Argumentative essays about Social Media
For nearly two decades, social media have been fortifying their position in our daily life. Teenagers, youngsters, and adults are all heavily dependent on checking social networking platforms, with no end in sight.
The topic is controversial because there are two sides to the story. Many believe the negative effects, such as distorted relationships, aggravated mental and physical health, and privacy issues, prevail. However, supporters of social networks reckon they improve communication, enable job finding, and open new business fields like influencers.
Undoubtedly, not everything about social media usage is inherently good or bad. Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Instagram have taught us valuable lessons. To help them realize this, teachers often ask high school students to pick essay topics on argumentative writing about social media.
Besides explaining the impact on society, a thought-provoking research and persuasive essay on social media should list the advantages and disadvantages of the phenomenon. To do so, you need a compelling hook for the introduction paragraph and appealing examples of arguments for the body.
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Social Media can seem like a safe and positive form of entertainment however, it may have several hidden negative aspects to it as well. America’s use of social media is rapidly growing, and it does not seem to be slowing down; which is a cause for concern. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat are among the most popular outlets for social media and with the technological advances in smartphones technology these social media sites are allowing society to have unlimited, unfiltered access which can lead to isolation and addiction. Even though Social Media allows people to stay in contact with friends and family perhaps, Americans should not have access to it because Social Media may lead to unnecessary risks in safety, privacy, self-esteem, and health.
Social media is a positive way of networking with friends and family around the world and it can be beneficial when used in “moderation”. America’s unfortunately do not all understand the concept of moderation. According to an article in “American Journal of Medical Research” the author Nicholas Rothschild states “An immoderate time spent on social media brings out detrimental effects” (Rothchild). When using social media in overabundance it can lead to addiction without Americans even realizing it. According to Rothschild, excess use of Facebook can lead to narcissism causing the user to friend numerous shallow connections in order to achieve positive self-presentation (Rothchild). By “friending” acquaintances that tend to be superficial, Americans think this will give them more likes as well as more views which in turn makes Americans look shallow. (Rothchild).
Social media can have a perverse effect on society in many ways, one way is the negative ramifications it has on a person’s self-esteem. According to “American Psychological Association” young Americans are concerned about “appearance related social media consciousness” (ASMC), which means having the propensity of displaying behavior and thoughts as well as showing awareness in order to be “picture ready” at any given moment (Choukas-Bradley etc..,). Young Americans are experiencing ASMC simply because social media can be accessed at any moment from smartphones and the fear of an unattractive picture up themselves being posted, which may cause young Americans to develop self-esteem issues and increases self-objectification which is unhealthy. Having an unflattering picture posted to any social media site may cause stress which is why people feel like it is always important to stay picture ready.
According to the author, students in college reported that they experience a high frequency of ASMC; which significantly has led to depressive symptoms being increased; lower body self-esteem and controlling for body surveillance. (Choukas-Bradley). The author explains that this leads to more time being spent on social media which may be maladaptive for their psychological balance causing depression and anxiety (Choukas-Bradley). It is important for Americans to feel secure within “their own skin”. With all the photoshopped images of celebrities being posted on social media, it affects the way Americans perceive themselves, this causes them to want to look like their favorite celebrity which is an unrealistic expectation for anyone.
Another negative aspect of social media is cyberbullying. According to the article “From Cyberbullying to Well-being” the definition of cyberbullying is, “a way to emotionally distress someone over technology” (Bowler et al.). Even though social media makes it easier to keep up with the latest trends and entertainment it also makes it just as easy for cyberbullies to anonymously harass individuals. Bullying is an issue that has been around for decades, however; it is the new way personal attacks are being launched on society.
Cyberbullying happens more often than realized throughout social media and it may be more harmful than regular “face-to-face” bullying because it can be more harmful than verbal words. The written word is not easily forgotten and also easily shared. Cyberbullying is also posting unflattering photoshopped pictures, video that has been edited, or sexually inappropriate memes of a person which can be visible to a large audience who then has the repost it. When a post is re-posted continuously and then turns viral, meaning that it is amongst the population. Cyberbullies enjoy posting these hurtful posts and having them going viral because it makes them feel powerful to hurt another person (Bowler et al.).
Victims of cyberbullying may not feel like they have any escape from the cyber bullies because cyber bullies have access to them at any time of day via any social media outlet. (Bowler et al.). The result to the victims of this abuse is emotional damage because they feel like they have no place to hide from the cyber bullies which is causing them stress and anxiety (Bowler et al.). Cyber bullies know enough to use fake profiles in order to access their victims which makes it harder to prove who the bully is which allows the bullying to continue. A fake profile is when a person sets up an account where they hide their identity in order to access other profiles anonymously. As a result, to cyberbullying, victims are starting to take a more proactive role in their social media privacy by keeping their friend list the only person acquaintances, making sure all privacy settings are turned on and by blocking unknown friend requests. Not having access to social media is one way to stop Americans from being cyber stalked.
Another negative issue surrounding social media would be how easily people’s accounts are being hacked. Hacked is when a person uses a computer to get an authorized information about another individual. Hacking is now being used as a device for government, corporate and personal attacks and even the military and terrorist operations have been known to use hacking to achieve their goals (Monteith). Some forms of hacking include viruses that could be something as simple as a playful worm or can be seriously dangerous enough to wipe out entire corporation’s data (Monteith).
Hacking has even been able to wipe out some government networks data as well (Monteith). Hacking is a serious issue surrounding social media and there are ways of staying protected as simple as installing anti malware and Antivirus software into your computers, but cell phones are much harder to install anti malware into which is allowing an easier access for hackers putting society at a high risk of being hacked. One way of protecting being hacked is by not opening emails or clicking on links that are unfamiliar. Another way is to do not download unfamiliar software because there could be a virus attached to it, it is safer to download software that is guaranteed to be virus free.
Also, when using public computers for any social media outlet is very important to always log out and double check to make sure to have completely logout preventing unwanted access to your accounts. In addition, when choosing passwords, it is important to choose something a bit complex that cannot be easily guest, and password should be changed frequently as well. Even taking the appropriate precautions is not enough to completely be protect from the wrath of hackers. Social media is it hacker’s playground and Americans personal and financial information would be more protected if they would choose to not access media.
Addiction is another negative issue with social media. According to the 60 Minutes interview with Anderson Cooper, social media is “brain hacking” their users, also known as hijacking people’s mind, “they are shaping the thoughts and feelings and actions of a person, they are programming people”(Brain Hacking). The former product manager explain that society is led to believe that social media is neutral, and it is society’s choice whether to would like to use it or not but that is completely false (Brain Hacking). He states, “they want you to use it in particular way and for long periods of time because that is where the money is made” (Brain Hacking). Even though social media is free to access, the websites make money off advertisements that is why pop ups are always appearing as your strolling through your social media.
The former product manager for Google, Ramsey Brown states, “A computer programmer who now understands how the brain works will know how to write code that will get the brain to do certain things” (Brain Hacking). It is this mentality that makes social media addictive, and their way of doing this is by giving you “Rewards”. Rewards have no actual value but is a way of making people feel extra-special, ways of making them come back to the website, an example of that is a receiving a burst of sudden likes on their post and pictures. According to the 60 Minutes interview, Brown states that the websites will hold back these likes to tweak their online experience making them want to come back for more (Brain Hacking).
Brown believes that society is part of a controlled experiment that is happening, the more time Americans spend on social media the more the companies collect data on them. Essentially advertisers are the ones paying for social media sites, so they are paying for societies eyeballs to look at their merchandise hopefully enticing them into purchasing their product. According to Anderson Cooper, advertising on social media has doubled in the last 2 years because of this intense method social media are displaying. The reason social media uses a continuous scroll because it is a proven way to keep people searching longer until finding that one good piece that catches their interest. It is a mechanism designed to keep them on social media for long periods of time allowing social media to gain more control over how much time they spend on it (Brain Hacking).
Society is scrolling through their social media accounts for long periods of time which is allowing companies as long as period of time to gain access to us prompting for more advertisement (Brain Hacking). This is how companies keep people addicted, they are posting advertisements that catch the interest of individuals which keeps them coming back for more. Companies should not be allowed to have access to social media data in order to sell their merchandise because personal data should be private and not be allowed to be accessed by anyone.
In conclusion, social media has made some positive impact on Americans within the last 10 years by allowing distant friends and family to keep in touch as well as allowing Society to keep to date with their favorite celebrities in sports, but it is also displayed many negative aspects as well. Social media has the ability to deteriorate an individual’s self-esteem because they would like to look like the celebrities that are posting pictures but not realizing that the pictures have been photoshopped or airbrushed. It is not fair for society to try to compete with such a false reality. When some individuals do try to compete with their celebrities’ photos, they end up being cyber-bullied which is a way of hurting the individual from behind a computer screen.
Cyberbullying has been a problem on social media because it is being done from behind a screen and their posts are going viral and when something is out an internet there’s no taking it down. This is causing the younger generation to feel stress and anxiety and is even led to some cases of suicide. Without social media in society’s lives cyberbullies would not exist which would make teenagers lives less anxious and stressful. Social Media is also dangerous because it is known to be easily hacked. Being hacked is very frustrating because it can make a person feel violated when their personal information has been accessed without their permission or knowledge. Also, being hacked involves changing passwords, account numbers and other personal settings which is time consuming and annoying.
Social media is also very addictive because advertisers are able to access data prompting with alerts to continually check in on their social media accounts to the point where they start to imagine feeling their phone vibrate or hearing alerts. Social media has been detrimental to society because it causes stress and anxiety from the negative surroundings that go with it. If Americans did not have access to social media, then they would not have to worry about getting all the excess tweets from Trump.