Reed 1

Sebastian Reed

Dr. Sharity Nelson

ENGL 1301-210

5/1/2023

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 social

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 on social media, 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 health effect that is

slowly forming on the inside of individuals’ minds without them noticing. People or students

who are constantly on their devices in social media may believe that things seem fine, but what

they don’t know is that there is something negatively affecting them. It’s called insomnia, it 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 timelines,

replying, sharing, or posting about their experience of what they encountered. This article is

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

about the effects of social media addiction, by utilizing credible sources and evidence, providing

researched and logically sound arguments, and addressing those whom the issue affects directly.
 Reed 2

One of Shafiq’s ways of supporting his argument is by bringing in a credible outside

source that supports his claim, which is called an appeal to ethos. For instance, one 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. support his argument

by citing 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). 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, affecting the individual’s sleep schedule, habits, behavior, mood, and 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 effective in describing the causes

and the problems of social media addiction.

Another way 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 measurable ways. The

way that Shafiq et al. concluded the results 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, but he also used other statistical tests: “To determine the
 Reed 3

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.

The last thing that Shafiq et al. support their argument 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 a 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 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” and that “there

is a significant association between social media addiction and insomnia” (279).

To conclude with this essay, this article is successful in supporting its argument because

the article briefly explains and provides facts about the effects of social media addiction, by

utilizing credible sources and evidence, providing researched and logically sound arguments, and

addressing those whom the issue affects directly. First, the article effectively described the

illness's effects, and where it may be coming from. Second, the article was effective in bringing

up other credible outside sources from other people or websites that supported Shafiq’s

argument. Third, the data that was used to analyze the problem with certain methods, tools, and

participants was effective to bring a valid result in the end with data shown on the bar graph.
 Reed 4

And fourth, the results of the survey were very effective in determining the final result, which

can be used to find a solution to the problem in the future or people can cite from Shafiq. 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.

 Reed 5

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