March 2015 25
I
N a recent article in the Derry Journal the writer,
Tiarnan McCarthy, describes coming across a
tweet coming from an account titled ‘Worth-
less’. “If I ever ran away from home, I’m sure my
family wouldn’t even notice”, it lamented. He notes
that similar despair is “not in short supply”. He goes
on: “After around ten minutes or so of Twitter surf-
ing I came across another account from a girl who
was “...so tempted to cut, but it’d be over the cuts
from yesterday”. So she decided to “just live with the
pain”. Another account, disturbingly contained the
line, “...loves seeing blood drip down her legs”. And
what shocked me even more were the accompany-
ing images. Bleeding and scarred arms, collections
of razors and even instructions on self-harm.
Nine out of ten teenagers use social networks
and over 57% of those have a Facebook profile.
When I was younger social networks were not even
a thought in kids’ heads until the age of 12 (13
being the legal age limit to sign up). But now chil-
dren as young as nine seem to be getting profiles.
I’m 15 years old now and social media are a mas-
sive part of my life as they are for nearly all my
peers. From the minute we wake up in the morn-
ing to the minute we go to sleep we are using at
least one social networking site. Popular social
media sites include: Facebook, Twitter, Insta-
gram, Pinetrest and the infamous Snapchat.
A central part of the Facebook ritual is writing ‘sta-
tuses’ sharing with the world your views and opinions
on certain topics, but then you find yourself anxious
when the comments flooding in with negative attacks.
As a teenager, the most self-esteem destroying part
of the day is scrolling through social media sites,
though you always enter the process expecting the
best. Some of the appeal of social media is certainly
harmlessly catching up on people’s lives and liking (or
not) the photos and content they have shared with the
world, but it’s also part of the kick that you find your-
self judging everything you see. And being judged.
You innocently upload a well-edited photo onto
Instagram but wonder why it isn’t getting many likes,
but rather rude comments. Threats, personalised
hate pages and casual abuse by rumour are the cur-
rency of teenage social media. Soon you start to take
it personally, to feel like you are in the wrong. Worse
still, in dealing with this, you start to wonder if you
are good enough and may even find yourself react-
ing in depression to the nastiness. Being yourself
online is laughed at nowadays and originality is rare.
Your values come under threat and you find you are
contradicting yourself to pacify the mob. Teenag-
ers are so busy on their phones and computers they
don’t have time to dwell on all this or on the repercus-
sions of their behaviour on social media. According
to Facebook, 55% of teens have given out personal
info to someone they don’t know, including photos
and physical descriptions, 29% of teens have posted
mean info, embarrassing photos or spread rumours
about someone and 24% have had private or embar-
rassing info made public without their permission.
Sometimes I wonder why we bother commit-
ting ourselves online to the public but, adults and
teenagers alike, we enjoy the addictive adrena-
lin rush of checking people’s response to our
views, be it by email or on Facebook. And having
the public profile has become the norm.
Most people vilify cyberbullying as the main cause
of depression amongst teenagers. From the knowledge
I have about depression for teenagers, the main cause
isn’t cyberbullying, it is in fact the way the media
promotes vacant self image. Society and the media
portray “perfect” as skinny, tall with flawless skin and
silky hair. In fact the majority of the population aren’t
supermodels and teenagers seem to lack this knowl-
edge. You find yourself constantly wondering why
you aren’t as pretty
or as popular as
the person you are
looking at online,
being influenced
by strangers’ “per-
fect” flat stomachs
and wishing you
looked like them.
The problem
isn’t the medium,
it is the message.
Many teenagers have been brought up to be confident
in their views, and ambitious in their expectations. It
is not surprising that they aspire to whatever the all-
knowing media is telling them they should be even if
their parents convey other messages. Teenagers are
not adults and the underlying confidence they have
built up over childhood can be easily knocked, and
values learnt from home or school distorted. And
of course it is part of being a teenager to care what
people think about us. Or even appear to think!
All we want to be is accepted but social media
make it so hard because most people don’t realise the
effect the content they are posing online has on other
people. Self-harm is one part of the problem, but lost
esteem, originality and independence may be far more
pervasive. And the education we receive from par-
ents and in school, in parallel to this extra-curricular
reality, does nothing to equip us to deal with it. •
Social media
convey the looks-
oriented vacancy
that drives the
rest of the media
to vulnerable
teenagers who
are not educated
to deal with it
Facebook and me
ALICIA GARRIGAN
