7-12 Teaching and Learning

Persuasive Speech - Year 9 English

Topic - social media ruining mental health and physical health

Something clearly needs to be done. My generation today are all glued to their devices because of social media, yet it’s obviously affecting their health. In more ways than one.

Firstly, lets talk about mental health. Imagine how you felt before you were exposed to platforms like, TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, etc…Your mood, behaviour, opinions were most likely different. Better I dare say! Now take a look at yourself at the moment. Have you been more aggressive and or moody? What else has changed about you after you were exposed to the online world?

Social media was designed to keep your attention for hours on end. Either you do that or you create content that keeps you desperate for 30 seconds of fame. Like brain-rot… Posting or making brain-rot is an easy way of making money. Now it’s hurting us. It’s even in the name! Children as young as three to five most likely have an iPad and already becoming more aggressive and violent. Teenagers who use these platforms everyday either develop aggression and depression, or even learning disabilities 

And now physical health- teens are less encouraged to exercise. It’s not just mental health being affected here. There have been hundreds of damaging TikTok trends that hurt both yourself and other people. For example, a few years ago, there was a teeth-filing challenge where people use nail filers on their teeth to even them out. This causes irreversible damage and the people who did this trend, don’t recommend it. Now there was also the ice-cream licking challenge. People would go to stores, take out an ice-cream tub and lick it, then put it back. Stores had to replace their stock because they didn’t know which one was put back and they had a guard in front of the ice-cream freezers. Plus, there was a trend of self-diagnosing disabilities like AD-HD, autism, Tourette syndrome and possibly more. Two teenage girls in America went to the doctors with symptoms of Tourette syndrome. What they had in common was they used both TikTok. Do you see the pattern?

We all need to do something about this. So, tell me. Do you still want this for our generation?

By Amber 9D