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Sebastian Reed

Dr. Sharity Nelson

ENGL 1301-210

3/30/2023

Rhetorical Analysis of a study about social media addiction and Insomnia

The article called “Association of Social Media addiction with insomnia among

university students”, by Arisha Shafiq, will be discussed in this essay to see if this article is

effective with its claims and statements. According to Shafiq, social media has been slowly

growing and becoming very popular in usage on a daily basis. He continues to state that the

media is full of minors, young adults, and adult influencers all over the world sharing whatever

content they want to post about. He cites the statistics that there is a bigger number of active

users, more than 2.5 billion people mentioned in the article (276). The article says that when

people tend to use social media very often, there is a hidden effect that is slowly forming on the

inside of individuals’ minds without them noticing. The people may believe that things are fine

being on social media all the time, but what they don’t know is that there is a health effect, called

Insomnia, which can affect them without even realizing it. This problem is happening the most to

university students, since a lot of students tend to be on social media on a daily basis checking

their timeline, replying, sharing or posting about their experience with something. This article is

successful in supporting its argument because the article briefly explains and provides facts

about the effects of social media addiction, and how it can lead to insomnia, which is the major

claim.

One of Shafiq’s ways of supporting his argument is by citing someone else’s claim that

support his argument, which is called appeal to ethos, also known as authority. For instance, one
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piece of evidence in the article mentions that the main cause of the problem with university

students getting insomnia, is, according to Talis, “The rapid expansion of internet accessibility

particularly among adolescents” (as cited in Shafiq et al. 276). Shafiq et al. supports his

argument by citing from other people, such as Greenhow and Galvin: social media was designed

to get people connected to socialize and be entertained with content, but it introduced a major

flaw that involves the lack of sleep (as cited in Shafiq et al. 276). This big problem is known to

be called Insomnia, which is a negative health effect that involves the lack of sleep. It also has

other negative health effects, such as having a hard time concentrating, lack of self-awareness,

forgetting, moodiness, and doing mistakes often. The proper way to describe the cause of this

issue is social media addiction. The article also mentions that constant internet use can lead to

addiction, which will affect the individual’s sleep schedule, habits, behavior, mood, and their

concentration. They’re also “Prone to have personality disorders and exhibit frustration,

depression, social isolation and family conflicts” (277). This part of the article is very effective

in describing how the effects of social media and excessive device use can lead to addiction, and

further problems to an individual who loses control of using a device, due to being on social

media beyond a certain time limit.

One of the major ways that the essay supports its claim is when there is an appeal to

logos of how data is being collected, analyzed for further studying, and concluding the final

answer to the reason why the problem of social media addiction is happening. For example, the

article explains in the “Material and Methods” section, that the researchers conducted a cross

sectional survey test of university students in Pakistan, to analyze the different types of people

that might have insomnia with and without social media use (277). The reason for this analytical

test is to further understand how many people are using social media and to what extent in
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measurable ways. The way that Shafiq et al. concluded the results is by using the Statistical

Package for Social Sciences (SPSS), where “Qualitative variables were expressed as frequency

and percentages” (277). Not only did Shafiq use the SPSS, he also used other statistical tests:

“To determine the association between social media addiction and insomnia chi-square test was

applied” (277). With Shafiq et al. conducting these analytical tests, it can help provide hard

evidence of the results, which will lead to their argument being supported. This data will be used

to find a solution to the problem of insomnia being caused by social media addiction.

One of the ways that Shafiq et al supports their arguments is by displaying the final

results of the data that was analyzed through their methods mentioned above in the article. Shafiq

et al found that there was indeed a link between social media use and Insomnia, as listed below:

The results of the current study showed that majority of the university students are

addicted to social media use and had mild to moderate insomnia. Moreover the study also

suggested significant association between insomnia and social media addiction. (278)

In simple terms, the results suggested that out of the total number of people that were tested

seemed to be in a mid-average of addiction to social media. At this point, it comes to the

conclusion that “social media addiction and insomnia is common among university students”

(279). Furthermore, the study also showed that there is a significant association between social

media addiction and insomnia.

Therefore, this article is successful in supporting its argument because the article briefly

explains and provides facts about the effects of social media addiction, and how it can lead to

insomnia, which is the major claim. First, the article was effective in describing the effects of the

illness, and where it may be coming from. Second, the article was effective on citing other

sources from other people that supported the argument from the author. Third, the data that was
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used to analyze the problem with certain methods, tools, and participants was effective to bring a

valid result in the end. And forth, the results of the survey were very effective in determining the

final result, which can be used to finding a solution to the problem in the future. Plus, there were

plenty of citations and sources that were enough to support Shafiq’s argument, about social

media addiction leading to insomnia in university students.

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Works Cited

Shafiq, Arisha, et al. “Association of social media addiction with insomnia among university

students.” The Professional Medical Journal, vol. 30, no. 02, 2023, pp. 276-280. The

Professional Medical Journal, https://doi.org/10.29309/TPMJ/2023.30.02.7246