Taylor Grant

Professor Adam Padgett

ENGL 1102
2 April 2014
Social Media: Negative Effects on Mental Health and Educational Communication
While social media can have positive effects on the business community and worldwide
connection and networking, it can also have a detrimental effect on our youth. Seventeen years
have passed since the creating of the first social media website Sixdegrees.com which started in
1997 and continued till 2001.The site was developed and founded by CEO Andrew Weinreich
and was formerly named MacroView. Sixdegrees.com was based on the web of contacts model
that current social media and networking sites use. It was named after the concept of six degrees
of separation and the site allowed users to list family, friends and acquaintances both on the site
and externally. The external contacts were then invited to join the site. Sixdegrees was one of the
first manifestations of social networking websites in the current format seen today, but is not
well known. After Sixdegrees, Myspace started in 2003, Facebook was created in 2004 and
twitter followed in 2006. As of July 2011, Facebook passed 750 million users, LinkedIn had
over 100 million members, Twitter had over 177 million tweets per day, and YouTube reached
three billion views per day. (Guy 1) These sites have become a huge part of young peoples
everyday lives and the outcome is not always good. Today young people in the academic setting
struggle with proper grammar as a result of use and overuse of social media. The language
shortcuts used in text messages are becoming evident in students' academic writing
assignments. (Rankin 1) Social media also has adverse effects on the mental health of young
people. Lets face it, youre only going to put the highlights of your life on social media; you
Comment [AP1]: Okay, this is interesting
but I think you could get to the point a little
faster. I feel like youre repeating yourself.
Comment [AP2]: These are really staggering
numbers, but can you find more recent
numbers?
want yourself to look good to all your peers. This leads to constant comparison of others, which
lowers the self-esteem of young people. We usually dont post about our lonely nights at home,
money issues or saddening relationships. Although, this is not thought about when people start
comparing their lives to others and instead end up feeling despondent which can at times even
lead to low self-esteem, and depression. We need to realize these effects of social media and how
much they are affecting our youth. Ever since social media was created in 1997 it has negatively
impacted young adults mental health by many factors and now it also affects education and the
learning environment.
Education is one of the most important things in a young persons life. Good grades,
GPA and getting into college should be on every young adults mind but nowadays students are
constantly distracted by social media and dont spend enough time learning what they should,
when they should. Many students, even college students, are behind on social skills they should
have when dealing with academic and education. For example many of my fellow students dont
know how to properly email a teacher. They dont lead with an introduction and use language
shortcuts, which is unprofessional and unacceptable at the college level. Also I see many
students sitting in lecture halls on their laptops, just browsing social media, instead of taking
notes or paying attention. As documented in recent research, students and faculty are using
these emerging technologies and platforms in all facets of their daily lives, specifically social
media; yet, a low percentage of users are engaging in such for academic practice. (Guy 3) This
brings up the question, should teachers and professor be using this to their advantage? Posting
assignments and reading on the internet is usual for some college professors and even high
school teachers, but should they expand that and incorporate social media into their curriculum
as well? Or does this reach too far and promote the use of too much social media for educational
Comment [AP3]: Okay, good clear thesis. It
seems as though youll largely be focusing on
social medias impact on education.
Comment [AP4]: Are you basing this off
personal experience? If so, should you state
this more clearly? It feel like you are
conjecturing a little here (even though I agree
with this assessment).
Comment [AP5]: Good question.
purposes? The growing interest in social dimensions of learning has led educators and
instructional designers to examine the integration of social media in both traditional and distance
learning environments. (Guy 7) Using websites like Moodle or Blackboard for posting
assignments is easier for the educator and for the students. While using social media in the
classroom might capture more students attention, its not worth it in the long run. Social media
is already a huge distraction in a students life and adding onto its use, especially while in a
classroom setting, would create an even bigger distraction.
Professors are struggling with many things relating to social media in the academic
setting but mostly they struggle with their student writing. Students need to understand when to
use language shortcuts and when to write in the proper academic format. Social media and these
language shortcuts have led to a decrease in properly worded and properly proportioned papers
in the academic setting. Language shortcuts, word abbreviations and acronyms have a
detrimental impact on developmental students grammar and spelling skills. This is based off the
theory that students use what they are most familiar with as they gain new knowledge.
The mental health of a young adult is greatly affected by social media and the internet.
Young adults already struggle with self-esteem and how society shows us who is pretty and
who isnt. This is amplified by social media, immensely. No one is going to post pictures of
themselves on social media when they are looking their worst. Most people use social media to
show the glamorous and beautiful part of their lives, not the rough times. This fact makes
comparison to others on social media increase dramatically, because no one is ever completely
natural. Its very easy to get caught up in the image of a person and their life that social media
presents. This can then lead to envy, rejections, and subconscious comparisons with our friends.
Comment [AP6]: How are you coming to
this conclusion? What evidence have you used
to come to this conclusion?
Comment [AP7]: Again, I need you to make
use of credible citation in order to use this in
your argument. Otherwise this all seems like
conjecture.
Another harmful mental health issue with social media is that it lowers attentions spans in
young adults. My fear is that these technologies are infantilizing the brain into the state of small
children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span
and who live for the moment.(Mackey 1) Social media has been linked to a rise in attention
deficit- hyperactivity disorder. The reason behind this theory is that the young brain is exposed to
quick flashes of the screen, fast action and reaction and speedy interchange might make the brain
used to operating within these time constraints.
Young adults, especially women, are very much influenced by what the view on social
media and their environment. The effect of media on womens body dissatisfaction, thin ideal
internalization, and disordered eating appears to be stronger among young adults than children
and adolescents. This may suggest that long-term exposure during childhood and adolescence
lays the foundation for the negative effects of media during early adulthood.(NEDA 1) Social
media influences young women to think negatively about themselves. Media portray women as
size 2-4 when in reality the average American women is a size 12-14. This creates an image in
the minds of young girls that they are not good enough or skinny enough. Which leads to them
wanting to do anything to fit in and be perfect, like the images they see in the media.
Researchers have postulated that the thin-ideal body image portrayed in the media contributes
to eating pathology among females.(Stice and Shaw 1) Bulimia and anorexia are a serious
problem with young women and social media basically promotes these habits. For example a
recent trend is the thigh gap. The unattainable goal is to become so thin that there is a gap
between the thighs even when your feet are together. Its said that the wider the gap the sexier
the person, which is insane. Experts say that social media forces teen girls into adopting
unhealthy eating habits that often lead to eating disorders.(Stice and Shaw 3) Social media sites
Comment [AP8]: Could you briefly tell who
this person is and why I should value their
opinion?
Comment [AP9]: This is a really interesting
idea.
are not checked enough. People get positive attention by losing weight on social media sites,
which has a seriously detrimental effect on teens and young adults.
Social phobias and feelings of inadequacy are also aspects of mental health that are
harmed through the use of social media. After associating with and wishing happy birthday or
happy anniversary to 50 or more friends or followers on Facebook and Twitter you can feel
pretty depleted and hesitant about real, face to face conversation. You can log onto and social
networking sites and see births, marriages, job promotions and engagements. Even though
people exaggerate on social media, its still good enough news that you are comparing your own
life to it. You might be having a perfectly normal day and decide to browse Facebook on your
lunch hour. You then come across a picture of your best friend from high school getting engaged
and think to yourself, Im older than her and Im still single and alone. Thats enough to ruin
someones day, especially a womens. Those social postings have people all around the world
comparing themselves against them and feeling inadequate because of it.
Fear of missing out and the inability to be alone are also two other negative mental health
effects of the use of social media. Fear of missing out is an actual phenomenon (FOMO). This
phenomenon keeps people attached to social media because they are afraid of missing out on
important events. The inability to be alone happens a lot when it comes to social media. Young
people use it as a source to make friends when sometimes its hard for them to make friends in
person. There is always someone online to talk to can confide in and some people dont have that
in real life, so they turn to social media. When youre always chatting with friends online; its
difficult to be truly alone without them. Some people who are addicted to social media find
theyre suddenly unable to be alone or enjoy their own company. Basically, we are unable to
truly be alone because of social media therefore we are far more likely to be lonely as a result.
In conclusion social media negatively affects young adults and teens body image and
overall mental health. Social media leads young people to compare themselves to others and
celebrities. Depression, negative body image, anxiety and eating disorders can then stem from
these unhealthy comparisons. This affects the overall health of the teen and can produce
problems that follow them into adulthood. Social media also affects young adults education. It
can stunt them socially so they dont know how to act or communicate in an academic
environment. Social media can also lead to grammar, syntax and overall language and
communication issues in students.
Taylor,
I like a lot of the issues you bring to the table. It is clear that you have researched your topic very
well, and I think you do a good job engaging these sources and including your own thoughtful
opinion. I do feel that you cover too many disparate topics in this one paper. You discuss
education, self-image, and distraction all in the same paper. You should be much more clear and
focused in terms of your thesis and every paragraph should be dedicated to supporting that one
precise thesis. Covering these disparate issues takes away a sense of purpose that you would
otherwise have with a more specific and precise thesis. What is your purpose here? Im not sure.
Who is your ideal audience? What sort of effect do you hope to achieve on that audience?
Having that said, I do think youve done a good job with these respective conversations and
maintaining your point of view.


















Works Cited

"Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders | National Eating Disorders Association." Media, Body Image,
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<https://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/media-body-image-and-eating-disorders>.

Guy, Retta. "THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR ACADEMIC PRACTICE: A REVIEW OF
LITERATURE." Kentucky Journal of Higher Education 7th ser. 1.2 (2012): 1-
21. Http://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=kjhepp. University of
Kentucky, 23 July 2012. Web. 24 Feb. 2014.
<http://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1015&context=kjhepp>.

Rankin, Sherry. "The Impact of Text Messaging Language Shortcuts on Developmental
Students' Formal Writing Skills." Diss. Texas A&M University, n.d.
Udini. Web. 20 Feb. 2014. <http://udini.proquest.edu/view/the-impact-of-text-messaging
goid:807418333/>.

Mackey, Robert. "Is Social Networking Killing You?" The Lede Is Social Networking Killing You
Comments. New York Times, 14 Feb. 2011. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.
<http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/is-social-networking-killing-you/?

Stice, Eric, and Heather E. Shaw. "Adverse Effects of the Media Portrayed Thin-Ideal on Women and
Linkages to Bulimic Symptomatology." Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology 13.3 (1994):
288-308. Print.