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Title:
“Social Media”
“The Effect of Social Media on the Younger Generation”

Candidate Name: James Lalla

Candidate Number: 1600430454

Year of Examination: 2024

Subject: English A

Name of Teacher: Ms. L. Boodoo

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Table Of Contents

Plan of Investigation........................................................................................................................3
Reflection 1....................................................................................................................................12
Reflection 2....................................................................................................................................13
Reflection 3....................................................................................................................................14
Oral Presentation Plan...................................................................................................................15
Written Report...............................................................................................................................16
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................26
Bibliography..................................................................................................................................27
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Plan of Investigation

“Social Media” was the group topic chosen and my theme is “The Negative Influence Of Social

Media on the Younger Generation”. With the rise of social media, the younger generation are

susceptible to the harmful effects it can have on their well-being. I hope to enhance my

comprehension skills through the reflections. My three artefacts were sourced from the Internet.

To provide insightful reflections of the chosen theme, I plan to use my wide range of vocabulary

and vast knowledge of literary devices.

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Artefacts

Artefact #1

The Negative Effects of Social Media on Youngsters

There are two sides to every story, and then there is the social media side! Yes, we are living in a

world of social media generation and social media has also negative effects on youngsters. They

read, they travel, they make new friends -everything they do, gets posted on their social media

account.

Without bothering about the negative effects of social media, they glorify their life events and

share them on social platforms. Not to mention that this social media crazy generation thrives on

every like or comment they get on their posts!

However, there are advantages and disadvantages to social media. When we assess the effects of

social media on our teenagers, we quickly come to know that there are very few positive effects

of social media. And a number of negative consequences of social sites can ruin our kids’

childhood.

So, are you ready to uncover the darker side of social sites? Here are a few negative effects of

social media on our youth.

Negative Effects Of Social Media On Teenagers

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Internet Addiction

Extensive social media usage among youngsters can lead to internet addiction. The more they are

online, the more they see new stories, posts, and ideas that they would like to explore.

The initial habits of surfing social sites quickly turn into an addiction. Are your kids online all

day? Do they feel the strong urge to post their every life event on social sites?

If yes, then undoubtedly, the negative effects of social media have started caging your child’s

normal life and he is now addicted to the Internet.

Also, this addiction can affect his academic performance, personal development, and physical

and mental health. However, parents started using parental control apps nowadays which

resolves the worry of kid’s addiction.

Social Media Depression

Does your child look sad if no one likes or comments on his recent post or picture? How does he

feel if he doesn’t open his social media account for a day or two? What is his reaction when his

social media content can not generate new followers?

These are the check-points to identify the level of his social media obsession. The biggest

negative effect of social media on youth is, they feel depressed when they don’t use social

platforms or when they don’t get validation on these platforms.

This social media effect is known as Facebook depression. Apart from that, teenagers craze to

stand out, or the pressure he feels to sustain the current trends of these sites should be counted as

negative effects of social media on youth.

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Lower Self-Esteem

The negative effect of social media on teenagers has started to weaken their self-esteem.

On these sites, youth compare each other. Moreover, girls try to dress like celebrities, in every

picture they want to look slim, beautiful and glamorous.

The pressure to look like their role models negatively affects their self-esteem

Due to such negative effects of social media on youth, many teenagers, especially girls lose their

dignity and start sharing inappropriate photos and content.

Negative Effects Of Social Media On Health

The effects of social media can be tracked by the mental and emotional health of today’s

youngsters. Excessive usage of various social platforms can harm the overall health of the child.

Anxiety

When we talk about the negative effects of social media on youth, apart from depression, teenage

anxiety is another concern of every parent.

Due to various social sites children become over conscious about everyone’s reaction. Whatever

their followers comment, means and matters a lot to them!

Additionally, kids are more curious about knowing what their co-social mates are doing and

posting on various platforms, rather than focusing more time on self-development.

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The adverse effects of social media on youth are, it makes our children victims of depression,

anxiety, and isolation.

Sleep Deprivation

While making a list of the negative effects of social media on health, sleep deprivation can not be

missed out! Social sites are the leading cause of insomnia in today’s youth.

According to child experts, the negative effects of social media on teenagers can be associated

with sleep loss, disturbed sleep, insomnia and interrupted sleep patterns.

Negative Effects Of Social Media On Students

Poor academic performance, lack of attention, no real-life friends, poor physical health and high

emotional needs to get validities, disturb a kid’s student life. These are a few negative effects of

social media on students that can ruin kid’s school days.

Apart from these, there are many other negative impacts of social sites on our children. Such as

sedentary lifestyle, weak eye-sight, faulty postures, threats of various cyber crimes, poor social

skills, etc,

However, there are several effective remedies to cure a teen’s social addiction. Let’s see how

parents can fight against the negative effects of social media.

Solutions To Social Media Addiction

Limit their device usage and permit the fixed number of hours kids can spend on social apps.
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Restrict your kids from downloading any new social apps from the play store.

Monitor their social media postings and watch over their app usage remotely.

Of course, it is not possible to track your kid all the time, but you can appoint a smart app – Bit

Guardian Parental Control to perform all these tasks on behalf of you.

Concluding Notes

No matter how much you make your kids aware of the negative effects of social media, they will

continue using these sites. But as parents, you need to make sure that your teens use social

platforms in a safe way and for a reasonable period of time.

Does your teenager excite on every tintinnabulation he receives on his device? Well, then

It’s time for you to rethink the negative effects of social media on today’s youth.
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Artefact #2
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Artefact #3

The Mediums

It took a week for us to stop hearing the voices.

Although they had been our constant companions

for years by then, a steady stream of chatter,

it reached the point where they became unbearable.

Each message had become a death to us. Just a little

to start with, soft like the twitter of birds,

not too intrusive perhaps, but then more insistent

by the day, slowly overwhelming, until

our own voices, thoughts, were lost to theirs.

Eventually, it was us or them. They became

mere shouts and remonstrations, pleas and cries,

a tidal wave of suffering without pause,

of snide retorts and performative assertions –

the whole lot began to drown us.

Turn off your radios immediately.

So we tuned out our frequencies to a dead channel,

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fourteen billion years of static, that perfect state

before the first authoritarians came,

a numbness welcome to our battered senses,

and, not without some small misgiving,

we cut the line and left the voices dead.

Thankfully we were left not too affected.

They faded like the effects of nepenthe

or the Martian atmosphere in Total Recall.

Already, we wonder how we ever heard the voices.

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Reflection 1

My first piece was an article written by Mimansa Patel titled “The Negative Effects of

Social Media on Youngsters”. It fixates on the mental and physical damage social media has on

teens. I thought that social media mainly impacts your mental health but this article enlightened

me that it is detrimental to both your mental and physical health.

The second artefact, a picture, depicts the overwhelming thoughts of social media on a teenager.

I assumed that social media did not have an impact on unconscious thought but from this, I

realized that social media can overwhelm your unconscious thought.

The third piece, a poem by Oliver Tearle, “The Mediums”, describes a person hearing voices of

people from social media apps that they were using. I thought that social media could not

manifest serious mental problems but from the poem I learnt that social media could have a

heavy impact on your mind.

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Reflection 2

In my first piece titled “The Negative Effects of Social Media on Youngsters” an example

of a literary device is “social media has started caging your child’s normal life”. This sentence

employs the use of a metaphor. It is effective as it uses the word “caging” to emphasize how

social media traps your child. Another example is “How does he feel if he doesn’t open his social

media account for a day or two?”. This utilizes a rhetorical question. It is effective as it prompts

the reader to think about their child’s time spent on social media and emphasizes the overuse of

social media. In the poem titled “The mediums”, “soft like the twitter of birds” is an example of

a simile. It is effective as it applies a real life comparison to display the sound made in the poem.

Another example is “they had been our constant companions”. The poet uses alliteration

effectively to emphasize the word constant.

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Reflection 3

Through this sba, I learned that while children often overuse social media to a harmful extent,

creating habits to negate their addiction is not only crucial to their overall development but is

also important in growing their productivity and self restraint.

Furthermore, group activity was productive. We created an environment in which efficiency and

teamwork were key. Each team member was given a task and contributed equally and there were

no absentees throughout the group work. All of this, together with some sacrificed lunch times,

combined to create few challenges with the group work. Working in a group expanded my

creativity and brainstorming skills while also teaching me how to put trust in others and be

dependable.

Finally academically, I honed my skills in research while my summary skills improved through

writing each reflection. My self-discipline was also developed due to specific deadlines.
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Oral Presentation Plan

Group Topic: Social Media

Personal Subtopic: Effects of Socials Media on the Younger Generation

Genre: Argumentative Essay

Reason for choosing the genre: I chose to write an argumentative essay because it is a way to

clearly represent and expand on each of my points on the topic of the effects of social media on

the younger generation.

Language form to be used: Standard English

Sources: Article from the New York Times “Social Media In Classrooms”

Article “Social Media and Expression”

Article “Violence in Social Media”

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Written Report

Our group theme was “Social Media”. Pradeep Sookdeo’s topic was “Effect of Social

Media on Businesses”. Christopher Ramkissoon’s topic was “Effect of Fake News on Social

Media Users”. Osama Mohammed’s topic was “Effects of Social Media on Students’

Academics”. Jaden Joseph’s topic was “Cyberbullying”. James Lalla’s topic was “Effects of

Social Media on the Younger Generation”. To gather our pieces, the group scoured the Internet.

The pieces were easy to find because the topic is a popular one. In total, our group had fifteen

pieces, from which we selected three for the group report.

Firstly, to select our pieces, all members were required to send their pieces in a group

chat for peer review. The three pieces selected from our fifteen pieces were “They won’t get me

today…” by Commitstrip.com, “USC study reveals the key reason why fake news spreads on

social media” by Pamela Madrid and “GoogleBuzz” by Leslie Jones.

The first piece is a comic illustrating how social media distracts students. Our members

learnt that almost all social media apps can be distracting for students. The second piece is an

article showing how social media promotes the spread of fake news and how users succumb to

these deceptive practices. From the article, our group was able to learn how the same users

continuously spread fake news, often not out of malice, but instead for publicity. This was

surprising as we couldn’t have predicted the lengths that social media users go to for publicity.

The third piece is a poem that describes the considerations business owners make when trying to
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garner customers. The fact that simple things such as “built-in followers” would be so critical

for business owners was quite unexpected for us.

In summary, the pieces were easy to gather and the pieces chosen helped the group to

better understand the many facets of social media.

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Artefacts Chosen By Group

Artefact #1
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Artefact #2

USC researchers may have found the biggest influencer in the spread of fake news: social

platforms’ structure of rewarding users for habitually sharing information.

The team’s findings, published Monday by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

upend popular misconceptions that misinformation spreads because users lack the critical

thinking skills necessary for discerning truth from falsehood or because their strong political

beliefs skew their judgment.

Just 15% of the most habitual news sharers in the research were responsible for spreading about

30% to 40% of the fake news.

The research team from the USC Marshall School of Business and the USC Dornsife College of

Letters, Arts and Sciences wondered: What motivates these users? As it turns out, much like any

video game, social media has a rewards system that encourages users to stay on their accounts

and keep posting and sharing. Users who post and share frequently, especially sensational, eye-

catching information, are likely to attract attention.

“Due to the reward-based learning systems on social media, users form habits of sharing

information that gets recognition from others,” the researchers wrote. “Once habits form,
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information sharing is automatically activated by cues on the platform without users considering

critical response outcomes, such as spreading misinformation.”

Posting, sharing and engaging with others on social media can, therefore, become a habit.

“[Misinformation is] really a function of the structure of the social media sites themselves.”

— Wendy Wood, USC expert on habits

“Our findings show that misinformation isn’t spread through a deficit of users. It’s really a

function of the structure of the social media sites themselves,” said Wendy Wood, an expert on

habits and USC emerita Provost Professor of psychology and business.

“The habits of social media users are a bigger driver of misinformation spread than individual

attributes. We know from prior research that some people don’t process information critically,

and others form opinions based on political biases, which also affects their ability to recognize

false stories online,” said Gizem Ceylan, who led the study during her doctorate at USC Marshall

and is now a postdoctoral researcher at the Yale School of Management. “However, we show that

the reward structure of social media platforms plays a bigger role when it comes to

misinformation spread.”
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In a novel approach, Ceylan and her co-authors sought to understand how the reward structure of

social media sites drives users to develop habits of posting misinformation on social media.

Why fake news spreads: behind the social network

Overall, the study involved 2,476 active Facebook users ranging in age from 18 to 89 who

volunteered in response to online advertising to participate. They were compensated to complete

a “decision-making” survey approximately seven minutes long.

Surprisingly, the researchers found that users’ social media habits doubled and, in some cases,

tripled the amount of fake news they shared. Their habits were more influential in sharing fake

news than other factors, including political beliefs and lack of critical reasoning.

Frequent, habitual users forwarded six times more fake news than occasional or new users.

“This type of behavior has been rewarded in the past by algorithms that prioritize engagement

when selecting which posts users see in their news feed, and by the structure and design of the

sites themselves,” said second author Ian A. Anderson, a behavioral scientist and doctoral

candidate at USC Dornsife. “Understanding the dynamics behind misinformation spread is

important given its political, health and social consequences.”

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Experimenting with different scenarios to see why fake news spreads

In the first experiment, the researchers found that habitual users of social media share both true

and fake news.

In another experiment, the researchers found that habitual sharing of misinformation is part of a

broader pattern of insensitivity to the information being shared. In fact, habitual users shared

politically discordant news — news that challenged their political beliefs — as much as

concordant news that they endorsed.

Lastly, the team tested whether social media reward structures could be devised to promote

sharing of true over false information. They showed that incentives for accuracy rather than

popularity (as is currently the case on social media sites) doubled the amount of accurate news

that users share on social platforms.

The study’s conclusions:

Habitual sharing of misinformation is not inevitable.

Users could be incentivized to build sharing habits that make them more sensitive to sharing

truthful content.
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Effectively reducing misinformation would require restructuring the online environments that

promote and support its sharing.

These findings suggest that social media platforms can take a more active step than moderating

what information is posted and instead pursue structural changes in their reward structure to limit

the spread of misinformation.

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Artefact #3

GoogleBuzz

My Gmail caught the Buzz, I’m no longer surfing the Wave, If I play my ‘following’ cards right,

Buzz could be my new inbound slave. I’m sure Google’s Mad Men are working To find a way

that marketers can shine, We all know Buzz’s version of the Fan Page Simply cannot be too far

behind.

Facebook allows us to Like anything, While for Buzz, it’s only the topics. If I can devise a way

to make Buzz my Hub, This spot will be hot like the tropics.

All inbound marketing must lead to one place, It must come in consistently - at a navigable pace.

Buzz must find a way to be top of mind Above The Wave, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Myspace.

Through your Gmail - that’s how! Built-in followers - wow! But do we have time for all of these

now? HubSpot are the ones who have made the Buzz fun, If it weren’t for them, I may be

elsewhere.

So to those of you saying ‘time will tell’, Sit down with me, and secrets I’ll bear. Now think…

think…think…how’d you get here? Through a blog, or Twitter, some other social end of the
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sphere? Each step that you take For better links to make, Your customers will follow, And just

like us, they will take. And take. And take! Now your inbound trickle has become an inbound

lake! Full of fish that may bite, but an incentive you must make!

A deadline on this contest HubSpot smartly did not name, Now all the comments here can grow

and mold their fame… Patience, eager guinea pigs… For the Mac One soon shall claim.
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Conclusion

This SBA taught me previously unknown things about the theme “Social Media”. The various

skills of the English subject were sharpened through the required analysis of many pieces and

argumentative skills were also honed through the oral speech. This SBA personally enhanced my

self confidence and taught me responsibility.

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Bibliography

Artefact 1:

The Negative Effects of Social Media on Youngsters (theparentalcontrol.com)

Artefact 3:

The Mediums – Calenture (wordpress.com)