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,
