Social media is triggering ‘Fear of Missing Out’ amongst the youth, precipitating depression and loneliness.

Interpreting the Topic

This Section B topic asks for an argumentative essay on a diagnosed social harm: social media's curated feeds manufacture a chronic anxiety of exclusion — Fear of Missing Out — which is corroding young minds. The essay should explain the mechanism, weigh the evidence, acknowledge social media's genuine benefits, and end with a balanced architecture of response.

Dimensions to Develop

• The machinery: attention-economy platforms monetize engagement; infinite scroll and algorithmic feeds exploit dopamine loops. Users see everyone else's highlight reel — Festinger's social comparison theory operating at industrial scale — and conclude their ordinary life is a failure.
• The evidence: the US Surgeon General's 2023 advisory linked heavy adolescent use with elevated risk of anxiety and depression; the WHO has flagged loneliness as a pressing global health threat. In India — with over 900 million internet users and one of the world's youngest populations — sleep loss, body-image distress and cyberbullying compound academic pressure.
• The paradox: the most connected generation in history reports the highest loneliness. Online 'friends' substitute breadth for depth; validation metrics (likes, streaks) convert friendship into scorekeeping.
• The other side: social media also mobilizes — mental-health awareness, peer support communities, small-town creators finding livelihoods. The problem is design that profits from insecurity, not connectivity itself.
• Responses: Australia's under-16 social media ban (2024) as the hardest regulatory line; proposals for warning labels; India's IT Rules and DPDP Act 2023 on data of children; platform design duties (default limits, no infinite scroll for minors); school digital-literacy and the cultural antidote — JOMO, the joy of missing out.

Quotes and Anchors

• Surgeon General Vivek Murthy's call to treat adolescent social media use as a public-health issue.
• Sherry Turkle's phrase 'alone together' for connected loneliness.
• Tele-MANAS and school counselling as India's mental-health infrastructure.

Closing Synthesis

Conclude that the feed is engineered, so the response must be too: regulation for platforms, literacy for users, presence for families. A generation taught to compare will be anxious; a generation taught to create and connect on its own terms can make the same tools serve well-being. The measure of success is simple: a youth that uses the network without being used by it.