Running head: the social media epidimic 1

The Social Media Epidemic of Todays Society

Raeyven Hobbs

University of North Carolina at Charlotte

UWRT 1103- Dr. Rand

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Abstract

Throughout my paper, I analyze some positive and negative effects that social media has on

society. Its original purpose was the make communicate easier, but it has since transformed into

something completely different which many people believe is bad. I wanted to figure out why

there are so many negative thoughts associated with social media. In order to support my

argument, I added examples and pictures within the paper. I concluded that social media is not

bad, but because people dont realize what theyre saying or doing has real consequences, it

makes it seem bad.

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Welcome to the 21st century, where almost everyone in the world is involved with some

sort of social media networking site. With the recent rise in technology, it has led people to

integrate into the world of social media. Almost 1/3 of the worlds population uses some form of

social media, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, or even dating websites. The

increase in usage is starting to show some dramatic positive and negative effects around the

world.

When social media was first created, it was designed to make it easy for people to meet

others and to make them feel more comfortable while communicating. According to a recent

survey, most people shared that they were able to let multiple sides of themselves show when

using social media (Bauerlein, 2011, p. 34). Many people are shy and dont like to talk in person,

but social media sites allow people to open up and connect with others who have multiple

interests in common. There is a wide variety of social media websites that go past the common

Facebook and Twitter. There are sites that are designated for photographers, music lovers, sports

fans, etc. (Bauerlein, 2011, p. 34). All of these sites have the same goal, which is easy

communication.

Not only do social media sites allow for easy communication between multiple

individuals, but it also allows for communication between individuals and businesses. In a 2012

McKiney Global Institute Report, it was found that businesses who implemented social

technologies led to an increased amount of interaction between the business and its customers,

which increased their productivity by 25% (Gaitho, 2016). People like to know that the

businesses actually care about their opinions and what they have to say. There have been

instances where people have tried to call or email businesses about their problems and it takes
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days or weeks to get a response. This is completely different from when someone tags a business

in a post on social media. The business will usually respond to the post in the same day. They do

this to show the customer that theyre open to the problems and that they care to fix them. This

also allows other people to see that theyve shown concern for the customer and gives them a

good reputation.

Social media has the potential to have a world wide positive effect. Recently social media

has been a way to promote social activism. There have been many occasions where social

movements have been started and promoted through social media (Gaitho, 2016). Oftentimes, it

starts as a simple picture or post, and then it gets many likes or shares and ends up spreading

around the country, or even the world. One example that Ive seen this happen to is a movement

called Israel Loves Iran. It all started when a man named Ronny Edry created a poster (as seen

in figure one) and shared it to his facebook. The picture promotes peace between Israel and Iran

by stating Iranians we will never bomb your country, we love you (Israel, 2017). For years

both of the countries have grown to hate each other and have been taught that the other is evil,

but this breaks that barrier. Within a week, thousands of Iranians and Israelis were creating their

own pictures promoting the same cause. Many started to communicate with people from the

other country, and even began to form relationships.

Figure 1:
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(Israel, 2017)

This use of social media allowed people to feel like they were a part of something. Even

if they were not able to physically help the problem in any way, they were able to get on the

internet and promote a solution. For the first time, citizens from these two countries were coming

together and discovering the other side, not as enemies, but as people, and it all started with a

simple post on social media (Israel, 2017).

Even though social media has the potential to have a positive effect on the world, there

are also major downfalls that are associated with this new form of communication. Cyber-bulling

is one of the biggest problems associated with social media, and it tends to happen most in

teenagers and young adults. 45% of teens have admitted to experiencing some sort of cyber

bullying (Ramasubbu, 2016). It can range from direct threatening and unpleasant emails, to

anonymous activities such as trolling. Trolling is the act of deliberately inflicting hatred,

bigotry, racism, misogyny, or just simple bickering between people, often anonymously, over

social network (Ramasubbu, 2016). Social media makes it very easy for someone to bully

others because a troll could act anonymously. I also believe that its easy for people to bully

others over social media because they dont have to see them face-to-face. Its hard to be brutally

mean to somebodys face, so being able to do it over the internet makes people feel invincible.
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Social media also makes it easy for predators to find and track people down that they can

stalk and potentially kidnap. A survey of 1,000 people, given by LexisNexis, revealed that half of

them post too much personal data online (Ramasubbu, 2016). There have been instances where

people have been murdered because theyve posted about being alone, or where theyre going to

be at a specific time and day.

Not only does social media have the potential to personally harm you, but it could also

hurt your employment, education, or future opportunities. According to a survey conducted by

the University of Daytona, 40% of employers say they would consider someones Facebook

profile in the decision of hiring potential employees (Bauerlein, 2011, p. 51). There are a lot of

issues with workers getting in trouble from what they put on social media websites; many dont

know that their employers have the right to factor their social media into their employment. 42%

of college students actually thought it was an invasion of privacy for their employers to look at

their social media profiles (Bauerlein, 2011, p. 51). Not only are companies starting to factor

social media accounts into hiring employees, but some colleges are also starting to consider them

before admitting students. These are important aspects that all teenagers and young adults should

think about because one wrong social media post can ruin your life.

So, if social media is used and could potentially be used to have such a positive impact on

the world, why do so many people associate a negative connotation with it? When researching

social media, youll automatically find more of the negative effects it holds, rather than the

positive. Why is this? Its because even when people try to post positive things, they always get

shot down by people making mean or rude comments. One great example of this are comments

left on a woman named Whitney Thores Instagram posts. Whitney was diagnosed with

polycystic ovarian syndrome, which has caused her to gain a lot of weight since her diagnosis.
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She is the star of a show called My Big Fat Fabulous Life and is known for hosting campaigns

that fight body-shaming and promote self-love and acceptance. She posts pictures on Instagram

that show her loving and accepting the way she looks, and while she receives positive comments,

she also receives many negatives ones (as seen in figures two and three).

Figure 2: Figure 3:

(Thore, 2017)
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While Whitney was trying to do something, to help other people who are unhappy with their

body, people still made comments to belittle her and tried to bring her down. This is not the only

case where this happens.

Recently, there was a commercial created by Pepsi which used Kendall Jenner a famous

model-- as the main actress. The commercial shows her at a protest, walking up to a police

officer, offering him a Pepsi, and then everybody rejoicing because it created peace. With all the

hostility our society has had towards police officers recently, they thought it would be a good

way to bring people together while advertising their product at the same time. Once the

commercial went viral, it started to become criticized all over social media because people felt

insulted. They believed it didnt correctly display what the real protests look like or how theyre

actually handled. In this case, Pepsi thought that they were going to help the community by

promoting peace, but once it hit social media, it instantly blew up in their face.

After seeing cases like this, one might wonder why they should even try to post positive

ideas on social media, when theyre just going to get criticized. It is possible for social media to

be used correctly. Numerous researchers have concluded that many of the problems which arise

from social media occur because people dont know how to properly handle social media

(Bauerlein, 2011, p. 125). They think of social media as a world that has no connection with their

real life; they have no idea that there could be real consequences because of what theyve posted

on social media.

Overall, I personally do not believe that social media is terrible; I actually think the

complete opposite. It has the potential to do so much good in the world, people just need to be

able to realize and utilize it. Kids, teenagers, and adults all need to know that there are
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consequences associated with the wrong use of social media, but they all are capable of being

prevented.
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References

Bauerlein, M. (2011). The digital divide. New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin

Gaitho, Maryanne (2016, February 23). What is the real impact of social media?

https://www.simplilearn.com/real-impact-social-media-article

Israel Loves Iran. (2017). Retrieved April 9, 2017, from http://thepeacefactory.org/why-about-

beapart/

Ramasubbu, Suren (2016, May 26). Influence of Social Media on Teenagers.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/suren-ramasubbu/influence-of-social-media-on-

teenagers_b_7427740.html

Thore, W (2017). [Photograph]. Retrieved from Instagram.

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Reflection

I really enjoyed this project and writing my inquiry paper. One of the most interesting

things I learned throughout the duration of my inquiry process was that the first social media

website was created so that the man who created it could meet women. When I was first

researching the positives and negatives of social media, I struggled finding anything positive

because most of the websites emphasized how bad it is. In order to find positives, I had to

specifically look them up and find how social media was connected to them. When it came to

writing the paper, I struggled with putting my own opinion into it because I had never written a

paper like this. To get past this, I tried to include examples that related to my topic in which I

could add my opinion into. When I first thought of a topic for my paper, I wanted my it to figure

out if social media has a positive or negative impact on society. While meeting with Dr. Rand, I

pointed out how it was hard for me to find positives associated with social media, so she advised

that I center my paper around why this is. I still included some positive and negatives, but I took

it a step further and analyzed why you see more negative effects. This has made my analytical

skills stronger because I had to look at this subject in a different way than what most people

usually do. After finishing my paper, I am most proud at how easy it came for me to write the

paper. I chose a topic that Ive always been really interested in, and I gathered a lot of

information which helped me piece together what I wanted to write about. If I continued

research, I would like to find out if there are any psychological reasonings as to why people feel

inferior over the internet. I really loved being able to work in peer workshop groups. Both of the

members in my group helped strengthen my paper. They gave me advice on things I could

include or add that would help get my point across. In return, I tried to do the same for them. I

gave them ideas on what could help make their arguments stronger. I also read over their papers
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and told them if there were certain things that needed clarification so it was easy for the reader to

understand. Overall, I tried to encourage them because I feel like thats whats most important to

me.
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