__SOCIAL

ADVOCACY__
Why it is crucial to
address social media
overexposure among
the youth

Social advocacy by: Group 5 of G11 – Rutherford, PPCNSHS

Social media
This is interactive digitally-mediated technologies that facilitate
the creation or sharing/exchanging of information, ideas, career
interests, and other forms of expression via virtual communities and
networks.
Social media was originally created as a way to connect society. By
posting videos, photos, and thoughts onto our social media feeds, we
can almost instantaneously share what's going on in our lives with
acquaintances, distant relatives, and friends.

Social media to the youth

Social media has been a vessel of gaining information, awareness,
release and expression for many young people. However, social
media use can also negatively affect teens, distracting them, disrupting
their sleep, and exposing them to bullying, rumor spreading, unrealistic
views of other people's lives and peer pressure. The risks might be
related to how much social media teens use.
Speaker:
Matthew Philip M. Gabinete
Over usage and exposure becomes a problem
It becomes a major problem for most teens and the
youth when one deliberately spends more than
considered enough time socializing, posting, tweeting
and doing other activities in social media platforms,
instead of fulfilling other essential necessities in the
household, school, or other aspects of one’s life.

Why there’s a need to address this:

The societal problem
• It negatively affects their academic capacity
affects different aspects on Education • It diverts their attention from important school matters
the youth’s lives. These
are the following:
Mental health • Causes depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, etc.

Speaker: • Exposure to too much social media encourages them to

Zis Ariane Sarie Behavior inhibit behaviors such as staying up all night, violent
tendencies and many more.
Negative effects on education
Based on the findings of a research from BMC
psychology, the second hypothesis was confirmed and a
negative and significant correlation was found between social
networking addiction and students’ academic performance.
This finding means that, an increase in the excessive use of
social networks decreases the academic performance.

Social media acts as a distraction

Addiction to social media causes students to constantly check
and log in into their accounts which becomes a major barrier in their
learning.

The graph is from a research study conducted by Mirna S. Azmy

and Luis A. Garcia from the American University of Sharjah. As seen
on the graph, 38% of the responses strongly agree that social media
Speaker: distract them from studies/duties, 33% agree, 12% don’t know, 13%
Liam Neil Ocampo disagree, and 4% strongly disagree.
 Damages on mental health
Being socialy connected to others can ease stress, anxiety
and depression, boost self-worth, provide comfort and joy, prevent
loneliness, and even add years to your life. However, extreme
exposure and usage can also bring opposite effects. Multiple
studies have found a strong link between heavy social
media usage and an increased risk for depression, anxiety,
loneliness, self-harm, and even suicidal thoughts. Social
media may promote negative experiences such as: Inadequacy
about your life or appearance.
Excessive Internet use may create a heightened level of
psychological arousal, resulting in little sleep, failure to eat for long
periods, and limited physical activity, possibly leading to the user
experiencing physical and mental health problems such as
depression, OCD, low family relationships and anxiety.

Speaker:
Althea Belgica
 Changes in behavior
Social media can evidently have vast effects on the situational and behavioral patterns of the
youth. According to a research study done by Georgios Floros & Konstantinos Siomos, it is said that
persons with excessive social media use are typically self-centered and distant; face difficulties in
regulating their feelings and are prone to fits of anger; are only motivated by short-term gratification
of their needs; face challenges in relating to others; feel superior and display bravado, while at the
same time being unsure of themselves and shying away from direct challenges. It has also been
proven that games and other shown media have influenced teens to have more violent tendencies.

Research on neurobiological correlates of addiction has attempted for some time to determine
alterations in brain chemistry and functionality linked to the expression of addictive behavior.

Speaker:
Rodalene Metran
 How do I resolve this?
Suggested methods in order to evade mentioned problems:

• Shorten your social media use. Experts have recommended 30 minutes or

less per day as the maximum time you should spend on social media.
According to a 2018 study published in the Journal of Social and Clinical
Psychology, limiting use to 30 minutes a day can lead to better health
outcomes.

• Spend more time in doing physical activities with your friends and
families. Participating in physical activities has been proven to be an effective
process to ease stress and anxiety, and also increases one’s sociability.

• Practice self-discipline. Restraining one’s self in logging in accounts or

using social media platforms will be of great benefit in lessening the addiction,
as this decreases the addiction. Another way to fully achieve this is to find a
new hobby.

Speaker:
Farah Maxyne Alayon
We hope you learned
something in our
short webinar!