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Rikaela Bernardo

Jennifer Rodrick

University Writing 115

5 October 2017

Social Media + Technology = A Manipulative Disaster?

Social media has its perks, but can it actually be harmful for individuals who aren't

careful? After the development of technology and the internet, networks such as social media

and advertisements have emerged into modern society in a way that affects how people interact

with one another and how they look at their lives in another lense they never had before. Specific

networks such as Facebook and InstaGram, and advertisements for companies such as Nike and

Neutrogena have made individuals more self-conscious about how they look, how they act, and

how they feel. This affects daily lives of individuals, like hearing that McDonalds is bad for

your health or youre not skinny enough like the women shown in commercials or on your feed.

There are many factors from social media gathered and seen upon wide ranges of audiences,

especially teens and college students today. Upon some of these factors are feeling accepted in

social media, the self-esteem demolished due to social media, establishing false connections over

social media, and the interruption of social activities ironically because of social media. These

factors can lead to mental disorders like depression and anxiety, common in teenagers and

college students.

Social media can buffer or burn out the self-esteem of individuals, whether it would be

the battle for likes or feeling as if the individual isnt good enough. This is most apparent within

teens trying to fit in or feel good about themselves. The need to belong and the need to feel liked

can reside among most teenagers and college students like myself. Research according to the
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UCLA brain mapping center used an fMRI scanner to image the brains of 32 teenagers as they

used a social media app resembling InstaGram (CNN.com). The team at UCLA noticed how

certain regions of the brains reward circuitry were active due to the likes they got on the app.

Lauren Sherman said that the regions shown for activity is the same group of regions that

respond to seeing a picture of someone we love or winning money Based on this research, it can

be concluded how social media affects human responses and chemicals within the brain to

stimulate feel-good chemicals, or dopamine. Sometimes the responses can also be negative

though. Not everything in social media is about the sprinkles or frosting on the cake. Sometimes

it involves a favorite flavor of frosting, but what about the flavor of the cake? Even if teenagers

sometimes get the positive effects of social media, it can cause a domino effect of negative

emotions and affects. This is only the beginning.

Social media can start off as a cute, little puppy given to someone as a birthday present,

until it decides to use their nice carpet or floors as a toilet. Now it turns into a little devil they

wish they denied a long time ago. Yeah, its the same thing with social media. At first, it seems

all hunky dory until it starts taking over someones life. The French researchers from Institut

Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, in an 2013 article published in PLoS ONE, found that the more

time we spend on social media sites, like Facebook, comparing ourselves to others, the more

depressed we get (bustle.com). Noticing how one student is having a better time than another on

the opposite screen can be degrading on the student that wishes to be doing and feeling the same

thing, which results to the feeling of sadness or emptiness. The realization hits the student when

they see another having a seemingly perfect life on screen, when reality its not the case. The

fake notion of a perfect or better life gets a student or teen to feel depressed about their own

lives, unable to cope with their situation in a healthy way. At one moment, a perfect selfie
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couldve taken an hour to perfect, via make-up, lighting, and maybe even filters. Perfection is

only a fallacy made up in social media, and teens and students are not able to establish that fact.

Instead, they strive to feel good enough or perfect to fit in with social medias expectations.

Examples would be driving women to starve themselves in order to feel more confident about

their bodies, and the pressure of men to be muscular rather than thin in social media

(www.nationaleatingdisorders.org). Expectations like a woman with a thin waist and size 0

pants, or a man with big muscles and an eight pack are not healthy at all for teens or students due

to social media.

Making friends is great in real life, but not in social media. Teens can find friends online

they can stick to for a while, but at the end of the day there are risks to that. One risk would be

that instead of meeting a 16-year-old online, its a 24-year-old pedofile. Yes. Pedophiles dont

have to be 60-years-old, wearing glasses, and have a beard. Based on my experience over

Facebook, Ive met a man online whom I thought was 19 when I was 12-years-old. Instead, I

found out he was the age of 34. I felt really grossed out even if he was a nice guy. According to

PureSight, Internet sexual predators tend to fall between the ages of 18 and 55, although some

are older or younger. Their targets tend to be between the ages of 11 and 15. Also, 33% of

teens are Facebook friends with other people they have not met in person (puresight.com). The

dangers of teens being exposed to pedofiles and predators is pretty scary. But sometimes, theyre

not all pedophiles. Sometimes, they can be other teenagers who are toxic and are bad influences

to other teens, such as long-term relationships.

Long term relationships, or LDR, can be toxic or work out. Either way, there are always

struggles with LDRs. Staying with a person just because they are a nice person and an individual

gets along with them well does not mean that it could end well. Off my personal experience, Ive
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been in about six LDRs and all have failed to meet expectations, causing my abandonment

issues, anxiety, and depression for quite a while. Its the false notion of a relationship that could

pull someone in, and thats whats dangerous or toxic. One moment they can be perfect for

someone, the next they start cyber-bullying them or leave them to feel awful.

...about one in five texters say they have received the dreaded "breakup text,"

according to one sample (Weisskirch & Delevi, 2012). People who send and receive

these texts tend to have greater attachment anxiety, meaning they may have a deep-seated

fear of rejection and abandonment, as well as a low sense of self-worth (Weisskirch &

Delevi, 2012) (www.psychologytoday.com).

The effects of false connections like LDRs could lead to depression, anxiety, and more

disorders that could be triggered in these situations. To extend upon another important issue is to

become aware that social media is driving teens and college students to distance themselves from

their family and whats happening around them.

Think about it. When was the last time you wanted to walk around outside and do some

exercise rather than being on social media? Even so, would you do it for your own benefit or

show off to your friends and family thats youre working out? How about going nature walking

or doing homework and finishing earlier for a change? Family bonding rather than checking your

feed? All of these things are interrupted by social media and it halts quality time spent with the

reality around teens and college students. To not be fully engaged in healthy activities in life can

lead to negative effects such as eating disorders, depression, and interruption of your sleep

cycle, according to Jodie Gumwow in an article for AlterNet (bustle.com). Using science as an

aid to understand more about the sleep cycle and how the light of your phone or any other device

could affect sleep is a way to become aware of what should and shouldnt be done before bed.
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To break it down easily, during the night, the pineal gland produces a hormone called melatonin

that makes you sleepy (livescience.com). Keeping this in mind, another factor that could

contribute to sleep deprivation is how the brightness of a device could act as light towards the

suprachiasmatic nucleus, a part within the hypothalamus in the brain that includes thousands of

cells that receive information about light exposure directly from the eyes and control your

behavioral rhythm (ninds.nih.gov). If this part of the brain is exposed to light, melatonin doesnt

get produced efficiently compared to a room with lights turned off, causing the inability to sleep

well or feel tired effectively, hence the reason why we close our eyes and feel tired when its a

dark place. If a teenager or a young adult stays up all night on their phones texting or on social

media, then they will most likely be prone to sleep deprivation and not be able to function well

with lack of sleep the next day, affecting their academic progress at school and at home.

Social media can influence teens to young adults in many different ways, whether it be

self-esteem or identity. It is important to know that every day teenagers and college students are

going through these struggles that social media has come to establish in the cyber-society theyre

living in today. The negative effects of social media have disrupted their identities in a handful

of ways that could negatively affect the way they see themselves, halting their self-realization,

sense of self, and progress of becoming adults with careers. Instead of teens and students being

distracted with meeting societys norms and expectations, they should work on what they already

have and be satisfied with who they are to work for what they want to be in life, rather than be

driven by social media that halts their growth as progressing human beings. Being influenced by

social medias norms do not make who they are, neither would being locked up in a cage called

social media could help an individual grow and find out who they truly are. Social media users

should be careful on how they use them, otherwise only regretful memories could be made
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instead of happy ones. One of the greatest tragedies in life is to lose your own sense of self and

accept the version of you that is expected by everyone else (K.L Toth in goodreads.com), so

stay true to who you are and do not be swayed by social media and their norms.

Works Cited

Brain Basics: Understanding Sleep. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke,

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/Patient-

Caregiver-Education/Understanding-Sleep. Accessed 4 October 2017.

DiDonato, Theresa. Is Constant Texting Good or Bad for Your Relationship? Psychology

Today, Sussex Publishers, 21 Mar. 2014, www.psychologytoday.com/blog/meet-catch-

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and-keep/201403/is-constant-texting-good-or-bad-your-relationship. Accessed 21

September 2017.

East, Susie. How Does Social Media Affect Your Brain. CNN, Cable News Network, 1 Aug.

2016, www.cnn.com/2016/07/12/health/social-media-brain/index.html. Accessed 19

September 2017.

Media, Body Image, and Eating Disorders. National Eating Disorders Association,

www.nationaleatingdisorders.org/media-body-image-and-eating-disorders. Accessed 21

October 2017.

Newsome, Teresa. 7 Ways Social Media Can Affect Your Self-Esteem. Bustle, Bustle, 26 Jan.

2016, www.bustle.com/articles/137275-7-ways-social-media-can-affect-your-self-

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Online Predators - Statistics. Online Predators - Statistics | PureSight | Pedophiles/Online

Predators, puresight.com/Pedophiles/Online-Predators/online-predators-

statistics.html#source7. Accessed 18 September 2017.

Pantic, Igor. Online Social Networking and Mental Health. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and

Social Networking, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., 1 Oct. 2014,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4183915/. Accessed 18 September 2017.

Tolly, Katlyn. Does Social Media Affect Students Self-Esteem? USA Today, Gannett Satellite

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media-affect-students-self-esteem/. Accessed 21 September 2017.

Toth, K.L. Quotes About Sense Of Self (51 Quotes). (51 Quotes),

www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/sense-of-self. Accessed 5 October 2017.

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Welsh, Jennifer. Feel-Good Brain Chemical's Role in Sleep. LiveScience, Purch, 19 June 2012,

www.livescience.com/21050-feel-good-brain-chemical-s-role-in-sleep.html. Accessed 2

October 2017.