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Devin Hankins

Dr. Blanco

FYS 100

11-17-15

How Social Media Hurts Our Society

With our world being so enveloped in technology we have adapted to new ways of

communication and finding information. The internet allows us to reach places and people that

we would otherwise never be talk to, see, or experience. This is possible through the use of social

media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. There are a multitude of reasons why

these websites may be considered helpful, but I am arguing that social media hurts our society

just as much as it helps. With the CQ Researcher article I was provided had a credible source and

was mostly nonbiased. I identified the main concerns within the article. Then after I analyzed the

Social Media Explosion piece I looked for my own sources that could help strengthen my

argument on the negative effects of social media.

One was that social media is devaluing face-to-face interaction in younger generations.

The article says “Strikingly, face-to-face conversation is the least favored form of

communication for the digital generation.” (Clemmitt, Marcia. "Social Media Explosion." CQ

Researcher. N.p., 25 Jan. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.). The article also states that people are

developing a bad habit of checking their phone every 10 minutes or so. The research for how all

of this is usually difficult to obtain because of how new this field of study is. This leads to poor

personal relationships with others and makes people more closed off. Just like it is stated in the

reading “’Everything is happy on Facebook’ Even if it’s not.” People do not go on Facebook to

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be brought down by sad posts and things like that. No one posts them because they are afraid to

be judged by their family, friends, peers, coworkers, college admissions officers, etc. This is bad

for making close relationships with anyone, because if they’re too scared to say it on Facebook,

then how will they say it in person.

Another main issue is social media may lead to more civic engagement from people

around the world. A perfect example of this are the recent attacks in Paris. If someone would log

into Facebook it is more than likely that they will see one of their friends has the light overlay of

the French flag on their profile photo. This is one of the positive sides of social media, but it also

comes at a price. Since it is so easy to assemble people to support Paris’ cause and many others

like it, it also means that groups like ISIS who orchestrated the attacks on Paris can, and do, use

social media to effectively plan and execute attacks of terrorism.

Then the issue of privacy comes up. Most teenager’s post so much that they don’t have

much of a private life to begin with, but this has more to do with big business studying users and

their internet habits. Data bases are housing and learning information from every click, like,

view, and search that people make on their computer to choose a better target audience. Say if a

user liked someone’s photo of their new Nike shoes, then in a few hours or maybe a day or two

later, that user would see advertisements on websites for the new pair of Nikes on sale or other

kinds of shoes in general. Some people think this an invasion of privacy because a user does not

even have to click on something for it to get noticed. If one friend on Facebook likes something

then they might assume that another user does as well and hit them with their ads.

However, social media has it benefits. A good example that has already been talked about

was the support for Paris after the bombings. It’s a positive side of social media because it can

make people feel like they have support from so many people and this is proof that social media

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does keep people involved in what is happening around the world. Another benefit relating to

supporting others is depression management. If a person is having trouble with depression then if

they log onto a social media website they can have friends they can relate to or find people who

are going through a similar problem and can feel like they aren’t alone. Social media brings

people together and lets them share thoughts, ideas, and their feelings with the world. They

shouldn’t feel so worried about saying what they want if it is how they truly feel.

The opposite side of that argument is that social media may be making our generations of

children less atoned to personal relationships and face-to-face interaction. If people spend all

their time looking at a screen rather than talking with someone in person then they will not

develop the proper skills they need to function in the real world. Sure it helps people connect

with each other, but it brings a strange disconnect with the rest of the world. Then on the larger

scale of things, social media is slowly killing journalism and music. If people can listen to all the

music they want to for free then why pay? If people can just get all their news from one man on

Twitter then why buy a newspaper, watch television, or read the article online or in a magazine?

With social media being free, these mediums of information and entertainment are dying.

With the effect on journalism, music, and the individual covered, how would this affect

the democratic system we have in place today? Well according to the same article (Clemmitt,

Marcia. "Social Media Explosion." CQ Researcher. N.p., 25 Jan. 2013. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.),

President Obama used social media as part of his campaign in the 2012 election. Social media is

an easier way for candidates to get their message to the public, rather than having them go sit and

debate for hours. Having a Twitter for the candidate’s campaign gives them more freedom over

what they can say and gives them the ability to talk with supporters directly. Social media is a

great thing for the election period since it is all about sharing things with people. Sharing who

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the best candidate would be is good for them because it is free advertising and it lets them reach

a wider audience.

The impact of social media has its pros and cons, but I believe it is an overall negative

thing. One reason is due to the fact that it opens up a whole new level of bullying. In schools all

across America kids are bullied and picked on daily. A study done by BMC Public Health about

cyber harassment in Sweden on 9,792 ninth graders was conducted to see their health had

something to do with how much they were bullied online (Fridh, Maria, Martin Lindström, and

Maria Rosvall. "Subjective Health Complaints In Adolescent Victims Of Cyber Harassment:

Moderation Through Support From Parents/Friends - A Swedish Population-Based Study." BMC

Public Health 15.1 (2015): 1-11. Academic Search Premier. Web. 20 Nov. 2015.). Regardless of

the actual turnout of the experiment, they found that nearly 34% of students were at least cyber

bullied one time in that year alone. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have created a

new way for students to harass each other. This was obviously not the goal of the websites, but it

is still happening. Students can get online make a fake account on these sites and say whatever

they want to about another student to start rumors. That way they won’t know who started the

rumors.

Being a journalism major myself, I chose something that would affect me personally.

Social media is a good way to spread information as shown with the Paris incident and the cyber

bullying, but what about businesses? Social media sites are usually free and allow users to post

links or whatever they want. Journalists usually make money from their company and get paid

from them. What happens when all that money people are paying to get the news from the local

paper, magazines, or television dries up because people are just sharing the stories for free on

social media websites and cutting out the middle man? Social media is hurting journalism

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(Hollis, Dan. "Social Media." Marshall University. Huntignton. Oct. 2015. Lecture.). So what is

striving to keep journalists or reporters going if they do not get any of the glory or any of the

actual pay they deserve? The answer is nothing. Then without the reporters there is no one

getting the information to the people and letting them know what is going on in the world. Which

then gives the U.S. generations of people who are ignorant to the need of knowledge of the world

around them.

Finally the invasion of privacy as discussed earlier. With the data bases of personal

information being held for advertisers to use to their advantage, people are feeling like their

privacy is being invaded by these companies. Social media sites just make it even easier for

companies to know what users do and do not want. On Facebook, Twitter, and pretty much any

other social media site there is some form of “like” button. Which is pretty much giving away

exactly what that user would like to see. Not only do the companies use its information for

advertising, but the some groups use them for social studies as well. In an article about big data,

(Price, T. (2013, October 25). Big data and privacy. CQ Researcher, 23, 909-932. Retrieved from

http://library.cqpress.com/), it shows a geographical map of racist tweets made from people

across the United States and the results are surprising. What is even more surprising is that they

are allowed to gather the information like this in secret. Later in the same article it is said that

“Internet platforms, such as Facebook or Google, act as big data “sensors,” gathering information

about people just as a thermometer gathers temperature information.” So by us even being on

social media, we are pretty much spoon feeding these businesses, political groups, and our

government this information about ourselves, our friends, and our families.

Social media can be beneficial in some aspects yes, but it also has a very negative side to

it as well. We have opened up a new way to hurt each other anonymously, we are slowly

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draining the life from Journalism, and we are practically giving our own personal information

away by the handful. Social media is dangerous as well as helpful. We just need to know how to

drive it away from the negatives and make it an all positive attribute of our society.

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Works Cited

(Clemmitt, Marcia. "Social Media Explosion." CQ Researcher. N.p., 25 Jan. 2013. Web.

20 Nov. 2015.).

(Clemmitt, Marcia. "Social Media Explosion." CQ Researcher. N.p., 25 Jan. 2013. Web.

20 Nov. 2015.).

(Hollis, Dan. "Social Media." Marshall University. Huntignton. Oct. 2015. Lecture.).

(Price, T. (2013, October 25). Big data and privacy. CQ Researcher, 23, 909-932.

Retrieved from http://library.cqpress.com/),