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Adam Jones E. Caruso English 1102 9 April 2013 Memo: I chose to write my caps assignment in the form of a magazine article. The article would be in some form of informative magazine such as Psychology Today. The content I feel like this would be th most effective place for the article. The article I wrote contains information about social media addiction and how it affects society. Most people dont put much thought into how or even that social media has negative effects on society. This article is directed at readers of the article but most importantly people that may have a social addiction and not even realize it. When people read this article my hope is that it will bring awareness to them about the dangers of social media and hopefully detour them from completely submersing them selfs in the world of social media. Social media: the new drug of choice Crack may not be the only thing your loved ones are addicted to. As technology progresses further, us as humans are becoming less social on the face to face level and spend more time on computers. As this obsession with social media grows it begins to alter the way we view the world on two levels. First on a personal level, how we view ourselves. This problem has drastically increased due to the easy access to sites such as Facebook, Pintrist and Instagram. Mass social media sites, such as these, give people a false interpretation of how individuals truly

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are. As the addicts grow in numbers society its self becomes infected. Social media has developed a lazy and judgmental culture. However, to understand how it effects our views and actions, we must understand why people have strayed away from the face to face interactions, and reverted to this hermit like way of communication. Many people dont realize the repercussions of their problems much less that they have one , its only once the issues are brought to the surface that one can understand how to face them. There are many reasons in which we use social media, whether it is to keep up with lost friends, follow our favorite sports teams, or find a new place to eat. Social media is a tricky part of todays society. On one hand it can ease the stress of everyday life, but on the other hand it can suck you in with just a few mouse clicks . An estimated 47%, nearly half of, (social media pro con) adults use some form of social media. With numbers this high it is almost impossible to escape the inevitable transition from convenience to addiction. Escapism is realized by means of entertainment and recreation, through which we try to repress feelings of sadness, depression or daily stress (Travarikus, No Taboo). The further one burrows down in to the social media world, the further they become detached from reality. This harmless form of coping leads to a whole new problem, what is truly reality. The movie the matrix demonstrates this best. As the humans were put on this machine and put into their new reality, they became detached from what was real and attached to this pseudo reality. As people spend more time on the internet scrolling through friends pictures and checking up on whats hot this season. They begin to judge themselves on how they should dress, look, and act on a mass scale. As these new issues begin to surface the original issues still exist and begin to pile up. The more and more you submerse yourself in social media the more and more these issues pile up until you eventually reach your

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breaking point. Escapism into social media has caused a multitude of problems, the most detrimental of all being the way we view ourselves. A society is Social media influences and affects people in a sundry of ways. The most detrimental way is on the personal level. As people get further and further into social media the more distracted they come from their lives. Instead of worrying about life in general people begin to reach for material goals such as fashion and the latest gossip. Social media is designed to give you what you want at the click of a button this begins to create your ideal world that you indulge yourself in. As you dig deeper and deeper into this world reality fades away and a false reality comes into light . Take Facebook for instance, at the click of a mouse you can see how many likes someone has on a photo or what others are doing with their day. If someone has more likes on their photo than you do, the impression is they are automatically more attractive and desirable than you. This causes people to have low self-esteem and personal problems that werent present previous to them clicking on the picture. A study at the University of Buffalo came up with an interesting conclusion .Research indicates that women who base their selfworth on their appearance are likely to post more pictures of themselves online for validation and to have larger social networks (Henderson, J. Maureen. "Is Social Media Destroying Your SelfEsteem?"). As a result, people heavily judge themselves solely on how many people like their pictures or favorite their tweets. Within this disillusioned reality, the addict gets all the attention they desire and thrive off it. The problem begins when they are in the real word and dont get the attention they crave outside of the social media. Like a drug addict on with drawls, they act out in ways to get the attention they desire. On the internet anyone and everyone has access to your information and pictures making people vulnerable to discrimination and hate. With places like YouTube and Facebook we are sitting ducks for people that desire nothing more than to get

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gratification by making others feel in secure about themselves, no matter how far from the truth it may be. This cyber bulling can lead to depression and even in some cases suicide. Its this use of social media as a form of self-worth, rather than entertainment, which impacts people on the emotional level that will lead to many problems that affect not only themselves but others around them. AP-MTV conducted a survey on the correlation of cyberbullying and suicide. The found that 8% of cyberbulllying victims have considered ending their own life compared to 3% of people who have not been bullied and were not involved in sexting (CYBER BULLING STATS AND CITATIONS). Society is comprised of many individuals , as more and more people become addicted to social media the effects begin to show in society. The number one affect social media has on society is social disorders. With the convenience of the internet combined with social media people are more accustom to an instant gratification way of life. When we are removed from social media we expect to receive the same quick and easy gratification. However this is not the case in real life, where as social media has instant gratification, the real world requires hard work and determination to acquire the same gratification. The main area where instant gratification is online shopping , anything you want is at the click of a mouse and delivered to your door . Its easy and time saving, but it lacks one crucial part of the social interaction, the intimacy of the face to face interaction. As people are having less face to face interaction, social disorders sky rocket. Humans are social human beings, its part of our nature. When one takes the social aspect of interaction away it has major effects on our brains cognitive process. This social isolation can lead to depression and loneliness when someone is unable to interact on an personal level . With everything being at a click of button paranoia is a rather large side effect of social media. With information being at the touch of a button everyone thinks they are a professional on a subject.

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This can lead to people receiving false information, the majority of it being gossip, which can be harmful to their health and impact their lives permanently. With false information rampant in social media bad news spreads like wild fire. On Sep. 5, 2012 false rumors of fires, shootouts, and caravans of gunmen in a Mexico City suburb spread via Twitter and Facebook caused panic, flooded the local police department with over 3,000 phone calls, and temporarily closed schools. Because of a simple rumor started on Facebook a whole community was affected negatively ( social media procon). Imagine what can happen on a smaller level. With the invention of iPhones , tablets and the wide usage of lap tops social media is with in arms reach at all times . Social media is great for personal uses such as entertainment. Its when individuals start to use the social media to escape their own issues or use it as a substitution for something missing in their lives it becomes dangerous. Social media isnt only harm full to the individual directly but affects society as a whole. The only solution to this problem is facing your issues head on and understand where they come from. Neglecting these issues and using social media to hide from these problems is never the answer. If these issues are left alone they only build up and eventually become too much to handle and cause more problems down the road.

Works Cited: 1. "Cyberbullying Statistics." Cyberbullying Statistics. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013.

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2. Donley, Megan. "SouthSource - A Publication of South University." Does Social Media Addiction Really Exist? N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. 3. Henderson, J. Maureen. "Is Social Media Destroying Your Self-Esteem?" Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 11 July 2012. Web. 08 Apr. 2013. 4. Travarikus, Mo. "NO TABOO." : Why Do We Often Want to Escape Reality. N.p., n.d. Web. 09 Apr. 2013. 5. "Social Networking ProCon.org." Social Networking ProCon.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2013.