Pilar Martinez H.

English 113B
Prof. Khadka

Social Media, Is It Really Helpful?

In todays world social media plays a big role in most peoples lives. Especially with the
accessibility people have with the internet which has caused social media to grow and impact the
world in many several ways. But has this use of the internet impacted our lives in a positive or
negative way? Many people can argue that social media has benefit their lives in many good
ways such as: being better connected with family/friends, making new friends and even helping
them get a job. Social media could have a good impact, but it has brought more of a negative
outcome such as making people addicted to the internet, creating a new form of bullying, and
causing a problem with self-esteem.
When it comes to social media it is a form of creating you own image and posting
things that are appealing as well as to

communicate with others. This such

power for some people could be a little over whelming and could cause them to get addicted. Yes
I said addicted, according to Mike Elgan from Computer World he stats that, most of the major
social networks companies try their best to make their sites addictive to keep the people engaged.
With that being said network companies are aware that social media is indeed addicting and are
using it to make their company grow no matter the cost. Making these social networks as
addicting as possible can lead to what is called a psychological addiction, which is something
that is not physical but mental. Studies have shown that people that are addicted to social media
have similar effects as a person who is addicted to drugs (asapscience). Causing it to affect their
attention span, emotions, and decision making. These are all serious effects that come from the

use of social media, and are harming peoples health. Its amazing how these companies are
doing such a good job, some people are not even aware they are addicted. Another thing that
researchers found was that most people that use social media more than often are most likely to
have bad memory, and be worse at multitasking. Which is crazy you would think that a person
that is on several different social networks would be a better multitasker right? Social media is
affecting many peoples health without even trying. Dont think this relates to you? Have you
ever felt like phone vibrate checked and it was nothing? According to Michelle Drouin, this is a
new type of syndrome called Phantom Vibration Syndrome. In a study 89% of the people ask
said they have experienced this. Health is such an important aspect to worry about and social
media is impacting it by making us weaker in the mind.
As said before many people use social media as a way to communicate with each other,
but this has open a new way of bullying called cyberbullying. This freedom to post and say
whatever people want has lead people to hide behind their computer and bully others. According
to dosomething.com 87% of students say it easier to bullying someone through social media and
face to face. This means that people found a way to express their disrespectful thoughts and say
them out loud without being hurt. This could say that its a good thing that people found a place
where they can express themselves but when it comes to bullying they are hurting other people.
In 2014 a study shows that 81% of teenagers are connected to some type of social media and
about 51% have experienced online bullying (nobullying.com). Which in in the same study its
states that Facebook is the number one social network used for bullying with a 52%, followed by
YouTube with a 21%, Twitter with a 28%, and Instagram with a 22%. This type of harmful
harassment has caused teens to have changes in their emotion, making them depressed, angry,

and in some extreme cases suicide. This kind of actions through social media has caused major
companies and schools make programs about stopping this problem.
We are all aware of how most social media works, right? Well for those who dont know
when a person posts a status, a photo, or even something random you could either like it or
ignore it, and it gives the person more likes and in most parts makes them feel better about
themselves. Believe it or not this affects peoples self-esteem. The amount of likes a person
gets could be overwhelming to others and make them feel bad about themselves which causes
them to overthinking about the likes and dislikes they get compared to others. Researchers found
that the more people spent on social networks the more depressed they get because they are
comparing their life to others (Perez). Because many other people might be posting fun pictures
of their vacations and activities many will find their own life boring or less exciting. People tend
to post things to get attention, like a CSUN journalist April Preciado one said getting likes
servers as an ego boots. Another aspect of self-esteem involving social media is body image.
The body standers are sometimes way too high for people to obtain. This could lead many people
to become anorexic, bulimia, and other serious cases. This could be harmful to both boys and
girls. Social media is something people should take serious because it affects your mood, it
measures your success by others, makes you envious, and impacts your real life interactions.
Social media could be thought of a good internet source to do many different things, but
we should really think how its negatively affecting everyone. It could start with a simple thing
like logging in your Facebook every 10 minutes to being addicted to it. Making you have a
psychological addiction that is making your mind weaker. Also be careful when posting things
you dont want to be seen as because thats when cyberbullying occurs. Social media in the
number one resource for online bullying. Lastly social media can cause everyone to lose their

self-esteem. Making it seem like other people are better than you and your life is never that
perfect, which makes you question yourself and your decisions. Next time you sign in on one of
your social media think about how it is REALLY affecting you.

Citations
1. Cummow, Jodie. 7 telltale signs social media is killing your self-esteem. Alternet. 7
March 2014.
2. Drouin, Michelle. Computer in human behavior. Volume 28, Issue 4. July 2014.
3. Elgan, Mike. Social Media addiction is a bigger problem than you think. Computer
World. 14 December 2015.
4. Michell Moffit, Gregory Brown. Asapsicence. 5 ways social media is affecting your
brain September 7, 2014.
5. Nobullying.com, 24, January 2016
6. Perez, Jaime. To like or not like: how social media affects self-esteem Sundial. 17
March 2015.