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Amanda Cullom
Ms. Wilson
HELA 10
24 February 2015
How Social Media Dictates Our World
For decades, the popularity of social media has been rapidly increasing. The use
of social networking has become a necessity and social sites are accessible at almost
every hour of the day. This new coming of age brings along both positives and negatives.
The impact that social media has on our society is beneficial, but also harmful, and it has
changed the world and how it operates in every aspect.
Social media has impacted humans relationships with one another and how we
communicate. Many friendships are formed online just from a follow on Twitter, or a
like on Instagram. For a teen today, the boundaries between the numerous and casual
relationships formed online and a real-life close friend of theirs might be blurry (Brian
Jung). This is unhealthy; the relationships in the real world are extremely important to
how the teen grows up and learns to interact in the world. Relying solely on shallow
friends on social media will affect their later affiliations.
A huge social issue that has come along with the use of social media is cyberbullying. People tend to be more confident online, and will say things that they wouldnt
be comfortable saying to someone face-to-face. What makes this awful practice so
popular is the chance for insecure people to hide behind anonymous posts and say
whatever they want. Bullying becomes much more extreme online because the authors
feel no remorse or responsibility (Regina F. Graham). The fact that the chances of them

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being exposed are so little causes an urge to say what they want, no matter how vicious.
As a result of cyber-bullying, many people, especially teenagers, have been driven to
commit suicide.
The majority of everything online is written, so it is difficult to decipher the tone
and meaning of the words typed. An innocent sentence can be misinterpreted and lead to
large amounts of drama. That miscommunication can then lead to someone being
mistaken for believing in a certain idea or feeling a certain way about something. Society
today is very judgmental, and if a person is thought to have said something that another
person disagrees with, there will be consequences.
A positive aspect of social media is the ability to stay up to date with what is
happening in other countries in the world. This is especially helpful in certain countries
where there is no freedom of the press or the government controls the news for any given
reason. Many years ago, it was nearly impossible to figure out what was happening a
couple of states over, let alone a country on the other side of the world. An ability to learn
about events in real-time, while theyre happening, is much more advanced and
informational rather than hearing about something that occurred a week later.
Social websites have also served as a platform for people of similar interests to
come together to make a change. The unification of these people has sparked mass
movements towards social or institutional change, such as with politics (Jenny Q. Ta).
Another way that social media uses larges groups of people for content and ideas is
crowdsourcing. Crowdsourcing is the use of an online community to obtain services,
ideas, or content through a large group of people. An example of this is students at the

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University of Texas combining their ideas to come up with and create new inventions that
are environmentally friendly.
Even though a teenager might press the delete button and their picture
disappears, that image is never really gone from the Internet. Everything that is posted
online will be there forever embedded in codes and it can be found to be resurfaced. A
user by the name of Awesomesauce014 states their opinion, Teenagers gain popularity
through the interesting pictures they post. In order to get the results they want, they try to
get a reaction from controversial images of themselves. Many people use the power of
social media to gain the attention that they desire. The controversial pictures posted
damage the reputations of young people and can harm their future plans.
Figure 1 captures how much of our lives are occupied by interaction with social
media. However, interacting with devices connecting us to the social networking sites can
have potential negative health effects. Several addictive disorders have been identified to
be linked to the abuse of overstimulation of social media. In fact, a growing industry has
emerged for the treatment of sleep and attention disorders, believed to be associated with
social media. While this photo represents a minor, comical effect of too much
stimulation, it hints at the deeper problems that can arise with the growing popularity of
social network use.
The impact of social media on the lives of people is far reaching, rapidly
changing, and becoming an important factor in shaping change in the world today.
Although there are benefits and disadvantages to how it has affected our culture, it is now
a necessity. What we know so far about the impact of social media is based on what has

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happened in the last twenty years, mostly in civilized nations. Imagine what we will see
in the next twenty years as these technologies reach the uncivilized parts of the world.

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Works Cited
"The Effects of Social Networking Upon Society." 27 Oct. 2013. Web. 25 Feb.
2015. <www.teenink.com>.
Graham, Regina F. "Psychologist: Social Media Causing A "Distancing
Phenomena" to Take Place." 16 Apr. 2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
<washington.cbs.local.com>.
Ta, Jenny Q. "What Impact Has Social Media Truly Had On Society." 13 Aug.
2014. Web. 25 Feb. 2015. <www.business2community.com>.
Jung, Brian. "The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals."
Web. 25 Feb. 2015. <www.smallbusiness.chron.com>.

Figure 1

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