Why American Teenagers Are So Sad Rhetorical Analysis

If you were a parent, what drink would you offer your child, an energy drink or tea? I think the answer is pretty obvious. Most parents would rather give their child tea. Although both drinks contain caffeine, it’s a well-known fact that too much caffeine can be toxic to young children. In a similar way, when social media is used excessively, it can become toxic, especially for teenagers. In his article “Why American Teens Are So Sad,” Derek Thompson discusses the negative effects that social media, lack of socialization, stressful news, and modern day parenting strategies have on teenage sadness. He also rebuttals the idea that teenage sadness is caused by bad behavior, the increase of mental health discussions, and because of COVID-19. I

Well, social media causes teenagers to develop low self-esteem and feel unsatisfied with their life, by promoting an unrealistic beauty standard and an unrealistic lifestyle. Even in a world without social media, when you’re young, it’s impossible to avoid feeling growing pains. In this day and age, high beauty standards are not only expected from the famous and wealthy, but they deceitfully seem to also be achievable by the common social media user. This becomes an issue for teens who are growing up because, naturally, they feel pressure to fit the beauty standards imposed on social media. But what happens if they don’t feel up to standard? Teenagers can start to develop low self-esteem. In her article “How Instagram Encouraged My Eating Disorder,” Brittany Landin, a media student, shares her experience of growing up surrounded by social media and beauty hashtags such as “thinspiration” and “pro ana.” In her article she states, “For most of my young adult life, I tied my identity to the food I consumed. That identity almost killed

Now let’s say that physical beauty standards are not an issue, teenagers who have access to social media are still constantly pressured to live a perfect life. In his article, Derek Thompson includes a study conducted by Cambridge University that analyzed the lives of 84,000 people of varying ages. What this study found was that after individuals increased their time on social media, they began to feel dissatisfied with their life. This boost in life dissatisfaction is no coincidence since online users only post deeply curated images that make their life appear successful and perfect. But, what effect might this have on a typical teenager who is still in school and living with their parents? In my personal experience, as a teenager, I struggled with feelings of loneliness. These emotions became incredibly difficult to manage when I had access to pictures and videos of millions of teenagers my age who appeared to be living a “perfect life.” It’s not that influencers or social media users are at fault, but it’s human nature to compare ourselves to people our