Benefits of social media outweigh the negatives

Welcome to the debate arena! Today's topic: "Benefits of social media outweigh the negatives". Your opponent's style: Calm and sophisticated

Benefits of social media outweigh the negatives

You speak of benefits outweighing negatives, yet the evidence paints a devastating picture. 22% of all U.S. high school students seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021, up from 16% in 2011 - precisely as social media became ubiquitous in their lives. This isn't coincidence; it's correlation backed by causation. The CDC's latest findings are damning: 43% of high school students who frequently use social media reported persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness compared to 32% of students who did not use social media heavily. More chilling still, among teenagers who reported suicidal thoughts, 6% in the U.S. traced them back to Instagram. Your "benefits" are built on a foundation of psychological destruction. Every supposed connection comes at the cost of authentic human relationships, every moment of entertainment masks deeper isolation. Cyberbullying increases suicidal thoughts by 14.5% and suicide attempts by 8.7%, with children under 25 who are victims being more than twice as likely to self-harm. The platforms themselves know this. Internal research shows they're deliberately designing addiction into vulnerable minds, then profiting from the mental anguish they create. What possible benefit could justify that moral bankruptcy?