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Social media effects on mental health thesis
10 lines on dangers of social media
Negative impacts of facebook
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Facebook is an online social networking website that grosses over 1 billion active users on a monthly basis. It is the largest and most active social networking site on the planet (Smith, 2013). According to Smith (2014), “Facebook is used by 57 percent of all American adults and 73 percent of all those ages 12-17.” Smith also claims that 64 percent of the users visit the site daily. The sites daily traffic continues to grow and is now reaching nearly 500 million users a day and the frequency of use for each individuals member is also increasing. As the overuse of the site becomes common behavior, it is accompanied with a negative impact on the mental and emotional health of its users.
When in an attempt to satisfy the basic human need for social interaction result in positive emotions, Facebook frequently has the opposite effect on quality of life and does damage to the users self-esteem. When using Facebook excessively on a daily basis, users tend to have a lower self-esteem relative to those who use the site moderately or not at all.
Recent studies show that the use of Facebook is directly associated with low self-esteem and depression. One study in particular headed by Professor of Psychology, Ethan Kross in 2013 monitored 82 volunteers ranging in age from late teens to early twenties. The volunteers agreed to have their Facebook activity monitored while they reported their moods and feelings via text and filled out questioners. The study found that the amount of Facebook use was directly related to the moods reported by the volunteers; the more they used Facebook the worse they felt and the lower they rated their own self-esteem. Even more surprising, is at the end of the two week study, participants who used Facebook the mo...
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...etrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/alicegwalton/2013/01/22/jealous-of-your-facebook-friends-why-social-media-makes-us-bitter/
Krasnova, H. (2013) Envy on Facebook: A Hidden Threat to Users’ Life Satisfaction? Retrieved fromhttp://warhol.wiwi.huberlin.de/~hkrasnova/Ongoing_Research_files/WI%202013%20Final%20Submission%20Krasnova.pdf
Woollaston, V. (2013) Mail Online: Facebook users are committing 'virtual identity suicide' in droves and quitting the site over privacy and addiction fears. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2423713/Facebook-users-committing-virtual-identity-suicide-quitting-site-droves-privacy-addiction-fears.html
Gonsalves A. (2013) CSO Online: Facebook legal skirmish highlights user privacy risks. Retrieved by http://www.csoonline.com/article/2133909/privacy/facebook-legal-skirmish-highlights-user-privacy-risks.html
In the article “Is Facebook Faking Us Lonely,” author Stephen Marche creates a report on “what the epidemic of loneness is doing to our souls and society.” Marche’s thesis statement is that “new research suggests that we have never been lonelier (or more narcissistic) –and that this loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill” from which he attributes this to social media. Marche’s purpose in writing this article is to persuade readers to think that social media, specifically Facebook, is converting real life relationships to digital unsociable ones, which is causing negative effects to our psyche. The author introduces being alone, something every human craves, is different from loneliness. However, he claims that this digital age
In a day and age of a social media dominance, we have never been as densely connected and networked as we ever have. Through studies and researchers, it has been shown that we never have been as lonelier, or even narcissistic. As a result all this loneliness has not only made us mentally ill, but physically ill as well. Published in The Atlantic on April 2, 2012, Stephen Marche addresses this argument in his article entitled “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely”.
One’s amount of Facebook reflects how popular one wish to appear online more than how healthy one’s friendship truly is. Constant usage of Facebook allows user to potentially feel like they have a meaningful social life, when in reality, they are missing something. In Stephen Marche’s 2102 article, “Is Facebook making Us Lonely?” he notes that Facebook was introduced to the world in the midst of spreading and intensifying loneliness, an idea to which he greatly attributes Facebook’s appeal and success (Marche 26). Initially, social networking sites seem to be evidence of modern-day social interaction being easier and more convenient than ever.
Even though social media has many attractions, it also has many defects. Social media has its pros and cons, but unfortunately has more defects than goods because of all the affects it has on our mental health. Not only is social media causing addiction, anxiety, depression, and mental health problems, but includes “the decrease in real life social community participation and academic achievement, as well as relationship problems, but all these symptoms indicate potential addiction”, said Daria J. Kuss and Mark D. Griffin (Kuss, D.J. & Griffins, 2011). Many people who use these social networking sites tend to believe that they are perfectly fine, yet we walk around the street and see people on social media while walking, while talking with others, and even when driving. We look back in time and would never guess that social media would ever exist, nor would it take over our society. Technology has created many good things but also many bad things. For which all comes to believe that our society is in a crisis with excessive use on social media. Therefore excessive use of social media “can indeed” contribute to addictive behavior (drugs, tobacco, and alcohol) and of course mental health issues. One may say that all this information about social media may be a bit exaggerated, but things like this have occurred. But the complete truth is that these networking sites are like they say ‘weapons of distraction’, a big waste of
Retrieved from http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/07/instagram_and_self_esteem_why_the_photo_sharing_network_is_even_more_depressing.html Facebook And Social Media Activity Reflects Self-Esteem, Study Finds. Medical Daily. Retrieved from http://www.medicaldaily.com/facebook-and-social-media-activity-reflects-self-esteem-study-finds-256832 Facebook Envy: How The Social Network Affects Our Self-Esteem. Facebook Envy: How The Social Network Affects Our SelfEsteem. Retrieved from http://www.wbur.org/2013/02/20/facebook-perfection.
Facebook privacy and security have many benefits, problems, and challenges. There is a benefit for every security setting on Facebook but the real concern comes along when it comes to facing the problem and how this problem goes into different steps of challenges, and how we can fix that problem in order for privacy not to be a huge issue. A person that has access to Facebook wants to share their everyday moments to the world such as sharing personal posts, photos and videos, and that’s what Facebook is basically known for.
The growing popularity of information technologies has significantly altered our world, and in particular, the way people interact. Social networking websites are becoming one of the primary forms of communication used by people of all ages and backgrounds. No doubt, we have seen numerous benefits from the impact of social media communication: We can easily meet and stay in touch with people, promote ourselves, and readily find information. However, these changes prompt us to consider how our moral and political values can be threatened. One common fear among users is that their privacy will be violated on the web. In her book, Privacy in Context, Helen Nissenbaum suggests a framework for understanding privacy concerns online. She focuses particularly on monitoring and tracking, and how four “pivotal transformations” caused by technology can endanger the privacy of our personal information. One website that may pose such a threat is Facebook.
The 21st century has brought a lot of modern ideas, innovations, and technology. One of these is social media. The invention of Facebook has completely changed the way we communicate with one another. Instant messaging, photo sharing, and joining online groups have created a way for families and friends to connect. Some argue that Facebook is the greatest invention however, while it is seemingly harmless, Facebook has created an invasion of privacy. The accessibility of Facebook and its widespread use has created privacy problems for users, teens, and interviewees by allowing easy control to viewers.
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 ...
“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.
Facebook can keep you up to date on what is going on around you and around the world. Facebook, along with other social networking sites replace the normal face to face conversations and changes the way we interact with others. One common question that has always been asked when concerning social networking is, “Does it have an affect on one 's psychological well being?” There have been many studies that show that there are both positive and negative effects of Facebook. “Internet causes people to cut off from social interactions by communicating via a socially impoverished medium. The more individuals use FB, the less satisfied they feel about life (Chan 276).” The first study in this article is where they show the relationship between Facebook and how much people use it and how it correlates with their psychological well being. The second study talks about the good and the bad when it comes to Facebook. The third study talks about the empathetic social skills and how it effect those who use Facebook. Then goes on to describe what empathy means, which means the ability to share and understand people and their feelings. And empathy is a good a basis for for good social skills. It is very common for people to portray themselves as someone they are not on Facebook to appear more appealing to their “friends”. They put up
In this day and age, many individuals simply cannot go without some sort of socialization. Specifically speaking, most participate in online social networking sites. The most popular and used one is commonly known as Facebook. Facebook was created in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg. By 2007, Facebook had over 21 million users, adding up to 1.6 billion page views every single day. The typical user spends over twenty minutes per day on Facebook and two thirds of the users log in every day at least once. It is not questionable as to why many people have a Facebook account. Facebook is generally efficient, easy for socialization, and not difficult to manage. Most organizations are affiliated with Facebook, as “almost 22,000 organizations had Facebook directories,” as of November 2006. A year after that in 2007, Facebook was named the seventh most popular website (Ellison 1). However, with anything well known, many oppose to using Facebook and hold criticism against the popular network. There are many flaws in the website and the relationships it starts online. Facebook is risking dangerous activities, ignoring privacy laws, and demeaning healthy socialization.
The popular site, Facebook.com, has amassed more than one billion registrants since it started in February 2004. It is another social networking site, just like MySpace.com and Xanga.com, which is common to High School and College students. But this is no ordinary site; people’s lives literally revolve around Facebook. I have a Facebook account and log in at least once a day. I personally believe that Facebook is a fun and interactive site. However, some students may not feel that same way because they have encountered some negative aspects, aside from Facebook’s legal problems.
Marche, Stephen. “Is Facebook Making us Lonely? (Cover story)”: 8 (10727825) 309.4 (2012): 68. Academic Search Premier. Web. 24 Apr. 2014.
Facebook is beneficial to one's social life because they can continuously stay in contact with their friends and relatives, while others say that it can cause increased antisocial tendencies because people are not directly communicating with each other. But some argue that Facebook has affected the social life and activity of people in various ways. With its availability on many mobile devices, Facebook allows users to continuously stay in touch with friends, relatives and other acquaintances wherever they are in the world, as long as there is access to the Internet. Users can upload pictures, update statuses, play games, get news, add people, like and share photos, videos, memes