Blade Jones

Professor Mcampbell
English 101
11/18/2015

The above photo shows social media sites as needles most likely symbolizing
it as an addictive drug such as heroine. (Unknown source)

Social media is our identity; it controls our thought process, our interactions
between one another, and how we perceive ourselves and life all together. This
thing that we allow to define us and rely so heavily on acts like the most addictive
drug we have ever known and we cant seem to get enough of it. It continues to
grow and fester and becomes more and more needed as time moves forward, and
this just kind of seems to be the normal thing that everyone accepts. The thing that

is perceived to keep us so well connected and we think is such a great thing is our
biggest distraction and is slowly destroying us as a society and as people.
Social Media has completely changed our thought process and the way we
approach different situations and problems. According to Patricia Greenfield, a UCLA
distinguished Professor of psychology and director of the Childrens Digital Media
Center, Los Angeles, our skills in critical thinks and analysis have declined as
technology and social media has become more apparent in everyday life. We as a
society can no longer analyze and solve different problems without directly turning
to social media. One recent example of this is the Paris massacre carried out by
ISIS. The first thing we did to help the wounded shooting victims and affected family
and friends who lost their loved ones, was change our profile pictures on social
media sites to the French flag. In no way, shape, or form does this help the people
affected in the shooting. Why are we even turning to social media in an event like
this? How does it provide any kind of solution to the problem presented in this
situation? How does it provide any kind of assistance to the French people? All that
is happening here is we are providing ourselves with another example of how social
media is used in every situation no matter how horrific or magnificent because we
dont know what else to turn to. Our critical thinking has been dwindled down by
social media to the point that we rely on it to do the critical thinking instead. Things
such as reading for pleasure have become a dying quall overshadowed by the
larger, more addictive power of social media. Despite the fact reading provides us
with sharper critical thinking skills, induction, and vocabulary (Wolpert, Stuart)
The reason social media is so prolifically prevalent throughout the world
today is because there are so many users. Most everyone today has a smartphone;
as a result, people have very easy access into the social media world. According to

the National Center for Biotechnology Information (A group dedicated solely to

collecting statistics and studying how technology affects Human life) and U.S
National library of medicine, since 2005 in America, social media users that are
adults rose from around eight-percent to nearly seventy two-percent. Also in 2012 it
was recorded there were over one billion Facebook users (a number that represents
over one-seventh of the population), Over one-hundred million active twitter
members send out sixty-five million tweets a day, and two billion YouTube videos
are watched a day. So much time is spent on these sites that communicating in
person almost becomes irrelevant. Communicating in person becomes almost
awkward in some situations because so much time is spent communicating over
technology and social media. Or communication in person becomes eradicated; like
having someone two feet away but that person might as well be across the world
because we ignore the things that are right in front of us when distracted by the
addictive drug that is social media.
Not only does social media define our identity, it controls our self-esteem and
how we look at oneself in the mirror. As a consequence of chronic or temporary
exposure to primarily upward social comparison information on social media, there
could be a deleterious impact on peoples self-evaluations and self-esteems.
(Vogel, Erin. 206). Social media can put an individual into a world that one may not
be prepared for. Cyberbullying can occur to a person of any age on social media
sites. Social Media also gives us unrealistic and unfathomable expectations of what
kind of person we have to be or become. When people cannot achieve such a result,
one will become frustrated affecting their self-evaluation, self-worth, and selfesteem. Along with their outside communication and interactions with others. In
particular, we suggest that trait self-esteem may be affected by long term exposure

to social media in everyday life (3, 206). Just using social media in our everyday
lives affects the way we see life in general. Using it every day may make life seem
less enjoyable without it.
Social Media does however provide upsides making things much more
accessible and communication between one another over longer distances much
easier. One can talk to one from over two-thousand miles away in an instant. Social
media just having us well connected is a gross understatement and could very
well be the best communication device ever created in terms of transferring data
through technology and online to communicate to one another over a distance.
Social media also provides a wide variety of entertainment and can bring joy and
create moments in which would be impossible without it. Social media provides
many benefits when just driving down a one way street without thinking about how
much gas is in the tank. How long can we continue to rely on this addiction without
a major cost? Every addiction eventually ends in an overdose its just a matter of
when it occurs. The cost of social media outweighs the benefits it provides. Allowing
an addiction to define our identity will never end in the correct direction.
Social media keeps us so well connected but at the same time we have never
been so far apart. There is a video named Look up ironically enough on social
media sites. The video is mainly about a couple who fall in love and grow old
together because they bumped into each other on the sidewalk in the middle of the
city. The video continues to go on about their life and the experiences they have
together as they grow old. While lying on his death bed he tells his wife how happy
he was to bump into that young girl on the sidewalk. As he says this, the video
takes a turn and shows what actually happens. The video flashes back to that one
little catalyst moment when they bump into each other on the sidewalk. The man

gets an alert on his phone and stops on the side walk so he never bumps into that
young girl. There are so many things we as people miss and neglect because we
allow social media to run our lives. Just one little thing such as this can change a life
forever. Dont miss out on that one little thing in life. Just once look up, life may
change forever.

Works cited
Artist N/A, social media injection? Web. 2012

Obler, Andre, Lito Cruz, and Kristopher Welsh. Social Media Data Collection Can
Lead to Violations of Privacy Are Social Networking Sites Harmful? 17.7 (2 July
2012): Web. 18 Nov. 2015

Ventola, Lee C. Social Media and Health Care Professionals: Benefits, Risks, and
Best Practices Pharmacy and therapeutics 39.7 (July 2014): 491-499, 520. Web. 18
Nov. 2015

Vogel, Erin A., Jason P. Rose, Lindsay R. Roberts, and Katheryn Eckles. Social
Comparison, Social Media, and Self-Esteem. Psychology of popular media culture
3.4 (2014): 206-222. Web. 18 Nov. 2015

Wolpert, Stuart Is technology producing a decline in critical thinking and analysis?

UCLA Newsroom. UCLA Office of Media Relations, 27 Jan. 2009. Web. 18 Nov. 2015
<newsroom.ucla.edu/releases/is-technology-producing-a-decline-79127>