Composition Category
The English Department at Western Kentucky University is pleased to announce the 2024-2025 Composition Essay Category for The Barbara Ann Williford Memorial High School Writing Contest. Students should visit the links on the right to complete an application and submit a 500-750-word essay (MLA style; pdf format) based on the prompt below. The English Department will invite finalists, their teachers, and family to campus for a reception and ceremony on March 29, 2025 where they will be recognized.
The winners will receive cash prizes: 1st place - $200; 2nd place - $125; 3rd place - $75 and Teacher's Choice - $100.
Application and Essays are due February 28, 2025.
Social Media and Youth Mental Health
For this argumentative essay, you’ll be exploring the issue of social media participation and its effects on youth mental health. Research shows an increase in youth mental health challenges that correlates with increased smartphone and social media access. This issue has been the focus of multiple congressional hearings over the last several years. However, it’s obviously not the case that all social media content and interactions are always harmful to all young people’s mental health. It’s more complicated.
Your task: This prompt asks you to dig into the details of this issue to define what is problematic or helpful about social media participation for young people’s mental well being and what can be done by young people and others to minimize the negative impacts and maximize the positive.
Incorporate evidence and ideas from at least three of the provided sources to craft an argument that first describes relevant aspects of young people’s use of social media (possibly via smartphones) and the effects on their mental health and then suggests several ways to improve teen mental health based on your framing of the issue. Indicate clearly which sources you are drawing from whether through direct quotation, paraphrase, or summary. You may cite the sources by using the author’s last names in parentheses below.
Some advice: The sources provided are not the only type of evidence to support your argument. Recognize the insight related to your own experiences. Being able to tackle this prompt from the perspective of a young person makes your argument potentially more compelling. Think about including personal experiences or things you have witnessed on social media that may contribute to your argument.
Source A: “Teens, Social Media, and Technology: 2023” (Anderson, et al.)
Source B: “Have Smartphones Destroyed a Generation?” (Twenge)
Source D: “The Era of Antisocial Social Media” (Wilson)
Source E: “Social Media’s Role in Support Networks for LGBTQ Youth” (Berger, et al.)
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