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.
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.