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Social Media is involved in individuals' everyday lives and plays a massive role in society, making it almost impossible to take it away.

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With social media being an outlet for some people to get rid of stress, both men's and women's moods would increase. All the tension from social media or the negativity that comes from it will cause a significant increase in happiness.

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Many would argue that social media is horrible and that people should not use it since it causes mental health issues, addiction ruins sleep patterns, etc. There is no definite answer or say that social media is a "universally bad thing," since it has many good and bad parts that help individuals but can also damage a person. Expressly, "evidence does point one way: social media affects people differently, depending on pre-existing conditions and personality traits" (BBC Future). For example, a person can delete social media not to feel lonely or to gain self-esteem, but they might realize they lost connection to relatives or friends from far away. Essentially they deleted their chatting apps to feel less lonely but are dealt with having no interaction with loved ones worldwide. In addition, they can feel no sense of community to uplift them or people with similar interests, only lowering their self-esteem. Therefore, a person can not argue that social media is necessarily good or bad since that statement has many branches.

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Tied Together: Mood, Well being and Self Esteem

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Tied Together: Mood, Well being and Self Esteem

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A positive post can brighten someone's day, making their overall well-being happier and more open-minded. Social media makes it easier to create a community in which people can receive support and give help to the right people. Therefore when people feel connected and heard, their self-esteem rises as they build confidence.

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People being addicted to social media and checking their phone status ultimately causes them to lose sleep. The artificial blue light these apps give off only makes people stay up and not feel tired. It's an addictive never-ending cycle one feels to check social media, in which the artificial light only ruins the sleeping pattern.

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Social media makes people envious of others due to the money they might have, their success, or how they look, which affects the well-being of that individual. The person will start to compare and feel that they need to change or show off to achieve what that other person has, ruining their mental health.

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Waking up and seeing the daily news every second of the day causes stress which is often led to anxiety. The constant fear of what is happening around the world or what people are doing, making one feel anxiety about their life plan is linked together

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The everyday stress people face when they check social media causes their anxiety to increase, making it difficult to get rest. The brain constantly being occupied by news makes it challenging to relax and sleep.

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Tied Together: Addiction and Relationships

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Tied Together: Addiction and Relationships

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Social media being addicting and causing people to lose life skills can make relationships difficult. Relationships that include meaningful conversations between people can suffer due to the interference of social media and its ability to connect to others worldwide in relationships making people feel more jealous.

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Tied Together: Self Esteem and Well Being

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Tied Together: Self Esteem and Well Being

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Individuals' self-esteem is significantly lower due to feeling pressured to fit the perfect image that society puts out overall effect how they think. This feeling of always competing and needing to alter their looks due to filters, specific poses, and lighting affects their mental health and overall well-being. Social media can make people feel sad about their body image or upset about where they are, causing them to face all different mental health issues.

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The way social media becomes an addiction for people as it's implemented into their everyday life results in fewer face-to-face conversations. Instead, people are more likely to connect through Instagram and Twitter rather than meet up and chat. Therefore this lack of talking in person and those life skills causes one to be lonely. People don't have to be in the same room as one another and still chat with others, causing them to lack that connection.

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Tied Together: Well being and Depression

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Tied Together: Well being and Depression

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Social media harming both body image and mental health can cause depression. A person constantly faced with negative posts and feels very low about themselves can cause their mood to lower and feel hopeless.

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Brown, Jessica. "Is Social Media Bad for You? The Evidence and the Unknowns." BBC Future, Jan. 2018, https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180104-is-social-media-bad-for-you-the-evidence-and-the-unknowns

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Social media constantly affects individuals' daily lives and mental health, whether positively or negatively.

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I would like to explore an article that mentions more of the challenges researchers face since this article shows how researchers are still developing and studying social media's affects. Also, I would like to incorporate more studies on how men and women are affected differently in some categories.

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Studies found that with fewer men using social media platforms, their are fewer men getting stressed.

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1. "Just How Harmful Is Social Media? Our Experts Weigh In." Columbia Public Health, 2021, https://www.publichealth.columbia.edu/news/just-how-harmful-social-media-our-experts-weigh.

2. The Learning Network. "What Students Are Saying About How Social Media Affects Their Body Image." The New York Times, 31 Mar. 2022, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/31/learning/what-students-are-saying-about-how-social-media-affects-their-body-image.html

3. Kane, Andrea. "This is your brain on social media." CNN, 21 Mar. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/16/health/social-media-effect-on-brain-gupta-wellness/index.html

4. Naslund, John. "Social Media and Mental Health: Benefits, Risks, and Opportunities for Research and Practice." vol. 38, 2020, pp. 245-257, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41347-020-00134-x

5. Gamon, Micheal, Choudhury, Munmun and Counts, Scott and Horvitz, Eric. "Predicting Depression via Social Media." 2013, AAAI Conference, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259948193_Predicting_Depression_via_Social_Media

6. Kross, Ethan. "Facebook Use Predicts Declines in Subjective Well-Being in Young Adults." 2013, https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0069841#s2

7. Primack, Brian. "Social Media Use and Perceived Social Isolation Among Young Adults in the U.S." American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 2017, https://www.ajpmonline.org/article/S0749-3797(17)30016-8/fulltext

8. Hampton, Keith. "Psychological Stress and Social Media Use." Pew Research Center, 2015, https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/01/15/psychological-stress-and-social-media-use-2/

9. The Huffington Post UK/PA. "Social Media Makes Us Feel Jealous, Ugly And Lonely Say Scientists.'" 25 Jul. 2014, https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2014/07/25/social-media-mental-healt_n_5619728.html?ir=UK+Tech

10. The College of Arts and Sciences. "Study Shows Habitual Checking of Social Media May Impact Young Adolescents' Brain Development." University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 3 Jan. 2023, https://www.unc.edu/posts/2023/01/03/study-shows-habitual-checking-of-social-media-may-impact-young-adolescents-brain-development/

11. Mahon, Ciara, and Hevey, David. "Processing Body Image on Social Media: Gender Differences in Adolescent Boys’ and Girls’ Agency and Active Coping." BMC Public Health, 2021, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8175666/

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The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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In one of the first long-term studies on adolescent neural development and technology use, researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill report adolescents' habitual checking of social media is linked with subsequent changes in how their brains respond to the world around them.

The study, published today in JAMA Pediatrics, reveals that adolescents' brains may become more sensitive when anticipating social rewards and punishments over time with increased social media usage.

"The findings suggest that children who grow up checking social media more often are becoming hypersensitive to feedback from their peers," said Eva Telzer, a professor in UNC-Chapel Hill's psychology and neuroscience department and a corresponding author.

Researchers tracked 169 students recruited from public middle schools in rural North Carolina over three years. At the beginning of the study, participants reported how often they checked three popular social media platforms - Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. Their answers ranged from less than once to more than 20 times a day. Participants underwent yearly brain imaging sessions while completing the social incentive delay task, which measures brain activity when anticipating social feedback from peers.

"While this increased sensitivity to social feedback may promote future compulsive social media use, it could also reflect a possible adaptive behavior that will allow teens to navigate an increasingly digital world," says Maria Maza, a doctoral student in psychology and one of the study's two lead authors.

Social media platforms deliver a constant and unpredictable stream of social feedback in the form of likes, comments, notifications and messages.

"These social inputs are frequent, inconsistent and often rewarding, making them especially powerful reinforcers that can condition users to check social media repeatedly," said Kara Fox, co-lead author of the study and a doctoral student in psychology.

Other studies have shown that 78% of 13- to 17-year-olds report checking their mobile devices at least hourly; 35% of teens report using at least one of the top five social media platforms almost constantly. The study findings suggest that checking social media repeatedly among young teens ages 12 to 13 may be associated with changes in how their brains develop over a three-year period. The brains of adolescents who checked social media often - more than 15 times per day, became more sensitive to social feedback.

"Most adolescents begin using technology and social media at one of the most important periods for brain development during our lifetime," said co-author Mitch Prinstein, who also serves as the chief science officer for the American Psychological Association. "Our research demonstrates that checking behaviors on social media could have long-standing and important consequences for adolescents' neural development, which is critical for parents and policy-makers to consider when understanding the benefits and potential harms associated with teen technology use."

Additional authors include Seh-Joo Kwon, a doctoral student in the department of psychology and neuroscience, and Jessica Flannery, a previous postdoctoral fellow in the department of psychology and neuroscience.

The research was supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health and the Winston Family Foundation through its Winston National Center on Technology Use, Brain and Psychological Development established at UNC-Chapel Hill.

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Study shows habitual checking of social media may impact young adolescents' brain development | UNC-Chapel Hill

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The study provides some of the first findings on how social media usage could have long-standing and important consequences on the development of adolescent brains.

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1) How does social media affect men and women differently?
2) How can social media actually help eliminate loneliness?
3) What other information from articles can I provide, to help challenge my argument on social media?
4) How can people use social media in a healthy way?

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Throughout my essay, social media has many positive and negative side effects that are very complex. I am exploring how one's mental health, sleep, and relationships are affected daily, by the consumption of social media. At the beginning of my research, I knew social media played a huge role in society and humans but did not understand how it had so many aspects to it. Researchers themselves are still learning new information, about how it is implemented into human lives. In this article, I based my findings on the many aspects of social media, that individuals are still studying on. Therefore for project four, I would like to incorporate other articles and explore the many other information found, to back up the statistics proven. I would like to gain more knowledge on the effects of body image and loneliness. I plan to add how the brain is also affected by humans constantly looking at endless amounts of news. Including a study of someone's pasts brain development compared to today would also be a very interesting and important fact I would incorporate. Additionally, the articles mention how social media affects women and men differently in some aspects vaguely, which I would like to expand on more with the research from other articles. I feel that for project four I would still like to keep my topic in which my meaningful question will be "how does social media affect individuals". Overall, with the addition of other sources and including more articles and evidence, I will be able to form a well-written essay.

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Social media and chatting on apps replace face-to-face conversations making people resort to staying home and being alone. The simple task of seeing each other that led people to happiness and laughing is stript away and replaced with chatting and photos. "A study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine last year surveyed 7,000 19- to 32-year-olds and found that those who spend the most time on social media were twice as likely to report experiencing social isolation, which can include a lack of a sense of social belonging, engagement with others and fulfilling relationships"(Primack).

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People posting from beautiful places, or about a job interview, can make others who are struggling or at different stages in their life feel bad. It causes many to feel envious of others' success even though not all mean to feel this way. Social media allows private moments of happiness to be shared. Additionally, individuals "comparing their lives to others, and the biggest culprit was other people’s travel photos. Feeling envious caused an “envy spiral”, where people react to envy by adding to their profiles more of the same sort of content that made them jealous in the first place" (BBC Future).

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When individuals post good things it makes people feel envious, and can actually empower others to work hard financially in their careers, at school, or in their relationships to accomplish their goals in order to achieve happiness. It lets people understand that it is possible to achieve what the photo shows. Studies show how  "they asked 380 students to look at “envy-eliciting” photos and texts from Facebook and Twitter, including posts about buying expensive goods, travelling and getting engaged. But the type of envy the researchers found is “benign envy”, which they say is more likely to make a person work harder"(BBC Future).

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Social media makes it easy for people to connect to one another, which causes many in relationships to feel jealous. Also, with social media being addicting, normal face-to-face conversations in a relationship is often interfered, making conversations less meaningful to one another.

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Social media varying from body image to mental health to the overall well-being has more of a negative side effect on individuals rather than positive effects. This occurs since, it isn't-normal for humans to be exposed to this much information every second of the day. "In a study from 2013, researchers texted 79 participants five times a day for 14 days, asking them how they felt and how much they’d used Facebook since the last text"(Kross).

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Social media is a safe place for many to share how they feel and welcome critiques and help, making people feel listened to and helped by professionals. For example "marketing researchers Jonah Berger and Eva Buechel found that people who are emotionally unstable are more likely to post about their emotions, which can help them receive support and bounce back after negative experiences" (BBC Future).

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Social media enhancing filters and lighting to hide and change how people look only makes individuals' self-worth worse, especially in women. It essentially makes people feel the need to compare themselves to how others look since they feel that their body male or female is not good enough. For example, a guy or girl who sees another person being fit and showing that they got the newest job, might feel that they are less brilliant or hard-working since they haven't accomplished those things. Specifically, "Social media sites make more than half of users feel inadequate, according to a survery of 1,500 people by disability charity Scope, and half of 18- to 34-year-olds say it makes them feel unattractive"( The Huffington UK/PA).

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Some people feel that platforms can uplift people, enhance body positivity, and create an empowering community. Social media platforms such as Facebook can boost self-awareness since it allows individuals to post how they want to be perceived by society.

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Internet addiction has become a classified disorder in which Daria Kuss and Mark Griffiths from Nottingham Trent University have found 43 studies on. Overall these studies conclude that social media addiction is a mental health problem that possibly needs professional treatment. Additionally, they found that relationship issues, academic struggles, and the lack of social interactions have become the outcome of this addiction, since the act of being dependent on social media, makes people lose life skills.

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Artificial lighting and blue light that is shown to humans each time a person uses social media affect the hormone melatonin, which ruins the sleeping pattern.  It becomes a never-ending addictive cycle that once someone is exposed to, they essentially don't feel tired. "The researchers say this could be caused by physiological arousal before sleep, and the bright lights of our devices can delay circadian rhythms" (BBC Future).

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Social media has the ability to actually help doctors diagnose and notice depression earlier, giving faster treatment to humans. Social media platforms like "Microsoft surveyed 476 people and analysed their Twitter profiles for depressive language, linguistic style, engagement and emotion. From this, they developed a classifier that can accurately predict depression before it causes symptoms in seven out of 10 cases"(Researchers).

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Social media causes lower moods and feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness.  Having the ability to see what people are doing constantly, and who they are hanging out with, can cause others who are alone, or not feeling their best, to feel worthless.

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Social media causes people to get fewer hours of sleep, have difficulties concentrating, and worry, creating anxiety. Additionally, humans relying on social media to connect and chat with one another also led to social anxiety. Specifically, "a study published in the journal Computers and Human Behaviour found that people who report using seven or more social media platforms were more than three times as likely as people using 0-2 platforms to have high levels of general anxiety symptoms"(Primack).

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Individuals who post positive photos online, influence others to post more happy photos and to think more positively, improving humans' overall mood. For instance, if someone can not actually see others in real life due to multiple reasons or want to see how people are doing, they can view them online from a post, boosting individuals' overall mood. It becomes evident that "the better news is that happy posts had a stronger influence; each one inspired 1.75 more happy posts" (BBC Future).

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Many individuals reported that using social media was a waste of time which correlated to lower moods. In particular, what people see daily influences their mood and how they feel, in which social media publishing something negative daily causes individuals' moods to decrease. "In 2014, researchers in Austria found that participants reported lower moods after using Facebook for 20 minutes compared to those who just browsed the internet" (BBC Future). Only a single negative post by someone can influence 1.3 other negative posts by others.

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Along the many women that use the social media platform Twitter and relied on it as a coping mechanism, have faced less stress. For example, women might go on Twitter after a long day, to chat with others or look at funny tweets they might have posted, reducing their stress from the day. To conclude, more researchers found that social media was directly related to lower levels of stress.

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Social media causes more stress to humans than it actually helps with it. The ability to wake up with the knowledge of the news every second of the day nonstop is related to making humans stressed. Specifically "in the survey of 1,800 people, women reported being more stressed than men. Twitter was found to be a “significant contributor” because it increased their awareness of other people’s stress"(Hampton).

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Social Media - forms of electronic communication in that users create online communities to share personal messages, ideas, and other information
Mental Health - the general condition of one's mental and emotional state
Stress - constraining force or influence that causes bodily or mental tension
Coping mechanism - strategies people often use when facing stress or trauma to help manage difficult emotions
Mood - a prevailing attitude; conscious state of emotion and feeling
Provoke - to call forth a sense, or an action
Anxiety - uneasiness or nervousness usually over a mending or anticipated ill; being anxious
Depression- a mood disorder that consists of sadness, despair, and loneliness and is typically accompanied by guilt, loff of concentration, social withdrawal, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.
Hopelessness - not expect of good or success; despairing
Artificial Light - Light produced by electric lamps
Addiction - a compulsive, chronic, physiological, or psychological need for a habit-forming substance behavior or activity having harmful effects
dependent - relying on another for support; contingent
Self Esteem - confidence and satisfaction in oneself, self-respect
Body Image - a subjective picture of one's physical appearance established by observation and by noting the reactions of others
Filters - an effect on social media to change the appearance of one image
Well-being - the state of being happy, healthy, or prosperous; welfare
Isolated - occurring alone or once
Envy - painful or resentful awareness of an advantage enjoyed by another, joined with a desire to possess the same benefit.
Relationship - a specific instance or type of kinship
Benign - malicious
Social Media Platforms - Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Facebook
Source : https://www.merriam-webster.com

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The use of social media is a massive part of society today. Individuals of all ages use it, as it is implemented in schools, workspaces, and for leisure. In 2018 "three billion people, around 40% of the worlds population, use social media and were spending an average of two hours a day" using it (BBC Future). Apps varying from Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat make it easy to connect with individuals. Therefore, while securing and sharing information with millions at the tap of a button benefits individuals, it also negatively affects them significantly. For example, "Twitter also acted as a coping mechanism – and the more women used it, the less stressed they were"(BBC Future). The endless amounts of connections to people across the world and the ability to look up key events are very helpful. Although, in comparison, "with half a million tweets and Snapchat photos shared everyminute," individuals' mental health is directly affected (BBC Future). Stress, anxiety, mood depression, sleep addiction, self-esteem, well-being, loneliness, envy, and relationships are all aspects of people's lives that are impacted. For example, one tweet or news article posted can raise one's anxiety in seconds, cause their mood to become lower, cause them to feel upset and sad, affect their sleep schedule and overall well-being. Social media's excellent strategies to reach multiple users fast is something the human brain was not born to be equipped to do. The constant cycle of daily news, what people are wearing, how people look, and what people are constantly doing is not always healthy for humans. Instead, it likely causes body image issues, anxiousness, and loneliness. People "who spend the most time on social media were twice as likely to report experiencing social isolation, which can include a lack of a sense of social belonging, engagement with others and fulfilling relationships" (BBC Future). Overall, social media plays a substantial role in individuals' lives, in both positive and negative ways.