Jump to content
Banner by ~ Ice Princess Silky
  • entries
    6
  • comments
    7
  • views
    2,585

Social Media and Depression


PrymeStriker

1,310 views

Insert obligatory suicide joke here.

 

 

 

 

 

Okay, so...hello everyone. You're probably wondering why I of all people would be writing some melodramatic entry regarding depression. Because, essentially, I've exampled that my philosophy regarding "cyberbullying" or whatever is to have fun with it. When someone tells me "kill urself faggut", my go-to response (conceived by my current bandmate many eons ago) is "one would desperately want to kill themselves after one glance at you." I try not to take any of that crap seriously, because its boring and self-destructive. You get yourself all wound up over nothing, when there's so much more you could be wasting your energy on. Insert self-pleasuring joke here.

 

Once upon a time, maybe three years ago, I was a special little snowflake that used to take all criticisms and personal insults to heart. And I used to attempt some pretty brash things in the past. But don't worry, I had an existential crisis last month and now I fear death hysterically and want to avoid it like the plague. Much better. Although, when I did take "bullying" seriously, back when I was a bitch, it didn't really have to do much with social media. Upon taking a Social Media course in high school, I actually kind of became a little interested in its linked effects. So, in summation, no, this entry isn't some confessional sob story about how social media made me a depressed emo wrist-slitter. It didn't. What I want to discuss is facts about depression, facts about social media, and hypotheticals regarding the two. Then, I'll let you all decide what you do with that information. Will you take it to heart, or forget about it in 10 minutes? My money's on the latter, but if I lose the bet, I'm not paying anybody jack.

 

Now, depression is much more than crying about a breakup or someone calling you fat....assuming you are fat or even got laid to begin with. Depression is an illness that creates cognitive dysfunctions that lead to physical problems. The most direct of these include self-harming, fatigue, a lack of concentration, or sleep deprivation, and the obvious suicide. Now, suicide is the 10th leading cause of death in the United States behind nine other things I can't bother looking up, so people "killing themselves faggut" is a pretty big deal around these parts. With this information in mind, it's to be made absolutely clear that depression isn't something you can sleep off or even technically talk out with someone. Depression is an ongoing state of being, and it can screw you up in a lot of different ways. There's a couple of stories like this one, from people who actually went through it and are probably still struggling with it, that perfectly explain the seriousness of the illness. Personally, it's reading those stories that not only give me a better understanding of the disease, but also make me realize I didn't know jack shit about depression at 14 years old.

 

Given all of that, we get into the real point of this editorial: social media's effect on depression, and vice-versa. It's no secret that depression can be fueled on social media. I see a lot of posts here about depression confessions and whatnot, just on these forums alone. Imagine the whole wide world of people on Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, and AOL that are putting their stories out there. Imagine the amount of backlash they might get considering sites like YouTube and Twitter aren't heavily policing "mean comments". Now I'll just say right now that I have my own skepticism about how many of depression confessional videos on YouTube are just the whiny teenage moodiness I went through, but it's hard to really sort that out. Before you know it, someone you thought was bullshitting just blew their brains out. And it appears social studies correlate with this. In this article, it basically explained that social media use feeds depression as much as it takes away.

 

Social media is used as an outlet by so many people for a variety of reasons. Therefore, as an example, someone who's clinically depressed might be using social media to fill a void. They might go on to Twitter with a cry for help, such as updating their status with "life is a fishbowl" or "teardrops are saltier than SJWs on Donald Trump." In this example case, say some asshat came along and said "why don't you shove that fishbowl up your ass" or "I'll mix those teardrops with my spit at your funeral." That not only fuels the depression on this person, but also entices that person to continue using social media in a self-destructive way. Say they don't or can't follow my advice and take the piss out of such attacks, and they try to defend themselves, only to be singed again and again. They get themselves trapped in this vicious cycle and that makes matters worse for them. If they don't reach out again because of this, they have no crutch, and no one comes to their aid, odds are you end up with a fresh suicide on your hands. This is all hypothetical, but it's not hard to believe something like this would, can, or has happened in the past.

 

We have our fingers on the pulse of this new thing called the internet, and we're all using it in different ways. I use it to write cynical reviews of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic packed with the crude humor and sarcasm me and my friends love to indulge in. I get one together as annually as one's uploaded, and we take turns reading my paragraphs and laughing our asses off. Each time I write an entry for PrymeStriker's Episode Reviews, I hope someone out there finds joy in my offbeat humor, and that I can make someone smile as a result. I also use it to share my music and express myself artistically, hoping that I can get someones attention and take them away from cold harsh reality for just a minute or two. As much as we give to social media for ourselves, we inadvertedly do so much or at least try to do so much for others in the process. I mostly wrote this entry out of obligation, but in the process of creating it, I think I might've come to a rather powerful conclusion through all this. If you could save someone's life through a great joke...........a great song..........a great story, would you?

 

How will you use social media?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

....if someone types "PornHub" in the comments section...I swear....I'll high-five you like there's no tomorrow.

 

Sources Worth Reading:
http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/depression/social-media-and-depression
https://themighty.com/2016/05/what-i-wish-people-knew-about-depression/
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/depression/index.shtml
https://afsp.org/about-suicide/suicide-statistics/

0 Comments


Recommended Comments

There are no comments to display.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Join the herd!

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...