Websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have slowly, but surely begun to control and dictate the lives of millions of its users. Without noticing the extent of their online activity, individuals log on to these sites for hours at a time, slowly becoming more and more addicted to their profiles. Social networking does, of course, have various benefits such as the ease of accessing information quickly and being able to communicate and stay in touch with family and friends. For this reason, social media seems harmless to most, but when overused, can cause several problems pertaining to the formation of identity, especially when considering the qualities and characteristics acquired because of online networking. Being a social media user myself and understanding the way that people act online versus in reality, I realize the seriousness of the issues that come with the world of social media, especially how these sites can alter a person's traits. These problems affect not only my views on social media, but because of my belief in the importance of real life experiences versus online encounters, affect my values as well. I am authorized to discuss this topic because not only have I done research on these effects, I have also seen them first hand though individuals who use social media way too often. I do have social media accounts, and I also realize how addictive and consuming they can become. However, it was not until I started researching more into the topic that I discovered the extreme consequences and understood how social media can change a person completely. With the number of internet users on the rise, the problems caused by social media are only becoming worse.These whopping, new statistics are being broadcasted more than ever in articles and on the news, which originally drew my attention to the matter. This topic interest me because social media does play such a huge role in my life, as well as millions of others, causing me to step back and realize the real life harmful effects and identity changes that can be caused by social media. A majority of social media users, however, do not realize the role in which social media is playing on the formation of their identity and qualities as a person. By analyzing the negative effects that social media has on the growth of a person's characteristics, self-assessment and cyberbullying, development and communication, and even decision making all become issues that can cause the lack of important qualities, as well as poor traits.

There is no doubt that websites like Facebook and Twitter can have a major effect on the way that an individual obtains personality traits, lifelong qualities, and even characteristics of their own identity. From examining three different sources based on the results of self-development of excessive social media users, it becomes extremely obvious that these websites are posing problems that may be more serious than anyone thought. For example, in the article, "Exploring the Effects of Social Media on Children's Spirituality" by Karen-Marie Yust, readers are shown that social media can cause individuals to harshly assess themselves and others, ultimately affecting personal qualities. Yust's work proves to be credible because of the studies conducted, as well as first hand experiences that show evidence that social media does in fact play a role in the qualities and characteristics that an individual obtains. This text, however, is biased against the use of social media, stating only the negative effects. This article argues that social media use changes the way that an individual acts and feels, as well as the qualities that they pick up over time by using results of a study that examines emotional differences between several social media users. As a result, major values such as positivity, uniqueness, and originality are all at stake.Yust explains her point stating, "A Kaiser Family Foundation study in the USA revealed that young people who spend more than 16 h a day consuming media based content are more likely to report feeling sad, unhappy, or bored with life" (Yust 4). The increased percentage of individuals who become depressed and disconsolate because of these sites leads users to contemplate their self a whole, as well as their worth as a person. As a result, the character of an individual ends up changing completely, in addition to the attributes and values that are important to them. Yust also goes on to explain that cyberbullying, too,  plays a large role in the way that individuals view themselves, explaining that, "a fifth of students [in the study] felt anger, depression, and sadness as a result of others' bad conduct online" (Yust 4). In my second source from the book Social Media and Student Identity Development, the author, Reynol Junoco,  agrees with Yust in the way that social media is potentially ruining its users' lives and changing them as a person. His text claims that because of face to face communication being replaced by online transmission, users are missing out on experiences that are essential to forming identity qualities and overall character. To prove this, Junoco examines the differences between online and face to face communication, analyzing the differences in individuals characteristics. This ultimately ends up affecting individuals values such as expressiveness and traditionalism. Junoco's writing, is, like Yust's, biased against social media use, agreeing that it does more harm than good. Junoco, however, studies the effects of social media on the development of traits in individuals, as well as explores other variables that might too effect these changes, making him a credible source. He explains that people go through stages of development and must match an "inner sameness" that is seen by others (Junoco 100). By overusing social media, individuals lack opportunities to communicate with others, therefore damaging the formation process of their "inner sameness", and eventually changing them as a person. The author backs up his point by explaining the consequences of unsuccessfully crossing into the stage, as well as using charts to better describe this finding. As for, Janet H. Long, author of the third source and credible researcher at The University of Rhode Island, she shows readers that social media use can cause individuals to have difficulty making decisions, as well. The main claim of this source is that social networking gives individuals the opportunity to avoid important decision making, eventually diminishing important characteristics needed to successfully grow and develop into a well rounded being. By studying and collecting data on the effects of avoiding these choices, Long successfully supports her claim by using this information as evidence to show how social media negatively affects identity as a whole, as well as personal characteristics. This raises issues when it comes to values such as growing as a person, and learning to deal with tough situations rather than running away. This source, too, is biased against social media use, but can be used to backup several important points in my research. When discussing the impact that online media sites have on individuals decision making, Long states, "Results show Internet usage impacted student's avoidance of decisions by offering them technological ways to communicate their decisions strategies" (Long 104). By giving individuals an out on making important choices, social media ultimately tears at a significant factor in developing one's own identity traits. All three of these authors are the same in the fact that they believe social media can have a detrimental impact on the formation of an individual's identity, specifically how a person forms the qualities that make them who they are. However, this works for my paper and helps me better show and back up my evidence. Through displaying the different outcomes that media can have on development of attributes, these sources are useful in successfully providing evidence for this claim and portraying the seriousness of the overuse of social media. 

Ultimately, after researching the effects of social media on the development of identity, the results show that social media can, indeed, be the cause of various critical formation problems. My topic is arguable because some believe that social media has no effect on identity formation, however, after assessing my sources, my view on the topic remains the same as theirs: online networking does have a major effect on personality development. This, however, does not affect the research of my paper or the ability to keep the reader intrigued. Although my sources disagree on certain circumstances such as what aspects of social media cause these changes in character, they all agree that these negative effects on attributes and personality are a direct result of social networking in general. Because I do agree with all of my sources, choosing a more focused topic, such as focusing on a specific social networking site, could potentially enhance my paper and create something new and interesting. As a second option, instead of identity formation as a whole, I could focus in on the development of relationships with family and friends. Overall, from the findings in my research, I gained a better understanding of how self-assessment, development, and decision making problems that individuals who overuse social media must endure. 

