Anny Sam
ENG 2150
Professor Seth Graves
3/6/2019
Social media has become an essential part of most of our lives. There are many platforms to use to communicate with each other, such as Facebook or Instagram. People generally use social media to connect with people, explore current events, or for entertainment purposes. With that said it has also provided a way to stream information and spread gossip in a matter of seconds. Social media has a dangerous power where people would commit suicide in the worst case scenario. In addition, there is a large audience to see models that make people expect themselves and their peers to be just as “perfect”. This is the environment the new generations are grown into and because of this many adolescents or young adults feel massive amounts of stress, anxiety, or have mental breakdowns because of the rumors, falseness, and high expectations brought upon them. Two works that explain how social media and the idea of “instant connection” affects the younger generation’s mental health negatively is a television show called Gossip Girl and a song called “Young Blood” by Bea Miller.
In the television show Gossip Girl, a mystery blogger known as Gossip Girl reveals the secrets of privileged teenagers living in the Upper East Side of New York City through blog posts and text messages. When Gossip Girl posts or texts, everyone at these teenagers’ schools finds out and friendships or relationships are ruined. With a simple click of a button, every student learns in detail the scandalous and private lives of the most popular students at Constance Billard for Girls (sister school) and St. Jude’s School for Boys (brother school). Serena is basically the “it girl” of the girl school and Blair is her best friend and holds a title of “Queen Bee” at Constance Billard who values wealth, reputation, and academics. Nathaniel (A.K.A Nate) is the golden boy of his school and has Chuck as his best friend. Chuck focuses his life on women and alcohol. Finally comes Dan, Dan is the only one of these characters that isn’t a family legacy or oozes wealth like the others. He is the outsider in the beginning of the show but finds his way through to the sweets of scandal and trouble with New York’s finest teenagers. These five characters go through rumors and drama throughout the seasons and break relationships with one another then find themselves back together again when more gossip rises.
Gossip Girl’s vendetta is to expose the secrets of the richest and finest at Constance Billard and St. Jude’s to show how these teenagers are not as “perfect” as they lead on to be. There are many reasons as to why people think why Gossip Girl does this. For one, Gossip Girl values the truth and wants to give everyone nothing but the truth. In a more malicious matter, she can use the power of her blog or texts to bring all the richest and most popular people of the boys and girls school to the ground and help herself, whoever that may be, to the top. Secrets can ruin a person’s reputation and trust in one another, Gossip Girl is aware of that power and uses it to her advantage. She has an online mailbox for anyone to send in tips or photos anonymously of what these students are doing in their social lives and she chooses which ones to write and post about on her blog after going through the mailbox. When Gossip Girl posts, every student gets an instant notification on the latest gossip or rumor, and most of the time the post would be hurtful or embarrassing to whoever it is about. And it’s a T.V show thus, every dirty secret or embarrassing moment somehow finds their way to Gossip Girl and those characters get exposed.
In the second season, episode 25 of Gossip Girl, “The Goodbye Gossip Girl,” the seniors of Constance Billard and St. Jude’s are graduating. The girls of Constance walk down the aisle with the boys of St. Jude next to them in two single file lines. All the parents are clapping for their children and there is exciting brass music playing. Serena and Blaire smile in joy at the graduation hall and some other students are taking selfies after sitting down. All the graduates look and feel happy as ever to be graduating and to continue to the next part of their lives after high school. The speaker then begins her speech and everyone quiets down to listen. As the speaker gives her speech, the camera cuts to zoom in on Serena and Blaire. Blaire voices some doubts about her life but Serena reassures her by saying “This is the beginning of something new. Now we can all move on.” Blaire then responds, “Yes, to great things. So what if I’m not going to Yale, I mean, you were recently incarcerated and I’m afraid to talk to Chuck because he might hurt me again. This is our moment. Nobody can take that from us.” Regardless of all the drama and struggles these two characters face, they are still happy at the fact they are graduating. Suddenly, text notification sounds are alerted and it is later on revealed that a mass text was sent out to every graduating member, all while the speaker still gives her speech. The text said, “Not so fast. You’re not graduating until I give you my diplomas. Mine are labels, and labels stick. Nate Archibald: Class whore. Dan Humphrey: The ultimate insider. Chuck Bass: Coward. Blair Waldorf: Weakling. And as for Serena Van Der Woodsen, after today, you are officially irrelevant. Congratulations everyone, you deserve it.” The camera shoots onto each one of the students being called out when a narrator reads the text aloud for the viewers to hear, each in embarrassment and sadness. The viewer can see how the five character’s moods changed when everyone is sent the text. Each in utter embarrassment and disappointment in themselves. Ironically, right after Blaire and Serena discuss how no one could take away their moment Gossip Girl ruined it. This was a message to the graduating class, specifically Serena, Blaire, Nate, Chuck, and Dan, even at a moment that is meant to be pure and cheerful Gossip Girl has the power to ruin it. After the narrator finishes reading the text, the speaker seems to have finished her speech at the same time and calls upon everyone to rise while members of the audience are still reading this mass text message. All the friends, family, and faculty rise, everyone but the graduating class. Some are shocked, some confused, but the main characters seemed ruined. A simple text, the ability of this instant retrieval of information, ruined the moods of all these students and puts them in a spiral of humiliation. In response, the five of them go on a hunt to find the identity of Gossip Girl and try to end it once and for all. When Gossip Girl learns of this, in fury, she releases a stockpile of tips that have additional secrets and scandals that were not previously revealed. Gossip Girl is basically bullying the majority of the senior class and she ends the episode with saying how she will follow all of them to college as well. This depicts how Gossip Girl will always be there, even after graduating. Just when everyone thinks the drama and stress is over and they can move on to the next chapter in their lives, Gossip Girl shows her perseverance and that she is not going anywhere. Therefore, this can represent how there are still secrets to be revealed, even with the releasing of previous scandals, and how this is only the beginning to the rest of the main characters’ lives.
Furthermore, Gossip Girl torments these teenagers with the help of social media and instant connection. Like mentioned before, she uses her blog or mass texts to notify everyone of the girls and boys school about embarrassing or exposing secrets by tips from anonymous students. This episode expresses how social media can affect not one, but a whole class of individuals on a day that would normally be joyful and excited given that they are graduating to be washed with embarrassment and gloom. The idea of “instant connection” and its power on people is illustrated in this episode. Without this, Gossip Girl would have no way to share her information as fast and instant with everyone finding out at the same time. In this case, social media hurts those mentioned emotionally and mentally by practically bullying them. She cyberbullies these characters and makes them feel belittled for the whole graduating class to see. Thus, social media and “instant connection” hurt the younger generation’s mental health through cyberbullying online such as spreading rumors and gossip that belittles the people that are mentioned.
Another cultural work that demonstrates how social media is hurtful to one’s mental health is the song “Young Blood” by Bea Miller. Bea Miller is a young singer and songwriter and is 20 years of age. Miller was also in the television series, X-Factor and ended in ninth place when she was 13 years old. She released the song “Young Blood” in 2015 when she was about 15-16 years old and even co-wrote the song at such a young age. Her songs generally have a theme of what the young generation could feel that the younglings can relate to. In example, “Young Blood” is generally about everything the young people have now is what they earned, it is what they deserve. The song tells the listener that young people go through hardships and periods of darkness, whatever it may be, such as bullying or cyberbullying, depression, anxiety, or family problems, but they overcome these obstacles because they are fierce and push their way through life to become strong and independent.
In the second verse of “Young Blood,” she spoke about the obstacles younglings face and how she believes it feels like to be experiencing these downfalls of life. In the second verse she sings “But in dark times when we close our eyes It’s a nightmare, it’s a nightmare When the sun don’t shine we lose our minds.” Miller is saying how when people focus on their problems, like social media and cyberbullying, they experience a lot of anxiety and stress. They become a “nightmare” of insecurities. The lyrics, “dark times” could refer to a location that is in a bed alone surrounded by darkness with our phones scrolling on social media. It would be where sun does not shine, there is no light but once we close our phones we become consumed by the darkness and stress of if we are good enough or pretty enough based off of the posts people have made of supermodels and artists. Unattainable “perfection” marketed to people’s eyes and they are stuck with their dark thoughts alone. As those people sleep and close their eyes, those thoughts become nightmares. Social media platforms can be used as a place where people market their bodies and provide unrealistic beauty standards instantaneously. The lyrics in “Young Blood” shows how when people are stuck in their “darkness” from social media and unrealistic expectations social media provides, they experience horrors in their “nightmares” and insecurities fill their heads. Thus, social media hurts the younger generation’s mental health given that it sets unattainable beauty expectations for people to follow through on.
In the bridge of “Young Blood”, she sings, “And the voices will get loud If we never learn to shut them out If you’re lost you could be found…” The voices could be referred to as flashes of people telling them they aren’t good enough or just their own thoughts getting louder and louder until they get stuck in their own personal hell in their heads, These adolescents or young adults consumed with these thoughts and get lost in their way, possibly feel as if they were useless or it was just pointless to exist. In relation, social media only adds to these voices telling and showing people what they should be or how they should look like. As a result, the bridge of “Young Blood” demonstrates how social media gives people examples to follow on (beauty wise) and if they don’t achieve those expectations, they don’t feel like they are good enough, they feel “lost.”
In the official video of “Young Blood,” they show a group of teenagers together in dark areas acting doll-like. There are also flashes of some of the teens alone in a corner feeling dismal. In addition, they show a life-size girl doll with a red balloon and then flickers to a girl that looks just like the doll. As the video progresses, the balloon is popped, the girl starts to scream, and the group of teenagers starts running in masks. This can represent how in the beginning, the teens feel forced to be a certain way based on society standards and follow rules, like they are puppets to society standards. They conform and become like a doll walking around in an orderly fashion to satisfy expectations given to them by society. When everything is in destruction, the balloon popping, the screaming, and the running, they are all going out of their minds because of the expectations and conformity and they just cannot bare it any longer so they begin to act out. This video can represent the relationship of social media and its effect on the users. When everyone acts as if they are puppets being stringed along, they are trying to conform to expectations given to them, perhaps given by social media. They cannot stand it and break into sadness and feeling lonely which is shown through the single shots of the teens sitting in an abandoned area alone. These teens begin to act out in destruction which can represent mental illness taking its toll and demonstrate how they are unable to fulfill the expectations given to them. Thus, social media gives society expectations that are unreachable and unfulfillable to younglings and cause teens to have mental illnesses.
In conclusion, the two cultural works, the television show, “Gossip Girl” and the song “Young Blood” by Bea Miller describe how social media affects the younger generation world and the millennials negatively by hurting their mental health. In Gossip Girl, social media platforms can be used for cyber bullying and rumor fests. In “Young Blood”, social media platforms can also be used for raising unrealistic expectations of people and cause people stress and insecurities. By doing this, people can begin to compare others that are “better” than them and leave them in dark thoughts. With such a large consumer group for social media, models are seen everywhere creating expectations that are not realistic to the average person. This can get people to dig themselves in a rabbit hole of being ashamed or insecure of themselves, in a personal hell in their heads. In summary, Gossip Girl and “Young Blood” demonstrates how social media and “instant connection” affects the mental health of young adults or adolescents through cyber bullying and creating high standards that are close to impossible for young ones to oblige to.