Research Essay

The ambiguous effects of the internet and social media are still prominent today; the
argument is whether it is detrimental to our generation or assistive in its growth. The
creation of the internet has revolutionized our way of thinking. By incorporating different
resources and data, I have composed a more developed stance on this issue. CQ
Researcher is an online resource that publishes daily reports of current issues, using
different writers to provide professional opinions on both sides of an issue. In his article
Impact of Internet on Thinking Alan Greenblatt suggests that the internet is harmful to
both our brains and habits, affecting and shaping how our minds function. I would argue
that social media and the internet negatively affect the way we think and socialize
because of how we manipulate it.
The age of the internet has taken over and transformed how our brains retain
information. Along with that, our cognitive ability to recall and remember information
has been negatively affected. By personal experience, I still remember living in a time
period where the internet was not yet significant. I could recite my friends home phone
numbers, and in comparison to the present day, I cant recall any phone number without
checking my own phone. To this day, I still remember the phone numbers from a decade
ago, but I cannot do the same for any numbers today.

Along with the internet, social medias ability to provide countless sources of
information has mechanically altered and limited our brain functions. Peter Suderman, a
writer for an online magazine called the American Scene was referenced in
Greenblatts article; he believes that the internet is in the process of degrading and
restricting our memory. He concludes that rather than memorizing information, we now
store it digitally and just remember what[orwhere]westored[it]. Theinternetbecomes
alargerbrainthatwecandependonwhilesimultaneouslyrelyinglessonourownminds.
Inthisspecificway,theknowledgethatisavailableforrecallbecomeslimited,which
showstohowtheinternethasdamagedourabilitytoremembercertaininformation.Carr
continuestoprovidemoretechnicalpsychologicalproblemswiththeinternet,sayingthat
the influx of competing messages interferes with the physical mechanics of the brain
that move information into long-term memory. The process in which we induct
meaningful information into our brain and retaining it is deteriorating. Carr provides the
idea that the amount of information constantly submitted to our brain makes it difficult to
encode a memories into our long term memory. The degradation of our memory due to
the overuse of the internet should be a concern to because memories are far more
valuable as a contribution to our overall humanity.
The negative side effects of the media and internet far outweigh the benefits. In a
study by the Kaiser Family Foundation, Generation M2: Media in the Lives of 8- to 18Year-Olds, it was reported that youth who spend more time with media correlate to lower
grades. Starting at a very young age, media has changed studying habits, downgraded the
priority of education, and has distracted us from being focused, determined people. While

this study can only be correlational and not causal, there is a significant and clear
difference in everyday life, showing that media can affect studying habits.
Just by a logical deduction, a student who is spending more time studying rather
than wasting time on the internet will do better on the next test. To become more familiar
with the material that is taught in school, a student must be well learned and comfortable
with the information. Spending more and more time with the information is the most
effective way to learn it and use it in a class setting. Compared to a student who is
spending more time on the internet, whether checking Facebook or is tweeting on Twitter,
the studying student will do better in school. It is not surprising that in the Kaiser study
the youth who spent more time in the media and internet reported lower grades.
While grades are important, it is even more crucial to have a good self-esteem. With
the ever increasing use of Facebook and other social media tools, youth that spend more
time on media are also reported by Kaiser to be struggling with personal contentment.
This is another example of how the internet has negatively changed our society and more
importantly our growing generation of youth. Through the study of the Kaiser Family
Foundation, there has been shown a correlation between youth that use too much social
media and them being discontent with who they are. There is a danger in using Facebook,
it is essentially a tool for observing the happiness of others while not being able to
partake in ones own joyful life. While using social media tools, we are so often reminded
of the fact that other people are having fun and we are studying for finals. This creates a
sense of discontent in the hearts of students and especially youth. The issue of personal
discontent is a major issue because the ultimate outcome is self-hate, or even so far as
suicide.

The internet has negatively transformed the way we socially interact, whether it be
through being disrespectful or not knowing how make conversation. Being able to share
one on one meals with people in college, I am always reminded of how terrible I am at
creating meaningful conversation with someone. More often than not, I will sit and eat
my food in silence while waiting for either of us to say anything that would break the
silence. This is a very common issue among the younger generations today, we are so
immersed in our phones and laptops that we find challenging to look at a face and do the
exact action of talking. Another example of failing social interactions is when a group of
friends spend time together, you can catch multiple people spending more time staring at
screens rather than at people.
The internet spans not only to the web, but also to social media that we constantly
access as a means of communication or entertainment. We are becoming dependent on
our phones and laptops to help us keep in touch with the newest trends along with the
most recent events. William Powers, another writer that was cited in Greenblatts article
puts it this way, The goal is no longer to be in touch, but to erase the possibility of
ever being out of touch. This is especially true when it comes to our phones. From
personal experience, I know very few people who can restrain themselves from checking
their phone every few minutes. As a generation of young adults, we cannot stand the idea
of being apart from everything, nor can we sit well with the idea that we might just be
missing out on an exciting party. It is not so much that we constantly connected and
surrounded with a loving communion of friends, rather it is more like us being far more
lonely than ever before. As Powers puts it, we attempt toerase the concept of
loneliness, but because of technology, relationships are far more disconnected and

broken. People are so connected by the social media, but behind the screens and web, we
are sitting alone at home searching for community that we can only discover online. So
often we rather stay home and text each other than go grab a cup of coffee to spend
quality time with each other.
Social media and the internet dangerously diminish the importance and significance
of face-to-face interactions. In her book Psychology and the Internet : Intrapersonal,
Interpersonal, and Transpersonal Implications, Jayne Gackenbach who is a experimental
psychologist and author believes that through text-based communication, it is more
popular now at least partly because there is less interpersonal risk and little logistic or
social cost involved. The significance and usage of face-to-face interaction is in a
perilous state, being threatened by text-based conversations that can be tailored to the
specific intentions of an individual. People are so often afraid of the risks that are
presented to them as they engage in a meaningful conversation having thoughts such as,
What will they think of me? or How do I make myself seem respectable? Textbased communications allow us to edit who we would like to be. Along with hiding our
physical attributes and personalities, we can manipulate the direction of conversation
easily with a strike or addition of a couple words. This is dangerous because it can create
false images and impressions of a person that are ultimately untrue. In the end, this will
encourage the repeating behavior of creating fake impressions of oneself to deceive
another person.
Recognizing that there are positive effects of the internet as well, we must discern
the appropriate moderation of which we use it. The internet can provide so much
information and data that students now could not be able to reach otherwise via their

homes. Although libraries are rarely used for their extensive hardcopy databases, they
still hold a very great significance in the lives of students. The web has allowed students
to become more connected to the rest of the world while also bringing to them a more
whole understanding of their surroundings.
Yes, the internet has dramatically increased our accessibility to new information,
but in the long run, our minds have completely been rewired to a different way of
thinking. Albeit the effect of the internet and social media can create false images, it is
possible for the user to even lose a conscious understanding of their own identity. Our
generation has become so obsessed and reliant on the specific tool of social media to
create themselves an image that they deem worthy of others approval. More importantly,
the internet has also become a factor that has caused people to be discontent in their own
identities, especially because they have been created in Gods image, deemed perfect in
His eyes. If the Creator of the universe has deemed us perfect and beautiful in His
perspective, how can we possibly believe that we need to compose a false identity on
social media and internet that we understand as worthy of praise.

WorksCited
Greenblatt, Alan. "Impact of the Internet on Thinking." CQ Researcher by CQ
Press. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Dec. 2014.
Palfrey, John G., and Urs Gasser. Born Digital: Understanding the First Generation of
Digital Natives. New York: Basic, 2010. Web.

Gackenbach, Jayne. Psychology And The Internet : Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, And

Transpersonal Implications. Amsterdam: Elsevier/Academic Press, 2007. eBook
Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 8 Dec. 2014.
Rideout, Victoria J., Ulla G. Foehr, and Donald F. Roberts. Generation M2: Media in
the Lives of 8- to 18-Year-Olds. Rep. Menlo Park: n.p., 2010. Print.