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Jonah Zuniga

Instructor McCann

English 1302.203

9 February 2022

Effects of Social Media

There are a plethora of social media apps available today that billions of people use on a

daily basis. TikTok is one of the most popular apps on the market right now. Tiktok is a

video-sharing app that features 15-second to 1-minute videos. The issue with this app is that the

attention span of a normal human being begins to decrease as the videos you watch switch

constantly and you are entertained. The personal experiment begins by discontinuing the use of a

specific social media app and observing how it affects a person's mood over the course of a

week.

Today, there are many social media apps that billions of people use every day. TikTok is

currently one of the most popular apps on the market. Tiktok is a video sharing app that uses 15

seconds to 1 minute of video. The problem with this app is that if the videos you watch are

constantly changing and entertaining, the attention of the average person will be diminished. A

personal experiment begins with stopping the use of a particular social media app and observing

how it affects a person's mood over the course of a week.

By Understanding the Impact of Internet Addiction on Student Academic Engagement,

this article seeks to understand the impact and use of social media, but only for academic

engagement. They claim that there are many studies explaining the negative impact of social

media on students. However, very few students have been unable to explain how the use of

social media affects their academic performance, so I will try it in this personal experiment.
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Although this is stated, there are also very few students that could not explain how the use of

social media affects academic performance which is why this personal experiment puts that to

the test. (Singh 2)

First, in my personal experiment, I force you not to use any kind of social media without

uninstalling the app from your phone or computer. The first step in this personal experiment is

that you don't need to uninstall the social media app. The second step in this experiment is to

end the day without the use of technology on social media. This is fairly easy to achieve, but it

has a huge impact on everyone who uses social media.

The constant use of technology and social media together made the first day of this

personal experiment a very difficult experience. It is nearly impossible to resist the urge to use

social media. For example, the researcher might be working and feel compelled to check their

social media or something else. Despite the researcher's best efforts, they were unable to refrain

from using social media. The researcher would immediately go to TikTok and watch videos for a

few hours, and as a result of that bad habit, they fell behind on work and had to rush to finish,

which has an impact on that individual's academic performance.

Furthermore, on the second day of the personal experiment, the researcher encountered

the same difficulty in refraining from using social media while performing their duties. The

researcher would still feel compelled to check their phone and social media. Although it was still

difficult not to use social media, it did feel easier because it was the first day without using any

type of social media. The researcher did more academic research and work than usual, but

despite doing more work, the urge to use social media remained and the researcher failed to

refrain from using their phone.

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The next day of trying the personal experiment the researcher again did try to not use

their phone to feel entertained but instead of using their phone while doing work, the researcher

resorted to using youtube. The researcher started playing youtube in the background at a lower

volume to not be too distracting but can still be entertained. This caused the researcher to feel

less stressed and there were fewer urges to use social media and check their phone constantly.

Although the idea of having youtube in the background was distracting enough to keep the phone

away there were would be an excuse for the researcher to use their phone.

Finally, on the final day of the personal experiment, the researcher avoided using their

phone while working on an assignment. Despite the fact that the researcher did not use social

media on their phone, their academic performance remained unchanged. They were able to

complete the same amount of work as the day before. As a result, according to the article

"Understanding the Effect of Internet Addiction on Student Academic Engagement," using social

media did not necessarily increase student performance, but it also did not decrease any

academic performance in their research. According to the article "Using Social Media to

Enhance Student Engagement and Quality," there are some advantages to using social media that

can be beneficial for any student.

To summarize, there is a fine line between using social media to improve academic

performance and not using social media to improve academic performance. There comes a point

where the benefits of one another no longer affect the researcher. There is little room for

improvement, whether using social media or not using any social media at all. Overall, the

experiment was designed to determine whether or not using social media would have an effect on

the researcher and to observe how the researcher's mood changed. Social media cleansing is
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something every one person needs to do at least once because of how much better you are able to

feel.

Work Cited

Lottering, R. A. “Using Social Media to Enhance Student Engagement and Quality.”

South African Journal of Higher Education, vol. 34, no. 5, 2020, pp. 109–121.,

doi:10.20853/34-5-4271.

Singh, Anjali, and Dinesh Kumar Srivastava. “Understanding the Effect of Internet

Addiction on Student Academic Engagement.” International Journal of Information and

Communication Technology Education (Ijicte), vol. 17, no. 4, 2021, pp. 1–12.,

doi:10.4018/IJICTE.20211001.oa11.