Dawson Schilz Ms. Lehman English 2-1B 7 February 2022 Social Media Epicurus once said, “Be moderate in order to taste the joys of life in abundance.”This quote fits in with the article because teens should exercise moderation when using social media. Teens should be responsible users of social media because social media impacts teens’ well-being, social connectedness, and academic achievement. In examining social media’s impact on well-being, it is clear that the connection is complex. How we use social media impacts our well-being. Social media has both good and bad impacts on teens’ emotional health. There are a range of challenges teens face in life, and social media allows them to seek out help they might not get otherwise. James et al write, “The ability to communicate anonymously can mitigate barriers, such as shame, that interfere with support-seeking offline” (72).Being able to anonymously ask for help has a positive impact on teens’ lives because it allows people to ask for help without feeling judged so that they can get the help they need. Having considered the positive impacts of social media, users must also be aware of the negative impacts. Social media has been blamed for many negative impacts on people’s lives. James et al explain, “Several investigations documented correlations between heavy media use and reduced well-being – related outcomes, such as diminished life satisfaction, internalizing negative experiences, and various dimensions of ill-being, such as depression, anxiety, attention, problems, and stress” (72). When young adults use social media to compare themselves to others, negative outcomes will follow. When social media presents the good things in our lives as the only things, users can lose sight of the messiness of life, making them feel less satisfied with what they have. The impact that social media has on adolescents’ well-being depends upon how it is being used. What is the impact of social media? The survey conducted by Common Sense Media showed that it is a young adult’s personality that determines social media’s impact. K. Y. says that “The 17 percent who scored in the low-SEWB group were the most impacted by social media interactions, suggesting that the child’s personality - not the platform – is the more important factor when determining the influence of social media” (18).Because everyone has a different personality, we can’t always know how social media affects everyone; it depends on the person. No matter what a person’s personality is, when we don’t practice communicating with others, it becomes harder to do. Social media can also hurt friendships. James et al report that “A third of teenagers (34%) at least ‘somewhat agreed’ that using social media detracts from time they could be spending with people fact-to-face, and 44% at least ‘somewhatagreed’ that using social media often distracts them from people theyare with in person” (73). Being distracted by phones can cause people to feel distanced from one another. These points prove that there are both positives and negatives to social media use. People should only use social media when they aren’t with other peoplebecause it can distract you, and it can ruin relationships. Some argue that the dangers of social media have been overexaggerated. Despite the appeal of this argument, the negative effects of social media cannot be ignored entirely. Using social media too much has been connected to lack of emotional and physical well-being as well as well as weaker social connectedness. Success in school has also been impacted by screen time. “Academic performance is directly related to sleep time and inversely related to overall sedentary SMU [screen media use] among the students who participated in this study” (Peiró-Velert et al 5). The study found that the more time students spent on their screens, the less time they had to sleep, which resulted in lower academic achievement. It’s obvious that social media’s impact is complicated, and people should be mindful of how they use it. By using social media responsibly, teens can minimize its impact on their health, connections with others, and success in school.Being aware of how they use social media can help minimize impacts on teens’ well-being. Monitoring the time that teens have on social media can increase teens’ well-being. Social media’s impact on teens can be connected to their personality and how they use it. Success in school can be indirectly related to how much time teens spend on social media. Like Epicurus said, if teens use social media moderately, then teen’s well-being will increase dramatically.
Works Cited Page James, Carrie, Katie Davis, Linda Charmaraman, Sara Konrath, Petr Slovak, Emily Weinstein, and Lana Yarosh. “Digital Life and Youth Well-being, Social Connectedness, Empathy, and Narcissism.” Pediatrics, vol. 140, no. S2, November 2017, pp. 71-75. Academic Search Premier, doi:10:1542/peds.2016-1785F. Accessed 21 January 2020. K.Y. “Social Media and Teens.” School Library Journal. vol. 64, no. 10, p18-18. October 2018, Academic Search Premier, Accessed 21 January, 2020. Peiró-Velert, Carmen, Alexandra Valencia-peris, Luis M. Gonzales, Xavier Garcia-Massó, Pilar Serra Añó, and Jose Devís- Devís. "Screen Media Usage, Sleep Time and Academic Performance in Adolescents: Clustering a Self- Organizing Maps Analysis.” PLOS ONE, vol 9, no. 6, June 2014, pp. 1 –9. Academic Search Premier, doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0099478. Accessed 10 February 2020.
Research Paper Reflection
Please answer all questions in complete, grammatically correct sentences.
Explain the process you went through to write this paper. Please be specific. -Our class did this paper together, I wrote down what my English teacher wrote down.
What qualifies this paper as an argumentative essay? What are the requirements for this genre and how did you meet them? -This is an argumentative essay because we were arguing whether social media is good or bad for you. The requirements were arguing whether social media is good or bad for you based on the pros and cons of social media.
Explain one thing you learned about reading research or taking notes on research that you can apply to your next research paper. -One thing I learned about reading research papers is that you have to know what you are talking about and you have to have a works cited page.