Research Paper Proposal on Negative Impact of Social Media

Nhat Nguyen

Professor Michael Fournier

English 1102

June 05, 2019

Research Paper Proposal

Social Media: Risk Factor for Youth Mental Health

Social networking sites have been increasingly popular amongst all group of ages, especially adolescents and teenagers. Social media is a helpful tool that allows users to design their profiles and share personal thoughts with peers. Social media sites can be useful in different areas such as communicating, advertising, or socializing, especially among people separating by long distance. Despite these benefits, social media can cause negative effects on the physical and mental health effects on adolescents, including depression, addiction, and social isolation. In this research paper, I primarily seek to show that the negative impacts of social media sites can outweigh the benefits.

Social media are different forms of online communication that allow users to share information, ideas, messages, and other digital contents. At first, social media was a method of communication across a great distance. It was compared as part of the telegraph technology in 1792. People commonly regarded social media as a wireless transmitter until 1997, when Six Degrees was presented to the public users. Six Degrees was one of the earliest forms of social media which allowed people to create personal profiles and add other users to private networks. The period from 2002 to 2010 was the revolution of social media, which multiple social networks were formed, such as LinkedIn, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. Social networks with convenient design platforms have attracted more than 2.61 billion users around the world. The growth of social media might be short in term of times, but social networking is still a world phenomenon that has a widespread influence on the world population.

Social media has a significant role in social engagement. It facilitates the exchange in the idea and promotes interconnection between diverse communities regardless of distance. However, the use of social networks also generates many concerns because of its negative influences on society. Young adults and adolescents have seen social media as a substitution for face-to-face interaction. They start to use social networking platforms as an inexpensive tool to initiate personal relationships. Young people nowadays are overestimating the benefits of social media and underestimating the downsides of its use. Thus, it is crucial to identify the negative effects that social media has on young adults' life.

There are a lot of debates surrounding the question of whether young adults should use social media as a primary communicative method. Social media supporters argue that social networking sites allow people to interact with communities and reduce loneliness. However, the study conducted by Brian Primack, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh, proves that social media isolates people and reduces face-to-face interactions (6). Based on Primack's study and personal research, I would create counterargument to affirm that social media is not a helpful tool for communication because young adults are misusing and abusing it.

Because of the increase in the usage of social networks amongst a group of young people, numerous studies have been carried out to testify the association between social media and real-world interaction. In the article "Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation Among Young Adults in the U.S," Brian Primack, a professor at the  University of Pittsburgh Honors College, and his colleagues argue that young adults with high social media use (SMU) time feel more isolated than ones with lower SMU (6). Others emphasize that the mass appeal of social networks correlates with the new type of psychological disorder also known as Social Network Addiction Disorder (Kuss, et al. 3530). During my research, I found statistic information and graphs that demonstrate that spending quite an amount of time on social media can cause depression. The study surprised me since the time spending on social media and depression had a linear trend. I had to add depression as a mental illness to my thesis statement to strengthen my paper arguments.

Social media also influences body image and perceptions of beauty. On social media platforms, advertisements which appreciate the ideal image of thinness can make female young adults dissatisfied with their bodies. During my research, I found a source that analyzes the relations between body dissatisfaction and the number of selfies taken on social media. According to Scheinbaum's study, she explains that social media lower individual self-esteem by "increased body shame, heightened body dissatisfaction" (51). Her analysis provides much insight into how images on social media can lead to body dissatisfaction, which later causes depression and eating disorders.

A problem I encountered during my research is whether social media risks like cyberbullying and sexting also affected the users. In her book, Bernadette Schell, a professor at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, indicates that 20 percent to 70 percent of adolescents experience some degree of cyberbullying while using social media (48). Furthermore, I also found that social network platforms such as likes, or comments could alter adolescents' self-esteem. Because most of the users express their personal information on social media, the negative response toward shared information can lower person self-esteem, which later leads to depression. As I did research, I found different reports about cyberbullying and online predators, which are fascinating. I decided to add them to my body paragraphs to enhance my arguments.

Purpose

        Social media could affect the development of adolescents. Thus, this academic research paper would address the risks of using social media such as sleep deprivation, anxiety, and cyberbullying to persuade young adults in avoiding those issues. The article also indicates the lack of self-regulation and susceptibility amongst the young ages as reasons that explain why adolescents and teenagers are more vulnerable to the negative sides of using social media. By identifying the young adults' characters and motivations of using social networks, I could empathize and persuade them for the proper use of social networking. Also, I hope that parents could learn about some risks while using social media platforms. Therefore, they could keep their children safe when using social media.