Research Paper Drafts and Outline
Research for the paper
Social medias impact on young adults
- How does it impact their mental health?
- Impact them in school?
- Families?
- Friends?
- Different negative impacts
- Are there positive impacts?
- Cyberbullying
- Market things towards young kids
- A lot of scary things are shown like shootings are publicized and makes kids fearful
- Youtube there is a lot of negative stuff
- Should be limited to amount of time used
- Not all are healthy environment
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/1359104518775154
- “Thematic analysis suggested that adolescents perceived social media as a threat to mental wellbeing”
- Mood and anxiety disorder
- Cyberbullying
- Addicting
Paper proposal
I want to research social media’s effect on young adults. This topic is very important for today’s society of young adults. Social media has become very addicting and has many negative effects on people. I am interested in looking at the positive and negative effects it has but I am mainly arguing the negative side to it. I personally use social media a lot know it is not good but it is something that if you don’t use it you feel like you are missing out. I want to know more about how it affects me personally. I want to know why social media is so addictive and what these effects it has on you will lead to in your future.
There are many platforms of social media and they all have different effects on people. Some of the effects social media has on people can be very serious. People need to understand the risk of being addicted to social media and the negative effects it has on young adults. Seeing pictures on some of these platforms can lower people’s self-esteem by comparing themselves to what they see which can eventually make them depressed. There are many other issues it causes but this is a very important one. I really want to look at the role social media plays on our Mental Health. Social media is very addicting and will leave negative effects on young adults and their mental health.
First draft
Social Media’s Effect on Mental Health
There are multiple platforms of social media, all with similar effects on people. There is instagram, snapchat, facebook, and many more. All of these platforms are highly addicting. This addiction can have serious effects on your mental health and way of life. Social media is mainly marketed towards young adults whose brains are still growing which causes a big effect on them. Since I am a young adult myself and use social media I am very curious of the effects it has on me personally. Being a young adult I can first hand abide to how addicting media is and I can see how your mental health can truly be at risk from it. There are many other people that were also curious in this idea. Most of these researchers believe along with me that, Social media is bad for you mental health and you can suffer serious consequences from it.
Bullying has been a problem in society for as long as people have been alive. It wasn’t until there was technology and social media that cyberbullying became a big problem. Cyberbullying is a way of bullying over social media and in some cases you don’t even know who your bully is. In The Journal Of School Violence there were three studies I focused on about cyberbullying. All three studies concluded that certain “venues” attract Cyberbullying. In Study 1 is suggested that “common venues of cyberbullying have likely shifted to social media”(Cyberbullying Via Social Media). Social media platforms sadly make it easy to cyberbully people. You don’t have to see anyone face to face and you are not scared to say anything to them. Also with social media you can make fake accounts which makes it easier to bully someone without them knowing who it is. In Study 2 it concluded that, “cyber-aggressive comments directed toward random people known only online were seen the most frequently and seen as the most acceptable”(Cyberbullying Via Social Media). When you don’t know the person you are bullying, you are less likely to feel bad because you know nothing about the person which makes it feel more acceptable to you to hurt them. Cyberbullying causes a lot of harm to people and especially those of younger age. You have social media at you fingertips and have access to it 24/7. In an article on FindLaw.com, it emphasizes that, “With around-the-clock access to social media and the Internet, victims often feel as if there is no escape from cyberbullying”(findlaw.com). Even when you are home, which is most peoples safe place, you can’t escape social media. If you have technology you always can be exposed to bullying. It is dangerous if you feel like you can’t escape it, and it can lead to very harmful things. This form of bullying can and most likely will lead to depression and many mental health problems.
Depression is one of the most serious side effects of social media. There are so many causes that go into feeling depressed from social media. When you are scrolling through pictures of other people you can’t help but compare yourself to them and wish you had similar characteristics. In a study done by NCBI they surveyed many young adults about social media use and depression. The study showed that, “individuals in the highest quartiles of SM site visits per week and those with a higher global frequency score had significantly increased odds of depression”(NCBI). This proves that when you get addicted to social media you are more likely to develop depression. The way to fix this is using social media less. If you try to fix your addiction to social media then you will more likely not be depressed from it. On most social media platforms you see pictures of people and their amazing lives. Most of these people are fake and putting these pictures out there to make it look like they have an amazing life. When someone sees these pictures they can’t help but want the life they are seeing and they compare themselves to what they see. This can easily make someone depressed and make them try to change their appearance to match the pictures they see. Another way to become depressed from social media is having a fear of missing out. When people are posting on social media, they usually post what they are doing and who they are with. There are also many news accounts that post the latest of what’s going on in society. Young adults are addicted to checking their media feed out of fear that they will miss something. If you see your friends posting a picture without you it will be sad and not want to miss out so you keep checking media to see more. Also most young adults don’t watch the news or read the paper so they rely on social media to keep them updated on society. People like to know what’s going on in the world around them at all times, especially in the media and about celebrities. Social media is the key place to find out what is going on with the latest trends and the gossip in pop culture. Young adults crave this drama and to know what’s in and what trends they should follow. By wanting to be in the know at all times, it leads to constant checking on your media accounts. An article by The Care Center Of Mental Health stated that, “Always on’ communication technology can cause feelings of anxiety, loneliness and inadequacy through highlighting these activities, compelling users to stay continually engaged and up to date due to fear of not being involved”(Care Center For Mental Health ). These feelings are ones that will surely lead to depression and a sad life all because of the media.
Although many believe that social media is very bad for your health, there are few people that believe otherwise. Some believe that social media can actually be good for your mental health. In an article In the Washington Post they list five reasons why social media can be good for teens. The first way that is shared is that “it lets them do good”. Social media exposes you to what is going on around the world. This article says that, “Kids realize they have a voice they didn’t have before and are doing everything from crowdfunding social justice projects to anonymously tweeting positive thoughts”(Washington Post). Even though this is a very good thing, not all social media users do this good by being on a platform. As I mentioned before it is also dangerous being informed with what is going on in the world around you. Knowing that everything you need to know is on social media will make you go on it even more and get addicted which leads to depression and anxiety. The next reason listed is that it strengthens friendships. It suggests that in some studies it listed,they “show that social media helps teenagers make friends and keep them”. Even though you may be able to make many friends on social media it isn’t good to rely solely on that. It is good to make real life connections with people not just over a screen. Also if you have friends on social media it is easier for them to bully you. Cyberbullying between the friends you have on media is very likely to happen. To prevent this make friends in the real world not online. The third reason given that social media is good is, it “offered a sense of belonging”. Feeling like you belong based on social media use is not good. This article states that, “They report feeling less isolated and have become more socially adept, partly because of an increase in technology use”. Increased use in technology should not be a good thing. I mentioned before how increased use of social media and that by being on it all the time causes depression. This is the same argument I made against the fact that it lets you do good. You shouldn’t need to be on social media to belong. You should go outside and have human contact to feel like you belong, possibly with your friends or family. The fourth reason this article states that these platforms could possibly be good is that it can help people express themselves. People have a variety of different talents and being on social media supposedly makes it easier to share these and express themselves. The Article in the washington post believes that “Digital technology allows kids to share their work with a wider audience”. Although this statement is true there is also a negative side to sharing your work on social media. There may be some people that lie your work and may make positive comments on it, but that doesnt stop the critiques. There are many cruel people in the world and they are all over social media. Many people may give your work negative comments and cyberbully you because you expressed yourself online. This isn’t something anyone wants to go through so it is better to express yourself in other ways that isn’t social media. Lastly, it is thought that social media can provide support. This argument against this statement is similar to the previous one. If you post about a problem you are having you will most likely get some mean and cruel feedback that you don’t want. The Washington Post reports that, “Suicidal teens can even get immediate access to quality support online”. If there is a suicidal teen trying to get support on social media and they get a mean comment or come across something hurtful, this will most likely make their condition worse. Overall I found with his counterclaim the facts against social media outways the ones for it.
In conclusion, social media is not good for young adult Mental Health. As you can see there are many negative side effects of being addicted to social media, which many young adults are. Social media is a center for cyberbullying, depression, anxiety, there are many more effects it has that are not good for you. Even just using social media last will greatly improve your life. You don’t need to completely cut it out of your life but people should really start to try to reduce it. In an article from Forbes they talked about a study from the University of Pennsylvania, young adults reduced their use of social media by 10 minutes per day. The results were as expected, As the researchers expected, people who limited their social media use to 30 minutes felt significantly better after the three-week period, reporting reduced depression and loneliness, especially those who came into the study with higher levels of depression” (Forbes). People need to be more aware of these affects and start to learn about what social media is doing to their body. By doing this I believe everyone will have a better and happier life.
Nicole Yanoff 