Have you ever imagined what life would be like without social media? Better yet, could you imagine going even just one day without social media? Living in today’s world, the answer is most likely no. Social media has become an important part of our everyday lives, making it our number one source of communication. It makes it possible to be able to interact with anyone in the world in a matter of seconds with just the click of a button. In addition, social media provides an immense amount of information at our fingertips and keeps us up to date with the latest news. Without social media, how would one be able to check the weather or traffic updates instantly? It makes our lives easier to the point where we rely on it for almost everything. With a great amount of positive effects social media has on our everyday lives, it seems like it would be quite impossible to even question how social media could actually have any negative consequences. Social media comes with a substantial number of issues that have potential to be destrustive to society as a whole, especially younger generations. Social media affects young adults negatively by weakening their ability to physically interact, impairing their self-esteem and mental health, and putting them at a risk regarding their privacy. Social media’s consequences are primarily concentrated on the young adult’s population that spends endless hours scrolling in hopes to fill a temporary fix for seeking acceptance and avoiding responsibility. 

While social media gives us the extraordinary opportunity to communicate with anyone at anytime all over the world, it has significantly decreases our ability to interact with the real world that is right in front of us. An article on USA Today, “Viewpoint: Why Social Media is Destroying Our Social Skills”, focuses on the negative impact social media has on our own personal interactions. 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. Talking has turned into likes, comments, swipes, and emoticons. College students are mostly at stake when it comes to this problem. Too often at events or parties, guests are attached to their phones tweeting or texting, but no one is truly engaging or communicating with the people around them (Fowlkes). 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. 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 cannot be tweeted, Facebooked or emailed” (Fowlkes). That being said, usage of social media should be avoided or limited when hanging out with friends and family. If this could be done, the negative affects social media contributes could slowly be fixed. 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. According to this article, one in every four people spend more time interacting online than they do in person. If people continue to favor online communcation over face-to-face, their ability to phyiscally interact will progressively weaken. 

Sarah Snow’s article “Is Social Media Bad for Us?” agrees that social media has its positive impacts, but mainly focuses on the negatives relating to social interactions. Snow claims that social media is not good because it weakens productivity. Instead of working, users are constantly checking back on their phones and social networks (Snow). With the advancements in technology, most work places and schools allow or provide access to the internet, which gives social media users the ability to browse the web. Because of this, social media has become a huge distraction. Students grades can start to slip and work does not get completed. That being said, social media can have a negative affect on school work. A YouTube video, “Negative affects of social media on teens”, published by PAL LCA, interviews mulitple students on their views regarding social media. One student says, “I feel like I am suppose to be doing my homework, but I find myself on my phone for three hours straight.” Technology is impacting their learning in a negative way. Young adults feel that they must constantly keep up to date with social media accounts in fear that they might miss out or not feel like a part of something. Being distracted results in carelessness and will be detrimental to the school environment. With the use of technology becoming more popular in classrooms, students are continuously finding ways to distract themselves from their studies. One way to prevent these distractions would be having more strict cell phone policies in schools.

Social media can impair someone’s self esteem or confidence. The leading causes of this found in the article, “Influence of Social Media on Teenagers”,  consist of cyberbullying, sexting, and depression. Social media goes hand in hand on the issue of cyberbullying. 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. Jack Dickey published an article “The Antisocial Network” that tells a story about cyberbullying. While there are many ways to go anonymous on the web, this article focuses on Ask.fm. This is a site where users can publicly ask or comment their thoughts anonymously to a peer or stranger that will then have the ability to post their response. Websites like these give users the opportunity to insult or bully someone behind a screen without fear of consequence (Dickey). One way to fix this issue is to eliminate the amount of young adults using this sites, by educating their parents on this topic. 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 and trigger underlying emotions. Feeling like you are not receiving the amount of attention you believe you deserve, can make you feel useless or undervalued. Snapchatting your night out just to get the satisfication of knowing people are viewing your story and constantly checking back on instagram to make sure you have reached a certain amount of likes are two examples of self fullfillment. If these goals are not reached, this can result in lack of confidence and feeling down on yourself. Honor Whiteman, author of “Social Media: How Does it Affect Our Mental Health and Well-Being?”, claims that social media can be seen as a competition, especially with today’s generation. “Those who said their lives had been worsened by using social media also reported feeling less confident when they compared their achievements against their friends” (Whiteman). Constantly comparing yourself to what may seem like someone’s “perfect life” on social media can have a negative effect on your own self worth. Comparing the amount of followers and likes has become more common, rather than comparing actual personality characteristics. If someone does not reach a certain amount of likes or do not receive feedback on an achievement they posted about, they can instantly feel unwanted or unloved. People use social media sites as a way to gain self esteem and crave attention. When this fails, it can result in depression. 

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. As stated before, 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. In contrary, 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.  

Lastly, social media can lead to privacy issues. Because of social media and the advancements in technology, we have the ability to access mass amounts of information about almost anyone. In an article “Privacy and Social Media”, written by Theodore Claypoole, she discusses the downfalls of sharing too much information online. All of this sharing may help create communities, but it also destroys privacy (Claypoole). “Thanks to social media, we now know that if our nearest coworker were a tree, she would be a willow, and the celebrity she believes that she most resembles is Angelina Jolie. We also know that Shirley’s kids are honor students and that Tom’s brother was just released from prison (early, for good behavior), that Jeffrey lives and dies with his Eagles and that Sandra is so, so, so sad at the plight of shelter animals. Importantly, we know when people are leaving town and how long they will be gone. We know if they come into money. We learn about their families and their vulnerabilities. We learn about drinking and drug use, sexual promiscuity, and even crimes like DWI or hit and run. We see pictures of their kids, their cars, their vacations, and their homes” (Claypoole). With the need to post just about anything and everything on social media, our peers and “friends” know way too much information than they probably care for. 

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. 
