Kalea Delgado Ms. Lehmann English 2-1B 7 February 2020 How Social Media Impacts Teens Edgar Snyder and associates report, “21% of teen drivers involved in fatal accidents were distracted by their cell phones.” This provides evidence that teens have a confusing relationship with screen media and how much they overuse it. Teens should be responsible users of social media because social media impacts teens’ well-being, social connectedness, and academic achievements. In examining social media’s impact on well-being, it is clear the connection is complex. How we use social media impacts our well-being. Social media has both positive and negative 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 impact of social media, users must also be aware of the negative. Social media has been blamed for many negative impacts on people’s lives. James et al explain, “Several investigations document 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. Social media can be used to form new connections. This is beneficial to adolescents because all humans, including teenagers, need social connection and support. It can provide emotional support for young adults and teens that feel like they have no one to rely on. James et al have found that “social media have been used to connect youth with disabilities, providing needed social support and helping them to feel a sense of belonging” (72). The connections people form with new people can increase their overall happiness. Friendships can be torn apart because social media can be a distraction, which makes it harder for teens to form new connections. With the distraction of social media increasing, teens find it harder to form new bonds. James et al report “44% [of teenagers] at least “somewhat” agreed that using social media often distracts them from people they are with in person” (73). Social media can bring us together, but also tear us apart. Being distracted by phones can cause people to feel distanced from one another and left out. K.Y. suggests that the child’s personality influences the way we use social media. K.Y. writes, “The 17 percent who scored in the low-SEWB [social emotional well-being] 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” (K.Y. 18). This shows that it’s not social media affecting us but adolescents’ personality and how they are using it that affects the influence of social media. 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 a lack of emotional and physical well-being 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” (Perró-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 the effect on teens. Teens like social media, have become more distracted by it and should become aware of how they use it. The amount of time teens spend on social media has an indirect impact on their academic achievements. Given that Edgar Snyder and associates reported that 21% of teen drivers have died in a fatal crash due to social media, it has become such a big distraction that it has and will continue to take lives. Works Cited 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.2016-1758F. Accessed 21 January 2020.
K.Y. “Social Media and Teens.” School Library Journal, vol. 64, no. 10, October 2018, pp. 18-18. Academic Search Premier. Accessed 21 January 2020.
Peiró-Velet, Carmen, Alexandra Valencia-Peris, Luis M. González, Xavier García-Massó, Pilar Serra-Añó, José 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.
Snyder, Edgar and associates. “Texting and Driving Accident Statistics.” edgarsnyder.com. Accessed 5 March 2020. Research Paper Reflection
1. Explain the process you went through to write this paper. Please be specific.
First, we read our articles and made Cornell notes for each of the articles that we read. Then we went paragraph by paragraph and used our notes to help us. Finally, we finished our works cited page and annotated bibliography.
2. What qualifies this paper as an argumentative essay? What are the requirements for this genre and how did you meet them?
We were arguing on whether or not social media had an impact on teens. The requirements are main claim, evidence to support the claim, rebuttal, and restating the main claim. Our main claim is stated twice in the essay, we used the notes from the articles as evidence, and we also have a rebuttal.
3. Explain one thing you learned about reading research or taking notes on research that you can apply to your next research paper.
I learned how to take Cornell notes and how to properly break down the research and turn it into notes that I understand and can use.