“How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers” an article written by Rachel Ehmke for the Child
Mind Institute in 2016, delves deep into the mostly negative effects that social media and other
forms of popular digital media are having on teenagers. Ehmke is the managing editor at the
Child Mind Institute and is an educator on children/teenager psychology. In the article, Ehmke
brings up the indirect communication that social media promotes using many facts and
statistics.
One of the first points that Ehmke mentions in the article is a survey that was conducted by the
Royal Society for Public Health. They surveyed age 14 to 24 year olds in the United Kingdom
and how certain social media platforms impacted their health and well-being. The results
showed that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter, & Instagram all led to increased feelings of
depression, anxiety, and loneliness within this group of teens and young adults.