Today, more than ever, the world is connected to one another. Whether down the street or across continents, one’s personal information and social life is readily available. With so much of a person’s life available for the world to see, many young adults seem to suffer from issues of depression and lower self-worth than other previous generations. According to a study by Morrison & Gore, in which researchers used items from the Beck Depression Inventory and IA Test to determine a correlation between depression and excessive internet usage. With an estimated 75% of online adults using social media, as referenced in Pew Internet Research findings, does this level of connectivity and accessibility have an adverse effect on those who use it most? In the Pew research, minorities (those who identify themselves as non-white or, at times, non-heterosexual) accounted for the majority of social users. However, not all social media is used equally. In fact, African-Americans and Hispanics were notably more likely than their Caucasian counterparts to use the photo sharing application, Instagram. (Brenner, pg.6). With such an influential, minority presence on these social media sites, the concept of congnitive well-being, or life satisfaction, is brought into question. (Kross, pg.1). Cognitive well-being can be anlyized by beginning a discussion on usage and if this higher usage can create a sort of addictive, and detrimental, habit in minorities. Due to prior comparative studies and various other studies, we are left questioning if social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, have a correlating effect on the emotional and mental well-being on its users, specifically, those who identify with minority groups. Based off of my rese... ... middle of paper ... ... $20 and were entered into a raffle to receive an iPad2 for participating” (Kross et. al, p. 2, ) Data analysis The data can be analyzed in a number of ways that will not be time consuming, as it will be data gathered and coded from a relatively low-item survey. Because the survey will be either in person or online, I predict that my team will be looking explicitly for correlation of life happiness and emotional health, as well as social media use in minorities. I predict that our coding of results as well as our limitations (save for the 15-years that the study was conducted) may be similar to what results were found in the childhood and social withdrawal study. The Katz et. al. study found “that the current study used latent variable modeling to establish a latent social withdrawal construct defined by four indicators of social withdrawal” (Katz, et. al., 1229, ).
2. Previous Research: There is a debate as to whether Internet use has a positive or negative impact in our social lives. One study found that for 40% of the college students in their sample, the Internet had been instrumental in the formation of new friendships. Moreover, 7% of their sample had used the Internet to find a romantic partner. The participants in the study claimed that one of the main benefits of communicating through the Internet was reduced social anxiety and shyness (Knox, 2001). In another study, there was evidence that lonely individuals were more likely to use email and the Internet in order to stay connected with others—in theory, giving them a healthier social life—however, evidence showed that heavy use had a negative social impact (Morahan-Martin, 2003). Finally, another study found that individuals comfortable or regularly involved in social gatherings reported more positive effects from Internet use than shy individuals less involved in their community (Kraut, 2002).
The attraction of users to Facebook, or social media in general, isn’t that difficult to comprehend. Over the course of the past 60 years, the percentage of people live alone has increased by 17 percent. In the 50’s it was 10 percent, in 2010, it was estimated at 27 percent. The promise of a greater connection seems extremely attractive to those living in solitary. Here is the irony, what Facebook and Social media provides, differs a great deal from what is needed to create and sustain deeper emotional AND Lasting
Furthermore, it is thought that social media lets humans connect with others and have more friends than those in the real world. However, this is not always true. People worry about their online worlds and whether people will like them. Online, people are more judgemental than real world friends, which can lead to a low self-esteem. The article “YES: Connecting Virtually Isn’t Like Real-World Bonding” by Larry Rosen states that “...our constant need to check comes from anxiety…” Obviously, technology has a negative effect on people as far as lower self-esteem and
Many of our youth turn to social media to vent about any and every issue that is going on and it is not always positive. Dr. Nakagawa described in her article “The Use of Social Media in Teaching Race” how social media might open people to detest discourse or perspectives of White matchless quality. Numerous individuals fail to be racially educated meaning that they lack having the education and knowledge to talk about race, deconstruct and challenge occurrences of bigotry, and interface and work with others to deliver disparities in connection to race. The internet gives numerous chances to utilizing social/new media to produce content and points of view that are generally lost from more extensive societal exchanges about
How the social networking influents young people’s psychological well-being? Since the World Wide Web appeared in the world in the year of 1991, the internet has significantly changed people’s life on almost every level. Especially when the social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, became popular during the last decade, people’s lifestyles have greatly changed by this form of communication, which consequently brings many psychological effects on the young people. As the result, according to the recent researches, the teenagers and the young adults in this era are bearing many mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and addiction, due to the social
“I didn't know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time –Betty White (“Betty White Quotes,” 2014, para. 1).” This quote can be interpreted to fit with several of the social media avenues that many people spend their time on. Day in and day out people post, tweet, share, and pin countless times throughout the world. These different forms of communication were first created for an easier way for people to connect with others. Yet now, so much time is spent on these social sites that it has warped the interactive part and is causing more damage than good. Many are growing a desire and are living for the amount of “likes” they can receive on a post or how many re-tweets they can generate. Instead of going to these outlets to participate in a partial portion of their social lives, people are filling that time with the technological aspect of communication. As White said, this can become an inordinate amount of wasted time and can ultimately grow into further damaging circumstances. These different social media channels can cause emotional harm through disparaging the relationship between friends, conjuring of a narcissistic personality, and the retrogradation of ones self-esteem.
In the article “Could lots of time spent on Social be tied to depression? “, author Alan Mozes have talked about a recent research which was done to find relationship between social media and depression. The study had 1,800 men and women ages range between 19 to 32 years old participated. The main question for this finding was, is greater involvement of social media linked to depression or is it depressed people who are drag to social media? Dr. Brian Patrick have suggested three types of results which are expected from the study one of the strongest possibilities is that people who have depressive symptoms tend to use social media more often because they don’t feel the energy to engage with new people. The second possibility is that increased usage in social media use can lead into depressive thoughts. The last possibility is in which depressed people turned towards social media to make the depression worsen. This is a study based on association between social media and depression not cause and effect. Researcher’s had created a questioner that asked the participants the amount of time spent on popular social media such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest ,Vine and Linkedln. From this research it was found that on average participant checked in social media 20 times each week for over an hour a day, and 1/4th participants were appeared at high risk for depression. Along with this researchers have found that those people who are on social media the most are 2.7 times more likely to be depressed compared to people who are on social media least. In the conclusion of the findings Dr. Patrick have said that these finding do not suggest that every person who engage more time on s...
Internet is a big problem in our society today. Many people use internet without knowing it, even I use internet without knowing that I am using too much I consider myself as an addict because I check my Facebook at least 3 times a day and text every time while I eat too. In high school, I used to use my phone in the class because it was allowed in class and teacher didn’t mind but in college I have to tell myself to not use phone in class since it is very important to achieve my goals and get a degree.
The University of Salford in the UK did a study last year on social media’s effects on self-esteem and anxiety, and reported that 50% of their 298 participants said that their “use of social networks like Facebook and Twitter makes their lives worse”. (Medical Daily) The study also reported that participants said ...
Social media is so popular that according to a recent article published by forbes.com, “72% of American adults are currently using social media sites; that figure has gone up 800% in just 8 years”(Olenski). Social networking was originally created to simply reconnect people with old high school pals, but in recent years it has evolved into a completely different operation. When social media first originated it was also intended for adult usage, which has in recent years expanded into the usage of all ages. Social media can create a negative affect on lives because it has been proven to be a dangerous addiction, for it takes away interpersonal relationships that are essential in life, and it has been proven to prevent people from being productive in life.
One of the most concerning effects of social media is depression. When teens create an online identity, they are often displaying an unauthentic self. This “other” self is often what the person wants to be like. Having to jump from the online self to the real self can often lead to depression. In an article in the Huffington Post, Dr. Jim Taylor calls this Facebook depression. The American Academy of Pediatrics states that “Researchers have proposed a new phenomenon called “Facebook depression,” defined as depression that develops when preteens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites, such as Facebook, and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression.” (802). Facebook and other social media outlets create an almost high school-like environment outside of school where the teen has to strive for acceptance as well. Dr. Moreno tells the New York Times that ...
Internet addiction is a growing problem with more and more people. The internet is much more accessible to people now than it was just a few years ago. The internet provides people with entertainment, loads of information, and an escape from everyday life, but like anything else, too much a good thing can be addictive. This paper will cover what internet addiction is, warning signs of internet addiction, problems caused by internet addiction, who develops internet addiction, preventing and treating internet addiction, and safety guidelines for internet users.
“Scrolling Down: Does Overuse of the Internet and Socail Media Lead to Depression?” The Fresh Egg Blog. Joe Johnson. 7 April 2014.
According to the article, “10 Ways Social Media Affects Our Mental Problems,” Degreed claim that social media make us restless by “two-thirds admitted to having difficulty relaxing when unable to use their social media accounts.” Teenagers are always tired when they have to stay up late at night to catch up with all the news feed on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter that make them have no energy to go on the next day. Based on the newspaper, “Excessive Social Media Use Harms Children’s Mental Health,” by the Telegraph shows that “children who go on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more than three hours a day are more likely to have mental health problems.” Social media can lead to bullying that affects teenagers mental health issue and being stressed. Social media have now taken a part of human life and some are addicted to the point where they can’t even live without
Social networking sites like Facebook can have both negative and positive effects. Facebook can leave us feeling like we are not good enough if we don’t have enough likes on our pictures or if we do not have a certain amount of friends. While on the other hand it can make us feel empowered and worthy when we have a significant amount of likes on our picture and thousands of friends on Facebook. The following two articles argue whether or not social networking sites like Facebook, have a negative or positive effect on one’s overall well-being. As the old saying goes, there are always two sides to everything.