One of the reasons why some teens are depressed is the effect of judgement imposed on them. Some teens cannot help but intensely internalize whenever they get criticized especially on how they look. They take those words and allow it to define them as a person. This has to be stopped. Loving yourself, which embraces all the strengths and weaknesses, should be balanced and made right. Social media, being very accessible and a popular platform used by teens should be reprogrammed to just build up people and not break them.
Some social media websites provide a platform for teens to rate themselves to be either hot or not. While some websites have already shut down such features, others still have it and teens just go crazy about them.
There are approximately seven billion people around the world and teens tend to just focus on what ten or twenty people say about them. The psychological effect of ratings online should be regulated by educating teens about what should be valued most. Appreciating themselves no matter the hurting words around them should be taught to these teens. Self-concept should be leveled up.
Psychologists have a term to describe the feeling of people dependent on the people around them, and this is the "contrast effect". It happens when a person feels pretty when surrounded by "ugly" people and feels pretty when surrounded by "pretty" people.
Angharad Rudkin, a licensed child clinical psychologist, said that the issue with teens is that they try to fit in so as to become accepted by peers and this is actually part of the critical developmental stage of teens. Nonetheless, teens' mentality can be properly regulated and redirected from being dependent to others' opinions and propelled instead to the appreciation of their true self-worth.
Every 100 minutes, a teen takes his or her own life, according to suicide.org. Suicide happens to be the third-leading cause of death for young people particularly between 15 and 24. Most of the suicide cases are due to too much attention to self and a decline of self confidence. The opinions of others are not merely words but actually bullets that gradually kill them.
