The World Of Social Media Essay

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.

Older generations don’t realize how much technology has affected this generation of teenagers, along with the social media that comes along with the technology. As stated in “How Social Media Changed Teens’ Lives Forever”; “Negative posts or comments also can do great damage to a teen’s self-esteem.” (Ashley Black, Thomas Atseff and Colleen Kaveney) While many parents think social media is just a way to connect with others, many teenagers take it for granted. For example, “quitting social media because it made her miserable and obsessed with appearing perfect online”, is what a teenager felt about social media and what it has done to her. Though many think that social media is a great way to connect, teenagers take it to another level.

When scrolling through your Instagram feed or watching Snapchat stories of classmates and friends, it can be very difficult and sometimes impossible to not feel jealous or discouraged. These days, teens post nearly every aspect of their lives on social media. You see everything from what someone ate for breakfast, what workout they did that day, to what cute new outfit they have on for their fancy family dinner that night. A wide range of pressures arises with social media usage. Teens feel they always need to be available, many gain reassurance from likes and shares, and they are faced with the struggle of keeping up with the constant image of a “perfect life”. This is very dangerous because many teens are experiencing discomfort in their own skin when they compare themselves to others. It is difficult not to judge yourself and others when you are constantly viewing what your classmates, friends, and celebrities are doing. When interviewing a friend, Brayden Xilas who has been personally impacted by social media, she said “There has become an unspoken competition for teens to prove they have the best life through social media”. Friends and classmates are constantly trying to “one up” each other which causes a lot of stress for people to always be doing something worthy of sharing on social media.

Social media is any website that allows social interaction, whether it is business or personal. Over the years, the use of social media has skyrocketed within our youths and adults and has held a tremendous impact within society ever since it was introduced. The impact of social media on society such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram exposes today’s adolescence to things they should not be seeing; although, it is easily accessible. Social media is believed to be used for promoting yourself, your feelings, and thoughts with the world or followers. Since the creation

In this modern age, the majority of society has adapted to social media and the newest technology to fit around our lives. Technology provides tools that are imperative to the making and the use of other tools. It is a tool in itself. Technology is changing rapidly; so rapidly, in fact, there can be cultural gaps between generations. The construction of social media has enabled access to innovative phenomenon, broken barriers, changed our perspectives on ideas, and has even opened doors to new opportunities.

In the essay “Are We Slaves to Our Online Selves?”, Jules Evens explains how social media can cause us to put ourselves ‘out there’ to get approval from others. Evens writes about teenagers and how “They feel publicly shamed, desecrated, permanently damage.” by social media. Gaining self-confidence has become very difficult for many people because of the way social media can affect how one sees themselves. For teenagers, its especially hard.

Social Media has a huge impact on a teens life since they are bombarded with the pressures of buying new devices and apps, thus affecting the way teens represent themselves on social media. In the article, It states how teens are driven to compete against each other by, trying to have best social media feed. “Parents wonder if their children’s constant use of Instagram, Facebook or Snapchat is healthy. Teenagers talk about the pressure to post the perfect photo or compete with the perfect lives their peers present on the Internet.” (Baltimore Sun, para. 2). The pressures of wanting to post the perfect pictures of their lives on social media, takes a toll on the teens when they are using it. Instead of posting what is true to that person, they are competing to have the best pictures and the most followers, which causes them to lose their true selves/identity.

With the development of modern technologies, millions of individuals are constantly connected with the digital world, where some individuals may correlate social media platforms as real life. However, it is reasonable to state that due to the vulnerability of teenagers and their difficult transformations, both mentally and physically, social media could have various influences on teenagers, that including low self-esteem. Erving Goffman's dramaturgical theory can help explain how one’s identity development is framed while on these social sites as well as while offline. Using collected data, qualitative methods have shown that such things like surveys that are randomly sampled can help approach this link between social media and an individual's sense of self. Although there were no significant relations identified, results indicate that social media platforms can possibly have a negative effect on individuals sense of self.

Other discovered definitions of personhood may affect one’s self-identity in another manner. Living in American teenagers provides a unique opportunity of influences that lend themselves to creating a definition of personhood for American teenagers. Social media like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube surround teens with more exposure than ever in the route to self-discovery by allowing them a forum for expression and a means of connecting with others. Of course these media can be both beneficial and detrimental, as they have the capacity to sway teens in similar ways of advertising and parental influence. Regardless, teens still have the aforementioned task of answering the question of what an American person is. According to Clark, teenagers “regardless of their background, family, ethnicity, gifts, or power, [teens] are desperate for a society that will help them discover who they are” (186). With all of these cultural and societal influences all around, teens can make use of their surroundings and begin to formulate their individual identity. The effort of this inquiry can lead to more questioning for teens about how they understand themselves. This allows for an in depth sociological study, which is important in understanding today’s teens. Only after teenagers are able to understand personhood, they can begin to understand themselves. Clark

Social media has gained immense popularity, following increased access to the internet and technology devices including smart phones. Social media is used to denote platforms in which people build and share social connections; thus enhancing information sharing and interaction. Major examples include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. Through social media, people can connect, interact and exchange information such as pictures, videos and other digital media by registering as users in these platforms and updating information affecting their lives on their profiles. When social media applications came into existence, these were mostly used for interacting and sharing with friends, relations and new friends acquired through these platforms. Social media has however been constantly abused, as people turn it into a ground to vent, lie, insult, bully or threaten others. The social networks no longer serve their intended purpose in the society and users have taken advantage of the free space to say whatever they want with no regard to how it affects others. People have used such domains to brandish their selfish acts and gains.

Electricity was first introduced to society hundreds of years ago; the way people communicate began to change in many different ways since then. New inventions helped people build more sophisticate tools to build better places to live and work. This new inventions changed the way we live now days; they make our lives much easier. In the decade of the 1920's when radio was first introduced to public, people begin buying it and using it more and more, as years passed by it become incredibly popular that most American families had a radio at their houses. They could spend hours with their families listening to music or their favorite shows. This was just the beginning of the revolution of social media.

At this very moment, there are thousands of people worldwide who are retweeting posts on Twitter, liking pictures on Instagram or posting a status on Facebook. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are few of the many social media platforms that have become prevalent in our society. Because social media applications and websites allow users with easy access to communication with others around the world, individuals all across the globe are able to socially interact on a daily basis. Erving Goffman, Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead, three of many sociologists who viewed society through the interactionist perspective, would use these daily interactions to make generalizations about society as a whole. The paradigm of symbolic interactionism reaches conclusion about different groups in society, generally by observing everyday social interactions. Accordingly, interactionists would view social media as an aspect of society that consists of constant social interactions that continuously influences and affects individuals and the whole of society.

The research question is designed to indicate the reasons that makes social media so attractive for teenagers. Habits of teenagers and young adults in their social media activities will be assessed for a further understanding of the research question. This study also aims to look at how social media has affected the emulation of identity among teenagers and to what extent are social media channels considered an outlet to express themselves. The findings of this research will hopefully create awareness among

More recently than in years past, digital technology and social media have grown to become a part of our everyday lives. The recent rise in those who own smartphones allows this everyday use of digital technology and social networking to be easier than ever before. At any time and any place, we have the ability to “socialize” with nearly anyone—even celebrities who have no idea most of us even exist. The continuous consumption of digital media has altered once personal face-to-face communication to just that, digital. More and more people seem to be living in what Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon call “The Cloud”. “The Cloud” is a seemingly alternate universe of which communication is altered from personal to digital. This universe has led to debates over whether or not these online communities are real or whether social media is actually social. Various digital media sources also encourage users to create individual identities, of which may or may not actually be real. It seems as though our reliance on digital technology and social media have allowed the determination of certain aspects of our lives. Although social media allows us to connect with nearly anyone at any time, Americans have taken advantage of its use, and their attention has been drawn away from real life interactions to digital ones. The ramifications of such influences reflect the hidden insecurities of Americans and, ironically, emphasize our inclination to boast about ourselves by allowing others to see the

The project aim at teenagers, therefore sample group is between 13 to 19. I will set the sample sizes in 50 participants since it is easy to identity and more precision. If a sample sizes increase, it is very hard to estimate and become not accurate. Also, I’m worry about the extremes data can’t make a balance out, so the project prefers small sample sizes. It can take less effort to gain and maintain people, it is easy to produce significant results and comfortable to find a group of people. I will obtain samples from friends or friends’ sister and brother.