Bryson Eiler Ms. Lehmann English 2-1B 7 February 2020 The Impacts Social Media has on Teens Did you know that about of all young adults report checking social media multiple times a day? (Brandwatch) Basically, this means that about half of all youth check their social media multiple times a day.Teens should be responsible users of social media because social media impacts teens well-being, social connectedness, and academic achievement. In examining social media’s impact on well-being, it is clear that the connection is complex. How we use social media impacts our well-being. Social media has both positive and negative impacts on teens’ emotional health. There are a range of challenges teens face in life, and social media allows them to seek out help they might not get otherwise. James et al write, “The ability to communicate anonymously can mitigate barriers, such as shame, that interfere with support-seeking offline” (72)Being able to anonymously ask for help has a positive impact on teens’ lives because it allows people to ask for help without feeling judged so that they can get the help that they need.Having considered the positive impact of social media, users must also be aware of the negative. Social media has been blamed for many negative impacts on people’s lives. James et al explain, "Several investigations document correlations between heavy media use and reduced well-being – related outcomes, such as diminished life satisfaction, internalizing negative experiences, and various dimensions of ill-being, such as depression, anxiety, attention problems, and stress” (72).When young adults use social media to compare themselves to others, negative outcomes will follow. When social media presents the good things in our lives as the only things, users can lose sight of the messiness of life, making them feel less satisfied with what they have. The impact that social media has on adolescents’ well-being depends upon how it is being used. With increased use of social media, there is less time spent face to face with friends and relatives. Social media, which has both good and bad effects, distracts us, from our connections to real life friends and family. In the survey conducted by the Common Sense Media it is proven that social media communication ispreferable to teens.“Only 32 percent say their favorite way to communicate with friends is in person (dropping from 49 percent in 2012) and teens are more likely to say they are distracted by social media when they are with other people (54 percent, up from 44).” (K.Y.18). Basically, they are stating that 68 percent of the teenagers surveyed say that social media is a preferable alternative to physical communication and another 54 percent says that it is a distraction when around friends in person. Given that social media is a major distraction, it can also be a source for emotional support. For many young adults, it is useful to help make them feel more connected with friends and ultimately less lonely. James et al state that “Social media is very important to them, helping many of them to feel less lonely, more confident, and more connected.” (72). Basically, teens feel more positive when they communicate with people through social media. In the end, the relationship between social media and teensis a complicated matter as it has both good and bad effects. Some argue that the dangers of social media have been overexaggerated. Despite theappeal of this argument, the negative effects of social media cannot be ignored entirely. Using social media too much has been connected to a lack of emotional and physical well-being as well as weaker social connectedness. Success in school has also been impacted by screen time. “Academic performance is directly related to sleep time and inversely related to overall sedentary SMU [screen media use] among the students who participated in this study” (Peiró-Velert et al 5). The study found that the more time students spent on their screens, the less time they had to sleep, which resulted in lower academic achievement. It’s obvious that social media’s impact is complicated, and people should be mindful of how they use it. By using social media responsibly, teens can minimize its impact on their health, connections with others, and success in school. Being aware of how they use social media can help minimize the impact on teens’ well-being.Teens have started to spend more time on social media, and thus are more distracted by it and need to know what it can do. The amount of time teens spend on social media has an indirect impact on their academic achievement. So, given that about half of all teenagers check their phone constantly, it is essential that they know what it can do and how to use it responsibly.
Works Cited
Peiró-Velert Carmen, Alexandra Valencia-peris, Luis M. Gonzáles, Xavier Garcia-Massó, Pilar Serra Añó, and José Devís- Devís. “Screen Media Usage, Sleep Time and Academic Performance in Adolescents: Clustering a Self-Organizing Maps Analysis.” Plos One,vol. 9, no. 6, June 2014, pp. 1-9. Academic Search Premier, doi: 10.1372/journal.pone.0099478. Accessed 10 February 2020.
James, Carrie, Katie Davis, Linda Charmaraman, Sara Konrath, Petr, Slovak, Emily Weinstein, and Lana Yarosh. “Digital Life and Youth Well-being, Social Connectedness, Empathy, and Narcissism.” Pediatrics, vol. 140, no. S2, November 2017, pp. 71-75. Academic Search Premier, doi: 10.154/peds.2016-1785F. Accessed 21 January 2020.
1. Explain the processes you went through to write this paper. Well, I first had to decide on the topic of my paper which was decided by taking a poll across the classroom for the most favorable topic. Then, we read multiple articles and wrote notes on the article that we thought would be useful in our later essay. Once we had read an article we wrote a paragraph centered around information from the article. That process continued for two paragraphs. After that we put in the rebuttal and wrote a hook for our entry. 2. What qualifies this paper as a research paper? What are the requirements for this genre and how did you meet them? This paper is qualified as a research paper because all of my information comes from reliable sources and has been cited properly which were the only requirements. 3. Explain one thing you learned about reading research or taking notes on research that you can apply to your next research paper. I learned how to properly cite quotations and how to efficiently take notes on an article.