Isaac Giles Ms. Lehmann English 1-1B 18 February 2020 Social Media The use of social media in the world has increased a lot over the past six years and drastically changed the way the teens act. Social media has mostly taken over the world by teens being on the phone majority of the time. There has been a huge impact on a lot of teens.it is important that teens know how social media impacts well-being, connections and sleep.
How we use social media impacts our well-being. Social media has both good and bad impacts on teens’ emotional health. There are a range of challenges teens face in life, and social media allows them to seek out help they might not get otherwise. James et al write, “the ability to communicate anonymously can mitigate barriers, such as shame, that interfere with support-seeking offline” (72). Being able to anonymously ask for help has a positive impact on teens’ lives because it allows people to ask for help without feeling judged so that they can get the help they need. Having considered the positive impacts of social media, users must also be aware of the negative. Social media has been blamed for many negative impacts on people’s lives. James et al explain, “Several investigations document correlations between heavy media use and reduced well-being – related outcomes, such as diminished life satisfaction, internalizing negative experiences, and various dimensions of ill-being, such as depression, anxiety, attention problems, and stress” (72). When young adults use social media to compare themselves to others, negative outcomes will follow. When social media presents the good things in our lives as the only things, users can lose sight of the messiness of life, making them feel less satisfied with what they have. The impact that social media has on adolescents’ well-being depends upon how it is being used.
The use of social media affects the personality of teens. The survey conducted by Common Sense Media showed that it is a young adult’s personality that determines social media’s impact. “The 17 percent who scored in the low-SEWB group were the most impacted by social media interactions, suggesting that the child’s personality – not the platform – is the more important factor when determining the influence of social media.” (K.Y. 18) Everyone has a different personality, and because of that,we can’t always know how social media affects everyone; it depends on the person. “Social media is an important avenue of creative expression for many teens. More than a quarter of teens said social media is ‘extremely’ or ‘very’important for expressing themselves creatively. This was particularly true for the most vulnerable users.” (K.Y. 18) social media is affected by the personality of teens in many ways, including giving them a creative platform.
Some argue that the dangers of social media have been overexaggerated. Despite the
appeal of this argument, the negative effects of social media cannot be ignored entirely. Using social media too much has been connected to a lack of emotional and physical well-being as well as weaker social connectedness. Success in school has also been impacted by screen time.“Academic performance is directly related to sleep time and inversely related to overall sedentary SMU [screen media use] among the students who participated in this study” (Peiro-Velert et al 5). The study found that the more time students spent on their screens, the less time they had tosleep, which resulted in lower academic achievement. It's obvious that social media’s impact is complicated, and people should be mindful of how they use it. In conclusion, social media can change the way teens act and sleep. Social media can or cannot be a good thing for teens, especially since is dependent upon how it is used. Teens cancontrol how media affects their well-being, connectedness and sleep. Social mediashouldhave a limit on how much teens use it.
Page Break Works Cited James, Carrie, Katie Davis, Linda Charmaraman, Sara Konrath, Petr Slovak, Emily Weinstein, and Lana Yarosh. “Digital life and Youth Well-being, Social Connectedness, Empathy, and Narcissism.” Pediatrics, vol. 140, no. S2, November 2017, pp. 71-75. Academic Search Premier, doi: 10.1542/peds.2016-1785f. Accessed 21 January 2020. K. Y. “Social Media and Teens.” School library, vol 64, no. 18, October 2018, pp 18-18. Academic Search Premier. Accessed 21 January 2020. Peirò-Velert, Carmen, Alexandra Valencia-peris, Luis M. Gonsàlez, Xavier Garcia-Massò, Pilar Serra Añò, and José Devis-Devis. "Screen Media Usage, sleep time and Academic Performance in Adolescents: Clustering a Self-Organizing Maps Analysis.” Plos One, vol. 9, no. 6, June 2014, pp. 1-9. Academic Search Premier, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099478. Accessed10 February 2020.