Discussion: Research Sources

Final Prospectus

Argosy University

September 26, 2018

ABSTRACT

Social media is a dissenting topic, especially today. Some people have had the view that social media ruins human interaction not to mention real life human relationships. On the other hand, in the era of everything instant, the idea of living has drastically changed. Initially, people held the idea that life is too hard but with the advancement in technology it has now become a saying that life is easy. All this is attributable to modern technology and equally important globalization, in the sense that people are becoming more independent and interconnected. Social media has changed the world as people used to know it in the sense that people can do everything in an interconnected world that enables instant communication. Some of the most popular social networking includes Facebook, and Twitter among others. Similarly, in this era of social networking people’s idea of reality has greatly changed and people handle such things as relationship differently. This being the case, the objective of this paper is to develop a final prospectus regarding the impacts of social media. Mainly, the paper will focus its attention on the impact of social media and some of the ways that can be used to define the controversy between social media and youths below the 23 years of age.

Impact of Social Media

As mentioned in the discussion, there are many social networks to choose from such as Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram among others. In understanding how social media impacts the youth, it is imperative to look at both the pros and cons of social media on the youth. Essentially social media has reduced the world in a global village which means youths can share and interact easily and instant. Conferring with Ahn (2011), addiction to social media has resulted to poor performance in leaning institutions. Many bright students have resorted to bad behaviours because of social media. Ideally, social media has captured the attention of youths to an extent of not focusing on studies. The issue of mobile phones in learning institutions has invited an endless debate currently. Teachers have complained that students are using phones to connect with their friends and families through such networking sites like Facebook. This idea of using phones in classrooms has deteriorated student performance.

Additionally, youth are so addicted to social media that they do not study at home. Normally, students are supposed to maintain impartiality between social media and studies. This obsession with social media is detrimental to the youth lives. It is estimated that 70% of the district school block have access to social network sites. The rationale behind this is that online communities allow youths to build social capital. In other words, youths are able to access information, seek advice and share ideas through a network of relationships. Most of these SNS offers privacy control. This is a privilege because it allows them to take control of their own lives in terms of content they share and people they interact with. Studies have also shown that youths are less likely to engage in unwanted sexual solicitations unlike chat rooms. Researchers posit that the Internet widens peoples’ social networks and equally important provide positive benefits in the form of social capital (Valenzuela, 2014). Various scholars’ finds to create a connection between the Internet and the psychological well-being of people. Social networking is a two-sided issue in the sense that it adversely affects the youth positively and negatively.

Social media is everywhere. It is a powerful tool because it is an inseparable part of every teenager’s life. Sometimes back, newspapers were the common media but nowadays electronic devices like phones and laptops have taken over all forms of communication. Teenagers worldwide depend on social media for communication, interaction and information. At this point, it is right to say that social media has indoctrinated the youths. Additionally, teenagers spend much time on social media without the knowledge of their caregivers. From a psychological point of view, social media can result in mood swings or increased obesity to name a few. Similarly, studies have shown that due to the excessive use of social media violence behaviours are on the increase. In respect to academic achievement, teenagers to tend to spend too much on these sites and further away from school work not to mention homework that cripples them academically.

Correlation between social media use and protest behavior

According to xxx, there is a clear link between social media and protest behavior. Recent investigations have found that the number of revolutions has increased in the recent past due to advancement in technology. Social media plays an adamant role in today’s society. As evidence depicts social media is the best platform to initiate social change and more so combat social ills that are somehow considered normal patterns. According to the study, such social media as Twitter or Facebook, are proudly shaping political participation, particularly in regard to protest behaviours. As aforementioned in the discussion, social media allows the exchange of information that facilitates the coordination of protest. Social media has been used in the past in learning institutions to instigates protect or condemn certain action in society. Furthermore, social media also facilitates the exchange of not only emotional but also motivational contents to propel protest activity. It has been claimed that social media resources are profoundly promoted protest behaviours. In, deed social media provide protester with useful and vital information. In summary, social media like Facebook or Twitter serves as an important tool for disseminating information and at the time receiving feedbacks (Valenzuela, 2014). For example, it allows the exchange of important information to the success of a protest such as transport logistics or police presence. Further, social media is used to transit both emotional not to mention motivational messages in favor of or against the protest.

Social Media Effect on the Sexual Health Behavior

Based on the information provided in the Young and Jordan article, teenagers and children form an important part of social media users and as studies show much of their free time it consumed in different social media. Teenagers and children interact with known and strange peers to maintain social connections. Social media communication provides a unique interaction that allows adolescent to foster relationships with other people. According to research, risky sexual behaviours are highly prevalent among many leaning institutions in America. Based on statistics despite the common knowledge that condoms can reduce the risk of STI infection a large number of sexually active college students reported to use condoms. The study affirmed that because of the growing influence of social media, teenagers are more likely to engage in sexual health behavior. It is no doubt that photos or content that is sexually suggestive is likely to increase student’s intention to engage in sexual behaviours. The study by Young & Jordan (2013) firmly illustrates the connection between social networks and the perception of risky behaviours among the youths. On the other hand, the perception of peer norm is another fundamental aspect covered by the study. Findings suggest that peer norms can influence teenagers, as well as children, own risk behaviours.

References

Ahn, J. (2011). The effect of social network sites on adolescents' social and academic development: Current theories and controversies. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 62(8), 1435-1445.

In this article, the author seeks to explain through a comprehensive study, the correlation that exists between social media and the psychological well-being of users, academic achievement, and social capital benefits and youth safety. The article presents the positive and negative implications of social media on youths. To a great extent, this article is useful in the research paper given it will help to understand the subject in depth. Similarly, it will help to address the critic side that supporters of the view that social media is perfectly good and maintain the paper’s main argument.

Valenzuela, S. (2014). Facebook, Twitter, and youth engagement: A quasi-experimental study of social media use and protest behaviour using propensity score matching.

The study examines the correlation between protest behaviours among the youths and the use of networking social sites. The author affirms that there is a very high relationship between social media use and protest behaviour. This study is relevant considering the fact that it has considered two main social networks that dominate the society, FB and Twitter. The work is also important because it shows how social media can influence social behaviors in a society.

Young, S. D., & Jordan, A. H. (2013). The influence of social networking photos on social norms and sexual health behaviours. Cyberpsychology, behaviour, and social networking, 16(4), 243-247

The authors of this article conducted a study to establish whether social media has any correlation with sexual behaviours. The article onset by admitting that teenagers and children form an important part of social media users and that they spend much of their time interacting with these platforms. Through testing, the study shows that sexually explicit materials like photos and images can increase the user’s likelihood of engaging in sexual behaviours. The study is relevant in the sense that it entailed a study of behavioural change as instigated by social media content. The study reliability is increased because it puts into consideration the population of interest that it the teenagers and the youths.