University of Perpetual Help System-Laguna

Minante 1, Cauayan City, Isabela

College of Business and Accountancy

______________________________________________________________________________

Title:” The effects of social media to the social life of the youth”.

A Paper Analysis
Submitted to JAYRON C. BARTOLLOME
AS partial fulfillment to the course
Ang Kasalukuyang Daigdig

Names:
Delos Santos, Mary Grace
Gineta, Ciara Angily
Pagador, Anbert Ejie
San Antonio, Maricar
Viloria, Scwythle

2nd Semester, S.Y. 2019-2020

 University of Perpetual Help System-Laguna

Minante 1, Cauayan City, Isabela

College of Business and Accountancy

______________________________________________________________________________

INTRODUCTION
Fifty years ago, no one knew a term of “Social Media”. But now, everyone knows about

it. This term has become a common knowledge in society especially for youngsters. It is a new

entertainment where people can share and exchange their thought, personal information, photo

plus interest. This media is growing bigger every day with more and more people use it.

In our generation, social media has taken the world by storm through dozens of websites

and mobile applications such Baidu, Facebook Tieba, LinkedIn, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter,

Viber, WeChat, What’s App, Weibo, Wikia and others that helps improve the way people

communicate with each other. These are the fastest and easiest way so that people can connect

with other people whether they're near or far from each other. In just a click, it enables us to

interact with the entire world. It also gives us the opportunity to make new friends and maintain

the old friendships we have. On the other hand, it also affects our social behavior negatively. It

has been seen that when people are gathered together some are busy using their phones instead of

talking to each other. They're always busy chatting with their online friends instead of having

face-to-face talk with their real friends. All in all, some people are forgetting the real social

world and busy in the virtual world which brought us by the social media.
 University of Perpetual Help System-Laguna

Minante 1, Cauayan City, Isabela

College of Business and Accountancy

______________________________________________________________________________
The increasing use of social media can affect the youth's social life not just positively but

also adversely. This influences their interpersonal relationship in many ways. Through this, they

may meet other people to interact with which may result to lack of face-to-face conversation.
 University of Perpetual Help System-Laguna

Minante 1, Cauayan City, Isabela

College of Business and Accountancy

______________________________________________________________________________

THESIS

Social media has really affects our lives in many aspects. But upon looking on its impact

on the social life of the people especially to the youth, it has positive and negative effects.

Positive, in the way that it helps youth to develop their interpersonal skills. And on the other

hand, it makes the youth become isolated or act intrapersonally.

POSITIVE EFFECTS

According to Subrahmanyam & Greenfield, (2008) social media has positive impacts to

social life of the youths.. Using visual communication technology to supplement communication

for students with special needs has been found to be effective (Shane et al., 2012; Emerson &

Bishop, 2012). For example, students with deaf-blindness were more able to engage in

interpersonal communication by using videophone technology (Emerson & Bishop, 2012), and

students with autism spectrum disorders had more success communicating when complex

animations accompanied words (Shane et al., 2012).

Engaging in various types of social media has also been associated with positive

outcomes such as increased ‘communication, social connection and even technical skills’ (Ito et

al., 2009: 800). Social media users stay connected longer at affordable rates (Sultan, 2014).
 University of Perpetual Help System-Laguna

Minante 1, Cauayan City, Isabela

College of Business and Accountancy

______________________________________________________________________________
Consequently social media users are aware of what is going on in the lives of friends and family

members.

In addition to being in touch with friends and family, students are able to make new

friends and exchange ideas via social media (O'Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011). Social media

fosters technical skills such as the ability to create online groups, exchange videos,

documents,images, podcasts and blogs, developing artistic and musical endevours (O'Keeffe

& Clarke-Pearson, 2011). Sultan (2014) argues that social media interactions create a

context that generates less anxious than face-to-face meetings do and are thus helpful for socially

anxious individuals who tend to be stressed in face-to-face relationships.Literature that support

the use of Social media report that social media encourages effective communication offering

real-time messaging, empowerment, sense of belongingness and sociability, enjoyment, quick

information-sharing and cost benefits (Bere, 2012; Plana et al., 2013; Devi & Tevera, 2014;

O’Hara et al., 2014).

The following are some of the motivations for using social media. First, students use

social media to share information, discuss study material or topics, and network to complete

homework assignments or term projects. Social media also provides convenient ways of peer-to-

peer exchange of knowledge and collaboration (Eid& Al-Jabri, 2016). Second, it could be

expected that students would actively participate in social media to experience connectedness

and happiness (Valkenburg, Peter, & Schouten, 2006). Therefore, college students with lower
 University of Perpetual Help System-Laguna

Minante 1, Cauayan City, Isabela

College of Business and Accountancy

______________________________________________________________________________
levels of life satisfaction could seek to participate in online networks to increase their personal

well-being (Ellison et al., 2007). Third, students spend time on social media to keep in touch

with old friends and to strengthen bonds with colleagues. By using social media, individuals seek

to maintain and increase their social networks (Ellison et al., 2007).

NEGATIVE EFFECTS

Social media may have had an effect on social behavior due to the online environment,

and it might be unrelated to the lack of face-to-face communication (Diamanduros, Downs &

Jenkins, 2008). People seem to be less politically correct when they are online and are not

dealing directly with people (Diamanduros et al., 2008; Draa & Sydney, 2009; Sabella, 2007).

This is likely due to the anonymity fostered by the Internet (Draa & Sydney, 2009). However,

even when the user is not anonymous, Internet users still seem to be more likely to express

themselves in the public domain of the Internet. They may provide much more information about

themselves than they would in a public real life setting. This could simply be because Internet

users do not feel like people can see what they are doing - that it does not have the same real life

consequences (Draa & Sydney) - but it could also be that they might not know what is

appropriate to share, since others share openly as well. There are social side effects when making

online comments, and adolescent Internet users may be unaware of the consequences of their

actions. Educating students on this subject may become necessary as more people grow up with

more technology.
 University of Perpetual Help System-Laguna

Minante 1, Cauayan City, Isabela

College of Business and Accountancy

______________________________________________________________________________
A few people report having no face-to-face communication outside of school (Lenhart,

2012). However, while there is an assumption that technological communication harms

interpersonal skills (May, 2011), research has not been able to find strong evidence for a

decrease in interpersonal skills (Schnell, 2005).

Teenagers, between the ages of 12-17, report using text messages in their daily lives more

than any other form of communication, including face-to-face interaction (Lenhart, 2010). A

large part of this generation’s social and emotional development is occurring while on the

Internet and cell phones. All the time that children and teenagers spend on the web and more

specifically social media sites, takes time away from face-to-face communication and in-person

activities (Giedd, 2012)

Ahn (2011) discusses both the benefits and risks of the many social networking sites in

his qualitative study on networked teens. Ahn (2011) states that the benefits of SNS for teens

include having socially and communicably enhanced learning opportunities, as well as the ability

to access health information. Some of the risks stated by Ahn (2011) include being exposed to

cyber-bullying, sexting, and Facebook depression. Cyber bullying is defined as the deliberate use

of electronic communication to bully a person, typically by sending messages of an intimidating

or threatening nature Ahn (2011). Sexting is defined as the act of sending (someone) sexually

explicit photographs or messages via SNS and Facebook depression being deemed a new

phenomenon by researchers is defined as a depression that develops when preteens and teens

spend a great deal of time on social media sites and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of
 University of Perpetual Help System-Laguna

Minante 1, Cauayan City, Isabela

College of Business and Accountancy

______________________________________________________________________________
depression (Clarke-Pearson, 2011). Clarke-Pearson et al., (2011) Qualitative study on the impact

of social media on our teens and families stated that once “SNS depression” has set in, the teen

may become more at risk for social isolation and turn to risky internet sites and blogs for “help”

that may promote substance abuse, unsafe sexual practices, or aggressive or self-destructive

behaviors (Clarke-Pearson, 2011). Clarke-Pearson et al., (2011), mentions that naturally when a

person becomes depressed they gravitate towards unhealthy and somewhat self-destructive

behavior, so if a teen experiencing “SNS depression” they, too, will gravitate towards unhealthy

behavior only on the internet.

 University of Perpetual Help System-Laguna

Minante 1, Cauayan City, Isabela

College of Business and Accountancy

______________________________________________________________________________

CONCLUSION

Social media affects how youth interact with other people. These lies either positive or

negative effects. Social media affects them positively because its a helps them to meet new

friends whom they do not know. As a result of this, they may be addicted on chatting online and

may forget that its still better to have face-to-face communication. Besides,the impact is still

depends on how the user perceived it. If upon using it he develops his interpersonal skills then its

good. But if it makes him isolated or intrapersonal then he must stop or reduced using or

accesing it.

It is essential to know how tow technology particularly social media affects us. We must

know the benefits we may earn upon using it as well as its negative impacts on our social

interaction. If we find out that it affects us interpersonally then we should minimize using it. We

shouldn't engage all of our time on using social media instead we should also know to interact

with our friends or even strangers to know them better. We shouldn't let this stops social

interaction like Albert Einstein said, I fear the day that technology surpass our human interaction.

The world will have a generation of idiots". Instead we should still be with our friends, interact

with them personally and talk to them face-to-face.