Research Paper Example: Social Media as an Enemy

Today we face an enemy like no other one astonishing by the generations before us as it is one of the spiritual kinds not able to be physically held or touched. It is growing in both numbers and power with every passing minute it proves its power by not only dominating the younger generations but by making its opponent dependable and in need of its presence. That enemy is ironically named social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and many others. According to research conducted from 2008 to 2019 by J Clement, social media is used by 79% of our population that translates to 259 million Americans in the US alone who have social media accounts(Basu, Saurav 35). It is not a secret that social media has become an essential component of our everyday lives since it allows us to connect with people that may be thousands of miles away, it allows us to share humorous images with each other and allows us to keep our loved ones updated on our day-to-day lives. However, it also creates a sense that there's some standard that we must all be living up to also it creates insecurity and here we are based on edited prototypes of what we see it creates an unsatisfied feeling when we realize that we don't I actually know those people that we interact with on social media the enemy is not an easy beast to conquer mainly because it could be hard to even identify it for what it truly is its weapon is addictiveness and many of us would like to turn a blind eye rather than to admit that we feel the need to use social media so now that we've addressed the enemy let's talk about it effect and how we can combat it.  

Considering the digital age in recent decades, social media has regrettably taken a darker turn. It was designed to help people to connect and communicate with one other, but it has unfortunately taken a darker turn. People, especially my generation, have realized that they use social media, specifically Instagram as a kind of a popularity game. If they edit a photo just enough or take pictures of their perfect life and post them then they will find that they are liked by a lot of people hence by the likes on their accounts. They have also normalized using Facebook to really get to know someone and build the foundation for a relationship with a significant other. I know that many of us can recall times or multiple times when someone has asked for our social media, and they do not even know our last name or where we are from.  

The rise in technology and social media used in the recent decade has been positively correlated with adolescents having depressive symptoms and suicide related thoughts especially on teenage girls according to research conducted in 2016 of the journals of the American Academy of Pediatrics so it is not a coincidence that with the increase in social media platforms but there has been an increase in adolescents experiencing depression (Janine Bartholomew, Carrie Gilligan78). Now, let us delve into the data. I would like to set the scenario for you all to put things into perspective. Researchers from the nonprofit competence media have found that adolescents aged 12 to 18 spend 9 hours a day on average on social media alone (Xie, Ming61). With we can say that within a week the average teenagers spend 63 hours (about 2 and a half days) or little over 2 1/2 days attached to their devices with social media. Let us also consider that according to research at the University of Rochester and multiple psychology departments the rational part of the human brain is not fully developed until 25 years of age (University of Rochester3788). Many people believe that a completely developed brain is associated with a mature personality, therefore it makes sense that if an adolescent's developmental stage is being wasted on social media, totalization would have some sort of impact on its users' minds. Now for the most pressing and upsetting statistic in a federal survey published in the journal of abnormal psychology it was found that between 2005 and 2017 the number of adolescents aged 12 to 17 a young adults aged 18 to 25 who had depressive symptoms rose from 8.7% to 13.2% so almost a 5% increase so this did not show any data on social media usage but it did compare age groups for those age 26 and older comparing even to the 50 and up age group. The rate of depressive symptoms remains constant throughout the entire decade that the research was conducted; this means that older populations who are not the main users of social media have no increase or decrease in depressive symptoms (Salma Malik300). Although correlation does not prove causation social media users are associated with depressive symptoms. Next let us look at the introduction of the enemy into our society Facebook was created in 2004 a year before this research was conducted Instagram was introduced in 2010 in the middle of this study and with introduction of each social media platform increasing during the period of this study (Salma Malik300) it is not unusual but there is a positive correlation between social media usage and depression. With such evidence it would only be natural to question how social media influences the mind of its users and is connected to depressive symptoms. As I previously stated compared to past generations the new day and age prefers communication via our devices because of its easy access and ability to connect with family and friends miles apart; however, there is something to be said about the long forgotten traditional use of calling someone or in cases where people are near you face to face interactions. When we lose a genuine human connection with each other we lose a sense of our identity soon enough we be consumed by the idea of not what people think about us because of how we act around them but of how we can make people think about us because the way that we can manipulate our presence on social media we become what we were attempting to avoid socially isolated we often feel when we're socially isolated from those around us depressive symptoms can't set in as Caroline Miller from the child mind institute proposes the youth is slowly losing their ability to value and respect will all humans here for a genuine and satisfying connection with one another however I think that we can offset the statistic and not fall to the power of numbers by identifying small strategies to interact with each other so at this point it kind of seems that any solution would be unfeasible just because social media is unfortunately addicting just like alcohol and drugs as it increases the dopamine levels in our brains but I think with small measures that we can take back control so here are some solutions the first one is to join a club almost every educational institution offers a multitude of clubs for students to get involved in. Clubs allow people to get together occasionally and relate to each other on a personal level of interest. A lot of students, especially younger generations to make friends, are reminded of the benefits that come with in person interactions. The second proposal would be to not ask people for their social media as a way of getting to know them. Instead, asking them to hang out or asking for their number to be able to talk on the phone may seem intimidating, but it is a lost tradition that has worked for generations before us. The third proposal would be to answer the phone when you can actually listen to someone voice and carry out a conversation I promise you that you will feel way more satisfied than you ever would just sending back a text to someone and with that being said also be the person they give other people a phone call and then my last proposal at my most favorite is to shake each other's hands when you shake someone's hand you initiate connection through physical touch and then something that you can't do on social media so shaking hands doesn't have to be as formal as people make it out to be shaking hands is a way of greeting each other and acknowledging that someone is there, so I think that we shall be acknowledging each other more often. My proposals may seem small but if the youth engage in them, I genuinely think they would have a lasting impact and remind people what it means to be human again. Social media the unnerving powerful giant is overtaking our generations with every passing moment most of us would wish to submit to its power because of the benefits that come with it however such submission can quickly escalate into addictiveness and for the youth though who are the main users this addiction can often unfortunately turn into depressive symptoms and suicidal thoughts but there is a way to gain back that control and offset the correlation between social media usage and depressive symptoms by joining clubs and asking people out lastly answering the phone shake each other's hands these are things that I think that we should teach ourselves and teach our younger generations and our children to come we've become to acclimated in this digital age that we have forgotten this simple human interaction behaviors I truly believe that by making simple gestures that create in person interaction that we will soon realize that unsatisfying feeling that comes from liking someone post that we don't even know eventually the enemy can fall, and we can't gain back control, so I encourage you all to use these little proposals and really encourage people around you to use them.