Reflective Essay on Effects of Social Media on the Youth

My research, "Effects of Social Media on the Youth," started with an experiment that was merely thought. I was very fortunate that I attended some of the research writing lessons with my English professor who advised me and taught me to turn the thought experiments that I had into research.

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Social media deals majorly with technological advancement. I most cases, the youth commit a lot of their times marauding through the social media in search of things that are otherwise of no importance to them. Social media has a lot of effects on the youth in the sense that they put a lot of their time into it. They have neglected some duties that they are required to perform to stay online. However, social media has also been beneficial to the youth.

I framed the study to the students of Institute of Business Management and Facebook because it is the social networking platform that is mostly used by students (Forest et al., 2012). Facebook, however, was used as a representative of social media that was used in the study. Further, correlation and a regression model were used to analyze the data with the aid of SPSS statistics that were used to test the relationship that existed between self-esteem and social media (Steinfield et al., 2008).

But I had never got satisfied with some of the effects of social media on the youth as they have become adverse to the extent that they are an addiction to them. Most youths spend more than half of their time on social media.

The analysis and evaluation of the strategies used in the study further helped me build a proper content for my research paper. The strategies, in this case, involved looking at the methodology employed in the study and emulating the concepts used. Evaluating the literature review helped me to gather substantial knowledge on the effects of social media, as the technology, on the youths. As part of this literature, I was able to establish that as technology continues to advance and devices become more available, youths get more access to social media platforms which at times can be additive to them. Unlike half a century ago when teenagers used to gather in one place, connect and have fun, nowadays youths have become less connected socially, but their number of friends online continues to grow. A large number of the youth ends up spending lots of time alone finding refuge in the social media.

I began my research by firstly refreshing my knowledge of essay writing and other literary works, by going back to former research articles and books, but I needed to know more about this. I, therefore, began accessing more papers regarding research on the effects of social media. This would have been unachievable without accessing some of the significant resources from the library most specifically on the research port.

In coming up with this research, I provided selected students with questionnaires so that I could collect the necessary information that I needed concerning the effects of social media on the youth. They were the most appropriate lot because they were being affected by this problem directly.

Afterward, I developed the research question that was entirely relevant to the topic of study. The questions guided me in answering the research objectives on the topic effects of social media on the youth. The problem was more than necessary because they offered a direction on how the research was to achieve its primary goals, that is, effects of social media

As the research continued, I came up with reasons for reduced self-esteem by social media user (Steinfield et al., 2008). I observed that as a result of the comparisons that most youths make in the socials media, their esteems lowers since the social media comparisons lead to distress that lowers the self-esteem of the involved youths.

At the same time, while observing this problem, I realized that since the emergence of social media uses, the social media sites have become part and parcel of youth's lives.

As my research continued, I began to look at the effects of social media on the youth this being the topic of the study so that I could be able to communicate my ideas. I realized many effects of this problem ranging from positive to negative ones. Of course, adverse effects outweighed the positive ones. In looking at this section, the invaluable effort of my research director was commendable.

It is true that various sources are available that supports the study, "social media" being a frequent topic. Other sources also cover the impact social media has on youths and self-esteem. According to Forest and Wood, minimizing the use of social media will help people be in a position to have face to face communication. Moreover, the authors believe that people lose a lot when they invest so much in social media. All in all, I had a wide range of sources to get the necessary information necessary for the project (Hawi et al., 2017). Online sources on the internet also provided valuable information that made up the project. Scholarly articles, on the other hand, provide credible and proven information on the topic I am investigating. Many reports have been delivered, explaining the impact of social media on self-esteem. Some articles have given details of how the use of various social media platforms can also affect the people around users.

From this research on the effects of social media on the youth, I noted how time-consuming it could be to access relevant data. Besides, I also had a chance to learn how significant it is to share ideas with others who are knowledgeable in the field as this helped me a great deal to develop my research on the effects of social media on the youth. Discussing my thought with experts complemented other authors published the reading works that I went through that regarding the topic. This work also showed how important it is to utilize the diverse sources of information that existed fully

In the end, I am proud of this research; I believe it asks a fundamental question regarding social media usage. I, therefore, believe that I felt satisfied by following my thought experiment throughout the research up to the end.

Conclusion

In conclusion, it is evident that social media has a powerful effect on the self-esteem of users. It is true that students use the social networking sites for communication, getting information, as well as building and maintaining relationships. It is however evident that the majority of the people mostly make downward and upward comparisons with others. From the study, it has been realized that upward comparisons make people desire others and even their lifestyle and also feel less obliged and ungrateful for their achievements. Due to this, the self-esteem of such individuals gets negatively impacted (Hawi et al., 2017).

Works Cited

Forest, Amanda L., and Joanne V. Wood. "When social networking doesn't work: Individuals with low self-esteem recognize but don't reap the benefits of self-disclosure on Facebook." Psychological science 23.3 (2012): 295-302.

Hawi, Nazir S., and Maya Samaha. "The relations among social media addiction, self-esteem, and life satisfaction in university students." Social Science Computer Review 35.5 (2017): 576-586.

Steinfield, Charles, Nicole B. Ellison, and Cliff Lampe. "Self-esteem, social capital and use of online social network sites: A longitudinal analysis." Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology 29.6 (2008): 434-445.