Paper 3 (Final Draft)

Paper#3 (Final Draft)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to discover whether social media (i.e. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc.) have a negative impact on user’s health via emotional, mental or physical harm. In order to find an answer, I used a combination of secondary sources, and a primary research study that consisted of one article from the Atlantic and a questionnaire consisting of five questions. The questions were made to emulate the type of questions used by the journals so that I could compare my results to a larger scale paper. The results of the study confirmed what scholarly articles were saying and reinforced the overall question of whether social media carries potential harms to its users in the form of emotional, physical and psychological distress. Because of the massive number of users (over 1 billion on Facebook alone), it can be assumed that the statistics I gathered provide a shocking number of negatives if scaled to larger populations.

Introduction

The claim that disconnecting oneself from social media leads to an increase in happiness and an overall decreasing of stress is not a foreign one. But why would such a claim arise and manage to enter the public arena? If the rhetoric in the claim was inherently incorrect, it would be easily regarded as fictitious. However, the claim that quitting social media, such as Facebook garnered enough attention to have articles written by reputable publications like Business Insider, for example. The question is “why?” With that question in mind, I decided to find out if there are mental or physical health risks involved from using the social media platform such as Facebook.

Background

 In my analysis of sources relating to this paper, I have seen much to indicate that online stimuli and interaction can and does have negative impacts on the self. If what I’m suggesting was not true, then it would have been unnecessary to enact legislation nationwide to make the act of cyberbullying illegal. Along with the effects of personal attacks, which come from negative interactions, or no interactions, loneliness are also attacks and harmful to the self. For these reasons, social media can and in many cases, does affect mental, physical and emotional stability and does present a threat, if not used properly and safely.

Social media is not confined to Facebook. In fact, there are many online outlets that provide these kinds of services, such as Snapchat and Instagram. The consequences of social media that I cover exist in the same sphere as these other social platforms. Therefore, there exists the possibility that ill effects will reach you despite the platform difference. Because of this information, it is important and relevant to the billion plus users of social media platforms.

 Literature Review

  In the article, “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” written by Stephen Marche, this author argues that despite the increasing number of ways to connect to each other, the value of these interactions has not only become numerous, but also inherently less valuable, and thus people are more detached and/ or lonelier. This follows the theme touched upon in the introduction and background and begins to provide context to what I refer to as the consequences behind social media use. The consequences are personified when the author referenced Yvette Vickers who reached out to fans for companionship when she had no social circle, church or children. This implied loneliness is driven home by the fact that no one knew when she died, as she was mummified when found and was only visible due to the glow of a still powered computer screen. She personifies the fears that many people have and while she serves as an example, statistics are provided that show that she is not the only person who is subject to those conditions. Building on themes of loneliness and familiar social bond neglect, the article written by Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch “Your post is embarrassing me: Face threats, identity, and the audience on Facebook” dives into the deeper consequences and how individuals may come to make them. The journal covers how embarrassment, identity and the knowledge that an audience exists and can possibly see your posted content effects what is posted in relation to how one views their self-identity and how they cope with potential embarrassment. The argument is that there are links between posted content and how they think said info will shape their online “Self-identity”. While most of the information shows that even if embarrassed the majority would laugh it off some would delete it. The information showed that the closer the posted info was to fitting their personality the less likely they were to delete it. The article covers Facebook as the source of its info and collected that info through surveys much like my research.

Research Methods

 In obtaining my information I provided an online survey in which the participants were asked five questions. The site from which I conducted the survey was Reddit, a large website organized by individual topics (any and all topics exist. ex. r/tv, r/books, r/history etc.) with a large and diverse community. The survey existed for several days, so that I could get the amount of response’s I deemed acceptable which plateaued at 20 participants. I stressed the survey takers information would be confidential and stressed that because of that fact to be truthful in their responses. As I guaranteed anonymity, I do not have exact ages but I provided information to showcase that the clear majority of users are within the age group of 18-49 around 90%. 

The questions are as follows:

1.      How often do you use social media? (Facebook,Twitter,Instagram,Snapchat,etc.)

Daily- 12 Weekly- 4 Monthly- 2 Not at all- 2 

2.      Have you ever been embarrassed by content posted by yourself or others on said social media sites? Y/N 12/8

                                                      

3.      Do you or have you ever considered the use of these social media platforms as stressful? Y/N 8/12

4.      Have you ever considered the deletion of your account for these social media platforms? Y/N 4/16

5.      Have you deleted any social media account(s)? Y/N 2/18

Research Findings

From the information gathered, I discovered that between users who use social media daily and those who use it weekly make up 80%. There were 60% that admitted to being embarrassed by a post they at one time created and then subsequently deleted it. While 40% say that they have regarded the use of social media as stressful and only 20% say they have seriously considered the deleting of their social media profiles. Subsequently, only 2 of the participants have deleted a social media profile, this same percentage were the only ones to submit “never” in the “average usage of social media” question.

Conclusions

Based on the information gathered, while it’s not a statically large number of people participating, if we were to apply the “40% of people have regarded social media as stressful” statistic to the population of Facebook monthly users which is 1.6 billion the “Stressed group” would number at 640,000,000. It can be assumed that social media platforms and the embarrassment they cause will lead to many receiving stress and some proceeding to delete their account. Since stress is involved, it’s safe to say that social media does in fact cause emotional and if continued physical strain. Coupled with the embarrassment and potential bullying from these effects the sources of harm enter the physical, emotional and even psychological categories. “And even among those who haven’t quit Facebook, a large number say they’ve considered it. Nearly half (46.8 percent) of the current Facebook users surveyed said they’d previously considered quitting the site. A full 61 percent of members say they’ve taken extended breaks from Facebook, lasting several weeks or more, according to a report from the Pew Research Center published this year.” This quote is taken from the article by Bianca Bosker goes to reinforce my own research and goes to show that despite the limited scope of my own research larger institutions could take up the mantle because the ideas remain valid. The future of research should view just how many are quitting Facebook and why they were driven to do so. With that final piece, it would be so much easier to prove that social media has harmful effects. But as of now, I am very limited to the amount of work I can conduct due to me being alone in my gathering as exampled by my small sample size. However, future research should be done to further prove there is harm and then devise ways to prevent it.

Works Cited

STEPHEN, MARCHE. “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” theatlantic, May 2012,

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/, Accessed 18 April 2017.

Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch., et al. “Your post is embarrassing me: Face threats, identity, and the audience on Facebook.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol.73, 2017, pp. 92-99, www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh. Accessed 18 April 2017.

Oduaran, Choja. “Psychological Violence and the bane of Cyber-Harassment against Women: An Experiential Inquest on Facebook.” Gender & Behavior, 2016, vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 7589-7608, Accessed 15 April 2017.

 Bianca, Bosker. “These Are The People Who Are Quitting Facebook.” Huffington Post, 20 Aug. 2013,

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/09/20/quitting-facebook_n_3962473.html, Accessed 5 May 2017.

Paper #3: Self Narrative Rhetorical Inquiry (Draft 2)

Abstract
So, my first step was to try to find information in line with my question, whether it is supportive or contradictory isn’t important, the fact that there is discussion on the issue is a good sign. There are many articles associated with the rise of social media and its effects on intrapersonal relationships, the range in which this info can be found is as broad as reputable news websites to scholarly academic articles. To supplement the info used from other sources a survey of my own was conducted to gauge social media involvement and to see if stress and embarrassment elements from social media existed in my study as well. The results of the study confirmed what scholarly articles were saying and reinforced the overall question of whether social media carries potential harms to its users in the form of emotional, physical and psychological distress.

Introduction

The claim that disconnecting oneself from social media leads to an increase in happiness and an overall decreasing of stress is not a foreign one. But why would such a claim arise and manage to enter the public arena? If the rhetoric in the claim was inherently incorrect it would be easily regarded as fictitious. However, the claim that quitting social media, Facebook garnered enough attention to have articles written by reputable publications such as Business Insider, for example. But why? With that question in mind I decided to find out if there are mental or physical health risks involved from using the social media platform Facebook

Background

 In my analysis of sources relating to this paper I have seen mush to indicate that online stimuli and interaction can and do have negative impacts on the self. If what I’m suggesting was not true, then it would have been unnecessary to enact legislation nationwide to make the act of cyberbullying illegal. Along with the effects of personal attacks which come from negative interactions, no interactions and loneliness are also valid attacks and harmful to the self. For these reasons, I believe that social media can and in many cases effect mental, physical and emotional stability and present a threat if not used properly and safely.

Social media is not confined to Facebook, in fact there are many online outlets that provide these kinds of services for example Snapchat and Instagram. The consequences of social media that I cover exist in the same sphere as these other social platforms. Therefore, there exists the possibility that ill effects will reach you despite the platform difference. Because of that this information is important and relevant to the billion plus users of social media platforms.

Literature Review

 In the article “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” written by Stephen Marche his argument is that despite the increasing number of ways to connect to each other the value of these interactions has become numerous but inherently less valuable and thus people are more detached and or lonelier. This follows the theme touched upon in the intro and background and begin to provide context to what I refer to as the consequences behind social media use. The consequences are personified when the author referenced Yvette Vickers who reached out to fans for companionship when she had no social circle church or children this implied loneliness is driven home by the fact that no one knew when she died as she was mummified when found and was only visible due to the glow of a still powered computer screen. She personifies the fears that many people have and while she serves as an example statistics are provided that try to measure how many people are lonely and do a good job of it and are from reliable sources such as AARP and scholars.

Along with this the article “Your post is embarrassing me: Face threats, identity, and the audience on Facebook” written by Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch., et al provides the research and statistics that only a scholarly article can provide. The journal covers how embarrassment, identity and the knowledge that an audience exists and can possibly see your posted content effects what is posted in relation to how one views their self-identity and how they cope with potential embarrassment. The argument is that there are links between posted content and how they think said info will shape their online “Self-identity”. While most of the info shows that even if embarrassed the majority would laugh it off some would delete it. The information showed that the closer the posted info was to fitting their personality the less likely they were to delete it. The article covers Facebook as the source of its info and collected that info through surveys much like my research.

Research Methods

In obtaining my information I provided an online survey in which the participants were asked 5 questions. The survey existed for several days so that I could get the amount of response’s I deemed acceptable which was 20. I stressed the survey takers information would be confidential and stressed that because of that fact to be truthful in their response’s.

Research Findings

From the info gathered we discovered that between users who use social media daily and those who use it weekly make up 80%. 60% admitted to being embarrassed by a post they at one time created and then subsequently deleted it. 40% say that they have regarded the use of social media as stressful and only 20% say they have seriously considered the deleting of social media. Subsequently only 2 of the participants have deleted a social media profile, this same percentage were the only ones to submit never in the “average usage of social media” question. (Graphs to come soon)

Conclusions

Based on the info gathered while it’s not a statically large number of people participating if we were to apply the “40% of people have regarded social media as stressful” statistic to real world populations then the population that would be effected would be in the hundreds of millions. And when you are dealing with a large population then many variables some to mind such as individual stress management. It can be assumed that social media platforms and the embarrassment they cause will lead to many receiving stress and some even quitting. Since stress is involved it’s safe to say that social media does in fact cause emotional harm. Coupled with the embarrassment and potential bullying from these effects the sources of harm enter the physical, emotional and even psychological categories.

Paper #3 (First draft)

Paper #3: Self Narrative Rhetorical Inquiry

            The claim that disconnecting oneself from social media leads to an increase in happiness and an overall decreasing of stress is not a foreign one. But why would such a claim arise and manage to enter the public arena? If the rhetoric in the claim was inherently incorrect it would be easily regarded as fictitious. However, the claim that quitting social media, Facebook garnered enough attention to have articles written by reputable publications such as Business Insider, for example. But why? With that question in mind I decided to find out if there are mental or physical health risks involved from using the social media platform Facebook.

So, my first step was to try to find information in line with my question, whether it is supportive or contradictory isn’t important, the fact that there is discussion on the issue is a good sign. There are many articles associated with the rise of social media and its effects on intrapersonal relationships, the range in which this info can be found is as broad as reputable news websites to scholarly academic articles. To begin I started my research with an article from theatlantic.com titled “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” written by Stephen Marche. The article features an example in the very first paragraph that can be used as evidence to perhaps show or imply the effects of the social media age. The effect being that despite the world being connected to each other the depth of these relationships is shallower than that of offline relationships. If this is to be believed, then a reliance on social media as a source of companionship is not realistic and cannot be a substitute for “Real relationships”. The quotations on real relationships are meant to bring to light another point that the article conveys, that face to face interactions hold more value than online.  How could this information be relevant to my main line of questioning? Well if by discontinuing the maintenance of an online persona, that effort is then shifted into peer to peer interactions and a greater sense of worth is obtained and therefore happiness then that would explain partially the sense “relief” and “happiness” that seems to be reported thereafter. This line of thinking can be directly applied and confirmed by the example the Atlantic provides. Yvette Vickers a woman in her 80’s was found dead in her home with the computer still on. She did use social media, and it was discovered that she in her final years did not turn outward to peer to peer interactions but instead to social media and talked to “distant fans”. By choosing distant relationships over familial for example, did she isolate herself and cause an early death? I believe she did and the fact she was not discovered until the better part of a year passed is telling.

            Loneliness isn’t the only factor effecting health, it is still possible despite being connected and having a fulfilling social life to be afflicted by health issues. The online self is distinct and crafted. Usually meant to showcase the best aspects of one’s self and obscure the negative. It because of this that an attack or loss of face to this glorification of self can be stressful or traumatic. In Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch’s “Your post is embarrassing me: Face threats, identity, and the audience on Facebook” elements of this online persona are discussed along with how embarrassment plays a role. As we all know cyber-bullying can lead to real-world repercussions.  Sometimes the bullying can lead to death of the target but why? Because it’s not as simple as some say, it’s not so simple that you can “Just turn it off”. Anne’s paper makes it a point to show that the online attacks to self-presentation do have a “significant impact on one’s identity”. Aside from bullying there exist “face-threatening” attacks which equate to an attack on the character they show on social media. What’s interesting is that according to their research there are many people who make posts they regret and believe that they revealed too much info or created a narrative that doesn’t reflect on the idealized version of self. This understandably would lead to a stressful online atmosphere until the situation and damage control can be implemented whether by editing or outright deleting. Obviously, a post that contains embarrassing info will lead to stressful situation but the possibility for containment is still present. What about when the embarrassment comes from friends who don’t share the same knowledge of what adheres to the online persona? The anguish comes from it if the person is heavily invested in their social media platform. If these factors lead to criticism which is cited to be the most influential and embarrassment inducing incident. This is a direct link between social media and its negative effect on mental health and stability. In the same article and the driving force behind the embarrassment if the fear of the unknown. The unknown audience to be exact. It is shown that the thought of a stranger encountering a face threatening posts leads to stronger responses in both embarrassment and anxiety. However, if the post is embarrassing but still in line with their online identity they are much more likely to keep the content and in some cases, laugh it off.

            In my analysis of these sources I have seen mush to indicate that online stimuli and interaction can and do have negative impacts on the self. If what I’m suggesting was not true then it would have been unnecessary to enact legislation nationwide to make the act of cyberbullying illegal. Along with the effects of personal attacks which come from negative interactions no interactions and loneliness are also valid attacks and harmful to the self. For these reasons, I believe that social media can and I’m many cases effect mental, physical and emotional stability and present a threat if not used properly and safely.

 Works Cited

STEPHEN, MARCHE. “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” theatlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/. Accessed 18th April 2017.
Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch., et al. “Your post is embarrassing me: Face threats, identity, and the audience on Facebook” Computers in Human Behavior, Vol.73,(2017) Journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh Accessed 18th April. 2017
Oduaran, Choja. “Psychological Violence and the bane of Cyber-Harassment against Women: An Experiential Inquest on Facebook” Gender & Behavior. 2016, Vol. 14 Issue 3, p7589-7608. 20p. Accessed April 15, 2017

PAB #3

Pab #3

Due to the fact that my article focuses on the effects of social media in my particular case Facebook I found another article that attributes itself to the platform. Although it mentions Facebook it actually takes a step away from previous articles and focuses on women. While this is a step away from a more generalized approach I believe that the article still hold value and due to its narrow scope can provide insight that other papers would gloss over or marginalize completely. So, in this article written by Oduaran Choja and Okorie Nelson face book is scanned for elements of cyber harassment and the potential consequences on women. The articles source of information is stated to be through questionnaires of willing participants and because of this indicated the authors composed their own information in the creation of this paper. Furthermore, the paper argues for global and societal recognition of its thesis although this message is separate from what I intend to draw from this source. The paper makes use of strong pathos based arguments and uses some rather morbid and plain depressing examples to prove that the issue discussed exists and can have major influence on people’s everyday lives and as a result leaping from “Just an online issue” to real life. This article because of its attempt to prove that Facebook related interactions can lead to real harm lines up perfectly with my overall argument and because of this I can incorporate elements, ideas and diction to strengthen my paper and reinforce my thesis.

Works Cited

Oduaran, Choja. “Psychological Violence and the bane of Cyber-Harassment against Women: An Experiential Inquest on Facebook” Gender & Behavior. 2016, Vol. 14 Issue 3, p7589-7608. 20p. Accessed April 15, 2017

PAB Entry #2

PAB #2

            In my article, which covers how embarrassment, identity and the knowledge that an audience exists and can possibly see your posted content effects what is posted in relation to how one views their self-identity and how they cope with potential embarrassment. The argument is that there are links between posted content and how they think said info will shape their online “Self-identity”. While most of the info shows that even if embarrassed the majority would laugh it off some would delete it. Interestingly enough the closer the posted info was to fitting their personality the less likely they were to delete it. The article covers Facebook as the source of its info and as such can be used in tandem with my first PAB. In terms of support this article is iron clad with over 50 separate references to further academic sources. Because of this I feel that the information if surrounded by a well thought out thesis could do much to argue my inquiry which is also based in Facebook and the effects on the platform to the actual person using it. The conclusion concludes that there is a positive link between posted content and whether there is an emotional/mental response. The article refers to potential threats to the personal view of self as “Face-Threatening attacks” and this makes many appearances throughout the article and is potentially the biggest source ill implement in my future paper drafts. I’d say that this article has a wealth of value that I will take advantage off and weave into a strong narrative with more time.

 Works cited

Anne Oeldorf-Hirsch., et al. “Your post is embarrassing me: Face threats, identity, and the audience on Facebook” Computers in Human Behavior, Vol.73,(2017) Journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh Accessed 5 April. 2017

PAB Entry #1

PAB Entry #1 In the article “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” written by Stephen Marche his argument is that despite the increasing number of ways to connect to each other the value of these interactions has become numerous but inherently less valuable and as a result people are more detached or lonelier. The article while focuses on Facebook actually takes an idea from google+ and it is very impactful to the article. The quote the author provides from google+ refers to adding “Your real friends” on its platform however the phrase itself opens a whole new thought process which can be utilized in answering my question “What are the mental health risks or benefits of users of Facebook?” because of all these added “friends” on Facebook are not real friends then what are they? The author supports his argument by referencing Yvette Vickers who reached out to fans for companionship when she had no social circle church or children this implied loneliness is driven home by the fact that no one knew when she died as she was mummified when found and was only visible due to the glow of a still powered computer screen. She personifies the fears that many people have and while she serves as an example statistics are provided that try to measure how many people are lonely and do a good job of it and are from reliable sources such as AARP and scholars. Also, I think this article is excellent because it provides a historical timeline of hoe technological advances have been building on this problem and because of this I could base my argument on past incarnations of technological based loneliness and build up to now.

 Works cited STEPHEN, MARCHE. “Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?” theatlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-facebook-making-us-lonely/308930/. Accessed 28 March 2017.

Reflection #6

Through the multiple drafts of this second paper I underwent multiple changes in my thoughts about how I should approach its writing and learned how to embed code into blogger to improve the presentation of my post. Going in I poured quite a bit of effort into my rough draft, my thinking behind this is I wanted a strong platform on which to build the drafts. However, since I was satisfied with my rough draft I found it difficult to find places to improve and improve word flow because in my mind it sounded good. What broke that transfection was the proof readings I had done by other students whom I consider to be good writers and they smoothed out a few sections. In addition, I improved the thesis paragraph in the intro to kind of introduce what I was going to talk about while maintaining the philosophy of “Anyone can pick this up and learn/understand”. Also, I’m very grateful to have a working blog and comments because my partner’s suggestion on the inclusion of another literary technique was great. After that I found another and implemented It into the last paragraph and feel like it improved the wealth that my paper had to provide. So with my thesis improved and my body paragraphs buffed up I then learned to embed the actual quote into blogger and I’m proud to say it looks more professional.