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Johnathan Stupp

Prof. Richardson

Eng. 1201.K12

29 March 2020

Research Essay

What is the effect of social media, and more specifically Facebook, on society? Social

media has had various long-lasting effects, good and bad, on society. It can influence anything

from what you eat, to who you vote for, and to how you react to/view serious events in the

world. These influences are usually beneficial to people. Also, social media can provide

entertainment to people almost instantaneously. Social media can also spread fake news across

the whole world in a matter of minutes. Overall, social media can influence people, entertain

people, spread fake news, spread lies about what people did, and it can keep you up to date in the

latest information about important events and crises that are happening in the world.

Facebook is one of the biggest social media platforms out there. There are about 2.5

million active users worldwide. All of these users can post almost anything they want, as much

as they want, and whenever they want. They can also make it to where anyone can see it

worldwide and not just their “friends”. Facebook has a history of getting in trouble for spreading

false information and even interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election by letting it’s

users spread hoaxes and other false information about the election. At the same time, Facebook

lets you connect with friends and family from anywhere in the world. Facebook also allows

people to log in to various different apps and websites so you can save your information/progress
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without having to create a separate account for that app/website. Facebook has had its share of

being both the good and the bad guy throughout its lifespan. It has leaked user’s data but also has

allowed for more communication between kids and people with a cognitive condition.

There are a few ways that social media can be helpful and beneficial to society. Social

media can provide updates on current events that affect the world and it can change how we view

that news. Social media can provide entertainment for families, help you get a job, and form

bonds between competitors. Also, Facebook can help people communicate with one another,

even if they can’t communicate with words that well.

In current times social media has had a big impact on all of us. It has allowed us to spread

information about COVID-19 to everyone in the world and has allowed us to receive information

from our local governments about what to do to stay safe. It has allowed us to stay up to date

with what is happening and to know how to react to this outbreak. Also, without access to social

media, we wouldn’t be able to keep in contact with family members during the lockdowns that

are happening all over the world. One social media platform, in particular, has been a huge help

in spreading information. This platform is known as Twitter. Twitter has allowed many local and

national governments to let their people know what to do so they can stay safe and healthy.

Without Twitter, many people would have never seen what they were ordered to do since many

people don’t watch the news and rely solely on social media platforms for their news. An

interview with emergency physician Ali Raja, who works in a hospital in Massachusetts, was

done by Kaya Yurieff of CNN. In the interview, Raja stated “Right now, Twitter is the best way

to get medical information out, … Because of the fact that everybody gets a voice [on social

media], it's very easy for alarmist messages to pick up steam. We have to be constantly vigilant

about trying to get that panic under control and spread a different message." Twitter can both be
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helpful and hurtful during this crisis. As Raja stated, Twitter can be extremely useful in

spreading information but also hurtful because people can spread false information. This false

information can harm people. It can harm people by giving them a false sense of panic by

posting false news articles, and by saying things about current situations that are over-

exaggerated.

Social media also continues to reshape news. According to a study done by the Pew

Research Center, 30 out of 65 percent of people on Facebook

get their news from Facebook. And half of the people on

Twitter get their news from Twitter. People participate in

spreading and discussing news. Nearly half of all people on

every social media platform combined share and discuss the

news. This allows more people to see the news, whether it is

important or not, even if they don’t regularly share the news

themselves. Although people spend far less time on news sites

if they came from a social media site, they still get a fair share

of political and local news. 55% of Facebook users that

normally see news reported seeing national government news

and 73% reported they see news about entertainment (picture on left provided by the Pew

Research Center). News on social media sites also makes more people feel comfortable about

sharing their opinions.

Social media can also provide a few hours of fun entertainment during this time, which

allows kids and their parents some time apart, or even together if they play a game using

Facebook’s Messenger, and provides somewhat of a distraction from what is going on today.
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This entertainment is important for many reasons. One reason is that without social media

providing the entertainment it does, people may start to go crazy not being able to do anything

and being stuck in the house. Another reason entertainment is important is that it provides you

with some sort of “purpose” which may be as simple as playing a game with a friend next door

over a social media messaging app, such as Messenger, or it could be as complicated as a game

played on a game console, using a social media app, such as Discord, to talk with your friends

while doing so.

Facebook can help you get a job also. It can help you get a job because many companies

already use Facebook. According to Business News Daily, the hiring manager of a restaurant

can look at your friends, what you post, and how you act through your Facebook profile and

more accurately determine the likelihood if you are gonna excel at the job or not. Researchers

also found that a 10-minute break on Facebook can make employees at jobs more productive,

happy, and healthy. Facebook can also form professional bonds between competitors. One

example, reported by Business News Daily, a group of executives from different companies, that

are in the same line of work, getting together to discuss different business techniques, what kind

of software to buy, and other ways to handle their business.

Facebook can be used as a communication device for people with a medical condition.

According to a study done by Aboozar Eghdam, Ulrika Hamidi, Aniko Bartfai, and Sabine Koch,

“This study indicated that social media and in this case Facebook is used for communication and

social support by persons with potential MACI, and revealed that their communication behavior

is similar to the healthy population.” MACI stands for Mild Acquired Cognitive Impairment.

People who have had an acquired brain injury may get this. Their study included 1310 Sweedish

speaking people who have this condition. They found that Facebook helped these people
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communicate with others using the “thumbs-up” button. This shows that Facebook can be used

to help people with cognitive impairment, like MACI, communicate with one another better than

in person.

Social media usage by 9- and 10-year-olds has some benefits. According to some

research, reported by Sara Watson from NPR, the greater amount of time those kids spent on

social media, there was increased physical activity, fewer sleep issues, and less conflict between

family. Most people have a misconception about if their kid is always in front of the screen it

being a bad thing. One of the researchers that did this study, Paulas, says that kids in this

particular age group use social media as a form of communication. He also says that these kids

build a social network “community.” This has a beneficial effect on the kids, such as them

talking to their friends over social media when there was a conflict in their family or another

friendship.

Social media can also negatively impact society. It can negatively impact society by

changing you and making you have lowered self-esteem. It can also negatively impact society by

interfering with elections, making you become addicted, causing negative effects on your body,

and spreading misinformation about events that happened in the world. Also, about a third of

people in the U.S. think Facebook has had a negative impact on society. Finally, Facebook has

been notorious for leaking people's personal information multiple times, with each time being in

the millions.

Facebook’s influence on people is shown throughout the usage of the app. For instance,

someone you may know on Facebook could act completely different in real life. Another

example would be how Facebook changes the way a person, or even yourself, act or feel in real

life, whether that change is good or bad. Britney Fitzgerald of the Huffington Post wrote an
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article about why people act differently online. According to Britney Fitzgerald, “Wilcox and

Stephens’s main argument states that “people present a positive self-view to others” when online,

leading to an increase in self-esteem and a decrease in self-control.” Wilcox and Stephen are two

professors that wrote a study on why people act differently online. In this study, they found that

people on Facebook had higher self-esteem. Alternatively, Fitzgerald also stated, “On the flip

side, a Utah Valley University study from 2011 found that the longer college students surfed

Facebook, the worse they felt about their own lives.” This shows that there are also people who

feel bad about themselves when being on Facebook which leads to lower self-esteem. According

to Fitzgerald, “... Utah found that users who didn’t personally know their Facebook “friends”

very well believed that “others had better lives” … In Wilcox and Stephen’s study, their main

research stems from those Facebook users who are interacting with “strong ties,” or close

friends.” These studies show that the people you interact with online through Facebook can

influence how you feel about yourself. This can be good or bad, the good being it makes you a

better person, and the bad being it makes you a worse person or it could cause you to become

depressed because of the things people may say about you.

According to a study in an article written by Brad Berens, of The Center for the Digital

Future, the more you use Facebook, the worse you feel. In the article, he used a study in the

American Journal of Epidemiology. It says, “Holly B. Shakya of U.C. San Diego and Nicholas

A. Christakis of Yale showed that … “The More You Use Facebook, the Worse You Feel.”

Shakya and Christakis saw declines in mental health and physical health as well as increased

Body Mass Index in their subjects as they used Facebook more.” This shows that the people that

use Facebook are more likely to be unhealthy. The title of the article by Berens is “Facebook

Needs a Surgeons General Warning.” It was titled this because he found Facebook negatively
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impacted your life, just like cigarettes have this warning for the same reason. Also, according to

the article, spending more time on Facebook led to a decline in time spent with real-life friends

when a person spent more time online. This whole article originated around Facebook’s

newsfeed. The claim, made by Facebook, is that people only get negatively impacted by

Facebook because they aren't looking at the right things on their newsfeed. This was a weak

claim, however. The reason people's health was declining from using Facebook was that they

spent so much time on Facebook it physically made them unhealthy.

Social media can influence who you vote for also. Facebook has been responsible for

letting false information about U.S. presidential candidates be spread around on its platform.

According to CNN, “Facebook's first black eye was from "fake news." The social network's

secretive algorithm enabled hoaxes and lies to reach millions of people during the US

presidential campaign in 2016.” This is saying that Facebook practically let the hoaxes onto their

platform. These hoaxes were about former presidential candidate Hilary Clinton. This ultimately

led to the scales being tipped in Trump’s favor. Facebook faced extreme backlash for this. They

were forced to take responsibility for it and had to take measures to prevent this from happening

again. More recently, Facebook caught Russia and Iran trying to interfere with the election

happening in 2020, and stopped them so they couldn’t influence anybody to vote for a particular

person. They also have started to take precautions to make sure no fake influence occurs.

According to Jason Abbruzzese of NBC, “Facebook said Monday it will now label state-

controlled media on its platform and on Instagram, which it owns. Facebook will also make fact-

checking labels more prominent on news that has been rated as false or mostly false.” This may

help with not influencing people as much, but political ads can still be shown and shared, which

can still influence people to some extent.

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Some people believe there is a Facebook Addiction Disorder. According to Julia

Brailovskaia, Elke Rohmann, Hans-Werner Bierhoff, Jürgen Margraf, the authors of The brave

blue world: Facebook flow and Facebook Addiction Disorder (FAD), FAD is “a subtype of

behavior addictions that includes six significant characteristics, i.e., salience … , tolerance … ,

mood modification … , relapse … , withdrawal symptoms… , and conflict ... .” This FAD can

be harmful to people because of the problems it can cause. This “addiction” can be linked to

insomnia, depression, anxiety, and stress. According to the study done by the previously

mentioned authors, they found FAD to be directly connected to Facebook flow. This “Facebook

flow” is a type of flow experience. Flow experience is when you are so involved in an activity

that nothing seems to matter and it is so enjoyable you will keep doing using it no matter the

cost, just so you can do it and no other reason. This can be bad because if you experience FAD

and Facebook flow you may be neglecting yours and your family’s needs. You could also get in

trouble at work if you stay on Facebook all day instead of doing work which may because you to

get fired or suspended from your job.

There have been numerous accounts where there has been misinformation spread about

events happening in the world. For example, at the beginning of the year when Iran retaliated for

killing one of their top generals, a false tweet went around. According to USA Today, “Among

the false reports was one widely circulated tweet that 20 American troops died and the nation

was on the "precipice of another horrible war in the Middle East." Other posts on Facebook and

Twitter, in particular, circulated falsehoods about the attack, using images from unrelated events

to suggest a horrifying outcome.” This tweet could have raised already high tensions between the

two countries. Thankfully the U.S. said there were no casualties and nothing got out of hand.

Tweets like this one still happen, just not about as serious matters like this. These tweets can
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cause panic, but also get people in trouble. For example, a radio show host got fired from his job

for a racist comment made on Twitter.

A recent survey done by Mark Zuckerburg’s (the owner of Facebook) former personal

pollster, found that most people think Facebook has had a negative impact on society. According

to Vox, “Americans were similarly disenchanted, with 32 percent of Americans — the

equivalent of 54 million people — saying Facebook has a negative impact on society” This

shows that many Americans think Facebook has a negative impact. Some reasons for this could

be the fact that, as mentioned previously, Facebook has been tied into interfering with the

election, and leaking people's personal data to a company without their permission. According to

Forbes, In early 2018, the data of about 87 million people got leaked. These were leaked by a

data analysis that helped run Donald Trump’s campaign. Mark Zuckerburg, the co-founder of

Facebook, had to testify before Congress because of this incident. They claimed they tightened

security after this. They continued to allow this to happen at least 2 more times before they did

anything. The biggest of these two times was when 419 million people's data got stolen. Back in

September of 2019 Facebook’s unsecured database leaked 419 million people's personal phone

numbers. This, in turn, caused Facebook to be heavily criticized. Finally, Facebook made a

promise to better protect people’s data and has continued to keep it.

In conclusion, social media has had and continues to have a big impact on society.

Anywhere from instant communication to entertainment, social media covers it all. It has proved

to be very helpful at times and has also proved to be hurtful. Social media provides news outlets

with a place to put their news and ways for people to communicate with each other. Social media

can also leak people's personal information, and cause people to become addicted to the social

media app and become stressed, depressed, or get anxiety. Although Facebook may have been
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involved in more bad than good, the good they’ve been a part of outweighs the bad they were a

part of.
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Works Cited

Anderson, Monica, and Andrea Caumont. “How Social Media Is Reshaping News.” Pew

Research Center, Pew Research Center, 24 Sept. 2014, www.pewresearch.org/fact-

tank/2014/09/24/how-social-media-is-reshaping-news/.

Bomey, Nathan. “Social Media Is Full of Lies, and the Iran Attacks Show How Dangerous

They've Become.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 9 Jan. 2020,

www.usatoday.com/story/money/2020/01/08/iran-attacks-show-social-media-fueling-

deep-deceptions-during-crisis/2843410001/.

Brailovskaia, Julia, et al. "The brave blue world: Facebook flow and Facebook Addiction

Disorder (FAD)." PLoS ONE, vol. 13, no. 7, 2018, p. e0201484. Gale In Context: Opposing

Viewpoints, https://link-gale-com.sinclair.ohionet.org/apps/doc/A547820605/OVIC?

u=dayt30401&sid=OVIC&xid=6ce17f4f. Accessed 10 March. 2020.

Chaykowski, Kathleen. “Facebook Says Data On 87 Million People May Have Been Shared

In Cambridge Analytica Leak.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 4 Apr. 2018,

www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenchaykowski/2018/04/04/facebook-says-data-on-87-million-

people-may-have-been-shared-in-cambridge-analytica-leak/#65d5ac0a3e8b.

Clement, J. “Facebook Users Worldwide 2019.” Statista, 30 Jan. 2020,

www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-

worldwide

Conlin, Bennett. “Benefits of Facebook.” Business News Daily, Businessnewsdaily.com,

19 July 2018, www.businessnewsdaily.com/2534-facebook-benefits.html

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Eghdam A, Hamidi U, Bartfai A, Koch S (2018) Facebook as communication support for

persons with potential mild acquired cognitive impairment: A content and social network

analysis study. PLoS ONE 13(1): e0191878.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191878

“Facebook Needs a Surgeon General's Warning.” Center for the Digital Future, 18 Jan.

2018, www.digitalcenter.org/columns/facebook-interaction/..

Fitzgerald, Britney. “7 Reasons Why We Act Differently Online.” HuffPost, HuffPost, 11 Oct.

2012, www.huffpost.com/entry/facebook-psychology-7-reasons_n_1951856.

Greiner, Andrew, et al. “Facebook at 15: How a College Experiment Changed the World.” CNN,

Cable News Network, 1 Feb. 2019,

www.cnn.com/interactive/2019/02/business/facebook-history-timeline/index.html.

Molla, Rani, and Kurt Wagner. “Many Believe Facebook Is Having a Negative Impact on

Society around the World.” Vox, Vox, 12 Apr. 2018,

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poll.

Watson, Sara Kiley. “A Look At Social Media Finds Some Possible Benefits For Kids.” NPR,

NPR, 19 June 2018, www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2018/06/19/621136346/a-look-

at-social-media-finds-some-possible-benefits-for-kids.

Yurieff, Kaya. “Facebook Is Again Having to Account for Its Role in 2016 Election.”

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