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1 The power of social media Briane Sivels Wilmington University ENG 310 Research Writing Dr. Robert Preston October 17, 2021

2 Introduction The true strength of social media is amazing. Social media offers an avenue for companies to not only engage with customers but also influence them with the correct content which assists them with deciding on things in life. Social media has taken over the world. It can be used for many different things. The effect of social media does not stop online. People see things on social media and relay the information to others as facts and this generates a whole word-of-mouth encouragement. While social media can be educational, entertaining, and very persuasive. On the personal side it is not always intellectually stimulating, it prevents social interaction, and it is not always intellectually stimulating. Social media is so addicting, it’s like a drug. The effect of that drug on mental health is only beginning to be examined, but a recent study makes the case that limiting use of social media can be a good thing. Researchers looked at a group of 143 Penn undergraduates, using baseline monitoring and randomly assigning each to either a group limiting Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat use to 10 minutes per platform per day, or to one told to use social media as usual for three weeks. The results showed significant reductions in loneliness and depression over three weeks in the group limiting use compared to the control group. Something that shows that social media is becoming more and more prevalent is that Facebook has tried to be bought out by 7 investors the biggest amount was about 750 million dollars. But it was denied every time. Facebook now has the market capital of a little over half a trillion dollars. Social media brings a lot to the table. Too much can lead to anxiety and to little can lead to depression if you are addicted to it. It’s the future and it priceless at this moment. What will be talked about how social media can be addicting, how social media can impact your sleep quality, and some alternatives stating how social media can be good.

3 Social media enables identity expression, exploration, and experiment; something natural for the human experience, but it is not always positive. The social media platforms have a growing importance in our lives since they are the places where we “showcase” our living experiences. Social media platforms reflect our physical and virtual position in life. Social media is playing a bigger part in people’s life’s more and more each day and it is making a huge impact on society also. Social media interferes with identity expression, exploration, and experiment; this is something that should happen in human lives for a natural experience. Social media is a business, and it influences the internet communities and the interactions they make with themselves. Social media is an out for some people to live a totally different life. It allows people to be perceived as someone totally different then who that really are. They can interact with people and participate in many things they wish. When communication online it’s a big chance that the person they are talking to isn’t using their real name or real age. Most teens love social media for example, Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Vine, etc. what most teens don’t see is that social media can have a tremendous impact on their self-esteem. Today people are only worried about how likes, thumbs up, retweets, and the number of followers they gained. The Dove Self-Esteem Project says social media creates disordered thoughts and behaviors and it is getting worse. Teens “Perfect Image” is constantly diminishing if they don’t get enough likes or comments on a post. Teens are constantly exposed to what they think is the “perfect life” or the “Perfect relationship”. They compare their life to these so-called perfect people, and they don’t see the behind-the-scenes things that happened, but they don’t think like that. They believe that the way that things are put on the internet is the way things should be in real life. With this thinking this can cause self-identity issues, self-esteem issues and even may cause depression. With this, teens become unsure of who they really are or who they want to become in the future.

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4 This all boils down to teens wanting to be accepted socially. With all these issues more will come such as insecurities, anxiety, sleeping problems, and not being able to function and hold basic conversations with real people face-to-face. Teens are having problems with interviewing for jobs, their social skills are out of whack. It appears they don’t know when to speak when to laugh or just simply holding a conversation. Social media can also lead to an addiction, and this can greatly affect teens health. It can get to the point to when they can’t do a full task with out checking their social media. Teens be in their room isolating themselves from their family because they be on social media for hours at a time. Something that I find crazy is that we people realize that they aren’t feeling themselves or they are starting to hate themselves they seem to always go on a social media fast and not respond to people through it. Nevertheless, social media don’t have a cruel motive of ruining people’s lives. Most social media platforms had an age limit and was specifically for business, but it all has changes. Social media is here to connect with family and friends, catch up on what’s happening throughout the world, inform us on news and important events, inspire us to make a change, explore the network by seeing other people’s interests, lifestyles and more. Based on what kind of people and accounts teens follow on social media, it can say a lot about who they really are, or more importantly, who they want to be. These are the negative effects creating self-identity problems for teens and how they really feel about themselves. Another problem teens face with social media is being “accepted” into society or being “popular.” Teens must realize they live in society not social media. The media should not tell you how to feel, what to wear, who to like, or where to eat. The media interferes with the way teens should live their lives, they are stuck on figuring out what they want for themselves and if social media is going to accept them on want, they want for themselves. All in all, social media has both positive and negative aspects to teens’ self-esteem and health; it is up to our

5 future generations to not let it take over. Social media deprives teenagers of who they really are, and it is up to teenagers to change their beliefs and what they are defined by. “If you think about it, adolescents are not only figuring out who they are offline, but they’re also trying to figure out who they want to be online,” said Giordano. Social media comes in many platforms and not just networking site for example Instagram, Facebook, and twitter. It also includes sending emails or looking at the news on your phone before bed, doing this tends to keep people up at night when they should be in bed sleep. Sorry to say, sleep and social media is not a good mix. An unnecessary use of social media before bedtime sleep quality and can increase many sleep issues. Checking social media, looking at the news, or sending emails right before bed is not good because at nighttime the use of electronics can affect people through the stimulating-effects of light from a digital screen. The light from digital screens can interfere with the circadian rhythms, the 24-hour internal rhythms that control. processes like the sleep-wake cycle, the blue light emitted from electronic screens has the greatest impact on sleep alert. Blue light stimulates parts of the brain that makes us feel alert, leaving us energized at bedtime when we should be winding down. The impacts of blue light exposure may be worse for those who wake up to check their phone after falling asleep. “Approximately 21% of adults say that they wake up to check their phone during the night, leaving them at an even higher risk of losing sleep and developing a sleep disorder like insomnia.” (Giordano, 2018) Checking social media right before bed is a hard pull to resist. A survey of college students and hospital staff found that a staggering 70% of people report using social media after getting into bed, with almost 15% spending at least an hour each night before bed. The fear of missing out is a major reason for the excessive use of social media before bed. The fear of missing out is a response to this dilemma, characterized by a continuous desire to

6 stay connect to what others are doing and seeing. People that experience the feeling of missing out are more likely to check their social media within 15 minutes of trying to fall asleep and doing this contributing to sleep issues. “. Checking social media too close to bedtime can interfere with good sleep hygiene, which involves increasing practices that promote sleep and eliminating practices that harm sleep.” (Giordano, 2018) Since checking social media is easy and very tempting, its vital that setting good media habits. Some tips to help manage the use of social media so that it won’t interfere with good quality sleep. Practice giving yourself screen-free time every day, maybe at dinner time or at social events. While connecting with people through social media can be beneficial but connecting with people face to face can be more satisfying. The fear of missing out is real and trying to cope with the feeling anxiety can help people fall asleep better than irresponsibly checking social media. So, when trying to fall asleep something that can replace social media is trying some relaxing exercises or meditation. Something else that can be done is turn off the sound or put the phone on do not disturb so that an alert won’t interrupt the process of trying to fall asleep or keep the phone and computer in another room. Keeping these things turned off will help decrease anxiety and the temptation won’t be as tempting as before. Reaching out to a doctor, therapist, or counselor can offer tips for reducing screen time and improving your sleep. It’s well-established that looking at phone screens can impact sleep. Mobiles produce mostly blue light, and these wavelengths are particularly good at keeping us productive and focused, so perfectly appropriate for daytime phone usage. At night-time, however, this is not ideal. At its simplest, exposure to light tells us to be awake, so looking at a bright light from a phone just before bed is telling your body it is still time to be awake and not sleep time. Others have seen this issue differently. Others suggest that social media have a range of benefits for example staying in contact with people and being able to support other and others

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7 being able you support them. This reason is flawed because its again looking for validation through and acceptance through others. What if someone don’t get the response that they were looking for, it can disturb a person and can lead back to feeling like they are not enough. Another positive thing that people say that they can gain from social media is that it can help people that struggle with social anxiety and people who have a hard to with having face-to-face conversations and interactions with others. This reason is also flawed because it can cripple a person for the real world. When someone needs to go for a job interview or have to meet with their professor about an assignment, they will have a hard time. They will most like panic and not go or they will go but will do a horrible job because they don’t have a social practice. They need to be able to come up with stuff on the top of their head, they can’t wait to respond to an email and gather all their thoughts before they respond. Another thing that people say a good reason that they use social media is for the news and the lasted gossip. This is flawed because a lot of sources on social media isn’t always credible, and anybody can twist and turn the truth and post it. Just if they have a lot of shares and likes people are going to believe and post and reshare. Social media is a down fall for anyone that is famous for this same reason, gossip, and a lot of lies. Social media has some good but the bad out ways the good. This essay has argued that an excessive amount of time spent on social media can have a negative effect on life. In the introduction, the statement of too much of social media is not good. Based on the information, it is plausible because while social media can be educational, entertaining, and very persuasive. On the personal side it is not always intellectually stimulating, it prevents social interaction, and it is not always intellectually stimulating. Social media is so addicting, it’s like a drug. The effect of that drug on mental health is only beginning to be examined, but a recent study makes the case that limiting use of social media can be a good

8 thing. The best evidence at this time suggests If people limit their use of social media it can result in a significant reduction in levels of anxiety, depression, loneliness, and sleep problems. Everyone can get the short end of the stick when it comes to social media but it mostly effects teens because they seem to have more time on their hands when it comes to this. So, they should really take the information and facts that was stated in the essay and apply it to their life. This topic should be a big thing but it’s not because people choose to ignore their health problem just for social media. Many tips were stated in the article that can help with an addiction to social media or if someone is close to being addicted. Someone may read this essay and not acknowledge it because it doesn’t pertain to them because they might not use social media as often as other, but they can take what they got from this essay and pass it on to their kids or friends to help them out. Or they can take this information as a warning so that their use of social media takes over their lives. This essay isn’t supposed to scare anyone from using social media but its honestly a warning for most.

9 Reference Jul 26, 2019 Business Ethics Law and Public Policy Global FocusNorth America. “The Impact of Social Media: Is It Irreplaceable?” Knowledge@Wharton , knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/impact-of-social-media/. Sleep & social media: Staying connected can keep you up . Sleep Foundation. (2020, November 13). Retrieved October 13, 2021, from https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sleep- works/sleep-and-social-media . New study examines social media use and risky behavior among Young Adults: Milken Institute SPH . publichealth.gwu.edu. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2021, from https://publichealth.gwu.edu/content/new-study-examines-social-media-use-and-risky- behavior-among-young-adults. Zimmermann@stlouisfed.org, & Uğur, G. (1970, January 1). The effect of social media on identity construction, by Gündüz Uğur . Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences. Retrieved October 13, 2021, from https://ideas.repec.org/a/vrs/mjsosc/v8y2017i5p85- 92n8.html. New study examines social media use and risky behavior among Young Adults: Milken Institute SPH . publichealth.gwu.edu. (n.d.). Retrieved October 13, 2021, from https://publichealth.gwu.edu/content/new-study-examines-social-media-use-and-risky- behavior-among-young-adults.

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