Chapter I

Introduction
Cellphones now are the most widely used medium in the
Philippines. Most users of cellphone are students and youths. They use
it for entertainment, communication, and for research purposes.
According to Philippine Statistics Authority, 2010 Census-based
Population Projections in collaboration with the Inter-Agency Working
Group on Population Projections, there are 10,601,800 10-14 years old
students, and most of them use cellphones. Now that most students
use cellphones, definitely, they are using social media.

Social media are interactive digital channels that facilitate the

creation and sharing of information, ideas, interests, and other forms of
expression through virtual communities and networks.

Social media may help us in different ways. It can help us in searching

the things we don't know, to communicate with our friends, to share
the things we just acquired, to post the things we achieved, to share
the foods we eat, to know how our relatives and friends doing,and to
be entertained.

If there are helpful things given by the social media,there are also bad
side of it that is prone not only for elders, but also for students.

Grade 7 nowadays are very updated in social media and games. There
are famous and top social media apps at websites used by grade 7
students, commonly: YouTube, Facebook,Tiktok, Instagram, and
Facebook Messenger.
It may look fine to be updated but the more updated they are, the
more prone they are in the bad side of social media. For example online
gambling, cyber bullying, pornography, hacking, scams and etc. It can
also affect the student's body. Social media is full of entertainment,
amazing contents and content creators, interesting videos, and facts. If
the student is obsessed and addicted with it, it may result to lack of
sleep,physical inactivity,eye strain and will have low academic
performance. Another, if the student read hate post about him/her, it
can lead to depression.

Social media is a wide platform that has many users. Everything has a
good and bad side, so as social media. But every problem has a solution
that's why all the bad effects can be prevented.

DEFINITION OF TERMS
• Anxiety- a feeling of worry, nervousness, or unease, typically about
an imminent event or something with an uncertain outcome.

-body's natural response to stress

• Depression- is a mood disorder that involves a persistent feeling of

sadness and loss of interest. It is different from the mood fluctuations
that people regularly experience as a part of life. Major life events, such
as bereavement or the loss of a job, can lead to depression.

• Facebook- is defined as an online social networking website where

people can create profiles, share information such as photos and
quotes about themselves, and respond or link to the information
posted by others. An online social networking website is an example of
Facebook.
• Facebook Messenger- is a mobile app that enables chat, voice and
video communications between the social media site's web-based
messaging and smartphones. (Specific capabilities vary according to the
user's device and geographic location.)

• Information- what is conveyed or represented by a particular

arrangement or sequence of things.

• Instagram- is a free, online photo-sharing application and social

network platform that was acquired by Facebook in 2012.

• Scams- is a fraudulent or deceptive act or operation.

• Social Media- forms of electronic communication (such as websites

for social networking and microblogging) through which users create
online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages,
and other content (such as videos.)

• Students- are looking around the room, talking with other students,
staring out the window, playing with items, and/or resting his/her head
on the desk. Desired/replacement behavior: The student will pay
attention in class.

• YouTube- is a popular video sharing website where registered users

can upload and share videos with anyone able to access the site.
 Chapter II

Social networking sites and applications are widely used by students.

They spend a lot of their time on these sites as a part of their daily lives.
Studies revealed that among the various age groups of students,
university students are among the most using social networking (Azizi
et al., 2019). SoSocial networking sites play a very important role in
education.Indeed,students are afforded multiple opportunities to
improve learning and access the latest information by connecting with
learning groups and other educational systems (Greenhow and Robelia,
2009.) It can also exchange information by connecting with different
individuals. This can have a positive impact on student learning
outcomes (Yu et al., 2010.)

According to https://www.techtarget.com, social media is a collective

term for websites and applications that focus on communication,
community-based input, interaction, content-sharing and collaboration.
People use social media to stay in touch and interact with friends,
family and various communities.

Social media also has an impact on student mental health; which refers
to their emotional, psychological, and social well-being.
 Additionally, social media use has negative effects on mental health
and can lead to depression and anxiety.Therefore, because of the
growing numbers of such sites and high demand for social media
among grade 7 students, it is important to examine the purposes for
which social networking sites are used. Students are one of the most
important users of the virtual world and social networks. The overuse
of social networks has positive and negative academic, social, and
health consequences for the students. Reduced academic performance
is one of the most important consequences of social networking
overuse for students. The results of a study on medical students
showed that students who used social networks and internet more
than average had a poor academic achievement and low level of
concentration in the classroom.

Having a social network, especially during these social distancing times,

is incredibly important and has been shown to have a positive effect on
mental health and well-being. It allows students to connect with
likeminded peers, breaking limitations of distance and time. This can be
particularly valuable for minority youth, who may have difficulty finding
others like themselves.

In addition to the benefits of classroom learning social media

provides through sites like YouTube, social media helps students access
mental health and well-being information, which can be hard to do
offline without stigma. The following are the other positive effects of
social media according to kubbco.com:

You’ve probably heard about some of the negative effects social

media can have on our lives. And while they may be true, they by no
means have to be the standard or even the norm.
 The truth is that social media can also be beneficial for society. It
can help individuals connect and deepen their relationships. Social
media also encourages students to learn and grow. And it can empower
businesses to build their audiences and boost their bottom line.

The positive effects of social media are plentiful. According to a

Harvard study, routine social media use is positively associated with
social wellbeing, self-rated health, and mental health. We just need to
be mindful users and keep a healthy perspective about social media’s
role in our lives. Then we can use it to inspire, educate, show empathy,
and become better communicators.

The Positive Effects of Social Media:

• Building Relationships and Staying Connected

• Finding Your Voice

• Showing Empathy and Kindness

• Offering Support

• Better Communication

• Spreading News

• Building a Business

• Establishing Authority

• Driving Traffic

• Enhancing the Customer Experience

• Learning and Education

• Motivating Young People

• Creativity

The Positive Effects of Social Media For Individuals

The following list is full of benefits anyone can experience. If

you’re a regular social media user, you’ve probably encountered some
or all of these positive effects at some point.

1. Building Relationships and Staying Connected

Social media can make it easy to find groups of like-minded people

or make new friends. Finding a close-knit community can help us feel
valued and accepted. Social media is also an easy way to nurture
existing relationships with family and friends who have moved away.
Send messages, share photos, call, or host video chats to stay in touch.

On social media, you can reach out to new connections and start
developing relationships with them as well. Whether they live nearby
or on the other side of the world, you can easily communicate and
share content. This level of connectedness is a unique advantage of
digital media.

2. Finding Your Voice

People of all ages can use social media to develop a platform with
a larger audience than they’d have in any other setting. This can help
individuals build confidence, gain new communication skills, and quickly
spread positive and important messages. Take TikTok, for instance.
Teens and young adults have successfully grown enormous platforms
where their messages reach thousands or even millions of people
regularly.
As per Paul, Baker and Cochran (2012), the time spent on social media
was dependent on the attention span of the students. Attention span is
the amount of time for which students can concentrate on their study
without getting distracted. They found out that, higher the attention
span, lower is the time spent by students on social media.

As per Junco (2011), time spent on Facebook was very strongly

negatively related to the overall GPA of the students. Kirschner and
Karpinski (2010) found out that, over indulgence with social media can
affect students’ academic performance negatively. If there are positive
effects of social media, there are also negative effects. According to
makeuseof.com:

If you can't imagine your life without social media, you've probably
fallen victim to the strong power that social networking sites have over
the public. Chances are that you've also experienced some of the
negative effects of social media on people.

Unfortunately, the bad effects of social media are all too real for a
lot of us. Let's look at the negative impacts of social media on real
people, which happen every day.

THE NEGATIVE EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA

1. Depression and Anxiety

Do you spend several hours per day browsing through social

media? Spending too long on social networking sites could adversely
affect your mood. In fact, chronic social users are more likely to report
poor mental health, including symptoms of anxiety and depression.
 It doesn't take much thinking to figure out why. Social media lets
you see the carefully selected best parts of everyone else's lives, which
you then compare to the negatives in your own life. Comparing yourself
to other people is a sure path to anxiety and unhappiness, and social
media has made this much easier to do.

How Social Media Is Making You Sad, According To Science

So how do you use social media without causing yourself

psychological distress? If you turn to the same research (and common
sense), the recommended amount of time you should spend on social
networks is around half an hour per day. As with many other potential
ills in life, it's all about moderation.

If you find yourself upset after a social media session, also consider
the networks you use and the people you follow. You're much more
likely to feel anxious after reading political arguments and doomsday
news than you are after seeing updates from your favorite musicians.

2. Cyberbullying

Before social media, bullying was something that was only possible
to do face-to-face. However, now people can bully others online—
anonymously or not. Today everyone knows what cyberbullying is, and
most of us have seen what it can do to a person.

While social media makes it easier to meet new people and make
friends, it also enables cruel people to tear into others with little effort.
Perpetrators of bullying can use the anonymity that social networks
provide to gain people's trust and then terrorize them in front of their
peers. For instance, they might create a fake profile and act friendly to
a classmate, then later betray and embarrass them online.
 These online attacks often leave deep mental scars and even drive
people to hurt themselves or take their own lives, in some cases. And
as it turns out, cyberbullying doesn't just affect kids. Adults can become
victims of online abuse, too. Since screens hide our faces, you can end
up being a jerk on social media and other websites without even
realizing it.

3. FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) is a phenomenon that became

prominent around the same time as the rise of social media.
Unsurprisingly, it's one of the most widespread negative effects of
social media on society.

4. Negative body image

FOMO is just what it sounds like: a form of anxiety that you get
when you're scared of missing out on a positive experience that
someone else is having. For example, you might constantly check your
messages to see if anyone has invited you out, or focus on your
Instagram feed all day to make sure that nobody is doing something
cool without you. You may also see pictures of something fun that your
friends were able to do, feeling left out that you couldn't go because
you had another responsibility.

This fear receives constant fuel from what you see on social media.
With increased social network use, there's a better chance for you to
see that someone is having more fun than you are right now. And that's
exactly what causes FOMO.

4. Negative body image

 Speaking of Instagram celebrities, if you look at popular Instagram
accounts, you'll find unbelievably beautiful people wearing expensive
clothes on their perfectly shaped bodies.

And to nobody's surprise, body image is now an issue for almost

everyone. Of course, seeing so many people who are supposedly
perfect (according to society's standards) on a daily basis makes you
conscious about how different you look from those pictures. And not
everyone comes to healthy conclusions in this situation.

It's really important to remember that everybody is human. No

one wakes up every day looking like a supermodel, and while many
people have gone to great lengths to train their bodies, that's not the
case for everyone who looks fit. Many people, in search of social media
fame, have definitely taken unhealthy routes to appear more attractive.

Surround yourself with people who love you for who you are, and
you won't have to stress about fake Instagram beauty.

5. Unhealthy Sleep Patterns

On top of increasing the incidents of anxiety and depression,

another bad thing about social media is that spending too much time
on it can lead to poor sleep. Numerous studies have shown that
increased use of social media has a negative effect on your sleep
quality.

If you feel that your sleep patterns have become irregular, leading
to a drop in productivity, try to cut down on the amount of time you
browse social media.
 This is especially the case when using your phone in bed at night.
It's all too easy to tell yourself that you'll spend five minutes checking
your Facebook notifications, only to realize an hour later that you've
been mindlessly scrolling through some nonsense on Twitter you don't
even care about.

Don't let social media algorithms, which are designed to keep your
attention for as long as possible, steal your valuable sleep too. Getting
less sleep, combined with that sleep being lower-quality, is a dangerous
combination.

6. General Addiction

Social media can be more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol. It

has a powerful draw for many people that leads to them checking it all
the time without even thinking about it.

If you're not sure whether you're addicted to social networks, try

to remember the last time you went a full day without checking any
social media accounts. Do you feel rejected if someone unfollows you?
And if your favorite social networks completely disappeared tomorrow,
would the absence make you feel empty and depressed?

At the end of the day, social media sites want to keep you scrolling
for as long as possible so they can show you lots of ads and make more
money. Because of the attention economy, these sites need your eyes
on them for as long as possible.
Just because you've been going overboard on social media use
doesn't mean you necessarily need to wipe out all your social
networking accounts. However, if you think quitting is the best solution
for you, it isn't a bad idea. See our guide to quitting social media for
good if you'd like help.

Social media can be incredibly addictive — we all know what it feels like
to tell ourselves we’ll only check our notifications, and before we know
it, we’ve been mindlessly scrolling for hours. Using devices can have an
especially detrimental effect if done near bedtime, as the blue light
emanating from our devices tricks our bodies into thinking it’s still
daylight outside, which upsets our natural rhythms. We also blink less
when looking at devices, which, in combination with blue light, can lead
to eye fatigue and strain. Excluding eye strain there are other effects of
social media addiction. From physchguide.com:

-Neck problems.

•Also known as “text neck,” which refers to neck pain resulting from
looking down at cell phone or tablet for too long.

-Increased illnesses due to germs.

•1 in 6 cell phones has fecal matter on it.

•E. coli bacteria, which can cause fever, vomiting, and diarrhea, is
found on many phones.

•Phones have been found to be contaminated with MRSA.

-Causes painful abscesses.

•Life-threatening infections in bones, joints, surgical wounds,

bloodstream, heart valves, and lungs.

-Male infertility.
•Preliminary studies have revealed that cell phone radiation may
decrease sperm count, sperm motility and viability.

Well there are some ways to prevent being addicted to social media
and influenced by its bad effects and sides.

According to Joshua Becker of www.becomingminimalist.com, The

typical cell phone user touches his or her phone 2,617 times every day.
2,617 times! Most people, on average, spend 3 hours and 15 minutes
on their phones each day or more. Half of all phone pickups happen
within 3 minutes of a previous one.

To avoid the bad effects of social media and cellphone addiction:

1. Set aside one day/week.

This is, by far, the most common approach Joshua see among people
who have taken intentional steps to curb their cell phone habit
nowadays. Choose one day each week (usually a Saturday and Sunday)
and set your phone aside. That’s it, make a habit of it.

2. Use a 30-Day Experiment to reset your usage.

Joshua wrote, "This has been the most helpful way to break my cell
phone habit. My cell phone use, when not intentionally limited, tends
to take over more and more of my free time. It happens unintentionally
and quietly—I don’t even seem to notice it happening."

He continued, "Seven years ago, I gave up my smartphone for Lent and

used it only for calling and texting (no other apps allowed—even maps
and photos). It was a 40-day period of reset that helped me align my
usage with more important pursuits in life.Since that first experiment, I
have used the 30-day reset two additional times—each with great
success."

3. Use apps to bolster self-control.

There are apps for almost every problem in life. In fact, there are even
some wonderful apps built to help us limit our time on our devices.

Here are some of Joshua's favorites:

Space. Set goals and track your daily progress to manage your habits.

Forest. ($1.99) Stay focused, be present. Forest is a beautifully designed

app that brings gamification to productivity and results in real trees
being planted based on your personal phone use habits.

Moment. Through short, daily exercises, Moment helps you use your
phone in a healthy way.

Flipd. Lock away distracting apps for complete focus.

Screentime. Set daily usage limits on your phone or specific apps.

4. Don’t charge your phone near your bed.

Want to know a great way to keep yourself off your phone? Don’t
charge it in your bedroom.

Many of the negative effects of overuse (poor sleep, hindered

communication and intimacy) can be eliminated by keeping your cell
phone out of your bedroom. As with many of the items on this list, this
is a principle Joshua have found personally helpful.

5. Put your phone away when you walk in the door.

Christopher Mims writes a weekly technology column for The Wall
Street Journal—a job that certainly requires the use of tech on a
consistent basis. His simple and proven way to keep life in healthy
balance with his cell phone is to put it in a kitchen cabinet at the end of
the workday. In his words, “The more you physically remove the phone,
the more you can build a habit of having some ability to ignore it when
it’s on your person.”

Indeed, because if we put it in walk in door, after we see it we would

open it until we scrolling to our facebooks, or tiktoks again.

6. Change your phone settings.

Among the most often suggested ideas for reducing cell phone usage,
you find tips and tricks by simply changing the settings on your phone.

The most common suggested ideas:

•Turn off notifications

•Set screen to black-and-white

•Remove distraction-based apps from your home screen

•Set a longer passcode

•Use airplane mode

•Turn on do not disturb

In Joshua's opinion, turning off notifications is something everyone

should do regardless of how habitual their cell phone use is. Just
because someone in the world wants to text you, email you, or tag you
in a post on Facebook doesn't mean they deserve your attention.
Joshua's cell phone screen is not currently set to grayscale, but he have
found that setting helpful in the past.

7. Put a hairband around your phone.

Joshua Becker also wrote, "In one of the most thoughtful personal
stories I’ve ever read on how to overcome cell phone addiction, Brad
Soroka recommends placing a hairband around your cell phone. When
placed in the middle of the phone, the hairband allows users to answer
phone calls easily, but makes other uses of the phone more difficult
(including simple texting).

In his words, 'Every time you want to use your phone, this brings about
a mindfulness exercise and makes you ask ‘what is my intention?’ If you
really want to use the phone, set your intention for why, and remove
the hair band.'"

The hairband trick is not about making your phone impossible to use.
The practice is about bringing greater mindfulness to each specific use
of it… as opposed to mindlessly unlocking your phone every 3 minutes.

When used as a collection of tools to improve my work, health,

parenting, and life, cell phones are wonderful and bring countless
benefits. But when used mindlessly and unintentionally, they become a
distraction from the things in life that matter most—in addition to the
negative effects listed above.

Learning how to use our smartphones effectively may be one of the

most important life skills any of us can learn.

As we can see, there are so many ways for us to stay away from our
gadgets and not get addicted to social media.