Social Media:

Social Media is the name of my essay. In this essay I will explain the purpose of social media,
how it affects youth, Cyberbullying, The positive impacts of social media, and I will answer the
question on whether or not social media is mostly positive or negative. Social Media is defined
as “websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or to participate in
social networking.” But what may have been created for good, some people may use it for bad.

The purpose of social media is “to share photos, stories, good new and bad news to a fairly
small circle of friends and family. People are using social media for a variety of purposes.
The four main uses of social media form the acronym SLIM: sharing, learning, interacting,
and marketing.” (https://www.quora.com/). But over the years social media’s purpose has
changed. I would now define social media as a place where you are able to be positive in many
ways but the main purpose of social media is to brag about what you have and show off to make
people jealous or like they are not enough because someone has something that they do not. That
is one problem with social media. People feel like they are not enough. But it is not about what
you have it is about how you truly are on the inside.

The next thing that I will talk about in my essay is how social Media affects youth. Social
Networking has positive and negative impacts. The positive effect that social media has on youth
is that it can connect them to people who are not close to them at the moment and they can
communicate with them. According to https://www.pewresearch.org/ ” A majority of teens
believe social media has had a positive impact on various aspects of their lives, the
survey finds. Fully 81% of teens say social media makes them feel more connected to
what's going on in their friends' lives, with 37% saying it makes them feel “a lot” more
connected.” But there are also the negative impacts on youth such as increased feelings of
depression, anxiety, poor body image and loneliness. Young adults may have depression caused
by social media because they saw someone who they think is much better, prettier, or smarter
than them. Some people may get anxiety from social media because they may think that they need
to post something everyday and that picture has to look perfect so it looks like there is no mess
in their lives so they can keep up their “image”. Many people may also have poor body-image
due to social media. Feeling’s of poor body image usually come from young women. When young
women see a girl on social media that is the whole package, I am talking about smart, beautiful,
funny, and especially skinny they downgrade their body image and self- esteem because they do
not look EXACTLY how that girl looks. But how about instead of looking at it negatively how
about looking at it how God looks at you? God created your body and your looks exactly how
they are for a purpose. So why downtalk on yourself or feel like you're not good enough? You are
good enough because you’re God’s child, he loves you, and he sent his son to die for you!!! So do
not have a poor body image or self image. Social Media also plays a role in loneliness because
you may see a picture of your friends hanging out without you and wonder “Why?” it can make
you feel lonely because of that one picture. But, no matter how lonely you get or how many
friends you have you will always have one friend who will never leave you and you will never be
lonely. That friend is Jesus Christ!!!!

Cyberbullying is defined as “the use of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by

sending messages of an intimidating or threatening nature.”