Social media has become an important part of our everyday lives. Social media is our number one source of communication. It makes it possible to be able to interact with anyone in the world in just a matter of seconds. In addition, social media provides an immense amount of information at our fingertips and keeps us up to date with the latest news. These are just a few of the many positive effects social media has on our everyday life. On the other hand, social media comes with a great amount of issues that have potential to be destrustive to society as a whole, especially younger generations. Social media effects young adults by weakening their ability to physically interact, affecting their self-esteem, and putting them at risk regarding their privacy.

While social media gives us the extraordinary opportunity to communicate with anyone at anytime all over the world, it has significantly decreased our ability to interact with the real world right in front of us. Constantly being on our phones weakens our in-person communication skills. It has become such a norm to talk to our peers via technology instead of actually conversing. College students are mostly at stake when it comes to this problem. For example, walking to class while staring at our phones seems like the best way to avoid seeing someone you don’t want to see. Snapchatting your night out is just to get the satisfication of knowing people are viewing your story and thinking about what great of a time you are having. Constantly checking back on instagram to make sure you’ve reached a certain amount of likes is another way to reach full satisfaction of yourself regarding social media and your peers. Another example is sitting at the dinner table while everyone is engaged in their cellphones, instead of spending quality time with your loved ones. “Nothing replaces the once-in-a-lifetime experiences and memories made in college, and believe it or not, even with modern technology, those moments and feelings can’t be tweeted, Facebooked or emailed” (Fowlkes). One of the biggest issues when it comes to real life social interaction is instead of discussing problems in person, texting them seems like the easy way out of it. All of these examples are what the younger generation falls victim to.

Social media goes hand in hand on the issue of depression. The leading cause of cyberbullying is the ability to be anonymous. Those who participate in such vile actions are just hidden behind a computer screen. With this opportunity, one is given the ability to bully someone without the fear of consequence. It seems to be easier to say something about someone through social media than to do it in person. On the other hand, the ability to be anonymous can be beneficial for some people. “For those children who lack self-confidence or have been socially awkward and are in any way threatened by direct, face-to-face social connections, this gives them a way to feel connected to a much larger world with incredible anonymity” (Schroeder). This gives others the opportunity to be able to feel connected and not neglected. Also, it is a positive way to be able to blog about your personal life if you are too scared to talk to your peers in person. For example, topics such as rape or domestic have multiple websites and sources where you can communicate with others that have gone through similar experiences. For those that are struggle with mental illnesses, constantly using social media as a form of communication can worsen their disabilities. Feeling like you are not receiving the amount of attention you believe you deserve, can make you feel useless or not important. Issues like these can lead to something worse than depression, suicide. Constantly having the sources to attack eachother can effect someone’s self esteem extraordinarily to the point where they do not think they are worthy enough to live. Sites such as Formspring and Ask.fm give users the opportunity to anonymously ask or write any comment or threat they wish to say. From experience, these websites do not portray the most positive feedback. On the other hand, there are social media websites that are there to help those who struggle with depression. “On Tumblr, a search for depression pops up a page asking: "Everything okay? If you or someone you know are experiencing any type of crisis, please know there are people who care about you and are here to help” (Ring). Sexting is another factor that gets brought up in discussion. Although sexting can start private, it can lead to exposing another person publicly. Victims can be harrassed and embarrassed. Self-esteem can easily be effected because of this.  

With all of the research I have done about my argument, “How Does Social Media Effect Young Adults”, I feel much more educated about this specific topic. Social media effects young adults by weakening their ability to physically interact, affecting their self-esteem, and putting them at risk regarding their privacy. Social interation with others physically has worsened since the use of social media has increased rapidly. Our generation today has become so attached to socializing through text message and social media accounts. It has become such a norm to communicate with our phones, that we struggle with the abilitiy to do so in person. Using our phones has become an easy way to avoid people or situations. Our generation uses it to make situation less awkward by playing on social media. For example, walking to class and going on dates has become a prime spot to use social media. Moreover, social media can effect self-esteem. That being said, cyberbullying plays a huge role in this aspect. Nowadays, since young adults are hiding behind their phones, they have the courage to bully others without the fear of consequence. Doing this comes off easier than actually approaching someone in person. Insulting one another or speaking poorly about someone seems more reasonable when it is anonymous. Privacy is another huge issue when it comes to social networking. Anybody can access any information about someone at any given time. Being a college student, one of the problems that stands out to me the most is that posting something distasteful can affect future jobs or relationships.  Once you put information out there, it can easily be saved or screenshotted by anyone, even if you do delete it eventually. With that, also comes identity theft. Responding to spam emails or just putting in your information someone, anyone in the world can steal your identity. Putting out too much personal information could lead to even bigger problems, such as stalking. Of course, while there are so many negative impacts, there are positive impacts. After researching my topic, I now have a better sense of knowledge when it comes to the risks of social media. 
