Social Media and its Impact Essay Example

Social media has grown throughout the years, making it harder and harder to resist the presence of it. As our generation becomes more aware of its existence, we begin to rely on it for our personal mental, and physical well-being. But does this harm us? Can the social media we access through our electronics negatively affect us? Is there potential for it to be positively impactful? Carlin Flora and Lydia Denworth dive into the findings behind what can come from social media usage: positive, negative, emotional, and physical influences on teenagers. The range to which technology and social media are affecting this generation relies on how smartphones are used, the things they are not going because of them, and social context used within the household, and more. 

Social media is known for its negative outcomes on our generation, Generation Z. Social media itself is never the problem, but the heavier use of it is the cause for the negative outcomes on society. Lydia Denworth (2019) explains that being attached to our social worlds creates a barrier to reality. Former economist, Matthew Gentzkow concludes that when social profiles are deactivated, in most cases people are more attached to these social worlds they live in rather than embracing the true reality they are in. (2019) With the use rising, so does the number of harmful effects on the well-being of teenagers/young adults such as anxiety, depression, and loneliness. These categories of negative effects were brought up and studied by Jeff Handcock, focusing most of his work on social media in terms of the effect on our mental state. (2019) With this being such a broad and argumentative subject, it is led to believe, as Denworth mentions, that the comparison of social media and cocaine are remotely the same, maybe even worse. Because this is looked upon as a quote-on-quote addiction, this is what allows it to be seen as relatively only negative. Even though there is not enough evidence to prove that social media is a completely negative aspect of society, research that scientists have physically proven helps support this conclusion sparsely. As Carlin Flora takes the same outlook as far as the negative perspective on social media similar to Denworth (2019, 2018), she comes across more answers. The well-being of one can be potentially damaged due to the envy that comes with comparing yourself to the world we come across on social media, just like Denworth explains. (2019) While this is in progress, as parents, they realize the interest in their children wanting to spend time together is slowly decreasing. The amount of sleep an average teenager is receiving slowly declines because studies show that most social media use is around bedtime or at night, cause to negatively affect their performance in daily routines. (2018) As researchers go through the process of searching for more findings, these negative effects can seemingly be resolved as years go by.

The upside to social media as researchers and scientists (2019) have found, even though it is few results, can bring a major effect upon a person. Using social media makes people feel more connected inside the essence of social capitalism. Social media has become a resource to form bonds we mentally and physically can not seem to make in the “real world”. (2018) Eudaemonic and hedonic happiness, the sense of meaning vs. joy within the moment, within relationships are indicators Handcock discovered being a positive result from social media. According to him, passive use is not harmed when social media is in play. (2019) However, as you can see the limitations on the positive effects of social media are ridiculously big. 

So how does something as simple as an app on your phone affect your brain and mental well-being? Depending on your age and mental health status, according to Denworth (2019), social media has a wide spectrum as far as how and when it is used. Psychologist Jeff Hancock describes this as a two-way street. Studies have shown that social media does not predict depressive symptoms, however, depressive symptoms predict the increase in social media usage as it is a comfort mechanism for people who go through negative mental processes. Therefore, a higher level of well-being results in less usage of social media because they are mentally confident with who they are. Days, where a major increase is shown, supports that more people are getting worse in their depressive stages. But is this true? The answer was not really. Routines that were placed from the very beginning did not predict later mental health symptoms, and mental health was not worse on days teenagers reported spending more or less time on technology, which is opposite of other studies that were put into use. When you have a personal account of these social media apps, mentally it makes you feel in control for once. When a teenager sees the amount of “likes” they are receiving, they realize the potential support they have, leading to less depression and anxiety as Angela Lee, Standford undergraduate, has studied. However, besides, emotionally, social media can affect adolescents neurologically, too. As you use your social apps, your social cognition and visual attention are being taken into play. Social interactions excite our brains. (2018) In an experiment conducted by postdoctoral, Lauren Sherman (2015), when receiving a great amount of “likes” on a personal photo posted by an adolescent, it showed a response in the ventral striatum, a brain region involving the reaction of a reward. Any form of social interaction excites our brains. This could be why social media increases day by day, simply because it motivates us and feels as if it is a reward. However, it has been proven that technology and social media do not decrease the well-being of teenagers any more than potato chips do. (Orben 2017) 

But as our lives grow and change, so does social media and the variety of apps we used to connect with the people around us. The beliefs teenagers/young adults share are mostly because of things they come across on these apps, molding into their new reality and perspective on life. (2018, 2019) A study has shown that when a group of adolescents deactivates one social networking app, there was also a lower activation rate when it came to similar apps as well. (2019)  But, losing your ability to understand and pay attention because of social media usage is possible. This is because we begin to socially isolated ourselves and disjoint from the world we live in. (2018) 

An adolescent’s mental health and well-being as a whole have widely been argued to depend on our social worlds through our electronics. As it is not completely certain what particular way it affects Generation Z, more scientific trials and evidence are produced at the same time our technology evolves and our social media variety widens to a broader spectrum. During these times, there is an unbalanced comparison between whether or not mental health problems within teenagers are caused by what we do on our phones, computers, tablets, etc. Issues involving mental states like depression and anxiety while also physical traits/actions like family interaction and social isolation are being further examined concerning our social media apps and the amount of usage that is being shown throughout the years. The two articles I presented you with made me teeter-totter about my outlook on this topic, which I think is an achievement for both articles because there is not a narrow down perspective about it. Looking at it both ways, it does and does not cause issues within an individual, which makes sense which is exactly where I am at in terms of how I feel about it. I do not use these social media apps and still tend to get into depressive states, so saying that social media is the absolute reasoning behind teenagers becoming in these relatively negative mental states is false. However, I watch my generation get sucked into these fake worlds that they trick themselves into believing are real which could potentially be harmful. Years go by which means we see new and improved media apps and technology, so for future reference, new trials are going to have to be conducted because of how remotely more evolved, the results can be from the last tests we did.