counterargument acknowledging Snapchat's positive aspects before concluding that the application's negative impacts on young users' mental health require regulation. The essay uses APA documentation and cites sources to support its claims.

Essay Writing
English 2
Fall 2018
1.10. 2018
Attention grabbing sentence
Snapchat: An Addiction for Teenagers
Few sentences to introduce the topic
Snapchat seems a like fun activity and an innovative way to connect the users with their friend
and relatives. However, the ultra-use of this popular application has various side effects on the
mental health of the teenagers as they are too young to understand the real world and its
complexities.
Thesis statement and essay map
The focus of this assignment is to highlight the effect that Snapchat is causing to the mental
health of the teenagers. Initially, the unique features and positives of Snapchat have been
discussed. However, the negative aspects of the use of Snapchat are way more significant to be
identified and hence major emphasis on the same has been given.
First major idea + support
A recent most survey which conducted by The body of Royal Society for Public Health, among
around 1500 individuals of age group 15-24 years across the UK has revealed social media
channels impacts the quality of mental health by way of causing anxiety and depression out of

loneliness to the community and the body shaming (Hung, 2017). Snapchat application has been
found as the worst channel as it greatly focuses on the photos which create severe self-esteem
issues for the teenagers and other youngsters.
Transition + Second major idea + support
The survey further revealed that among those Snapchat users who suffered the most were the
teen girls of the country. The survey studies showed that such photo-sharing apps makes the
teenagers especially the girls feel that their physical bodies are not attractive enough in
comparison to other users of the app who literally uses various editing features and filters of
Snapchat tool before sharing them. The platform of Snapchat is highly particular about the
images and it appears to drive the ill-feelings like inadequacy, loneliness, depression and anxiety
among the youth. Research experts in these areas have also stated that such social media sites
sometimes prove to be more addictive than alcohol or cigarette consumption and make it quite
difficult to break the cycle (Hung, 2017).
Transition+ Third major idea + support
Teenagers in the recent times become excessively conscious about their bodies which might
ultimately result in eating or sleeping disorders while they are too much indulged in using such
social media apps where people carefully edits their original pictures (Barker, 2009). The

teenagers faces the fear of being missed out or being bullied by others with beautiful bodies and
looks and these factors leads them to lose focus from everything at the time which is crucial for
their studies and development that is significantly important for their growth. All these issues
are majorly being faced by the people who are at such ages where they are highly vulnerable to
the adverse mental health issues because of their low-esteem feelings (The Economic Times,
2018). For Instance, the teenagers often tends to adopt for the highly expensive options like
undergoing the plastic surgeries to look attractive as the filtered faces on Snapchat application.
Counterargument and refutation
It is important to understand that the introduction to such social media platforms is always aimed
at enhancing the social interaction between people from different corners of the world. The users
of Snapchat enjoy its features to share pictures, videos as well as messages to different people for
fun. The stuff shared on Snapchat becomes invisible after few seconds and this is what makes it
unique (Ahmed, 2016).
Conclusion
Transition + Restating the thesis statement
In conclusion, it can be stated that though social media apps like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram
serves as the incredible mediums to share information and building social circles and networks
but in the modern time these aspects are generally overshadowed by their long lasting adverse
impact on the mental health of the youngsters.

Final thought
Despite of attractive Snapchat uses, the application is causing huge distraction among the users
and hence it needs to be highly regulated.

References:
Ahmed, A. (2016). Snapchat has exploded in popularity in the region, UAE users tell us why
they love it. . Retrieved from: https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/snapchat-has-
exploded-in-popularity-in-the-region-uae-users-tell-us-why-they-love-it-1.203074
Barker, V. (2009). Older adolescents' motivations for social network site use: The influence of
gender, group identity, and collective self-esteem. Cyberpsychology & behavior, 12(2),
209-213.
Hung, D. (2017). The Dangers of Snapchat on Mental Health. Retrieved from:
https://knect365.com/pharmanext/article/3be03a6e-bba0-4a9f-acfd-66165c2ef18b/the-
dangers-of-snapchat-on-mental-health
The Economic Times. (2018). Move over, Facebook and Instagram: Teens swear by photo-
messaging app Snapchat. Retrieved from:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/move-over-facebook-and-
instagram-teens-swear-by-photo-messaging-app-snapchat/articleshow/65591259.cms