Social media and teenagers of United States Of

America

Argumentative Essay
Student Name & ID
3/19/2020
 Social media and teenagers of United States Of America

Introduction

With the phenomenon of globalizing and modernization, the use of social media has

increased a lot. People of all ages use social media for several purposes. It has both negative and

positive impacts on teenagers. It is because they use social media sites without any restrictions

that can lead towards some negative activities and even if they do not adopt negative habits they

might indulge much in social media scrolling leaving all their important tasks behind. According

to McCrae et al (2017), the systemic review of eleven studies showed that in the US, it has found

that there is a significant relationship between the depressive symptoms in children and

adolescence due to the excessive use of social media. This shows that there is a positive

correlation between the usage of social media and depression. The psychological well-being of a

teenager can be challenged due to the over usage of social media. Teenage social media exposure

should be limited as it may negatively impact their mental health, academic performance, and

social and personal development. However, teenagers' use of social media should be done under

parental control, with times and content allowed.

Supporting Arguments

Social Media Impact on Well-Being & Academic Performance

Social Media impact the mental well-being of the students and its excessive use affects

their academic performance. Different factors contribute to depression and social media has a

greater influence on psychological well-being (Kaplan et al, 2010). However, different

researches and analyses on the relationship between social media and mental health have

observed which showed that social media has a toxic impact on the mental health of young adults

in the US (Asare, 2015). This proves that the usage of social media can impact a person's overall

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mental health that may include restlessness, anxiety, depression, etc. The imaged life of other

individuals can disturb the inner peace of the person because of the jealous or envious behavior.

Besides, according to Paul et al (2012), the lower attention span of the students causes the higher

time spending of the students on social media. This shows that the over usage of social media

can adversely affect that attention span of students which may result in a decline in academic

performance. It has also revealed that the time that students spend on Facebook has a greater

negative impact on the overall GPA of the students in America (Kirschner et al, 2010). This

evidence shows Facebook, one of the most widely used social media applications, had a negative

impact on the Grade Point Average (GPA) of students. Similarly, the same can be deduced for

other time consuming social media applications. Also, the academic performance of students

may directly affect the academic performance of students in a negative way. Moreover,

according to the study of Talaue (2018), the overindulgence of the students with social media

affects their academic performance negatively. However, the different findings show that social

media has become a major part of the life of students and they spend most of their time using

social media that ultimately cause stress and negatively impact their academic performance.

Social Media Impact on Social & Personal Development

Social media can hamper the social and personal development of teenagers. According to

Kross et al (2013), different studies have unveiled that the excessive use of social media declines

the subjective well-being of the people as well as has a negative impact on life satisfaction and

real-life community. This means that the personality of the teenagers may suffer from the false or

extravagant image of people shown on social media. This may affect the inner-satisfaction of the

person and may affect his/her personal development. Also, many psychologists have issued

warnings that young people especially students in the US have engaged with social media a lot

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caused impairment to their personal and social development. It supports that the social and

personal development of an individual may suffer from the usage of social media. Besides, the

excessive use of social media has experienced among young adults especially Facebook and

Twitter which has proven a critical juncture adjoining developmental tasks including the

development of an identity and social norms establishment. This means that the development, as

well as the norms of students, is at a risk due to social media. Teenagers get influenced by what

they see on social media and start adopting it without realizing that it may contradict their

traditional social norms. This argument supports the thesis statement in which it has

hypothesized that the excessive use of social media sites is increased among US adults causing a

decline in their social and personal development.

Counter Arguments & Rebuttal

Social media can improve the dissemination of information through various platforms that may

have positive impacts on the learning of students. According to Gintanjail et al (2013), social

media has positive impacts as it has enhanced the quality and ratio of collaboration among

students because, with the social media access, students can communicate easily and share their

information with each other using different sites such as Instagram, Facebook, and Orkut.

However, this may be possible only if social media is used for positive and constructive purposes

instead of spending and wasting too much time on it. According to Talaue (2018), it is the

responsibility of the students to understand all the harms of the excessive use of social media and

must approach their academic results effectively.

Social media can reduce the feeling of loneliness and isolation that may lead to better mental

health. The systemic review has revealed that there is a negative correlation between the mental

health symptoms and online interaction among people (Seabrook et al, 2016). However, this is

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possible only if one controls his jealous or envious behavior and does not let other's social media

images take over his inner satisfaction. Therefore, parents must control the use of social media

of their children and should know what their children are doing on social media such as what

sites they are scrolling.

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