Hall 1

Deja Hall

Ms. Gordon

ENG 112- 58

28 February 2019

Dangers of the Web

In today's world everything in the society revolves around social media. People use it to

promote their businesses, stay in contact with loved ones, connect with new people and more.

Everyday people get more dependent on social media. I decided that this would be a great topic

for my inquiry project because I have firsthand experience on social media addiction. Since the

age of 13 I have had a phone. Over the course of these few years, I have become more dependent

on my cell phone. When I wake up the first thing that I do is check my phone to see my

notifications. Not only is social media addicting but it also has a huge negative impact on the

young mind.

I have researched many of articles on how social media affects the brain and the results

are very negative. For one, social media is extremely addicting. In their article Social media

addiction and burnout: The mediating roles of envy and social media use anxiety Liu and

Jianling state “Considering the negative effect of social media burnout such as depression, the

findings may provide new path to understand the detrimental of excessive use of social media

toward corresponding psychological outcomes.” Not many people realize how much social

media affects us.

Even though it is a great platform to expand businesses and network, it is being used for

the wrong reasons especially by the younger generation. As time goes by social media becomes

more and more popular. Younger teens start to use social media for more than just connecting
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with friends. It gets easier and to hide behind social media, because it is online, and you can

basically be anyone that you want.

Bullying is another problem that comes with hiding behind social media. In her article

How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers Rachel Ehmke states that “The other big danger that

comes from kids communicating more indirectly is that it has gotten easier to be cruel”. Words

on social media are not filtered and adolescents can go under their peers’ pictures and say mean

things. According to Chris Moessner in his article Cyberbullying, Trends and Tudes, “Nearly

43% of kids have been bullied online. 1 in 4 has had it happen more than once”. That means that

1 in every 4 kids has been victim to cyberbullying.

Even though most social media sites have age requirements it is extremely easy to falsify

personal information such as your age and name. That gives younger kids easy access to these

media sites. This is also extremely dangerous because there could be predators on the web.

According to Rae Jacobson in his article Social Media and Self-Doubt “For kids experiencing

anxiety or depression, carefully edited feeds can act as a smoke screen, masking serious issues

behind pretend perfection and making it harder for parents or friends to see that they need help.”

There are now apps that people use to edit their bodies to make them look the way they want but

not how they truly are made. This is a big problem because it creates low self-esteem.

In the article Smartphones and Social Media from the Child Mind Institute, “[...] there is

also evidence that overuse has a negative impact on self-esteem and satisfaction with their lives.”

Younger teens see the way that celebrities live, and it gives them a false perception of how they

should be living their own lives. Another problem that comes with the younger generation being

on social media is seeing people who they idolize. Some people have social media as a

profession and their whole lives are posted for people to follow and watch.
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Ehmke also states that “In a way, texting and online communicating—it’s not like it

creates a nonverbal learning disability, but it puts everybody in a nonverbal disabled context,

where body language, facial expression, and even the smallest kinds of vocal reactions are

rendered invisible.” Using social media instead of actual face to face communication affects

communication and social skills. Spending more time on social media means spending less time

actually getting out and finding people to connect with real people.

There are solutions to help young children open and engage in more face to face

communication with people. Getting kids out of the house and participating in more physical

activity. Physical activity not only allows more social contact with people, but it also promotes a

healthier lifestyle. Dong, Jingmei along with other authors make a great point in their article

Physical Activity, a Critical Exposure Factor of Environmental Pollution in Children and

Adolescents Health Risk Assessment. They state that “The physical fitness level in adolescence

is associated with health-related outcomes, such as risk of obesity and cardiovascular diseases,

skeletal health and mental health”. Sitting at home all day on social media affects us not only

mentally but physically too. According to the National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention

and Health Promotion website, “Children and adolescents should do 60 minutes (1 hour) or more

of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily”. Getting at least one hour of physical activity

will help promote a healthier lifestyle for young adolescents.

Another solution to help decrease the negative effects of social media on young teens is

for parents to monitor what their children are doing on social media. Apps like “Bark” and

“Qustodio” are available to parents to help monitor what their children are doing on their phones.

Parents can set time limits on the apps which automatically shuts off their child's phone when it

is time for them to get off social media or when they have been over using it. Time limits help
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prevent social media addiction. Not only will they shut off the apps, but they send out alerts to

parents when children look up information that maybe be a call out for help. When a parent is

able to keep track of what their children are doing it can possibly save their lives. If a parent gets

an alert about something, they feel is harmful towards their child of a cry out, they can get their

children the help that they need to keep them safe.

As technology and social media gets more popular, we must learn how to balance out the

role it plays in our lives. Social media can be good for promoting businesses and connecting with

different people from around the world. Although social media can be used for good it can be

just as dangerous, especially to the younger generation because they do not understand how

much of a impact social media has on our lives. We must teach adolescents not to be addicted to

social media and help them connect to the real-life world instead of living their lives on

Instagram and Facebook.

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Works Cited

Dong, Jingmei, et al. "Physical Activity, a Critical Exposure Factor of Environmental

Pollution in Children and Adolescents Health Risk Assessment." International
Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 15, no. 2, 2018, pp.
176. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/
/2014812808?accountid=10008, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph15020176.
[Accessed 23 Apr. 2019].

Ehmke, Rachel, and Child Mind Institute. “How Using Social Media Affects Teenagers.”
Child Mind Institute, childmind.org/article/how-using-social-media-affects-
teenagers/. [Accessed 30 Apr. 2019].

Jacobson, Rae. “Social Media and Self-Esteem | Impact of Social Media on Youth.”
Child Mind Institute, childmind.org/article/social-media-and-self-doubt/.
[Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].

Liu, Chang, and Jianling Ma. "Social Media Addiction and Burnout: The Mediating
Roles of Envy and Social Media use Anxiety." Current Psychology, 2018, pp. 1-
9. ProQuest, http://ezproxy.cpcc.edu/login?url=https://search.proquest.com/
docview/2103359335?accountid=10008, doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12144-
018-9998-0. [Accessed 2 Apr. 2019].

Moessner, Chris. "Cyberbullying, Trends and Tudes." NCPC.org. Accessed February 10,
2014, http://www.ncpc.org/resources/files/pdf/bullying/Cyberbullying%20Trends
20-%20Tudes.pdf. [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].

“Smartphones and Social Media.” Child Mind Institute, 2017, childmind.org/report/2017-

-childrens-mental-health-report/smartphones-social-media/. [Accessed 2 Apr.
2019]

“Youth Physical Activity Guidelines | Physical Activity | Healthy Schools | CDC.”

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, 14 Nov. 2018, www.cdc.gov/healthyschools/physicalactivity/
guidelines.htm. [Accessed 29 Apr. 2019].