Eng204 | Advanced Writing | Assessment Answers

Topic(s): Select One of the following:

1. Does social media (FB/Twitter/Instagram) use affect our lives in a positive or negative -way?

2. Is an online education just as legitimate as a traditional education? Why or why not?

 

Select a contemporary controversy (ie you pick the topic). You will need to take your topic, develop a specific, arguable claim, and present an argument that follows the Toulmin model.

A large number of negative impacts are associated with the utilization of social media on the people in the present generation. Researchers are of the opinion that young people are seen to spend more than two hours per day on different social media like the use of Facebook, twitter, Instagram and many others. All these result in the development of poor mental health that includes psychological distress as well as other symptoms like anxiety as well as depression (Allcott & Gentzkow, 2017). Many of the studies have also found associations of the use of social media with that of the sleep quality especially of the young people (Brooks, 2015). Utilization of the phones, tablets as well as laptops at night before going to bed is linked with poor quality sleeps and thereby it causes disturbances in sleep patterns. Moreover, body image also plays one of the most important roles for young people in case of both males as well as females. It is seen that women are highly concerned about their body image and social media often becomes the easier platform to portray them. Therefore, in order to gain popularity on the social media, they can often go to higher extent like starving, different cosmetic surgeries and many others in order to gain followers and fans and this often result in negative impacts and threats on their lives (Fardouly et al., 2015). At the same time, cyber bullying is also considered to be closely associated with the use of the social media. Such bullying behaviors faced by many victims make them suffer from depression, fear as well as anxiety. These ultimately make them lead poor quality life and results them from suffering from lack of confidence and self-respect. Therefore, all these lead to higher levels of mental stress.

Another negative impact is the spreading of the untrue information on the social media that can impact different individuals as well as organizations in different ways. Often it is seen that false, misleading as well as confusing information online have the potential to for harming not only the reputation of different individuals but also about the reputation of the brand. These can not only upset family members about the individuals as the image of the victims are affected but can also even loyal customers (Pfeffer et al., 2014). These can dissuade people from even considering the purchase of the products as well as other services. Often it is seen that retailer and smilar other review sites often posts critiques, information as well as reviews that help the readers to make choices about the products they want to buy, films they want to watch or create a feeling about any person or objects. However, some of the sites may not post real reviews but the viewers and the readers may not recognize them. This can affect business or may result in development of false beliefs and feelings that can affect the viewpoint of every individual. Unfortunate incident may also occur when well run companies make mistakes or have employees who are seen to behave inappropriately. Often such stories are seen to go viral where the real incident might match with what was posted or may not be entirely true. However, this would affect the overall brand reputation of the individual or the organization (Alwagit, Shahzad & Alim, 2015). One important negative aspect of the use of social media is that it often results in circulation of wrong healthcare information that has life threatening issues. Many of the social media users as well as bloggers post health advices, blogs and experiences that might influence a reader to try these strategies without consulting any professionals. Therefore, these might expose them to risks that might also affect their lives. Therefore, social media can harm individuals in different ways.

Use of social media has now become one of the major addictions in the present generation and often individuals are seen to remain glued with it. Often they tend to surf the social media during their work hours in the offices, school, colleges and others (Brooks, 2015). These not only result in loss of productivity but may also result in occurrence of errors in the work and may create issues in time management where the work cannot be completed within time. Not only for the adults but also for schoolchildren and other student, social media creates a distraction from their academic life where instead of studying and preparing their homework, time is spent more on the use of social media. This affects their career as by making them score low marks and resulting them to be incompetent in gaining effective knowledge and skills. Such use of social media also prevents them from getting into extracurricular activities or other exercises that affect their physical health as well (Chua & Chang, 2016).

However, social media use is also associated with positive aspects as well. It is linked with a better connectivity with friends, relatives and acquaintances regardless of location all over the world and help in sharing of thoughts and feelings. It also has many benefits for students and teachers as they can get educated or provide education respectively to any others all over the world thereby making the nations literate and knowledgeable (Sobaih et al., 2016) . Moreover, it also acts as a medium for getting help from communities and others. One can also remain updated about the latest information and updates starting from the medicinal fields to even technological advancements (Ngai et al., 2015). It also acts as an important domain for promotion of businesses, shops, services, products and other and can reach to every user within a glance. It also helps in developing awareness about the new discoveries and innovative staffs that help in enhancing lives. It has also come of immense help to the business organization in reaching out to their customers, building reputation and others (Hudson et al., 2015).

From the above discussion, it can be seen that social media impacts positively in many arenas. However, the positive impacts can never conceal the harms that the social media are bringing to the health of people especially to the lives of people both mentally, emotionally and physically. It not only affects sleep pattern affected biological cycle and the physiological mechanisms of human beings but also has the potential to threaten lives where adolescents may self harm or commit suicide due to various factors. Hence, every government should undertake iniatives to control the usage of social media of the people for preventing loss of lives or preventing them from leading poor quality lives.

References:

Allcott, H., & Gentzkow, M. (2017). Social media and fake news in the 2016 election. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 31(2), 211-36.

Alwagait, E., Shahzad, B., & Alim, S. (2015). Impact of social media usage on students academic performance in Saudi Arabia. Computers in Human Behavior, 51, 1092-1097.

Brooks, S. (2015). Does personal social media usage affect efficiency and well-being?. Computers in Human Behavior, 46, 26-37.

Chua, T. H. H., & Chang, L. (2016). Follow me and like my beautiful selfies: Singapore teenage girls’ engagement in self-presentation and peer comparison on social media. Computers in Human Behavior, 55, 190-197.

Fardouly, J., Diedrichs, P. C., Vartanian, L. R., & Halliwell, E. (2015). Social comparisons on social media: The impact of Facebook on young women's body image concerns and mood. Body Image, 13, 38-45.

Hudson, S., Roth, M. S., Madden, T. J., & Hudson, R. (2015). The effects of social media on emotions, brand relationship quality, and word of mouth: An empirical study of music festival attendees. Tourism Management, 47, 68-76.v

Ngai, E. W., Moon, K. L. K., Lam, S. S., Chin, E. S., & Tao, S. S. (2015). Social media models, technologies, and applications: an academic review and case study. Industrial Management & Data Systems, 115(5), 769-802.

Pfeffer, J., Zorbach, T., & Carley, K. M. (2014). Understanding online firestorms: Negative word-of-mouth dynamics in social media networks. Journal of Marketing Communications, 20(1-2), 117-128.

Sobaih, A. E. E., Moustafa, M. A., Ghandforoush, P., & Khan, M. (2016). To use or not to use? Social media in higher education in developing countries. Computers in Human Behavior, 58, 296-305.