Running Head: IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON AMERICAN CULTURE 1
Impact of Social Media on American Culture
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Impact of Social Media on American Culture
Social media is composed of electronic applications and websites that foster
easier and efficient sharing of information (Burgess & Banks, 2020). It has brought about both
positive and negative impacts in an individual and society at large. Social media has caused the
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON AMERICAN CULTURE 2
following impact on the Americans culture; low self-esteem, body dismorphia, poor
relationships, job creation, increased online dating and high content consumption in the
entertainment and gaming industry.
Social media has been a major influence on self-esteem. Social media has mostly
impacted the youth in America. Although it has some positives, it has impacted the youth mostly
negatively. Overuse of social media has been linked to low self-esteem and disconnection among
family members and peers and also body dismorphia (Saran, Patil & Bansal, 2020). Constant use
of social media among women in most cases has been linked to having a poor body image. This
is caused by the constant use of filters by fellow social media users like in Snapchat or
Instagram. The constant presence of attractive female models also being constantly promoted
and suggested to be the absolute standard of beauty leads to other women feeling ashamed of
how they look. This leads to more use of filters in pictures in order to look a particular way. The
lack of self-love and constant comparison to other more attractive women can lead them into
stress, depression and self-loathing. The lack of control among social media users could lead
them to become mentally and physically ill.
In addition, Social media has had great influence on relationships. Social media
massively affects interpersonal communications and relationships (Matook & Butler, 2014).
Social media has helped break barriers of communication. It has helped people communicate
with each other with ease at any time of the day. It has also broken the boundaries of space as
people can easily communicate with each other no matter the physical distance between them.
Through applications like Facebook, some Americans are able to make friends online and also
stabilize the friendships already in existing in real life.
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON AMERICAN CULTURE 3
Social media has also brought with it a load of communication and relationship threats
and barriers. Due to the increased use of emails, texts, messaging and blogs, Americans tend to
talk to each other less on a personal level (Matook & Butler, 2014). Face to face communications
have drastically reduced due to the overuse and over consumption of social media. This has led
people to misinterpret others in real life due to lack of regular communication with each other.
Social media has led to a shift from a society that adequately communicated on a personal basis
to a lonely individualized world of texts, emojis and emails. This negative change in behavior
and culture could be viewed in the young generation of today who rarely possess any efficient
communication skills and spend most of their time buried in their phones, tablets and computers.
This has resulted to occurrence of more feuds and conflicts among people as compared to prior
years when social media was not invented yet. Through social media, the new methods of
striking a conversation with other Americans are through sending funny videos or memes or
through applications like Snapchat.
Also, Social media has greatly influenced on employments. Social media has also
influenced American people’s ability to get employment (Haynes, 2015). American employers in
this modern age, prior to conducting interviews, check the candidates’ posts and status of their
social media accounts. This helps the employer get a glimpse of who they are hiring and if they
are the right personnel for the job. Many American interviewers though tend to fall short through
this screening method due to the employer finding socially and morally wrong posts on their
social media accounts. For example, an employee may find interviewee’s pictures or posts that
promote sex or drugs which would lead them to disqualify the interviewee since they do not feel
like the person fits in with the moral code of the organization as required.
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON AMERICAN CULTURE 4
Some useful social media applications like LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook have been
used by interviewees and employers to look and give job opportunities respectively. Through
these applications, American people get the opportunity to create professional profiles so that the
to-be employers can view them and hopefully land a job opportunity. Knowledge on how to
efficiently use social media has particularly helped some Americans create their own jobs
leading to a generation of self-employed individuals. Most of these individuals are either;
comedians, artists, musicians, public influencers etc. Using the social media users as their
market, these online businesses have thrived due to the high consumption and engagement in
social media. Therefore, social media can be used for the better in the employment sector.
Besides Social media has influenced the manner through which people date. Social media
has also been used in the dating sector (Pierlow, 2016). Many young adults in search of a life
partner in America have commonly turned to dating sites in search of a suitable partner whom
they can go on a date with and probably lead to something more serious. Prior face to face
communications during courtship in search of a suitor have reduced due to availability of dating
apps like Tinder which offers individuals dating partners right at the touch of a button. This has
in turn resulted to a string of broken relationships and divorces in America. This occurs due to
the tendency of individuals skipping the friendship stage of courtship which lacks when one uses
social media to find a soul mate.
Also, Social media has influenced entertainment consumption in America. Social media
has also shifted the American society to one that highly consumes all sorts of entertainment
through sites like Youtube, Facebook, Vimeo etc (Cunningham & Craig, 2019). Society
members; young to old seek various entertainment content through social media making these
sites a very important source of entertainment for Americans. This entertainment includes things
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON AMERICAN CULTURE 5
such as; music, films, movies, fashion shows, talk shows, travel journals, documentaries among
others. Entertainers like musicians and film actors and actresses, themselves also use social
media as a platform to publish their new content or announce their new release in order to get
consumers to download their new released music or watch a newly released film. They use
YouTube to showcase their newly released content and sites such as Instagram to make an
announcement about their new release. Social media in this case is a highly relied upon source of
entertainment for Americans.
In addition, it has affected America’s gaming industry. Social media has also placed a
significantly big influence on the video gaming industry in America (Cunningham & Craig,
2019). Social media sites mainly YouTube have been used by many gamers as a source of
information for example; finding out how to play a certain game. Gamers generally find it easier
to watch an instructional video of someone actually playing the game on YouTube as they do a
step by step guide other than reading the instructions themselves from the game package. The
gaming influencers on YouTube also use their videos to inform consumers on new releases,
which games are more efficient, various genres of all sorts of video games and where you can
purchase them. This has made it easier for gamers to get first hand information on all sorts of
questions they may have in regards to gaming. This has also boosted the gaming industry’s sales
due to the influence that gets around through social media to gamers.
Social media is a powerful technological tool that carries with it a lot of advantages like
promotion of businesses, easy communication to others etc. However, over use of social media
has been proven to be very unhealthy. It can lead to poor communication and relationships,
anxiety, body shame, self-loathing and many other cons. Therefore, just like any other powerful
tool, Americans should use it wisely.
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON AMERICAN CULTURE 6
References
Burgess, J. & Banks, J. (2020). Social Media. 10.4324/9781003118084-20. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342941781_Social_Media
Cunningham, S. & Craig, D. (2019). Global Social Media Entertainment.
10.4324/9781315192468-6. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/336954618_Global_Social_Media_Entertainme
nt
IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON AMERICAN CULTURE 7
Haynes, H. (2015). Social Media in Employment Decisions. SSRN Electronic Journal.
10.2139/ssrn.2579948. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/314887202_Social_Media_in_Employment_De
cisions
Matook, S. & Butler, B. (2014). Social Media and Relationships.
10.1002/9781118767771.wbiedcs097.
Pierlow, B. (2016). Online Dating, Social Media and Elderly Victimization.
10.13140/RG.2.2.16026.44481. Retrieved from
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/310428441_Online_Dating_Social_Media_and
_Elderly_Victimization.
Saran, B. & Patil, M. & Bansal, D. (2020). Relationship between body dissatisfaction and social
media. Journal of Health Sciences.Santosh University. 5. 125-126.
10.18231/j.sujhs.2019.028.
