Essay on Impacts Of Social Media

This meant that there were approximately 1. 4 mobile devices per an American youth which translated to roughly 40 hours per month spend on mobile phones and social media interactions (Anderson & Jiang, 2018). It was no coincidence that America experienced an increasing trend on the social media usage since approximately 69% of Americans used these platforms in 2017 which is a gradual increase as compared to the 28% that used social media sites in 2008 (Weinstein, 2018). With these drastic shifts in the communication channels and patterns, entertainment, and social interactions, people were left to contemplate the ways these novel technologies influenced the generation of young adults and teens who grew up in the time where social media usage and mobile technology was rampant as televisions and radios were to generation Y.

Rationale Because people spend most of their time in the automatic process of social media messages, these media outlets unconsciously exert a persistent influence on the lives. Specifically, the paper evaluated the respondents’ intentions of using social media outlets. This study further evaluated the ways social media contents influence the privacy and attitude of the adolescents who use online platforms to communicate, blog, socialize or share materials. Purpose Of The Study The primary purpose of this paper was to evaluate the effects of social media on the personal lives of the American teens with keen interest to the students of the Dominican college. Prior Knowledge Before the implementation of this study, I knew that mobile and social media usage had created a generation bestowed with significant obstacles in their relationships, social interactions, identity formation, and the ways they address disputes and problems.

Also, these technologies have exposed the adolescents and young adults into unethical and dangerous activities such as online harassment, breach to their private information, adverse behavior changes, and destructive thoughts. The study targeted young American participants aged between 18 and 24 years and found out that the number of youths using social media websites increased from 89. 42% in 2014 to 97. 5% in 2016 (Villanti, Johnson, Ilakkuvan, Jacobs, Graham, & Rath, 2017). In the global scope, Chaffey (2016) implemented a study to evaluate the rate at which the uses of web-based technologies that permit social architecture have evolved during the past decades. Although the study focused on a global representative sample of 40,000 users, the researcher used inferential statistics to find out the popularity of social media websites. Another study implemented by Villanti, Johnson, Ilakkuvan, Jacobs, Graham, & Rath (2017) indicates that the top five social media site used by the American teen include Tumblr which accounts for 85.

5% accesses, Vine which was accessed 84. 7%, Snapchat which was accessed 81. 7%, Instagram which was used 80. 7% and LinkedIn which as accessed 78. Besides, several theories are used by experts to assess the effects of social media on people’s behaviors and attitudes. Thus, it is essential to evaluate the approaches used to explain this type of responses and the way they relate to social media impacts on society. Theories Used To Explain Social Media Impacts Social Cognitive Theory The social cognitive theory is among the most accepted approaches in the realm of mass communication. The method provides a deep-rooted explanation for the observational learning and the explicit capabilities of human behaviors (Bandura, 2011). This means that the domain of social media’s effects is one of the contexts that the social cognitive theory can be applied since the theory bestows a casual model which helps in explaining the people’s behaviors under the reciprocal of personal behavioral and environmental aspects (Bandura, 2011).

Additionally, face-to-face communication is cited as the primary method of communication which has high richness followed by the telephone communications, electronic mails and other forms of print media respectively (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Thus, these three can be used to explain the reasons people prefer some social media platforms depending on the type and amount of information that they need to share or processes (media richness), personal perception(social cognition) and the degree of socialization (social presence). The Common Types Of Social Media Outlets Even though scholars such as Obar and Wildman (2015) argue that social media revolutionize, the principles that influence the interactions, behaviors, and support of social media usage are enduring (Obar & Wildman, 2015). This is because the primary role of social media will always be squarely pegged on creating communities and enabling conversations among the members of the established communities.

Perrin (2015) argues that social media platforms such as Blogs, Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube have garnered a billion users in the last few decades (Perrin, 2015). us Online Gaming World of WarCraft Social networking Facebook, MySpace Live casting Justin tv, Blogtv, Ustream Events Upcoming Reference Wikipedia Sharing of videos YouTube News Aggregation Reddit, Digg Sharing of Photos Zoomr, Flickr Source (Author, 2018). Review Of The Existing Literature Characteristics Of Social Media Users Over the past decades, researchers interested in the role of social media in communication patterns have been shifting their attention. At early stages, studies were focused on evaluating the traits of the groups who use social media platforms as the dominant communication medium. Seidman (2013) explored the motivations and personalities of the people who use Facebook as the primary interaction medium.

Upon targeting one hundred and eighty-four respondents, Seidman found out that high neuroticism and agreeableness individuals were excellent predictors of the belongingness associated with motivations and behaviors (Seidman, 2013). Besides, Aral, Dellarocas, and Godes, (2013) designed a study to evaluate the association between business transformation and social media. According to this study, businesses used social media platforms to remind the consumers about their existing products, advertise new products and changes, educated customers on the ways of using certain products, and collect consumers’ feedbacks for the future advancement in services delivery and product quality (Aral, Dellarocas, & Godes, 2013). As an outcome, businesses which used social media outlets to advertise their products were more successful as compared to companies which ignored the influence of social media.

Friesen and Lowe in 2012 implemented a study to evaluate the ways social media are used in the American education system. Upon conducting a theoretical and historical analysis of social media usage and the American education system, the researchers found out that social media outlets such as Facebook deliver the promise of socially engaging educational experience and enhance the body images of the learners (Friesen & Lowe, 2012). Perhaps, this difference may stem from the different levels of intimacy offered by text-based and image-based platforms. Klausen (2015) explored the association between social media usage and radicalism. The study targeted 59 starter accounts whose profiles were quickly associated with Syria, Iraq and other jihadist operators. In this context, Klausen found out that social media platforms especially twitter were used to drive communication to other jihadists around the globe and spread propaganda with the aims of recruiting new members to these groups (Klausen, 2015).

Another 2016 study implemented by Nacos evaluated the ways social media influenced terrorism ideologies and impaired harmony in society. However, these websites have been associated with some negative impacts including radicalism and fake identities since they allow people with similar interests to exclude other members and create broadcasting message via the group technologies. This means that the existing literature supports the claim that social media usage has both negative and positive effects on the societies. Even though a surfeit of information from the existing literature support the presence of negative and positive consequences associated with the use of social media websites, there is a research gap regarding the ways social media affect students and the motives of using this websites. Positive and negative correlations have been identified between social media and community integration, but some outliers such as differences in demographics and different levels of trusts come into play and throw of the existing information.

Also, the current literature does not make it clear on the various ways people’s motivations and trusts influence the consequences of these websites on the users and societies. B. R. , Endut, M. N. A. Anderson, M. , & Jiang, J. Teens, social media & technology 2018.  Washington, DC: Pew Internet & American Life Project. Retrieved June, 3, 2018. Effectiveness of Social Media as a tool of communication and its potential for technology enabled connections: A micro-level study.  International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, 2(5), 1-10. Chaffey, D. Global social media research summary 2016.  Smart Insights: Social Media Marketing. , & Lowe, S. The questionable promise of social media for education: Connective learning and the commercial imperative.  Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 28(3), 183-194. Kaplan, A. M. The impact of social networking sites on the youth.