Social Media Fogs Depression

Social Media Fogs Depression:

Prevalent in today’s society is the new trend that has taken over the social world for teenage girls: forming bonds over the devaluation of depression. Social blogs and media have fogged the actual meaning of what it is like to be clinically depressed. Anne Sophie Bine, in her article titled “Social Media is Redefining Depression” describes how teenage girls are banding together over Tumblr by suggesting that the everyday struggles of life are equivalent to the effects of diagnosed clinical depression. Girls that claim that their “friends” over social media “understand them and get them”, but don’t necessarily ever make them “feel better” which validates the insincerity in forming strong social bonds over the internet, especially when it comes to a major issue such as depression (Bine 3). Personally, as someone who has witnessed close family members suffer from actual clinical depression, I find that this article fails to recognize the absurdity in how teenage girls misuse the phrase “clinically depressed” as they attempt to confide in social media to boost their confidence; however, the author does an intriguing job by identifying the social differences between boys and girls as well as suggesting that ultimately education is necessary for the youth within the immediate future.

Clinical depression is a medical diagnosis that requires treatment and therapy, thus for teenage girls to simply claim that they are “clinically depressed” because they think it’s socially acceptable is an absolute travesty. According to Mayo Clinic, “Clinical depression is the more severe form of depression, also known as major depression or major depressive disorder” (Mayo Clinic). Bine claims that young girls today are “confusing what it means to be clinically depressed” and instead referring to it as “beautiful suffering” over the web by posting dark and ominous photographs with sad hash tags (Bine 1). I think that teenage girls have picked up on this phenomenon of posting dark photographs because of the current modeling industry. The modeling industry loves to create photographs of skinny women who look sad and misunderstood with black and white filters; they then call these portraits beautiful works of art. Young girls today see these ads on the television, in the magazines, and finally all over social media such as blogs like Tumblr. Wanting to mimic these sad scenes, these young girls attempt to take the same picture. They pose sadly in the mirror, put a black and white filter on it, and in the comment section they write a “depressed” quote. Overall, this new trend is harmful for our young generations today, and Bine is correct in her article when she states that “the solution lies in recreating the distinction between normal emotional states and the clinical condition of depression” through education from professionals and guiding our youth in the correct direction (Bine 8).

Moreover, I found it quite intriguing as well as completely accurate that Bine describes the social differences between boys and girls as an explanation for why girls have started this social trend over the Internet and boys have not. The emotional differences between boys and girls are evident in society, but Bine takes this further by claiming that “Boys are