Project questions

Running Head: EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE YOUTHS 1

EFFECTS OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE YOUTHS 8

Effects of Social Media on the Youths

Institution

Name

Section One

The fact that social media has become part our daily live cannot be overlooked especially in the current innovations in technology. Access to devices such as smart phones and broadband internet has created an easy way through which any one can access any form of information that they want. Although the social media has played a special role in ensuring that the information that we is at our disposal, it has resulted in serious erosion of human morals and ethics. It is not surprising that people value their phones more than they do to their fellow human. However, this research will look at how the young people have been impacted by the social media.

The current widespread of the social are becoming an area of interest among the researchers especially about how it has affected the community around the world. Almost every individual is connected to at least one social media plat form and this has attracted the researchers to learn more about these platforms and how they have affected the community around. However, the most affected are the teenagers who have become fanatics of these platforms and have made them part of their daily life to an extent they cannot spend a minute without accessing them. This has never implication on their ethics, behavior and even their education.

Social media has both positive and negative implications to the youths and this paper seeks to address these impacts with a special focus on the youths.

The positive impacts is that the youths can interact with one another without meeting physically across the globe and this has enhanced creation of friendship and therefore, strong social ties. Moreover, the youths stay updated on the events that happen around the world at the comfort of their rooms or working places. Also, many youths have made the social media a source of their income and have utilized it to improve their lives through improved connections.

Despite the good aspects connected to the social media, it has the negative side too and this has bad implications on the youths. To begin with, social media reduces face to interactions as they spend most of their time in these online platforms. This isolation result in psychological, emotional mental and physical effects to the youths. The minor are also introduced to immoral behaviors such as homosexuality, lesbianism and other sexual misconducts. Further, the youths are exposed to pornographic content which result in early pregnancies among the young girls and also increase the chance of contracting sexually transmitted infections.

A comprehension of these issues will help the society find ways through which to reduce the youth prevalence to the problems associated with staying in the social media for long hours and hence the aim of these paper.

Section Two

According to Rameez, (2015), students are the most vulnerable to facebook depression, a problem he has attributed to being immersed in the platform for long hours. Facebook also creates a false sense of connection which affects socialization of the youths negatively as they do not have time to connect with their peers physically (Rameez, 2015). He further concludes that younger generation can be affected either positively or negatively depending on how they make use of it.

Nkechi O. and George C. (2014), in their work found out that social media have many important effects on the life development of the youths. They found that social media enhances work efficiency, maintenance of a strong social bond and a source of information which keeps the young generation updated. However, they recommended that the extent to which the young generation is connected to the social media should be controlled since it induced the young to sexual promiscuity, internet crimes, sexual harassment, impatience and quick syndrome (Nkechi, 2014). They recommended that parents should play a critical role in regulating their children’s involvement prevent possible degeneration associated with the social media.

According to Asad A. and Kanwal I., social media plays a significant role in the learning process among the youths. Teenagers make use of social media as a communication platform with friends and families. However, it contributes to health issues and degenerate our cultural believes and customs. They recommended that since social media has both positive and negative impacts in the society, it has to be utilized in ways that contribute positively to the cultural norms of a community (Asad, 2016).

Section Three

It be deduced that various researchers have come up with different views pertaining to the influence of social media on morality of the youths. While some argue that it has positive impact, others have it that it contributes negatively but others have mixed reaction to the subject matter of this research. In this, light the role of social media and its implication on the morality of the youths cannot be overlooked and therefore, the criticality of conducting this research. Social media plays a significant role in enhancing communication via the diverse platforms such as the facebook, twitter and instagram. Social media acts as a source of entertainment and learning making it irresistible in day-to-day living.

Whether social media affects the lives of the youths positively or negatively, the extent to which the young generation makes use of this platform has contributed immensely to the moral dimension of our society. This research will help us accept the null hypothesis or reject it. The hypothesis of this research will be as follows.

Null Hypothesis

H0: Social Media influences the youths negatively

Alternative Hypothesis

H1: Social Media the youths positively

In case the null hypothesis proves to be true, that is, social media has negative implications on the morality among the youths, the necessary solutions either by restricting or moderating the use of the platform among them. However, if the platform contributes positively to the morality of the youths, it will be advisable to encourage them to use it in more useful ways which can contribute their wellness positively. It is critical to note that social media influences the lives of the youths in terms of behavior, educations and thus this paper will try to establish how the social media influences the morality of the youths by taking talking a more critical aspect of the study. By so doing, it will either support the existing theory or come up with new findings that oppose the existing literature.

Section Four

Part 1

The population under consideration will have the following characteristics.

· The research will be carried out on youths between the ages of 12 years to age of 18 years.

· The research will target students in high school and college since education performance will be the main factor under consideration.

· The time each student spends in the social media will be compared to the education performance of the student at school.

Part 2

The research will employ an experimental method of data collection (Creswell, 2017). The samples of the population will be collected randomly. The participants will be required to fill a questionnaire online. The participants will be required to fill the grades they attain in school, whether they are involved in the social media and if yes, how often they get involved in social media. The questionnaire will have the following format.

Questionnaire School: School Grade: Are you involved in social media: Yes No. How often they get involved in the social media: very often sometimes seldom

Section Five

The results from the survey indicated that there was a correlation between the time spent on the social media and education performance. However, the findings were a quite different from those of the earlier researchers since there were differences. Students who spent most of the time in the social media indicated better performance compared to those who spend less amount of time or never had an experience with the social media.

However, the findings might be prone to false information since some students might give a false response especially the poor performing ones. On the other hand, students might indicate a better grade even when their grade is poor. It was however, easier to obtain data since all the respondents targeted gave responded to the questionnaire. The null hypothesis that the social influences the youths negatively was found to be false and therefore, the null hypothesis was rejected on this basis. The research showed that social media contributed positively to the youths since most of the students who were often on the social media performed better than those who never or rarely spent their time on the social media platforms. The hypothesis was correct since the alternative hypothesis indicated that social media had positive influence among the youths. The research is useful since it can used by other researchers to carry out another research by using this as the test research in order to find out the credibility of the findings.

Others will use other factors apart from education to find out whether social media affects the youths positively or negatively. This will be helpful in making decisions among parents by when to trying to moderate or deny their children to use social media until they reach a certain age.

Section Six

The findings of the research are valid though a research that combines more aspects needs to be conducted since education is not the only factors that are affected by youth’s involvement in the social media. To be precise, aspects such as the morality, ethical considerations and behavior are other critical aspects that need to be put into consideration in order to come up with findings that are more credible. Inclusion of these factors in the research will ensure that other aspects of the interaction between the social media and how it influences the youths will be critical in establishing the real influence social media influences the youths.

References

Asad, A. K. (2016). Effects of Social Media on Youth: A case study in University of Sargodha. International Journal of Advanced Research, 369-372.

Creswell, J. W. (2017). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.

Nkechi, O. G. (2014). The Moral Implication of Social Media Phenomenon in Nigeria. Mediterranean Journal of Social sciences, 5(20), 2231-2236.

Rameez, A. (2015). The impact of social media on younger generation: The use of facebookamong undergraduates of South Eastern University of Sri Lanka. 5th International Symposium, 311-312.