Introduction
Since the beginning of 2008 to 2018 the percentage of social media profiles within the U.S population has effectively increased. Although, the percentage of social media profiles has decrease by 3% in comparison to the previous year where the percentage of social media profiles went from 80% to 77%, they are still widely used. Scholars in the field of psychology generally agree that social media can be addicting but some argue that social media helps adolescents in many ways. However, they don’t know much about how social media effects younger kids (10 and younger). The research that is available suggest social media has many positive effects on adolescents like improving communication, and improving one’s school work, as well as negative effects such as the fear of missing out, and causing sleeping problems. To increase more effective knowledge on the effects social media has on young people further research should be dedicated toward social media and the youth.
An addiction is a behavior disorder that causes harmful physical, mental, and social issues on daily activities. Furthermore, research over addiction generally indicates social media addiction was first seen as an addiction by mainly parents and others. Over the years the usage of social media has grown and is becoming a common concern; too much use of social media can result into symptoms of an addiction or seen as an addiction. For example, many people have been excessively using social media to a point where it has become compulsory. This has driven people to have the uncontrollable urge of wanting to check or use social media; this has affected many people, which caused them to reduce their attention on other important thing in their life. This causes many to missing out in life and opportunities just because they wanted to be on their cell phones and social media.
The Positive Effects Of Social Media
Social media improves communication in adolescents since it provides a platform where they can connect their friend and family, as well as give adolescents multiple platforms and ways that they can express their ideas. Social media helps adolescents stay connected with their friends and family. “Research shows that adolescents use these communication tools primarily to reinforce existing relationships, both friendships and romantic relationships, and to check out the potential of new entrants into their offline world” (Subrahmanyam K; California State University-Los Angeles, Children’s Digital Media Center, UCLA/CSULA, USA, 120) The communication that goes on through social media like direct messaging, emailing, group chats, and posting on their social media profile helps reinforce relationships through that communication. According to “Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships,” social media provides adolescents with a source that allows them to talk, view, and develop their relationships. Social media benefits adolectestents by uniting them with their family and friends especially when teens are able to interact with distant friends and family members who they will not be able to talk to other wise. Additionally, social media allows adolescents to communicate their ideas. “ [Social media promotes] enhancement of individual and collective creativity through development and sharing of artistic and musical endeavors, [and] growth of ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming sites” (Valkenburg and Peter, 801). Different sites and social media platforms allows adolescents to communicate their thoughts and ideas in new and different way than ever before. According to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services Office of Adolescent Health, “71 percent of teens say they use more than one social media site,” with the most common social media sites that are used are Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat. Its common that adolescents want to share and communicate their ideas so that is what they use social media for, to share their thought through their post so that others may view it as well as use social media to view others ideas and post. Social media benefits adolescents by providing them with an outlet for their ideas which allows them to express their ideas and thoughts, and the more teens post on social media their ideas and though the better they will become communicating them.
The Negative Effects Of Social Media
Fear of Missing Out (FOMO), “ is comprised of irritability, anxiety, and feelings of inadequacy, with these feelings tending to worsen when an individual logs on in to social media website. Intense feelings of one “missing out” have the power to influence buying decisions; an individual could choose to buy a better or more expensive product than their friend because they don’t want to miss out on the possibility of having something better or missing out on an opportunity to ‘fit in’.” (Jessica P. Abel, Beech-Nut, USA Cheryl L. Buff, Siena College, USA Sarah A. Burr, Ipsos, USA, 35). FOMO also has an important impact on social media since social media heightens the amount of FOMO an adolescent can feel, since other adolescent’s posting of one image can make others feel left out. Social media is used to share one’s life – with images or writing – and/ or current events. Sometimes when people are posting things they don’t consider how it can cause dissatisfaction to some people, and make them feel like they’re missing out. Social media addiction never leave a person satisfied with their social media account, people – especially teens – are always trying to get more followers, more likes, and more views. Since people want more and more nothing is ever enough. Adolescents compete with one another to see who has the best social media account in order to fit in and in fear of missing out which always makes teens feel dissatisfied. “Does increased checking of social media result because one has FOMO, or does increased checking of social media cause FOMO…or some combination thereof? Do higher levels of FOMO result in a decrease in checking social media because the individual is afraid of missing out and wants to avoid additional pain to the psyche? Testing these questions is predicated on the ability to measure FOMO.” (Jessica P. Abel, Beech-Nut, USA Cheryl L. Buff, Siena College, USA Sarah A. Burr, Ipsos, USA, 36)
Conclusion
In conclusion, social media is a big important aspect in our lives with many positive but also many negative effects; social media can help us with our communication and improve our school work, consequently social media can also provoke FOMO and cause sleeping problems. Social media can become addicting but many scholars my field will agree, social media can be beneficial as well as have its disadvantages. To increase the information available on the effects social media has on young people further research should be dedicated toward social media and the youth. Although nearly all social media services require users to be at least 13 years old but there are many accounts that are created using a fake date of birth or name which makes it harder to monterior youth on social media, but not impossible. I would take a controlled youth group from the ages 8 to 14 and install a software on their devices that tracks how much time they spend on their devices and how long they spend on each app that they use.
Resources-
Subrahmanyam, Kaveri, and Patricia Greenfield. “Online Communication and Adolescent Relationships.” The Future Of Children, vol. 18, no. 1, 2008, pp. 119–146. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&AuthType=uid&db=cmedm&AN=21338008&site=ehost-live.
Click to access Social_Consequences_of_the_Internet_for_20160623-12266-aq0re3.pdf
https://www.hhs.gov/ash/oah/news/e-updates/february-2016-teens-social-media-use/index.html
externalfile:drive-e096fb6c3f41c694c40a7272eba1e6f193f58c69/root/9554-Article%20Text-35976-2-10-20160114.pdf
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13674676.2017.1300791
https://doi.org/10.1089/cpb.2008.0228
The relationship between addictive use of social media, narcissism, and self-esteem: Findings from a large national survey
Site Title 