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.