Williams, Swann, Hines 1

Destiny Williams, Reid Swan, Devin Hines

JOMC 303
Professor Maria
07 February 2020
The Neurological Effects Social Media Has On Society
Social media is consistently operating the background of the current generation’s

social life. The demanding amount of time which it requires has become addicting for

most parties. As social media outlets continue to expand, the personal account usage

continues to grow as well. According to a British Psychological Society, roughly 90

percent of teenagers have social media accounts.

This high demand for social media usage amongst teenagers, makes the social

norm based around the platforms. The teenagers are then exposed to an innumerable

amount of information from these outlets. In the most notable cases, users are

constantly viewing the luxuries posted by other users who normalize expensive things

making teens re-evaluate their values and materialistic possessions. This matter

amongst many others causes society to put their lives in comparison to others on a daily

basis as they aim to please the common image of what social media presents to be

normalized. While many have voiced that the effects of social media are all

unprofitable, there are some beneficial standpoints of these platforms.

For instance, social media can improve your memory. According to Professor Qi

Wang, "Events that were reported to be posted online were much more likely to be

recalled than those not posted online,". It also proven that social media activates the

brain’s reward center, people have the tendency to enjoy receiving compliments and the

acknowledgement from other people (Sherman, Payton, Hernandez, Greenfield, &

Dapretto 2016). Social media services these exact desires when users like, comment,
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subscribe, or share other people’s posts. The feeling of receiving that attention from

other users fills their attention void.

While there are beneficial doses concerning the neurological effects of social

media, there are also harmful effects. Such as, phantom vibration syndrome. According

to a study published in the journal Computers In Human Behavior, this means that the

nervous system is hypersensitive and reacts even when your phone is not vibrating,

which is a form of hyper vigilance (Drouin, Kaiser, & Miller 2012).

As most entertaining activities, it is important to enjoy them for a reasonable

amount of time. Such as social media, it is beneficial but only in moderate doses. After

the activity becomes more habitable than periodic, it results in harmful effects. The way

to avoid the disadvantages of overexposed social media time is to monitor personal

usage daily. Surveilled social media usage will permit better prioritization and

effectiveness for important matters. It is important to keep social media exposure at a

limited rate and not allow it to become a preeminence above the most important values.

Social media is characterized by its inter-activeness, connection with people, and

user-generated subject matters. The usage of social media has created a required daily

activity. Social media also serves as a news outlet. It is a useful communication

instrument with others locally and globally, as well as to share, create, and spread

news. Social media can impact consumer’s buying decisions through reviews,

advertising tactics and promotion. Basically, social media immensely controls our

capacity to speak, create relationships, access and spread knowledge.

The most important social media instrument is social networking sites.

Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, and Google + are all common names to most
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of society. Almost everyone from the ages of 13 to 64 has an Instagram account.

These well-known social networking sites are used to link people worldwide. These

platforms have found themselves to be useful even for businesses and school. These

social networking sites have progressively expanded beyond personal use.

Social media has given teens the capability to directly link up with others and

share their experiences via photos, videos and status updates. Teens themselves

portray these platforms as a key device for linking and sustaining relationships, being

innovative, and learning more about the world. Social media does have a negative

effect on teens because people can bully others through these platforms which is called

cyberbullying.

When teens were asked about what topics they post about on social media,

approximately half of teens say they post about their achievements on social media,

while 44% say they post about their family. Around 34% say they share things linked to

their feelings and opinions on these sites, while 22% post things about their dating life.

Relatively few teens around 1 in 10 say they post things connected to their personal

problems or their spiritual or political views on social media.

The possibilities are apparently limitless for social media. It is unusual for people

to go a day without using social media. Whether it is used for cooperating, knowledge,

or decision making, social media is here to stay and will continue to impact our culture.

Though some people have some form of social media, it allows people to

communicate with others and create their network with other people. Study.com studies

said people with social media have increased with negative emotions such as envy and
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isolation. According to Litsa in 2016 they said social media could cause insecurities,

anti-social behavior, and disconnection from the world.25% of Facebook users claimed

they falsified some of their account information according to wersm.com.

People are lying about their appearance. People who use social media always

want likes, or follows. Hence, they lie about the things they have, maybe if it's their

appearance, relationship, eating habits, or perhaps their fitness so that they can look

suitable for social media, which may cause people to lose their self-inside social media.

That may allow them to always want approval from others.

Social media can affect the way you look at things like if you want to buy clothing.Pwc

survey in 2016, 45% of the global respondents said reading reviews and comments

affect their shopping behavior.Technology improving, which will cause more social

media pages or apps to be created, this matter will increase the numbers in people's

behavior and perception to be increased.

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Works Cited

Department, Science. “Researchers Study the Influence of Social Media on Memory.”

The Cornell Daily Sun, 24 Oct. 2016, cornellsun.com/2016/10/24/researchers-

study-the-influence-of-social-media-on-memory/.

Drouin, Michelle, et al. “Phantom Vibrations among Undergraduates: Prevalence and

Associated Psychological Characteristics.” Computers in Human Behavior,

Pergamon, 14 Apr. 2012,

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0747563212000799.

Sherman, Lauren E, et al. “The Power of the Like in Adolescence: Effects of Peer

Influence on Neural and Behavioral Responses to Social Media.” Psychological

Science, SAGE Publications, July 2016,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27247125.

Acevedo, M. (2017, June 1). The Effect Of Social Media On Human Behavior. Retrieved

from https://www.newinfluencers.com/the-effect-of-social-media-on-human-behavior/

Bonds, D. (n.d.). Social Media Effects on Behavior/Personality. Retrieved from

https://socialmedia160wrt.weebly.com/social-media-effects-on-behaviorpersonality.html
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Ebrahimi, Y. (2019, October 16). The Effects of Social Media On Thinking And

Behavior. Retrieved from https://www.theodysseyonline.com/the-effects-social-media-

thinking-and-behavior

Stearns, C. (n.d.). How Social Media Affects Behavior: Online & Offline. Retrieved from

https://study.com/academy/lesson/how-social-media-affects-behavior-online-offline.html

“What Effect Is Social Media Having on Society?” Umi Digital, 24 Apr. 2019,

umidigital.co.uk/blog/affect-social-media-society/.

Force, Jenny. “The Impact of Social Media Networks on Society |.” Sysomos, 22

Dec. 2016, sysomos.com/2016/12/22/impact-social-media-networks-society/.

Hudson, Matthew. “Learn What Social Media Is and How to Use It to Grow Your

Business.” The Balance Small Business, The Balance Small Business, 8 May 2019,

www.thebalancesmb.com/what-is-social-media-2890301.