My Hypothesis- Sunflower828
1. Mental health issues in teens on social media
2. Mental health issues in teens are developed on and worsened by social media
3. Teens go on social media to find relatable content even if it is worsening their mental health
4. Teens go on TikTok to view content that emulates their mental health struggles so they do not feel alone
5. While TikTok is accused of damaging the mental health of teens, it truthfully provides a sense of relatability which allows for the improvement of symptoms, as users no longer feel alone
6. Social media is useless and nobody should use it since it makes mental health worse
Counterintuitive Fall 2024 
Thank you for again being first to post an assignment, Sunflower. Considering how blunt I can be in feedback, I’m grateful to you for welcoming it. Your classmates will benefit, too, I think, from this conversation if they follow along. I hope you’ll respond here so we can entertain them.
Let’s chat about your numbered items in order.
1. Mental health issues
—Granted, the first line is supposed to be general, but “mental health issues” is SO broad you could divide it into hundreds of topics that would still be too broad. 🙂
2. Mental health issues displayed by People Under 25
—This doesn’t reduce the number of subtopics at all. 🙂 People Under 25 suffer all the same mental health issues as people Over 25.
3. The effect of societal pressures causing mental health issues for people under 25 in the US
—I appreciate the appearance of causality here. Something causes something is the beginning of a Hypothesis. But “societal pressures” and “mental health issues” are BOTH so broad that this line might as well be 1. on your list.
4. Societal pressures in the US have a negative impact on people under 25 and lead to mental health issues.
4. is actually identical to 3. You’re still just saying pressure causes issues; and THAT is the negative impact.
5. The consistent intensity of societal pressures in the US leads to mental health struggles for individuals under the age of 25.
5. is actually identical to 4. Pressure causes struggles.
6. Those under the age of 25 in the US should ignore societal pressures so their mental health is not affected.
Here’s a proposal argument, as indicated by the word “should.” Pressure causes issues that should be avoided.
Overall feedback.
Until we know what you mean by “societal pressures” and “mental health issues,” we can’t begin to react to your Hypothesis, Sunflower. Poverty is a societal pressure. Being a member of any minority exerts societal pressure. Going through puberty exerts societal pressure. Being a member of the majority exerts societal pressure to conform to social norms. Should we “ignore” those pressures to protect against mental health “struggles”? Obviously, this can’t be what you mean, but your Hypothesis permits us to misunderstand your claim completely. Name the pressures. Name the issues. I promise you’ll still have to edit ruthlessly to get your final essay down to 3000 words.
I look forward to your response. You’re clearly eager for the challenge.
Thank you for your advice. I will work on fine tuning my hypothesis and I will continue to better it over time. Thank you again for all of your feedback!
And thank you, Sunflower. You have a mature approach to feedback. The process from here is: Don’t start a new post with a Revised Hypothesis. Make your Revisions right here in Edit and Update the results. When you want more feedback, remember to put your post into the Feedback Please category along with the My Hypothesis and Username categories.
I would like feedback on my updates hypothesis please! Thank you!
Thank you for participating in the process, Sunflower828. I imagine the lecture material on MON OCT 09 concerned you a bit. I appreciate your willingness to narrow and refine any hypothesis on this broad topic.
I see you’ve changed all six steps, so I’ll respond to them all.
1. Mental health issues in teens on social media
—Perfectly reasonable first step
2. Mental health issues in teens are developed on and worsened by social media
—This would be a good place to clarify what you mean by “mental health issues,” which has to be the broadest description ever.
3. Teens go on social media to find relatable content even if it is worsening their mental health
—Whatever those issues are, you are beginning to refine your Causal claim here. Deteriorating mental health SHOULD result in avoiding what caused it, but, as we know from studying addictions and compulsions, users of any drug or habitual behavior will DENY the causal connection, OR, even if they admit their addiction is causing them harm, they’ll find it nearly impossible to resist.
4. Teens go on TikTok to view content that emulates their mental health struggles so they do not feel alone
—This is much more specific, and I thank you for that. But, hmmmmm, until we understand what “mental health struggles” the TikTok user is experiencing, it’s hard to know what TikTok content that “emulates their struggles” would look like. Clarify, please?
5. While TikTok is accused of damaging the mental health of teens, it truthfully provides a sense of relatability which allows for the improvement of symptoms, as users no longer feel alone
—This sounds like a lovely counterintuitive angle, but I don’t understand it yet. What is it your teens are suffering? Why would anyone think TikTok caused the suffering? What sort of suffering does relating to TikTok content alleviate?
—This is pretty close to a #6. We just need some clarity on the specific ailment TikTok alleviates.
6. Social media is useless and nobody should use it since it makes mental health worse
—And now I’m lost. We were headed in the direction of “Far from exacerbating symptoms of XYZ in teens, TikTok provides community for those forlorn XYZ sufferers that they desperately need and can find nowhere else.”
—Instead, you seem to be throwing the whole premise overboard in favor of “TikTok bad.”
Could you, instead, for the time being, focus your energy on detailing the nature of the mental health issue you haven’t yet named?
I’m so happy you’re engaging with me in this process, Sunflower. I hope this will encourage further communication.
Thank you so much for the feedback! I believe the “mental health issues” that I could define could reference depression and anxiety amongst teens. Is that still too general?
Pick one and then tell me what you mean by finding community. Do depressed teens meet and commiserate with other depressed teens on TikTok in a way that alleviates their symptoms? Do they identify themselves as depressed? Besides followers of the same tiktokers, are there groups?
I would reference the depression teens may face in their lives, then mention the “community” as others who are going through a similar situation and feeling the same way. I would say that your statement of depressed teens commiserating with other depressed teens is accurate, and through feeling those emotions similar to others that they see on the app they find that they are not alone. For the purpose of this hypothesis, I would presume that they consider themselves to be depressed rather than receiving a diagnosis. There may not be groups, unless multiple people find one another in the comment section of an influencers post and make friends that way.
Is that a thing: finding “like souls” on TikTok and connecting more significantly than by liking the same posts? [Insert appropriate lingo if I’m too old to know what to call it.]
Thank you for the clarification about “self-diagnosis.”
Is it too much to ask if the posts they find are blunt acknowledgments of their creators’ depression, or are TikTokers feeling each other out and creating connections with creators they judge to be depressed based on the content of their posts?
I think it is for sure something that is happening quite often on TikTok, as that is how someone that they relate to and they see themselves in. I feel as if some creators hide their depression even though they experience it, but the ones who get the support are the ones who are real and share it.
I’m going to start a new nested-Reply set here before the columns get too narrow! 🙂
Thank you for all these clarifications, Sunflower828.
You probably think I’ve talked you into a corner and that your Hypothesis is now WAY TOO SPECIFIC AND NARROW to generate 3000 words.
I will not abandon you.
This is a good Hypothesis.
No matter how hard you try to contain it, a Hypothesis branches out as you research and gathers to itself perspectives and evidence from every angle. If you do the job right, you’ll still have trouble EDITING YOUR PAPER DOWN to 3000 words to accommodate all the material you gather.
Much of what you read WILL NOT BE ABOUT TIK TOK.
It will be about peer counseling, for example. It might borrow some insights from “youth ministry.” It might involve studies of parental monitoring of teen online activity and “friendship interventions.”https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2160
I did a quick Google Scholar search for:
+tiktok +depression +teen +peer counseling” +community
It gave me (among just 6) these three links:
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=pOutEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT7&dq=%22tiktok%22+%22depression%22+%22teen%22+%22peer+counseling%22+%22community%22&ots=XdYqRVyTSl&sig=A8fEAx55VA8LSTt0wdXl2-5nFqs#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=WdJJEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=%22tiktok%22+%22depression%22+%22teen%22+%22peer+counseling%22+%22community%22&ots=hkPHUiGgLq&sig=i-VKIveKM0PV2P1MIFw6vSBekig#v=onepage&q&f=false
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/20/3/2160
And that’s just the start. Each of these features a rich list of References from which the authors gained their insights and context.
Are you getting the idea?
Yes, I am getting the idea! Thank you so much for the sources, I will continue my search as well.