Introduction and purpose of research

Literature review
Social media and its influence on the violence in schools has been under microscope and
have been a very debatable topic for the last five years on the basis that it is a contributary factor
for the increased violence in schools. My study seeks to examine the extent to which social
media promotes violence among the students at the Arbuthnot Gallimore high school.
How social media turns online arguments between teens into real-world violence, 2021
examined how and why social triggers offers violence. This sum of information was gathered
through a focus group of 12 personnel ages 12-19. Social media isn’t just mirroring conflicts
happening in schools – its triggering new ones (Elsaesser, 2021). Elsaesser found that social
media isn’t being used solely for communication anymore but rather a platform through which
taunting, arguing and the division on schools’ population into gangs and cliques takes place. My
study will focus on the correlation between online disagreements and offline violence.
Social media has become recognized as a vehicle through which youth perpetuate acts of
violence against their peers, such as bullying, harassment, dating aggression and gang related
crimes (Cash, Thelwall, Peck, Ferrel & bridge, 2013). Through research which consisted of a
random sample of 4441 youths between the ages of 10-18 from 37 school districts,
approximately 20% of youths didn’t report online conflicts as their intention was to bring it face
to face. My study will not focus solely on online issues such as cyber bullying but more so on
how that is transferred into real life violence.
The effects of the media violence on schoolers can be determined by the length of exposure,
age and other lingering factors (Almond, 2017) A survey done showed that the music, games and
quite often movies are what expose children. Almond also found that media violence affects the
brain of young viewers and replaces facts with fiction which led to viewers being out of tune
with society. Johan and alam (2017) conducted a study in which questionnaires were issued to
schoolteachers and it showed that this tech-savy era of teenagers in our schools seem to be tough,
emotionless and disconnected with society as they imitate what the media presents to them.
Gentile (2018) stated that to understand the relationship between media violence and school
violence, you must understand how being exposed to the media affects children. It is said that it
encourages imitation of violent behaviours by children because of how it is portrayed, and it
introduces certain aspects of violence that appeal to children in a way they are unaware of. This
study seeks to find out whether students can effectively use social media without heavily being
influenced.
My study will use questionnaires and interviews in investigating the influence of social
media on the students of the Aabuthnott Gallimore high school since the increase use of social
media in 2016. In carrying out this research, I seek to understand whether social media promotes
violence in schools, the effects of social media on students, how it can be used without being
heavily influential and I will also seek to answer whether the effects of social media on students
can be altered