Things Known About the Research Topic
Social media is inherently different from traditional media from various perspectives. Compared to traditional media, social media has a higher global audience and reach. Also, ads used share emotions such as inspiration, excitement, amusement, and warmth to captivate the audience. Consequently, the audience spends a significant amount of time on a daily basis feeding on this content.
Social media has both negative and positive impacts. It influences the success of global brands because by helping managers understand customers’ attitudes towards their company’s products and services. In addition, social media can be used as a platform for communication between staff and customers. In military operations, social media helps soldiers gain insights about the nation and the international environment. Negative impacts of social media include the spread of fake news, violation of privacy, addiction to endless scrolling, and trolling of brands, individuals, companies, and countries.
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Questions about the Research Topic
What do statistics reveal about social media usage?
What is the average time spent on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter on a daily basis?
Does prolonged use of social media have mental effects?
What sectors have social media negatively and positively impacted?
Has social media done more harm or benefit to society?
Plans for Research
The table below shows the plans I have on carrying out research on the effects of social media.
| Date | Research Results and Findings | Thoughts on Progress |
| 2/23/2020 | As of 2019, approximately 3.48 million people use social media (Ostapenko, Bakumenko & Usenko, 2019). That was a 9% increase from 2018. | I have admitted that one of the defining phenomena in present times of the internet is the use of social media. |
| 2/25/2020 | An average of 3 hours is spent on social media on a daily basis (Lopez & Cuarteros, 2020). | I am surprised at the significant amount of time spent on social media sending messages, purging, binging and scrolling aimlessly. |
| 2/29/20202 | Though research in the field of mental effects of social media has not been well established, findings reveal that prolonged use of social media results in mental issues such as depression and anxiety (Twenge, 2019). | Based on these findings, I can relate how social media makes on feel after prolonged hours of use. The mental issue arises from comparing our lives with others and feeling that I could be missing out on a lot of things. |
| 3/3/2020 | Social media has impacted in sectors such as health, education, and business negatively and positively. In education, for instance, students waste a lot of time that could otherwise be used for studying. In health care, doctors have formed forums that they use to reach out and remain innovative in the field (Twenge, 2019). | I mainly based my research on the university’s library database. Compared to other sites such as Google Scholar, the findings are similar. |
| 10/3/2020 | Social media has negatively and positively impacted society. It is hard to determine which effects outweigh the other (Boulianne, 2019). | In the course of my research, I am yet to come up with a conclusion on the overall effects of social media in society. |
References
Boulianne, S. (2019). Revolution in the making? Social media effects across the globe. Information, communication & society , 22 (1), 39-54.
Lopez, A. G., & Cuarteros, K. G. (2020). Exploring the Effects of Social Media on Interpersonal Communication among Family Members. Canadian Journal of Family and Youth/Le Journal Canadian de Famille et de la Jeunesse , 12 (1), 66-80.
Ostapenko, I. N., Bakumenko, M. A., & Usenko, R. S. (2020, January). About Some Aspects of Influence of Social Networks on Efficiency of Functioning of Hotel Service of Russia. In First International Volga Region Conference on Economics, Humanities and Sports (FICEHS 2019) (pp. 45-49). Atlantis Press.
Twenge, J. M. (2019). Why increases in adolescent depression may be linked to the technological environment. Current opinion in psychology .
