Facebook Use Declines In Subjective Well-Being In Young Adults: Article Analysis

Kardaras, Nicolas. "Generation Z: Online and at Risk?." Scientific American Mind, vol. 27, no. 5, Sep/Oct 2016, pp. 64-9. MasterFILE Premier. Kardars discuss generation z use of social media affecting them negatively. He opens his article with a story of Heidi who becomes addicted to social media when her school issues her a Chromebook. Before Heidi is issued the laptop, she was a sweet innocent girl and after having it for a semester she became someone her parents could not recognize. He states that social media is a “perfect storm” for humans because having a social connection key to “happiness and health”. Having the ability to always use social media leads to hyper texting the illusion of a real connection making it hard for teens to have face to face conversations, making a teens become “glow kid[s]“, someone who is raised on mostly digital social interactions. Facebook depression” can result in the teen to have lower grades and behavior problems in teens. He concludes his article with facts proving that Facebook can become addictive in some people. This source helps support my thesis that Facebook affects teens mental health.

In his article, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” Stephen Marche argues that Facebook is the vital cause for loneliness and is luring people away from social capital. According to Marche, social networking isolates individuals and creates distance, mostly amongst family members. For some, it is not only isolation but rather social loneliness. The author claims that health can also be effected by loneliness. Nowadays, due to very little verbal person to person communication, he writes that people have never been so separated from one another because of social media. Facebook users, Marche argues, have an addiction to profoundly visit their account constantly leading to the feeling of loneliness and in most cases depression. The author claims that social networking, instead of demolishing isolation, is unknowingly spreading it. Ultimately, However, Stephen’s argument fails to convince due to his abundant false assumptions and the articles confusing organization.

Bullies may abuse their victims verbally, physically, or psychologically. Bullying may involve name-calling, pushing or hitting, or preventing an individual from joining a social group or participating in an activity. It may also involve harassing, embarrassing, or threatening a person using cell phones, text-messaging devices, interactive games, instant messages, or websites. This type of bullying is called cyberbullying (Funk & Wagnalls). Unlike traditional bullying, which is most likely to occur at school, cyberbullying can occur anywhere that children and youth have access to technology, leaving targets accessible to perpetrators at any time of the day or night. Although bullying is often associated with children, bullying of adults by adults is just as pervasive and harmful. Adult bullies are characterized as often being subtle in their attack by starting harmful rumors or by using sarcastic or demeaning language to dominate or embarrass, being self-centered, lacking empathy for others, spontaneous in their attacks, and/or using the threat of attack (as opposed to using physical violence or actions) as a means to frighten and demonstrate power (Kowalski).

“Our community now has more than 1.55 billion people, including more than 1 billion people active every day,” says Mark Zukerburg, the creator of Facebook, on his own Facebook page last year. As one of the most popular social media sites in the world, Facebook has been adopted by an increasing amount of people over the past decade. The number of users on Facebook indicates how Facebook plays an important role of socializing and communicating in modern age life. Since Facebook allows users to see their friends’ updates and access Facebook on a mobile device, it has a tremendous impact on its users in several aspects. People may ask, “how does Facebook impact its users?” Some people suggest that Facebook creates negative consequences, such as distracting students in class. However, do all users experience these negative consequences? Sociologist Everett M. Rogers argues that the consequences of innovations, whether they are anticipated or not, can be perceived as positive or negative. Since Facebook does not differ from user to user, rather that it is the users that are different from one another, Facebook’s consequences vary from individuals. Even though some criticize how Facebook influences people negatively, depending on how the individual uses it, Facebook can positively impact users through sparking creativity, providing convenience, and creating change.

This article could be useful in my research introduction proving background information to further support my hypothesis stating that passive Facebook use decreases social interaction and well-being.

"7 Ways Facebook Is Bad for Your Mental Health." Psychology Today. Web. 08 Apr. 2015.

People no longer remember phone numbers, spend time outside, or indulge in the moment to its full potential because they place their focus on building their online profile and getting attention from others. However, this can affect people’s mental health. According to Mikel Theobald’s website article “Depression and Social Media,” he states, “when you spend long periods of time on social media, time taken away from other activities that might encourage better emotional health, like exercising, meeting up with friends, and engaging in other activities that provide pleasure” (Theobald, 1). Theobald is arguing that people are over involved with social media that it takes away time from doing pleasurable things. The decrease in pleasurable activities results in loneliness, which leads to depression. Social media detaches people from reality and causes them to isolate themselves at home and fawn over other people’s online personas. In addition, people who feel that they do not receive enough “likes” or “reposts” on their social media accounts have lower self esteems, and allow their minds to occupy thoughts about how they are not good enough, or how unpopular they believe themselves to

Social media is the term that is used to refer to applications and websites that allow people to interact and stay connected (Nations, 2016). Although, the creation of social networking sites is relatively recent, it has rapidly become a prominent part of billions of people’s lives worldwide. For example, between 2012 and 2016 the number of monthly active Facebook users increased by 83% (Statista, 2016). As a result, investigating the effects of social media on people’s psychological wellbeing has become a popular area of research. However, the combination of findings from these studies are inconclusive as to whether social media has a negative or a positive impact on our psychological wellbeing and because social media is so widely used this is an important question to address. Huppert (2009) stated that “Psychological wellbeing is about lives going well. It is the combination of feeling good and functioning effectively” (p. 137). This essay will focus on Facebook, in particular, as it’s the most widely used social network and has over 1.5 billion monthly active users (Smith, 2016). It will discuss research that has investigated the effects of Facebook on life satisfaction, academic performance and psychiatric disorders which are all related to psychological wellbeing. It will conclude that research mostly suggests that social media, in particular Facebook, is harmful to our psychological wellbeing.

Social media is in it 's prime. It is how everyone connects with their friends, family and anyone around the world. Facebook has become hugely popular especially with adolescents. In the article, Loneliness and Facebook Motives in Adolescence: A Longitudinal Inquiry into Directionality of Effect, research has investigated the relationship between Facebook use and adolescent loneliness. They researched 256 adolescents with the median age of 15 were examined to see how Facebook motives and two relationship-specific forms of adolescent loneliness were associated longitudinally. (Luyckx, Teppers, Goossens, Klimstra, 2014). Results reveal that peer-related loneliness relates over time to using Facebook, compensating their social skills, reduces isolation feeling, and engaging in interpersonal contact. While Facebook allows them to make new friends online, it is diminishing their actual social skills when it comes to real life contact.

Do you believe that “Facebook”, a social network, can make you sad? This is what Justin Mullins tries to prove in his article “Can Facebook make you sad?” which is about the satisfaction of Facebook users is it increasing or decreasing. Mullins supports that Facebook make people feel unsatisfied and that it make people feel down over time. Justin Mullins mentions statistics and personal example to prove that Facebook reduce people’s satisfaction. Despite the fact that the author fulfilled in convincing the readers with the valid argument regarding Facebook, some of these arguments are false, weak, and fallacious.

Stephen Marche’s article, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely” explores the complex issues regarding loneliness. “Loneliness and being alone are not the same thing…” (The Atlantic), Marche states. Loneliness is a physiological mantra and a projection of an individual’s feelings about life and their surroundings. Loneliness is by far one of the most detrimental epidemics because it is sly; many people do not identify loneliness to be an actual factor of bad health. Bad health can originate from a prolonged feeling of being alone therefore can affect the human body itself. In his article, Marche continues to discuss several scientists’ perspectives and references a myriad of social experiments composed around the issue of correlation or causation between

Recent article even states that, “Facebook can also have a positive impact on young adults’ lives by helping them be more empathetic” (Turgeon).

In this case, the study proved that teens and young adults have become obsessed with social networking and has led to many questions if networking is good or bad (Conger, 2010). In 2009, the media expressed that social networking could cause harm to our bodies and brains by “shortening our attention spans” and “weakening our immune systems” (Conger, 2010). Whereas other studies that have been conducted prove the opposite and suggests that teens who spend more time on social networking sites are more likely to be “well-adjusted” and “psychologically” healthy (Healy, 2010). At this point, it’s time to investigate the pros and cons of children being on social networking sites and understand why parents are against social networking and why certain individuals feel that networking is beneficial.

As technology progress, humans evolve to the advanced technology and enhance our lives via technology. We connect to our families, friends and others through social media such as Facebook. Social media takes up a huge part in our lives. Social media infest us with information that are relevant and irrelevant to us. Marry Marrow wrote, “It was Facebook that changed the face of e-communication; in fact, it was the first electronic social media” (para 1). She assumes that Facebook is playing a huge role in electronic communication. In the journalist Maria Konnikova, “How Facebook makes us unhappy?”, Konnikova divulges many aspects of people on social media through researching and experience, and finds how social makes us unhappy. I agree with Konnikova findings after reading her article. In addition, she concludes that if you are engaged, active, and creative you will not sorrowful on Social media, however if you are passively browsing and defuse to engage, you will be depressed.

As people use social networking sites more and more, psychological symptoms, such as social anxiety and depression, can begin to develop overtime. Feinstein’s research found that “depressed individuals also tend to engage in specific interpersonal behaviors, such as excessive reassurance seeking, that account for their greater likelihood of being rejected.”  Other social anxiety symptoms that can be triggered from excessive amounts of social networking include becoming less assertive, avoiding conflict, and expressing less emotion.  Results from Feinstein’s research also found that users directly felt a “depressed effect following interactions with romantic partners” and an “anxious effect following interactions with romantic partners” depending on how much time they spent on social media outside of their relationship.  Not only can the amount of time we spend on social networking affect us now, but it can also cause and make an individual more vulnerable to possible psychological problems in the future (Nauert).