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Annotated Bibliography

How Does Social Media and the Internet Shape Our Brains and Our Ways of Thinking?

Stephanee Yager
Professor Malcolm Campbell
English 1103
12 March 2015

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Annotated Bibliography
Cabral, Jaclyn. "Is Generation Y Addicted to Social Media?" The Elon Journal of
Undergraduate Research in Communications 2.1 (2011): 5-14. Elon.edu. Spring 2011.
Web. 9 Mar. 2015.
In this scholarly journal article, Jaclyn Cabral describes the scientific data and research
that was conducted at Elon University, concerning the Generation Y population and the
possibility of behavioral addiction to social media. The research team at Elon University
conducted a survey that allowed a variety of individuals to submit a self-reported
assessment of their social media usage. Incorporated in the survey were 5 main
components of addiction: tolerance, salience, conflict, withdrawal, and relapse. Of these 5
components, 3.5 were supported by the results of the survey. The main objective of this
study was to evaluate whether Generation Y could be considered psychologically
addicted to the use of social media, due to the emotional connections, societal burdens,
and feelings of acceptance that come along with using social media. Further evaluation of
this source led me to believe its legitimacy because the scholarly article was submitted to
the academic/research documents at Elon Universitys educational website. The article
provides a vast amount of citations for the information given as well. The precise
percentages and numbers came directly from the experiment conducted at Elon
University under the supervision of Dr. Copeland. Also stated at the bottom of the article,
there were many reviews before the author published the article, which is a great
indication that this source is legitimate. The scientific research of the article suggests it is
aimed toward other researches to gain information for further study. It may also provide
caution for those who do overuse social media sites, and bring awareness to a possible
addiction. As for a bias, a few points should be brought up. First point, is that the survey
was uploaded to social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter, which basically

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only aims for social media users, and not those who are not as active on the web;
therefore, a convenience sample had occurred. Another point that may be seen as a
measurement bias, is the fact that the survey was self-assessed, which may lead to false
information. Overall, I do believe this article fits very well with my research topic, and it
helped me understand more about the evidence of my topic. I will be using the
information from this scholarly article for my Extended Inquiry Project.
DeAngelis, Tori. "Is Technology Ruining Our Kids?" 42.9 (2011): 62. American Psychological
Association. Oct. 2011. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
In this article posted by a reliable website, the American Psychological Association, Tori
DeAngelis writes about Dr. Michele Ybarras subjective view on technology and todays
youth. While some parents worry their children will experience sexting, bullying, and
harassment, Ybarra suggests it is more likely the struggling individual than the uprising
of technology that is at fault. According to her Growing up with Media study, she asked
children a variety of questions about bullying and harassment and found that 40% of
bullying takes place face-to-face rather than online. When dealing with sexting, she also
believes technology does not really promote it to the young people. The Positive Youth
Development study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Development
found out of 3,777 children between the ages of 13-18, about 3% of boys and 6% of girls
reported sexting. DeAngelis begins to write about the positive perspective Dr. Ybarra
finds with technology and young people. She believes the internet opens up more
opportunities to make friends and advance in their social life. I believe this is a credible
source because it provides exact names of studies that were conducted for the statistics
provided in the article. Dr. Ybarra is a public researcher herself and the president and

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research director of Internet Solutions for Kids. However, I do believe there are some
biases that may occur with this source: Dr. Ybarra is subjective in her interview and
seems to only lean a certain way. Another bias that may have occurred, is that of the data
which was reported by children. They easily could have felt the need to conceal
information about sensitive subjects such as sexting and bullying, which could skew the
data. Although the article has a subjective tone to it, I believe I will be using some of the
information in my paper. DeAngelis provides a new perspective on the issue by writing
about the unpopular side of the topic. The data provided seems credible and I may use for
my project.
Feiler, Bruce. "For the Love of Being Liked." New York Times 11 May 2014: ST2. The New
York Times. Web. 09 Mar. 2015.
In this developed article from the New York Times, a popular magazine source, Bruce
Feiler, an active social media user, describes the relevancy of social media in our
everyday lives, and how not only teenagers, but adults are increasingly becoming
desperate for the approval of others. Feiler describes how the feeling of isolation in a
societal culture can have a devastating impact on our human psyche. With personal
experience, he describes the feeling of satisfaction he felt when he received many
retweets on Twitter. In his article, Feiler included links to other popular blog sources that
further back up the worldwide anxiety felt by social media users, such as an article by
Janelle Hanchett, who admits she writes what people want to hear, rather than being
authentic because she wants people to like her content. Also included in Feilers article
is research data conducted by a group at Harvard University in 2012, which displayed
that 40% of human time is devoted to self-disclosure, which our brains perceive just

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as pleasurable as having food or sex. I think this is a reliable article with a lot of
interesting information. Although the author includes some personal information (which
can be seen as bias), there is great insight in this article that also has been backed up by
scientific studies. The article has been published in print in New York Times magazine,
which I think is a trusted and popular source. All of the outside information that the
author provided has been credited which is another indication that the source is
legitimate. I will definitely be using some of the information I found in this article in my
EIP. It opened up some information for me to produce some thoughts on the topic myself.
Moffit, Mitchell, and Gregory Brown. "5 Crazy Ways Social Media Is Changing Your Brain
Right Now." YouTube. YouTube, 7 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2015.
For my fourth option of sources, I picked out a developed YouTube video by a popular
channel called, AsapSCIENCE, developed by Mitchell Moffit and Gregory Brown. In
this video, Moffit and Brown describe the psychological effects that social media has on
our brains. The video states that 1/3 of the world population uses social media, which
shows how relevant technology is becoming in our everyday lives. This source also
discusses the possibility of internet addiction by giving statistics such as: 5-10% of
people are unable to log off, which is considered a psychological addiction. Substance
addiction and psychological addiction can be compared because they both affect decision
making, emotions, and attention. This video also describes Phantom Vibration
Syndrome, an example of how the internet is rewiring our nervous systems as well. Our
brains are beginning to perceive an itch as a vibration from a phone, which demonstrates
how our brains are evolving throughout history. As far as the credibility of this video, I
presume it to be very reliable. This video provides its viewers with real statistics and

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information that the creators discovered, and cited their sources inside the videos
description box. I took the time to look at these sources and they themselves are credible.
This YouTube channel is very popular with 3 million subscribers and positive feedback. I
believe this source was created to send out important information to the public in an
enjoyable manner. The creators spoke in a very objective way, and presented factual
information, rather than opinions. I will be using the information I found in this video for
my paper. It really opened my mind up to new perspectives of my topic by dealing with
the Phantom Vibration Syndrome and the evolution of our thoughts. I will also be
checking out the sources the creators provided to further my research.

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