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Oscar Uribe
Professor Khadka
English 113B
25 February 2016
The Effects Social Media Has on Teenagers
When it comes to internet, there are many programs or devices that help us understand its
evolution. At this time, technology is so advanced that we use it pretty much every day. (Take
for instance this computer. If technology wasnt invented or the internet, then this machine
would be kind of useless). Teenagers now a days use the internet for pretty much everything,
whether they need to look up some answers for a question they dont understand, or they simply
just want to watch a video on YouTube. The biggest adaptation of the internet is used on social
media. Many social media apps are great for teens because they can communicate with their
peers in and out of school. However, using social media can have a negative effect on teenagers.
To figure out exactly what these positive and negative effects are about using social media, we
must first find out what social media is and what applications exist, or which ones are more
popular in 2016.
First of all, social media is a website or application that enables people to use the internet
in order to create a social network. Some websites include Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and
many more. Social media applications include Instagram, Snapchat, Kik, WhatsApp, etc. The
question here is, why do people use the internet? Why do teenagers rely on the internet so much
these days? Many teens, including myself, use the internet because it makes our lives easier. The
use of social apps make it easier for people to communicate with each other, even if the other
person is on the other side of the world. How does someone create or use a social networking

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site? Social networking sites are designed to foster social interaction in a virtual environment.
In general, communication is facilitated through information posted in the profile (i.e., the user's
personal page), which often includes a photograph of the member and personal information
describing his or her interests, both of which provide information about one's identity (Pempek,
227). This description is true for basically any social website because this way, it allows the
users to know exactly who you are and what youre interests are. Now that we have a basic
understanding of what social media is, we need to figure out the positive effects of using social
media apps.
Using social media can bring a positive effect on the lives of teenagers. When it comes to
using networking apps, they can be useful for many occasions. For instance, many teens can use
Facebook or Twitter to stay communicated with many of their peers in and outside of school.
Students can also in fact use the power of social media to help each other out when one person
doesnt understand a certain lecture from a class. Another social application that could help out
teenagers is Snapchat. Snapchat allows users to send and receive pictures that disappear between
one to ten seconds, depending on the time the user wants it to be seen. This can help teens
because they can follow along with whatever their other friends are doing. How does using social
media impact our society in a positive way? A CNN article stated that On the whole, teens said
that they feel that social media has a more positive than negative impact on their social and
emotional lives, said Shira Lee Katz, Common Sense Media's director of digital media. They
believe that social media helps their friendships, makes them feel more outgoing and gives them
confidence (Wallace). Katz is referring to a survey that she conducted among teens, which is
available to view on the CNN website. This could very much be the case for some people. If they

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find it secure and comforting using social media, then by all means they should use it. With
every good invention, however, there is always a down side to things.
Even something so good, has some flaws that surge out from it. Although using social
media can be influencing on the social life for teenagers, it can also bring negative impacts into
society. The most notable negative effect that the use of social media has brought us is the lack
of face to face communication. With technology advancing almost every single minute, it is very
hard to keep track of all the changes. Teenagers today are always looking at their phones, so its
more noticeable that they do not like the whole face to face interaction. When it comes to
education, however, that is where the negative effects start to happen. Many students use social
media to cheat on tests or homework, or they look up all the answers online, which at the long
run doesnt help out with the students GPA. In regards to education, Stoney Brooks had this to
say; Jacobsen and Forste (2011) found a negative relationship between usage of various types of
electronic media, including social networking, and first-semester grades. Heavy Facebook use
has been seen in students with a lower grade point average (GPA); though it cannot be said that
Facebook is the cause for the lower GPA, there was a significant relationship between usage and
GPA (27). This relates to the previous statement about using social media for answers. This
may in fact be true for some cases.
To expand on the negative effects, social media can cause harm to many teens. The use of
social media can create cyber-bullying, mental breakdowns, low productivity, and so much more.
Probably a big issue that deals with social media is the idea of becoming addicted to it. Addiction
isnt just for the physical substance, it can also be for the electronic as well. On Linkedin, there
was a list of good and bad effects of social media. Heres one about addiction. Spending
countless hours on the social sites can divert the focus and attention from a particular task. It

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lowers the motivational level of the people, especially of the teenagers and students. They mainly
rely on technology and the internet instead of learning the practical knowledge and expertise of
the everyday life (Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society). I personally have
experienced people like this, and let me just tell you, its very sad to witness teenagers like this.
This could be arguably the most common negative effect that happens when using social media.
To conclude, I did a survey in my Math 210 class here at CSUN where I asked who uses
social media on a daily basis. Around 90% of the class did, however, when I asked if they used
social media for educational purposes, around 10% of the class raised their hand. This was not
really shocking for me because many teens do not like school, so they wouldnt use social
networks in order to increase their knowledge. To finalize, social media can bring a positive
outcome to teenagers everywhere, as well as negative outcomes. We see that social media makes
communication easier and faster, however it decreases face to face communication. It also brings
entertainment to teens, but can later become an addiction. Either way, there is not just a good
side or a bad side to this topic. Social media pretty much has a mixture of both. If you do a
positive thing, chances are that a negative outcome might spur from whatever is happening.

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Works Cited
Brooks, Stoney. "Does Personal Social Media Usage Affect Efficiency and Well-being?."
Computers in Human Behavior, 46 (2015): 26-37. 20 Feb. 2016
Facebook Database (1): Pempek, Tiffany A, Yevdokiya A Yermolayeva, and Sandra L Calvert.
"College Students' Social Networking Experiences on Facebook." Journal of Applied
Developmental Psychology, 30.3 (2009): 227-238. 20 Feb. 2016
Mwila, Ali Kingston. "Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society."
<i>Linkedin</i>. Linkedin, 31 Oct. 2015. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.
Wallace, Kelly. "The Upside of Selfies: Social Media Isn't All Bad for Kids." <i>CNN</i>.
Cable News Network, 7 Oct. 2014. Web. 20 Feb. 2016.