Constantinidis 1 Julia Constantinidis English 1102 Professor Padgett March 29th 2014

Is Facebook Diminishing Young Adults and Adolescents emotional well-being?

Openness is described as having friends that one spends time with while also having friends on Facebook. Loneliness is described as just having friends on Facebook (Skues, Williams, and Wise 2414-2419). Is Facebook in fact promoting loneliness? Yes, because friends on Facebook does not include face-to-face interactions, but wait a minute; how can people who have thousands of Facebook friends be lonely when they have the ability to interact online with anyone in a matter of seconds? Facebook is slowly diminishing todays youth by encouraging unhealthy emotional actions and causing iDisorders. How many college students actually use Facebook and other social media sites? Approximately 96% of college students use Facebook, 14% use twitter, and 10% use LinkedIn. According to a study done by the University of New Hampshire about 63% of heavy social media users have high grades and approximately 37% of heavy users have low grades. It is almost an obvious fact that when students are distracted their school grades have a higher chance of dropping, but what about their social status and emotional well-being? Are those dropping? According to a study that was published in May 2013, Facebook is directly connected to marijuana usage, alcohol usage, loneliness, and anxiousness(Clayton, Osborne, Miller, and Oberle 687-693). A term commonly used when describing how much Facebook is integrated into ones personal life is Facebook connectedness. Facebook connection strategies refers to how

Constantinidis 2 individuals use Facebook to (1) find someone with whom they share an offline connection, such as a classmate or a friend, (2) make new friends without any reference to an offline connection, or (3) maintain past relationships such as high-school friends (Clayton, Osborne, Miller, and Oberle 687-693). These are the most common uses of Facebook. One inquiry that this study had was whether or not using alcohol and marijuana predicts connectedness to Facebook. Basically are students more prone to using social media while using alcohol and marijuana, and what does this do to the users emotional well-being? People who spent a significant amount of time on the internet reported higher levels of perceived loneliness and a greater number of daily stresses than people who did not use the internet as often. (Clayton, Osborne, Miller, and Oberle 687693). It was also found that introverted individuals that used Facebook decreased their community involvement and increased their loneliness. Many individuals that engaged in interactions online and through Facebook found it to be a functional and rewarding alternative to face-to-face interactions. (Clayton, Osborne, Miller, and Oberle 687-693). Shyness is described to be extremely similar to loneliness. When students prefer to use social interactions on Facebook, rather than engaging in face-to-face interactions, they show signs of shyness, shyness results in loneliness. Thus Facebook has a direct link to loneliness. People rely on different sources of information about a target person to decide whether they like this person and if they want to become friends with this person (Antheunis, and Schouten 391-406). Facebook is a key to social identification. Alongside Facebook is a social media network, Instagram, which was bought by Facebook. Instagram is solely for uploading and posting pictures. The only text that you can post on Instagram is that of a caption underneath a picture that was posted. In 2012 Facebook bought Instagram for one billion dollars(Evelyn ). Now the two social medias work hand in hand. If the user chooses so, every post that is uploaded

Constantinidis 3 to Instagram will be uploaded directly to Facebook. On Instagram users can like each others pictures, much like how on Facebook followers can like statuses. Within seconds I can post a picture of myself no matter where I am and as long as I have access to the internet. According to Instagram over 1.6 billion pictures are posted and there are 60 million likes in a single day. Many teenagers that use Facebook and Instagram are using these sites to gain attention and to even help boost their self-esteem. How could posting pictures and statuses help boost ones self esteem? The most salient other-generated cues are the wall postings on one's profile page and the attractiveness of one's friends. These may be manipulated to some extent, but nevertheless provide more warranting value than self-generated information. (Antheunis, and Schouten 391406). In other words, more people use social media sites to judge other peoples looks and thoughts than just to post about themselves. Many people look at users profiles to mentally rate them on things such as popularity and looks. One study found that the profile owner was perceived as more popular and attractive when their social media page included a large number of friends compared to a small number of friends. (Antheunis, and Schouten 391-406). The same study also found that the higher number of friends that the profile had correlated directly to how attractive the profile owner was perceived to be. Imagine the amount of pressure social media users are under to keep up an appearance. Young social media users often are extremely preoccupied with what they appear to be in the eyes of others. Peer acceptance and interpersonal feedback on the self, both important features of social media users, are vital predictors of social self-esteem and well-being. (Antheunis, and Schouten 391-406). There is now extensive evidence documenting a relationship between depression and excessive media use, including social networking sites. Depression appears to be transmittable through technological interaction via emotional contagion. (Rosen, Whaling, Rab, and

Constantinidis 4 Cheever 1243-1254). A recent study showed that depressive symptoms were associated with quality of social networking interactions. (Rosen, Whaling, Rab, and Cheever 1243-1254). When depression is linked to social media use it is known as an iDisorder, or an internet disorder. Many teenagers and young adults have reported that they attempt to multitask almost every day. Approximately 80% of college students multitask (Paul 1-3). Rapid task switching, also known as multitasking, may be one root cause of depression. (Rosen, Whaling, Rab, and Cheever 1243-1254). Facebook is widely used as a component of multitasking. It is very easy to have a tab open and whenever one needs a break while studying or completing homework he or she switches between tabs. In fact as I am typing this sentence I currently have a tab open with Facebook. I would not be considered a multi-tasker at this moment in time because I have yet to look on Facebook, I simply just have it open. Social networking can cause depression and can decrease social well-being. I mainly use social networking to keep in touch with family and friends, but sometimes I let my need for attention get the best of me. I have a Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter account and I sometimes post things just so my followers will like them or retweet them. For example, on Instagram I have noticed that I get more likes on a self-taken picture, or selfie, therefore I post more selfies than anything else. Whenever I post a selfie it usually takes a while to choose the right one. Sometimes I will take up to ten pictures, just so I can choose the best one to post. When I say best I mean the picture that will have more likes. If I take the time to take multiple selfies and the time to choose the best one, I expect to get a large number of likes. When I do not receive the amount of likes that I see as appropriate, I delete the post. Whenever I do not get a decent amount of likes on a post, especially a selfie, I cannot help but feel down about myself. The only reason I even posted the selfie in the first place was to receive recognition about my looks. I

Constantinidis 5 want the public to notify myself that I am beautiful. I do not have an iDisorder by any means, but it can feel depressing when my followers do not give me the attention that I am seeking. Many teenagers go through the same thing that I do. Some even go through more extreme cases which result in diagnosable depression and other iDisorders. Many teenagers fall under the category as victims of what is known as cyberbullying. Approximately 54% of Facebook users have experienced cyberbullying at one point while using the social networking site(Admin ). Cyberbullying is just what it says. It is bullying that occurs on the internet, mainly on social networking sites. In May of 2011 an extreme case of cyberbullying occurred on Facebook. A group of high school students created a fake Facebook profile of a boy named Jaydon Rothwell. They used this profile to get revenge on a 15 year old girl who was friends with the group that created the profile. According to the report on the hoax, the 15 year old girl exchanged many messages with the Jaydon profile and had arranged to meet him. She went to a park to meet him and met with a boy that looked similar to the picture that was used for Jaydons profile. The two began talking and ended the night with a kiss. A few days later a tribute page was posted on Facebook informing the girl that Jaydon had committed suicide. The group made up a story about Jaydon having a girlfriend. The girlfriend found out that the Jaydon character had gone to see the 15 year old and broke up with him. After the breakup Jaydon killed himself. None of what was posted was real. Jaydon Rothwell was a made up character. A group of girls created the profile because the girl had talked to one of the friends ex-boyfriends. The victim of the hoax was reported saying I was grieving for someone who wasnt real and felt I had been so gullible. (Tozer ). Surprisingly extreme cases, such as this one, happen more than one would like to believe.

Constantinidis 6 Extreme use of Facebook and other social media sites can be a direct link to depression and the lowering of todays youths wellbeing.

Constantinidis 7 Works Cited Admin, . "The Annual Cyberbullying Survey 2013." Ditch the Label. 10 8 2013: n. page. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. Antheunis, Marjolijn, and Alexander Schouten. "The Effects of Other-Generated and SystemGenerated Cues on Adolescents." Computer-Mediated Communication. 16.3 (2011): 391406. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. Clayton, Russell, Randall Osborne, Brian Miller, and Crystal Oberle. "Loneliness, anxiousness, and substance use as predictors of Facebook use." Computers in Human Behavior. 29.3 (2013): 687-693. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. Evelyn, Rusli. "Facebook Buys Instagram for $1 Billion." New York Times 4 9 2012, n. pag. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. Paul , Annie Murphy. "You'll Never Learn." Slate. 3 5 2013: 1-3. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. Rosen, L.D, K Whaling, L.M Rab, and N.A Cheever. "Is Facebook creating iDisorders? The link between clinical symptoms of psychiatric disorders and technology use, attitudes and anxiety." Computers in Human Behavior. 29.3 (2013): 1243-1254. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. Skues, Jason, Ben Williams, and Lisa Wise. "The effects of personality traits, self-esteem, loneliness, and narcissism on Facebook use among university students." Computers in Human Behavior. 28.6 (2012): 2414-2419. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. Tozer, James. "Bullies torment schoolgirl, 15, with fake online boyfriend before telling her on Facebook he." Mail Online. 7 3 2011: n. page. Web. 8 Apr. 2014.