Negative Effects Of Social Media

Rachel Ehmke addresses the negative effects of social media in a strident, yet true, way. The use of social media among teens in America is 75 percent and out of that percentage 68 percent use Facebook more than any other site or app (Common Sense Media, as cited by Ramasubbu, 2016, p.1). According to Suren Ramasubbu in his article “Influence of Social Media on Teenagers”, Facebook is an outlet for depression, sexting, and cyberbullying (2016, p.1). Ehmke points these effects as well to support her opinion along with other effects like indirect communication, loss of experiences, the imposter syndrome, and stalking. It can be concluded that the reasons provided by Ehmke are valid reasons to prove why social media can affect a person negatively.

We live in an era ruled by social media, primarily when it comes to teenagers, social media is used for everything. From communicating with family and friends to being used as a news outlet, and even advertisement for business and companies. This article is titled “Social Media: What's Not to Like,” written by Alison Pearce Stevens. The topic of this essay is the effect social media can have on teenagers. Social media, on one hand, can be used as a great way to share with the world and boost teens’ self-esteem. On the other hand, social media can be used as a place for bullying, body shaming and can cause depression or even suicide in teens.

It has become extremely common for an individual to sign into their Facebook account, and see a picture that they feel exposed a little too much. Check into their Instagram account, and regret letting everyone know what their location was. Feel uncomfortable, or bullied by a tweet that a person posted to their Twitter. Per Farheen’s article on negative effects of social media “participating in social media sites such as these can make you feel more connected” (Sagheer 1). It is not okay for individuals to feel victimized due to the negative effects of social media. Social media tends to distract, humiliate, and destroy one-self through entertainment. If people would donate more time to things more supplemental to their growth, and limit their use of social media, then maybe people would stop walking over the harm that social media presents to our community. Monitoring the time invested into social media will help eliminate most of the detriment, privacy issues, and bullying flowing through today’s society.

When thinking about a drug, most people think to substances like heroin and cannabis; however, there is new substance that has been sweeping nations. A drug is a substance that has a phycological effect when introduced to the body. Though people don’t think of social media as a drug, it has the same addictive side effects. Upon reading article “Addicted to Distraction” by Tony Schwartz, which talks about the addiction society has to social media and its effects, I realized what a drug social media is. This generation has experienced technology like never before, and it has led to advantages and disadvantages. Although social media can be fun, there is a developing addiction that has causes, effects, and solutions.

Are you a victim of cyberbullying on the internet, or a victim of all the positive impact that social media can offer ? In the articles, “Student examines negative effects of social media on teens” by Aurelie Krakowsky, and the article, ¨the upside of selfies: social media isn't all bad for kids” by Kelly Wallace (CNN), the authors argue about how social media can be bad for kids but can also be very useful at some times. Over all social media can harmful in many ways; however there are more benefits that truly exceed them.

Communication barriers are not the only issue that has been brought on by social media. Extensive social media use has also been known to affect a person’s self-esteem. Some individuals suffer from a low self-esteem and limit themselves to social media in hopes to create a different image of them. According to Charles Cooley, “The thing that moves us to pride or shame is not the mere mechanical reflection of ourselves, but an imputed sentiment, the imagined effect of this reflection upon another's mind" (Morine, 2009). For some teens and young adults, social media may help them open up and achieve a higher self-esteem. On the other hand, social media on other teens and young adults may have a completely opposite effect. In an article titled, Is Facebook Making Your Child Depressed, it is stated that social media websites such as Facebook “can create a skewed reality that makes teens feel alienated” (PR, 2012). When a person, that is not completely happy with their life, goes onto social media and reads all about other people enjoying a multitude of activities and enjoying their lives this could

These studies highlighted the need for more data about appearance-related cyberbullying because they showed that there was prevalence of the issue. Another study that Berne, Frisén, and Kling (2014) discussed, found that girls are cyberbullied more often than boys about appearance. This information helps the authors to show how girls are often the targets of this issue, providing another area to explore. In addition, they discuss one study that found victims of cyberbullying tend to have lower self-esteem and two other studies that found girls exposed to the internet and social networking sites have lower self-esteem (Berne, Frisén, & Kling, 2014). The authors used these studies to create a story that showed there was an issue that can have negative effects, but there was little information about

Social media has become one of the most popular sources of communication for the upcoming generation. For young people growing up in today’s society, social media outlets such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have provided pictures and news that have become the first thing that their eyes see in the morning and the last thing that they see before bed. These pictures have provided unrealistic standards as to what is considered beautiful in today’s society. As young people refer to these images as a form of comparison, it has created harmful circumstances. These influences on the lives of young people have forced them to take extreme measures and in some cases, has been the cause of death. Social media in today’s society has proven to

Social media is a phenomenon that has become largely popular among the 21st century youth. While many believe that social media causes a sense of narcissism in children, that is actually false and instead comes from parenting and over excessive coddling. In a study conducted in 2005, psychologists, Mary Alvord and Judy Gardos found that over excessive coddling done by parents in hopes of raising their self esteem actually causes their children to feel insecure and insignificant. Due to that feeling children put up a front of extreme selfishness in hopes of gaining admiration and acknowledgement. Also in this time in age, older generations confuse finding self-worth and love with narcissism. On social media, many people work to show off themselves and to been seen as pretty, but in all honesty the photos people post aren’t for satisfaction of

In 1991, the world was graced with a brand-new invention- the World Wide Web. Since that time, more and more people have been able to access the internet. Every day, billions of people access the internet. With so many people being able to access this new source of connectivity came the rise of social media. In 2011, there were 1.2 billion people logging into social media sites on a daily basis. This number is up 6% from 2007 (Dijck, 2013).While social media helps to connect more people together than ever before it does have its dark side. With the rise of social media, the number of people being exposed to cyberbullying is increasing. These incidents of cyberbullying are leading to body image issues.

Despite the positives, there are many negatives associated with social media. Using social media can make a person more vulnerable to predators and cyber bullying. In this age, “Cyber bulling is quite common, can occur to any young person online, and can cause profound psychosocial outcomes including depression, anxiety, severe isolation, and tragically suicide” (“American Academy of Pediatrics”). Cyber bullying impacts society in a negative way because it is harming young teenagers’ minds. Bullies, torment, threat, harass, and even embarrass their victims by using different forms of social media. Using social media can also decrease privacy for an individual. People often give out their personal information not knowing who can see it. To average internet users, “A false sense of security may leave social networking site users vulnerable to security attacks such as hacking, leaking sensitive information, and sending viruses” (“ProCon”). Furthermore, Social media can also lead to brain disorders and can cause people to have a hard time interacting with people face to face. “Social networking entices people to spend more time online and less time talking to a person face to face.” (“ProCon”)

Depression is another psychological toll that has been placed on young adults as an outcome of social media use. In fact “over a third (34%) of young people have felt depressed because of something they have seen on a social network site” [6]. Young people experience depression while looking at their peers’ social media profiles because of “the link between social networking and depression [which] is called the ‘social comparison’ theory” [5]. The social comparison theory asserts that individuals evaluate themselves by comparing themselves to their peers, using their peers as a benchmark to evaluate their own self worth [1]. These comparisons can be misleading when young adults look at their peers’ social networking profiles. One person may have 50 Facebook friends whom they personally know while their peer may have over 1,000 Facebook friends whom they randomly accept and request. When using the social comparison theory the peer with

Instagram impacts user’s self-image and self-esteem. Young girls and boys are being shot down by users not liking their image, commenting, or even sharing one’s post. Americans check Instagram multiple times a day, because they are looking to see how many likes, or comments they get. If these users’ do not get a certain amount of likes that exceeds their expectations they think, “I’m I pretty enough?”, “is the picture taken well?”, or “does anyone like me?”. This breaks down young Americans emotional health and well-being. Americans today that use Instagram are commenting publicly about how their self-esteem was jeopardized because of this form of social media. For example, Michelle Linker states “I feel anxiety over how many likes I get after I post a picture. If I get two likes, I feel like, what’s wrong with me? Some people judge Instagram by deleting photos that don’t get enough likes” (Gajanan). This quote is an example of how Instagram effects user’s emotionally. Some users even check their “like” count multiple times a day once uploaded for

Women lurk on a man’s page seeking for their materialistic items such as cars, money, and the way a man dresses. Instances such as these causes low self-esteem of individuals who do not portray these specific items or lifestyles on social media. USA Today asked 23 Chicago college students about social media and 20 out of 23 students believed social media caused anxiety or added stress to an individual’s life. One female college student believed that social media adds a lot of pressure to be the perfect person, because that’s how individuals can make themselves look online. A lot of women on social media with low self-esteem issues show their skin and wear revealing outfits to feel “better” about their own body by taking into account how many likes on Instagram or Facebook they receive. The college students have realized it was easy to portray a different version of them on the internet. Individuals believe the number of likes on Facebook/Instagram or retweets on Twitter is used as a tool for verification for acceptance within their group of peers. This can cause a domino effect of problems on an individual’s self-esteem. An individual will post photos that are outside their character just to seek approval through the likes from their peers. This may boost an individual’s self-esteem temporarily, but once he or she logs off social media their self-esteem really hasn’t improved. Valkenbur, P. M., Peter, J., & Shouted, A. P. (2006). Friend

Our lives seem to be more and more consumed by technology as great advances in this area have continue to be made, especially when it comes to social media. Many researchers have begun to notice that depending on how much time individuals spend on these social media sites, they can negatively affect their daily lifestyle in very significant ways.  For example, social networking has become a huge distraction for students and it can affect their grades depending on how often they check their various accounts while doing class work.  Researchers have also come to find out that social media can contribute to the development of psychological symptoms