Clay 1

Ella Clay

Rachel Porter

English 1201.511

16 January 2019

Research Proposal: Social Media

After I climbed into the car, my dad greeted me with, "Hi Ella, how was swim practice?"

After taking out my phone, I replied with, "It was fine."

Not missing a beat, my father asked, "What strokes did you work on?"

I responded with a curt, "Backstroke."

Continuing his attempt at conversation, he inquired "Was it crowded?"

I answered with, "Sort of" and elaborated no further.

Patiently, my dad addressed the issue and said, "Is there a reason you're being short with

me? Are you mad or something?"

Face still glued to my phone screen, I said, "Nope."

With a hint of frustration in his voice, my dad asked, "What are you looking at on your

phone?"

Growing defensive I continued my curt responses with, "Instagram stories. Why?"

This sample conversation was an accurate representation of daily communication with

my father. It consisted of curt, meaningless words which damaged our relationship and drove us

apart. But this didn't just occur with my dad; the same thing happened with my friend group, my

whole family, and other people I cared about. I found that not only did I push people away that

actually cared about me, but I also embraced things that were harmful. I was so focused on my
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phone, checking social media, and learning what my peers were doing. However, this knowledge

was useless at best and harmful at worst. Learning of others' plans and viewing their pictures

only bred discontentment, jealousy, and hurt that I wasn't included. I once heard the saying,

"comparison is the thief of joy." This is certainly true, at least in my situation. I thankfully

realized that social media was the root of these problems and deleted my account before it caused

lasting damage. Sadly, others are not as informed or fortunate. For this reason, I wish to conduct

research on the effects of social media and share the results with others to help them avoid

making the same mistakes.

I feel that social media can cause harmful emotions, such as anxiety, sadness, jealousy,

loneliness, and insecurity. These emotions have led me to think that social media encourages

comparison which can harm teenagers. I think that while social media can be used for good, it

has the potential to be extremely harmful. In my opinion, every teenager should understand facts

and studies displaying the dangers of social media before they use it. I believe that this would

cause the usage to noticeably decrease, which would improve the rates of depression, anxiety,

and other social media-related issues. I know that studies have shown social media usage is

linked to increased depression rates. I also know that it leads to other negative mental and

physical outcomes, but I am not knowledgeable on this subject.

In my research, I want to learn about common physical and mental problems related to

social media usage. I would like to find statistics and surveys that explore the scope of these

problems. Also, I desire to read testimonials of other teenagers who have struggled with

problems associated with social apps. I plan to search in recent newspapers and online news

stories because they have covered similar stories. I also intend to search for research conducted

by health experts such as doctors, psychologists, and scientists. Not to mention, the social media
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industry is exponentially lucrative; I think that this success might lead companies to exploit

social media users. Though not entirely related to my paper’s focus, I would like to research this

angle a little bit more. Finally, I wish to explore solutions to these problems. Are there other

ways to fix the issue besides deleting the app?