Megan Stenmark

Professor Leah Huizar

UWRT 1102
18 October 2016
The Negative Impacts of Social Media
Social media plays a vital role in the daily lives of teenagers, whether it is sitting on their
phones for hours a day on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook. Even though we feel that these social
media apps keep us very up to date in the world and connected to our friends, several negative
impacts come along with it. While social media can be used appropriately, it can also be used
ineffectively by spending too much time on it as well as posting hatred words. This excessive
amount of time spent on social media has a strong correlation with symptoms of social isolation,
depression, cyberbullying, and sexting. Research shows that the incorrect use of social media has
taken a toll on adolescents physical and emotional health.
Social isolation is lack of communication between someone and society which usually
results in loneliness. This is a very common issue with frequent users of social media because
they get sidetracked from the real world. When people are constantly behind a computer screen
or cell phone communicating it makes it harder to not be socially awkward when talking to
someone face to face. Social isolation can also occur while you are scrolling down your
newsfeed everyday looking at unrealistic images that can bring down peoples self esteem. These
may be images of models, or a really nice personal belonging you want, and anything that can
make you feel that your less than the person you are. A study was shown that the more time
people spend on social networks the lower they felt their self esteem was. (Theobald, 2016.)
Social networks allow anyone to be your friend therefore people do this so they can feel like
they have more friends but in reality most users do not know all of the people they are friends
with which makes for the possibility of danger. Lastly, social media has caused intimacy in

Megan Stenmark

Professor Leah Huizar

UWRT 1102
18 October 2016
relationships to reduce because when couples hangout they are mostly on their phone and not
paying attention to each other which is what is actually important. ("5 Ways Social Media
Contributes to Social Isolation.") Depressive emotions are very common for heavy users of
social media networks. Doctor Stephanie Mihalas quotes Some people may spend time surfing
Facebook to try and escape their depressive symptoms. However, social media can actually
become a root of unhealthy emotions. These unhappy feelings occur because rather than going
outside, hanging out with friends, or doing an enjoyable activity you are stuck on your phone. A
lot of times while we are looking at social networks it is common to compare your life to
someone elses. Comparing your looks, lifestyles, or even personal belongings to others is very
unhealthy as it can put you down. While removing yourself from the outside world it can put you
in a lonely state of mind. Mihalas also states When youre socially withdrawn, theres a greater
tendency to ruminate about whats wrong. This is why it is extremely important to have face to
face relationships with people to stop depressive feelings from making you only think about the
negative in life. Social media is wonderful for keeping in communication with people, but dont
let it be the only interactions you have and affect your mental health stability.
Depression in teenagers is also linked to cyberbullying that occurs on social media
networks. Cyberbullying has become a more common phenomenon since the popularity in using
social media arose. Cyberbullying can begin by posting mean comments on pictures, hacking
someones account, or even posting embarrassing pictures of someone else to make fun of them.
Immature decisions like these are what can turn an easily preventable thing to something very
serious like bullying. A report from the Washington Post stated that nine out of ten Facebook

Megan Stenmark

Professor Leah Huizar

UWRT 1102
18 October 2016
users have reported they have witnessed bullying on this social media site. ("Social Media
Bullying Has Become a Serious Problem.") Facebook is not the only network that we see
bullying issues, another social media is ask.fm. This website allows you to post questions
anonymously to people which resulted in a lot of negative and offensive questions. A fourteenyear-old girl committed suicide due to this website because she was being bullied from the
questions people were posting on her page. Ask.fm network was shut down because of the high
rates of cyberbullying that occurred this website during a period of time. (Pappas, 2016.)
Cyberbullying is more common then bullying face-to-face because it is a lot easier to say harsh
comments behind a computer screen than in real life. To avoid this there are simple actions such
as shutting off cell phones, blocking people who are mean, or the best decision would be to let an
adult know before things get more intense and out of hand. Unfortunately, the negative and
serious drawbacks of social media seem to take over the beneficial ways of staying connected
with friends.
Sexting is another growing issue with teenagers due to the rise of technology and use of
social media. Social networks allow you to friend anyone and communicate with them if you
choose. This leads to strangers adding strangers and private messaging each other to get to know
more people. In some cases, the messaging turns into more of a sexting matter which can lead to
trouble. Teenagers are the age where they are trying to fit in and get feedback on how they look.
Sexting is also linked to depression because when teenagers do not get the response they want to
hear back or their pictures get sent around the internet it can emotionally harm them. (Stanfield,
2016.) According to the article, 39% of teenagers have admitted to being involved in texting

Megan Stenmark

Professor Leah Huizar

UWRT 1102
18 October 2016
through either nude pictures, lewd messages, or proactive videos. This is very serious because
most teenagers think in the moment and not in the future. These pictures will be in your digital
footprint forever and can jeopardize your chance in the future getting a job or college. Even if
you send it to your loved one at the age 17 it is a good chance they will not be your loved
one forever. The article states that 40% of nudes received are forwarded to other people than the
person you sent it to. ("Cyberbullying and Sexting on Social Media - Ncpc.org.") This is a good
statistic that shows not to trust people with an issue that can cause great deals of jeopardy to your
future and life.
Lastly, data results show that teenagers are impacted from social media due to
distractions from their school work and a lack of sleep. A lot of students reported that when they
get home from school they would rather be on social media then focusing on their homework.
This causes students to stay up later and still have homework to do which causes them to get less
sleep. According to the article, teenagers need on average nine and a half hours of sleep and most
are getting seven and a half or less because of social media. A Harvard study quoted that
students with irregular sleep patterns had lower grade-point averages than those whose sleep
times were relatively invariant. Teenagers not getting the appropriate sleep and staying up to be
on social media is reflecting poor grades. (Davis, 2016.) Not only, is it affecting students grades
but they are also more likely to suffer from sleep disturbances. Doctor Levensons study showed
that, On average, the participants used social media a total of 61 minutes per day and visited
various social media accounts 30 times per week. The assessment showed that nearly 30 percent
of the participants had high levels of sleep disturbance. (Gever, 2016.) Excessive use of social

Megan Stenmark

Professor Leah Huizar

UWRT 1102
18 October 2016
media can disturb the normal sleep patterns by staying up late posting, emotional arousal from a
heated conversation, and also the bright light from your phone. Most teenagers when they cannot
sleep go to their phone to keep them entertained while they cant fall asleep, this will soon turn
into a vicious cycle of no sleep. Using social media to often can create issues in your sleep
patterns as well as your capability to make good grades.
Although social media can have positive impacts on teenagers, through my research it is
obvious that the negative effects outweigh the good. Teenagers are not fully aware of all the
danger that comes along with posting on social media. To avoid the harm of depression,
cyberbullying, or even social isolation it is best to learn how to use social networking safely or
not at all. Not only those emotional effects, but isolating yourself from real word face-to-face
communication is not going to make you succeed in the real world. Social media is going to
continue to be dangerous until regulations are made to make it a safer environment for users.
People try to over power the point of social media which is to have an easy way to connect and
interact with friends. Instead people decided to blow things out of proportion which is why social
media is affecting so many people emotionally. The idea of social media was to bring the
communities together in a beneficial and easy way, in reality it is just pulling us apart and
destroying society. My advice would be to save ourselves from the psychological effects of
social networking, and find a way to interact person to person in an enjoyable and safe matter.

References

Megan Stenmark

Professor Leah Huizar

UWRT 1102
18 October 2016
"Cyberbullying and Sexting on Social Media - Ncpc.org." N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.
Davis, Riley. "Social Media Use May Lead to Poor Grades - Brown Daily Herald." N.p., n.d.
Web. 20 Oct. 2016.
Gever, John. "Social Media and Sleep: Is There a Problem? | Medpage Today." N.p., n.d. Web. 20
Oct. 2016.
"Mikel Theobald - Everyday Health." N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.
Pappas, Stephanie. "Cyberbullying on Social Media Linked to Teen Depression." N.p., n.d. Web.
19 Oct. 2016.
"Social Media Bullying Has Become a Serious Problem." N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Oct. 2016.
Stanfield, James. "Cause for Concern: Teenage Sexting and Social Media." N.p., n.d.
Web. 20 Oct. 2016.
"5 Ways Social Media Contributes to Social Isolation." ActiveBeat. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Oct. 2016.

Hyperlinks
1. http://www.nsteens.org/videos/cyberbullying
2. http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/05/health/teen-depression-social-media/index.html
3. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UH6SGR-NIkY