I recently stumbled upon an article titled “Social Media is Redefining ‘Depression.’” As the V.P. of Social Media for Her Campus and an avid social media user myself, I was disappointed to see that social media has become a gateway to depression. Why does a website have such a powerful and negative effect on teenage users? This is not fair. This isn’t what social media is for. Social media is a way to communicate with friends or publicize creative works. Pages such as Tumblr or Pinterest should spark creative ideas for the followers or inspire them to get in touch with their inner artist or designer. Why are young girls becoming depressed from reading Tumblr?
The article begins with the line, “online communities like those on Tumblr are perpetuating ideas of ‘beautiful suffering,’ confusing what it means to be clinically depressed.” The article highlights the story of a typical 16-year-old girl, Laura U. Laura sits at her computer screen, wishes she could look like the emaciated women she is seeing on Tumblr. Although these women were not realistic portraits of women, Laura is convinced she is just like them. She continues to look at these scarcely thin women in black and white photos, now sporting scars among their wrists. The next picture Laura looks at reads the quote, “Can I just disappear?” Laura reads more of these quotes full of angst and now thinks they apply to her. The Tumblr page Laura has been scrolling through is a page dedicated to depression.
As I said before, Tumblr is an outlet for people to be as creative as their minds let them. There is a plethora of Tumblr pages with all different kinds of topics, ranging from music to photography to fashion. However, Laura didn’t tumble upon a fashion page, she found a Tumblr page that’s topic was depression. What would a “depression” Tumblr page look like, you ask? According to the article, Laura was,
“Scrolling through hundreds of photographs on Tumblr that evoke negative emotions through art and call it depression. Black and white photographs of mystical emaciated women who stare off into the distance put psychological torment and beauty on the same page, and quotes like ‘So it’s okay for you to hurt me, but I can’t hurt myself?’ and ‘I want to die a lovely death,’ try to justify self-harm. All this is at the tip of anyone’s fingertips: anyone can search tags like ‘self-harm,’ ‘depression,’ or ‘sadness,’ and find thousands of blogs with a similarly distorted vision of what it means to be depressed.”
It is easy to join this online culture of “beautiful sadness.” Anyone can take a picture, make it black and white, and add an emotionally misunderstood quote or two. It is easy to create this turmoil, and it is just as easy for someone to stumble upon it and follow along with the horrible trend. Teenagers shouldn’t be making themselves think they are depressed by following a Tumblr that focuses on this topic. They should be looking at uplifting and positive images and there are plenty available online. They should feel inspired; they shouldn’t feel like they’re suffering. Social media outlets shouldn’t be a depressing experience; it shouldn’t be a place for someone to escape to their darker place. The further someone delves themselves into the gloomy pages of a “depressing” Tumblr account, the worse they will begin to feel about themselves. This is not what Tumblr was created for.
Read the full article and more about Laura’s story here: http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/social-media-is-redefining-depression/280818/