CSEC ENGLISH SCHOOL BASED
ASSESSMENT
MENTAL HEALTH
HOW DOES SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECT YOUR MENTAL HEALTH?
Candidates Name:
Candidate Number:
Centre Number:
Centre Name:
Subject: English A
Assessor's Name:
Territory: Jamaica
Year of Exam: 2022
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE NO.
Plan of Investigation 1
Artefacts 2
Reflection 1 3
Reflection 2 4-5
Reflection 3 6
Written Report 7-8
Plan of Oral Presentation 9-10
References 11
PLAN OF INVESTIGATION
My English SBA's theme is Mental Health, and the topic I'll be researching is "How does social
media affect your mental health?" Social media plays such a large role in our lives, I wanted to
investigate how it impacts our mental health. I anticipate to improve my research abilities, which
will help me identify and evaluate material, as well as my critical thinking skills, which will help
me better grasp this SBA, and I will be introduced to new terms, which will expand my
vocabulary. I'll gather information from newspaper articles, websites, interviews, and YouTube
videos to complete this research. I will then use the skills and the information gathered to help
me to better write my reflections and oral presentation,because new information and terms will
be introduced which will better develop my language skills.
ARTEFACT 1(video)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZfzafKFjs8
ARTEFACT 2(article)
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-
health.htm
ARTEFACT 3(newspaper article)
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/social-media-and-mental-health
REFLECTION 1
Before conducting this research, I knew nothing about social media's impact on people's mental
health. Being that mental health is rarely discussed, my knowledge on the subject was limited to
nil.
On September 15,2021, Zia Sherrel wrote a newspaper article titled “What to know about social
media and mental health”, which highlighted some of the negative consequences that social
media use has on our mental health. This article demonstrated to me that heavy use of social
media has a significant influence on our mental health. According to this report, social media has
a more negative impact on girls than on boys.
The second artifact is a HelpGuide article that goes into greater detail about how social media
affects our social lives. According to this, "social media can never be a substitute for real-world
human connection." So, in conclusion, this means that humans are social creatures, designed to
make real-life connections and be happy while striving in life. As a result, using social media to
replace this can have a negative impact on your happiness and mental health because spending
too much time on social media can make you feel lonely and isolated.
The final item is a Mental Health Collaborative, Inc. YouTube video titled "Social Media and
Mental Health." According to this study, the majority of people suffer from low self-esteem,
depression, and other mental health issues as a result of social comparison and doom scrolling
(the tendency to continue to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening,
disheartening, or depressing).
REFLECTION 2
In the article “Social Media and Mental Health” the language appears to be neutral, which aids
the reader in comprehending the information given. The author's goal was to educate the reader
on how social media influences our mental health. The author's use of imagery, eg." scrolling
through a friend's airbrushed photos of their tropical beach vacation," allows readers to have a
better understanding of some of the things we may encounter on social media that may affect us
mentally. The author's use of neutral language and imagery were helpful in helping the reader to
interpret how the author felt about the subject and also to create a mental image from the words
that the author chooses.
The author's purpose in writing "What to Know About Social Media and Mental Health" by Zia
Sherrel was also to inform. Furthermore, connotative terms were utilized to define social media,
which was portrayed as powerful and interactive. Statistics were also presented to demonstrate
that excessive usage of social media might increase the risk of suicide and other mental health
issues,which states that there has been a 25% increase in suicide attempts among teenagers
between 2009 and 2017 because of the excessive use of social media.It also states that”A 2019
studyTrusted Source suggested that teenagers who use social media for more than 3 hours daily
are more likely to experience mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, aggression,
and antisocial behavior”.The use of statistics helped in allowing the reader to make sense and
interpret the great deal of data that is being presented.
"Social Media and Mental Health," a video produced by the Mental Health Collaborative, Inc.
The formal tone employed in this video serves to emphasize how social media impacts us
mentally and the consequences it has on our ability to communicate socially.Rhetorical questions
were also used to convey the writer's perspective to get the reader/viewer to agree.
REFLECTION 3
Prior to conducting this research, I believed that our use of social media could not have an
impact on our mental health. Throughout this study, I was able to gain a better understanding of
how it can affect one's mental health,causing them to become depressed,devoloping anxiety and
even having suicidal thoughts because of the overuse of social media.
This new information that I was exposed to while conducting this research has aided me in
improving my language skills and introducing me to new words, which has expanded my
vocabulary; as a result, my grammar has improved.
I've also improved my interpersonal skills, such as tolerance, time management, teamwork, and
decision making, all of which have contributed to my overall development as a person. Despite
the fact that some of the group members were not communicating as much, I persisted and made
it to the SBA deadlines. Working in groups has also taught me how to deal with the various
personalities that people have, which I'm sure will help me in the workplace because I'll have to
communicate and interact with many other people who have different opinions and points of
view on things, so being able to work well with them will be very beneficial.
Written Report
While conducting our research, we had two setbacks. One of them was that one of our members
had decided not to do the CSEC exam and the next being the lack of participation of two of our
group members. However, despite this, we still checked in to ensure that we had finished each
aspect of the SBA and that it was well structured. We also looked at each artefact we would use
for our research to ensure they would provide all the information needed.
Each group member suggested three topics that they were interested in .We then had a vote to
determine which topic we would be investigating. That topic turned out to be Mental health. Our
group was very interested in this topic as we believed that mental health was not talked about
enough. Which was then divided into four subtopics. These are: “How does social media affect
your mental health”, “Is mental health genetic'', “Ways of coping with mental illnesses” and
“What are the effects of unstable mental health”.
As a group, we wanted to thoroughly analyze our understanding of our topic and as such, we
came up with three questions about Mental health that we will answer in this report, the first one
being : Does social media affect a person's mental health? By obtaining information from Help
Guide's article “Social Media and Mental Health”, we can say the answer to that question is yes.
Many times, pictures posted on social media can affect a person's perception of themselves
leaving them insecure and make them envy what others have. Not only that but cyberbullying
can also negatively affect one's mental health.
The next question was : Is mental health only hereditary? The answer is no; According to Dr.
Osman Shabir’s article titled “The Genetics of Mental Disorder”, although genetics can come
into play with who gets a mental illness, many other factors come into play such as upbringings
etc.
The final question is: What are some things that can be done to ensure that our use of social
media doesn’t affect us mentally?. We utilized Mental Health Collaborative Inc’s video “Social
Media and Mental Health to answer this question. Seeing as social media platforms are addictive,
you can set time limits, delete apps and temporarily reinstall them, and put your devices away to
avoid being affected mentally. This will keep you from overusing social media and will keep you
focused on the important things in your life.
To conclude, although completing this SBA has had its challenges, with the feedback that we
provided each other, we were able to complete our investigation about mental health at the best
of our abilities and learnt a great deal from it
Plan of Oral Presentation
Topic: Mental Health-
Subtopic: How does Social Media Affect Your Mental Health?
Genre Chosen: Exposition
Justification of Genre: I wanted to portray the information that I understood as well as what
was provided in the artefacts that I chose, and I thought that giving an expository speech would
be the best way to do so.
Source of Inspiration: I was inspired to write an expository speech rather than a poem or song
because I enjoy writing, and this genre allows you to evaluate evidence and expound on the idea
you're attempting to convey.
Literary Inspiration: The article and video below served as a resource for the information in
my speech. This provided me with the effects that I mentioned in my speech.
Sherrel, Z. (2021, September 15). Social Media and Mental Health: Depression and
psychological effects. Medical News Today. Retrieved March 11, 2022, from
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/social-media-and-mental-health
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZfzafKFjs8
Language used: The tone of this speech is both formal and informal. The use of rethorical
questions was also employed.
Summary: This speech describes what can happen when a person's mental health is harmed by
social media, as well as the mental illnesses that can develop.
REFERENCES
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/social-media-and-mental-health
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9ZfzafKFjs8
https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/social-media-and-mental-
health.htm
