It isn’t uncommon to browse on social media websites such as tumblr and stumble across depressing pictures. Some feature beautiful, young girls tragically staring off into the distance, followed by a depressing quote. Others include girls that are dangerously skinny or have cuts on their wrists.

What’s worse is that teenagers see these images and yearn to be like the beautiful, mysterious, and tragic young women that flood their laptop screens. It seems like social media has begun to redefine depression, making it seem like it’s beautiful and should be glorified. This has lead to disastrous effects.

In fact, our society has come to the point that in order to fit in, you have to suffer from something like depression and anxiety. And social media does a horrible job of discouraging this.

“If you look on instagram or tumblr, [depression is] all over. It’s really not right. It’s like ‘glittering generalities,’” freshman Isabella Diaz said. “[Social media makes] it seem like it’s so great, when really it shouldn’t be addressed as wonderful.”

Not only is social media depicting a false image of depression, but it’s also providing an outlet for people who actually are depressed. While it’s great that they can get support and kind words from peers, it’s a problem if social media is their only outlet.

“[Social media is] usually quick feedback. If someone goes home at night and they post, ‘Oh I’ve had a rough day at school, I’m feeling kinda depressed,’ I think they know they’re probably going to get some kind of responses to that pretty quickly,” school psychologist Mr. Cotie Strong said.  “I worry that students would use social media as their only outlet to do that, because let’s say someone posts, ‘jeez, I had a bad day, I’m really depressed,’ and then nobody posts anything, I would be concerned because now that student’s kind of lost their outlet to feel better and get that positive attention.”

What’s even worse is when other people begin to comment things such as, “that’s beautiful,” on a picture of a girl’s bloody wrist. Not only is this glorifying self-harm, but it’s encouraging the girl to keep doing it and others to do the same.

“There’s nothing beautiful about it. You’re not happy, you can’t eat or sleep, you can become irritable, have trouble focusing, there’s a lot of things,” Mr. Strong said. “I think that would be pretty misguided for people to think that being depressed is beautiful.”

The rate of teenagers who suffer from depression is growing rapidly. We should be making an effort help those who are sad and encourage everyone to try to be happy.

“I think that it’s our generation: getting this into our own minds,” freshman Keri Merkle said. “If people we respect say ‘it’s not something that you should want, because there are people that are actually dealing with it and don’t want it,’ then maybe we can get it through people’s minds.”

Offer comfort to peers in distress, get help when needed, and most importantly, be kind to everyone. Find positive ways to release emotions, but don’t let social media turn sadness into something else.