HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTED OUR BEHAVIOR?

How Has Social Media Affected Our Behavior?

Inquiry Research Paper
Debra Thompson
University of North Carolina at Charlotte
HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTED OUR BEHAVIOR?

Abstract

This paper talks about the ways social media has affected our behavior in our generation. Our

generation has grown up in a time where digital technology is at our fingertips and the more it

gets updated and we take a step forward with finding more ways to make our lives simpler, the

further we get from learning valuable skills. Evidence to support this is from personal experience

on my aspect since Im part of the millennials generation. More evidence includes: a journal

about the Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families that summarized

positive and negative impacts of social media and a video on Allison Graham speaking about the

irony about social media and its effects on our lives today.
HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTED OUR BEHAVIOR?

How has Social Media Affected

our Behavior?
Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, and Snapchat are forms of social media that are

relevant to our generation today. We can see what people are up to on an everyday basis like

what they are having for lunch or unfamiliar places to shop through forms of media online or

apps. These forms of social media are also on our phones and laptops which makes it a quick

thing to take out and update people about what we are doing. If your friends or people like it a lot

they can share links, like the photo or video, and comment something positive or negative. This

can also grow a fan base or followers of your likings. From personal experience, I see people

upload things only what they think is good enough to post and interested me in this topic

because social media is used on an everyday basis that can. Whenever hanging with friends, our

adventures must be captured by a picture or snapchat because my friends believe if you didnt

capture it, then it didnt happen. Though, it did happen and we are all there to witness it with

our own eyes. Why do we have to capture everything for people to know we are doing

something? With us millennials (or Generation Y) being natives to the internet and the World

Wide Web, its a second nature of information. From reaching out to a new audience on social

media and a public stand, weve created our personal brand that directly correlates with our

personalities.

According to historian Allison Graham, the more technology divides us the more we

demand for it. When we send out abbreviated texts of LOL or OMG, we lose our intimate

part of our personalities that make up our American vocabulary. This also equals a potential loss

to being able to express ourselves. The opinion that Graham gives an ironic and an ironic view of

society as it suggests that we have constant urge to update people on our lives and we are setting
HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTED OUR BEHAVIOR?

up our social media platforms for the idealistic life, for example, the best relationship, the perfect

family, or even the perfect parenting. This is ironically true because we never tend to post any

unwelcome news or copy anything negative onto our social media platforms about ourselves

because that doesnt attract a lot of likes or views. We also tend to post pictures during certain

times of the hour because we know what time most of our friends dont get on until a certain

time. If its posted any sooner to our feed, our friends may not see it and we may not get a lot of

likes or the amount of likes that we think is appropriate which links to our self-esteem.

Dr. Steiner-Adair notes, Self-esteem is knowing how to say what you think and feel

even when youre in disagreement with other people or it feels emotionally risky. Learning

how to make friends is a big part of growing up, and friendships are about taking risks along the

way; but when friendships are online, its easy for us to strip the skills of intimate aspects of

communication. We can easily have our guards up through texting because less is at stake

because we arent face to face with the other person. She also believes that girls are particularly

at risk because girls are socialized more to compare themselves to other girls to develop their

identities, so it makes them more vulnerable and that lack of self-esteem is often the blame.

According to Gwenn Schurgin OKeeffe and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson in their journal on The

Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families; acceptance and contacts by

peers and others is a big element in adolescent life. Growing up in a society where everything is

surrounded by digital platforms and social media, its hard not to get sucked into the times. We

compete to get to the top and if we are liked by many, we feel good about our self. Weve made a

brand that many people like and can relate to and its known to our generation as being edgy or

cool. If we arent getting that many likes and not that many people are watching what we are

doing than we tend to feel a pressure to be better.

HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTED OUR BEHAVIOR?

What we dont realize is that millennials are the heaviest users of social media. According

to Suren Ramasubbu on his blog on Influence of Social Media on Teenagers, Common Sense

Media reports that 75 percent of teenagers in America currently have profiles on social

networking sites, of which 68 percent use Facebook as their main social working tool. Though it

can be used for educational purposes and learning technical skills, cyberbullying can be

overlooked. The American Psychological Association defines bullying as aggressive behavior

by an individual discomfort to another. Cyberbullying can come in many different forms such as

threatening direct messages to anonymous activities known as trolling. Two kinds of people that

are likely to be cyberbullies the popular ones and those on the fringes of society; they do this to

stay in power, while the latter to troll to fit into society or to get back at society that excludes

them. A very important cause of cyberbullying is the anonymity possible on the internet.

According to Tommy Landry, anonymity has been a key piece of the internet since its

early days. Hiding behind a fake profile to troll on other people is widely common now because

making a social media account under a different name isnt hard. With cyberbullying being at our

fingertips on social media, there can be psychosocial outcomes including depression, anxiety,

severe isolation, and tragically suicide (OKeeffe & Clarke Pearson, 2011). Ive had friends who

were cyberbullied in middle and high school and usually they were pretty shaken up about it.

In conclusion, millennials and teenagers who use social media not only uses it as a form

of communication, but it makes us who we are: our personal brand. Media not only affects us

positively, but negatively in ways we may not seen before.

HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTED OUR BEHAVIOR?

Work Cited

Landry, T. (2015). How Social Media Has Changed Us: The Good and The Bad Read. Retrieved

14 April 2017, from http://www.business2community.com/social-media/social-media-

changed-us-good-bad-01000104#eqKMmSKxyHf1WXVA.97

O'Keeffe, G., & Clarke-Pearson, K. (2011). The Impact of Social Media on Children,

Adolescents, and Families. Volume 124 Issue 4. Retrieved 14 April 2017, from

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/127/4/800.full

Rachel Ehmke. How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers. Retrieved 14 April 2017 from

https://childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-teenagers/

Ted Talks. (2014, November 2010). How social media makes us unsocial | Allison Graham |

TEDxSMU. Video Retrieved 14 April 2017, from www.youtube.com

HOW HAS SOCIAL MEDIA AFFECTED OUR BEHAVIOR?

Reflection

The most interesting thing about my topic that I learned was reading about how much our

generation uses technology and social media. After reading about it, didnt realize how many

times I, personally, got on social media. The most I struggled with about this paper was getting

my information into writing and making it sound interesting. Also, I feel like I sound a little

biased in my writing. I tried to not use certain words because this topic its easy to sound biased

about. Its important to look at the context of your information just so you know its all factual.

You dont want it to be wrong and have someone read it thinking it is right. I think Im about

using the feedback on my essay from my groupmates and rewriting my beginning paragraph.

They gave helpful tips on how to keep my statements flowing with each thought.