Social Media Affects

Social Media Affects Abstract In our generation, it is important to understand the different ways that the internet affects us. It seems that the fast growing world of the internet has become apart of everyone’s everyday life one way or another— from checking the local news or weather, to looking up answers to pretty much any question. Social media specifically has become a habit that more people participant in, than don’t. It seems like it is harder to create memories with someone who is just focused on your their social media feed. Some of the most commonly known social media sites are Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Because of how easily accessed the cyber world has become, it has created some positive as well as negative affects on people both mentally and physically. This research essay will go into detail on how social media affects peoples self esteem, academic performance, as well as social skills. Learning about these affects can help people understand how to not abuse the media world and possibly be the answer to some of our problems. 1 Social Media Affects In today’s society, social media has been more commonly used for communication than ringing somebody’s doorbell. Social media can cause positive as well as negative affects on someone. Whatever preference of social media someone is apart of, many don't think to relate these social media forms with the unhealthy side affects that can happen. The conditions vary depending on the usage of technology and the meaning behind using social media. Although it can create a good source of communication, social media can also have strong negative affects on a someones self esteem through social comparing, make students academic performance worsen, as well as make people develop bad social skills. For these reasons, it can create mental and psychical disadvantages that are important to be aware of. Social Comparison With being able to construct your own personal profile and present information about yourself, also comes with being able to view others profiles just like one of your own. Social media has created a world that can make somebody look perfect through the screen, and can sometimes present to one misleading information. Many users on social media automatically socially compare themselves to others without realizing they are doing so. A researched done on Social Comparisons through media images states how (Want, 2015), “Social comparisons with “media images typically leave the viewer feeling dissatisfied with their own appearance, as well as unhappy, angry, and insecure”. This happens because of the manipulation that a media image can present to the viewer, whether its because of the professional make-up or enhanced filters (Want, 2015), it leads the user into comparing their own self image. When a viewer social compares themselves to another person through social media, it can create low self esteem, making people more self conscious. Low self esteem, “can prevent a person from pursuing Social Media Affects goals, fulfilling hopes, and rising to their full potential” (“Recovery Ranch” 2012). It also possible that social media can create a unsatisfied fix if not received what the person is expecting from a post. People with low self-esteem may seek validation through their social media use by trying to attract likes to their comments as a way of increasing their self-esteem (Widdowson. 2016). If the amount of attention wasn't received from the post, it could negatively affect the users self esteem even more. Social comparison can be more common in students, like if a student views a post about someone on a beautiful vacation, while they are stuck in the classroom or study. Professor Margaret Duffet states that if social media is used to “see how well an acquaintance is doing financially or how happy an old friend is in his relation- things can that cause envy among user- use of the site can lead to feelings of depression.” (Abrams, 2017). Many people want others to believe that they are doing better than they really are on social media and other users tend to believe it. Depending on a persons intentions, social media comparison can leave someone with low self esteem and less hope within themselves, which can lead to depression. Being able to access social media any time of the day with a technology device and some sort of internet connection, leads students into becoming more easily distracted from their schoolwork. Depending on the teacher and their device policies, most students are able to access the internet during class through a lap top or cell phone. A students intentions may be to use the computer to take notes, but get easily distracted by social media being a click away. Becoming distracted by social media has been known to have negative affects on students grades. According to a research study on academic performance (Paul, 2012), students that had devices during class typically asked more questions about things covered earlier in the class period, “and Social Media Affects more frequently claimed that instructions about assignments were not made clear.” (Paul, 2012). Teachers believe that this can be caused from the access that devices have to social media during class, allowing students to get more easily distracted during the lectures and not pay attention to the material. School failure has been associated with device usage in some cases, many researchers have “pointed to multitasking as an explanation for the negative relationship” identified between cell phone use and academic performance” (Lepp, 2014). In other words, the distraction of being able to multi-task on social media and be in class has been linked with the difficultly in actually focusing and remembering material. Even outside of class, students are tempted procrastinate on their school work by browsing over what everyone else is doing. Evidence is proven by a population study in the article about academic performance (Lepp, 2014), that high frequency cell phone users tended to have “lower GPA, higher anxiety, and lower satisfaction with life relative to their peers who used the cell phone less often.” (Lepp, 2014). The distraction that social media has on students can create poor academic performance which can lead to poor mental health in the long run. Social media can have a toll on social skills too. Social information tends to be better when it is vocalized and visualized in person. Communicating and/or meeting people over the internet has become something more common in society now a days than it ever has been before. The down side about communicating over the social media is that it can be misinterpreted wrong. Because of the high use of social media now a days, children are developing bad social skills at a young age. In the research article on Social Skills and Social Media, it states that “when children use digital communication extensively, it can curtail the face-to-face experiences necessary for them to develop and master important social skills” (“New York Behavior Health”, Gield, 2012). Social Media Affects Poor communication skills can cause misunderstandings between people, which can negatively affect people for job interviews, school, and almost every other aspect of life. The term ‘video deficit’ was created as a result of many studies that confirm that people learn better from live interaction than from screens (“New York Behavior Health”, 2017). This can have something to the misinterpretation of emotions you can receive through a screen. Many people pursue in online dating sites, which can sometimes be beneficial but also misleading due to not being able to physically see the other persons body language, etc. Students taking online classes can have a chance of not understanding the material as well for this reason, not to mention being easily distracted by their cell phones. Eye contact, body language and being able to communicate in face-to-face is said to be the best effective way of communicating (Fowles, 2012). Because of social media, it seem that is is more important for people to show everyone else what their doing through a scene rather than being present and making memories. “People tend to want to show others that they are having fun rather than actually having fun themselves” (Fowles, 2012). For example, someone recording a whole concert on their cellphone for social media, instead of bonding with the ones around them. Unfortunately, it is sad but true how much social media has negatively impacted our social skills. The internet has become something that has taken over throughout the years. From all the different forms it has to offer, it allows people to access almost anything they are striving for. Because of the easy access to the web, social media has taken a rise on peoples overall well being. As it may have some advantages to it, social media has also created some negative side affects like low self esteem through social comparison, students academic performance, as well as social skills. Because of these reason, it can develop unstable mind sets for users such as Social Media Affects depression. The more people that are aware of the negative side affects that social media can have one’s life, the more room we have for improvement.