Stalvey 1

David Stalvey
Professor Bolton
ENG 101
17 November 2014
#BadChoice: How Social Networking is a Detrimental Disadvantage to American Students
Few portals exist in our world like those of social networking sites in which people can
simultaneously access information about academic assignments and communicate with their
friends and family members about the latest trending topic or the most recent gossip. As time
has progressed in the twenty-first century, social networking has advanced significantly as a
technological service to the world, and it has assumed relevant and applicable roles in the
personal and professional lives of American citizens on a rapidly increasing scale. The everexpanding presence of social networking in the technological areas of the modern American
culture has led to the development of concerns among the general public about the distinctive
effects of social media usage on the lives of American students. Participation on social
networking sites by American youth is increasing progressively, and recent studies reveal the
extent of this usage among young children to teenagers and demonstrate the importance of these
developing concerns. Examinations show that children as young as five years old are already
being exposed to forms of social media for entertainment purposes while 90% to 95% of high
school students have a Facebook account and access it on a regular basis (Fodeman & Monroe
148). Studies of and debates about student involvement on social networking websites have
increased in the country due to negative incidences that have resulted from social media usage.
Incidences of interpersonal strife, cyberbullying, and suicide have transpired among American
students due to their participation on social networking sites, which has drawn the attention of

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the general public and initiated movements to determine the mental and emotional effects that
this usage has on a students academic success, relationships, self-concept, concentration, and
future job opportunities. Social networking use among American students remains a
controversial topic as it concerns a vast majority of American adolescents, including myself. As
a result, arguments continue to be conducted in the central effort to determine if social
networking usage is beneficial or detrimental for students during their compulsory education.
Some citizens support the usage of social media by American students, as they trust that this
practice provides youth with opportune access to countless amounts of information and positive
forms of communication with friends and family members. Even though social networking sites
do offer these prospects to a certain extent, I think that they ultimately present conflicts to the
academic success and personal development of American students. Although some think that
social media use is effective in providing American students with easy access to forms of
information and communication, I believe that social networking usage produces adverse and
detrimental effects on American adolescents as they progress in their educations as social media
sites serve as sources of distraction, provide possibilities for interpersonal conflict and acts of
cyberbullying, present risks to safety and privacy, and promote disadvantageous social
tendencies.
Even though social networking provides quick access to information regarding academic
material and current events, I trust that it serves as a distraction to the educations of American
students and interferes with meaningful educational purposes. Some believe that social media
provides easier and quicker ways for American youth to obtain and discover information about
others and the aspects of the world around them. This accessibility of social networking is
expressed in a study from ProCon.org that states that Social networking sites spread

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information faster than any other media. The information from this study and the supporting
ideas of social media as a positive outlet are sensible as social networking sites do allow students
to access, read, and learn numerous amounts of material in understandable formats. As a result
of this accessibility, American students are able to contemplate information and become
fascinated by recent news about their peers or school events. However, I believe that this
accessibility and fascination with social networking are negative for students as they greatly
inhibit school performance among adolescents and represent distractions for youth as they
complete schoolwork or participate in school activities. Social networking sites can interfere
with a students attention and success in school, and they have been proven by studies to directly
cause a students grades to suffer as a result of usage (Dangers of Social Networking Video Clip
Collection, Kicking Teens Facebook Addictions). This direct influence on the success of
students in their academic classes is supported by recent reports from ProCon.org that show that
Students who use social media [have] an average GPA of 3.06 while non-users [have] an
average GPA of 3.82. These users of social networking sites constrain themselves from
potentially performing better on their school assignments and achieving higher grades due to
their time on the sites. Personally, I understand the effects that social media usage has on a
students ability to learn and comprehend academic material as I am a user of some social
networks. After personal reflection, I realize that these social media sites serve as sources of
temptation for me while I do my schoolwork as they cause me to delay my completion of school
assignments. This procrastination makes me feel unmotivated and causes me to perform work
that is not of my best efforts. Along with academic failures, the distractions of social media can
provoke users to use social networking sites excessively and can also lead to the development of
extreme circumstances, such as addictions to social media usage. This form of addiction has

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been viewed to affect many teenage users of social networking sites and has been examined, in
some cases, to cause these students to interact on social media outlets for as long as six hours on
the weekends (qtd. in Dangers of Social Networking Video Clip Collection, Kicking Teens
Facebook Addictions). Online safety expert Parry Aftab elaborates on the threat of these
addictions to social media as she states that these students who are addicted are all-consumed
about the Internet (qtd. in Dangers of Social Networking Video Clip Collection, Kicking
Teens Facebook Addictions), which causes them to learn negative studying habits and waste
time. Student addictions to social networking sites exhibit the central disadvantages to social
media usage as this act represents a major distraction to student learning and the completion of
schoolwork at home. Participation on social networking sites proves to be damaging to a childs
execution of academic tasks and has threatening effects on a students well-being and success in
school.
Even though some argue that social media usage promotes positive opportunities for
communication and interaction among American students, I believe that social networking sites
stimulate improper interpersonal interactions and motivate adverse acts of cyberbullying among
American youth. Supporters of student participation on social networking sites have expressed
their belief that social media serves as a stable and opportune source that allows students to
connect with family members and friends and improve their relationships with them in a positive
and constructive way. This is a good point as social networking sites do provide students with
the opportunity to connect with one another in a productive manner. With this opportunity,
students have the ability to express their interest in or appreciation of the posts of others in a
variety of ways, which include liking certain posts and commenting on the statuses of others.
This prospect of free will and the many ways in which a student can respond to posts on social

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networking sites, however, ultimately inhibits the capability of social media to promote passive
and responsible interactions among all students. In my opinion, I believe that friendships and
relationships among American students are affected detrimentally by social media usage.
Interactions on social networks can create dysfunction and drama among friends, which has the
ability to greatly harm a students friendships and self-concept. Through my observations of my
classmates at my high school, I have personally viewed relationships among my peers that have
failed due to negative interactions on social media. Simple acts on social networking sites, such
as liking posts of others on Instagram or sending pictures to a friend on Snapchat, have created
forms of tension between my classmates and ended certain friendships as a result. These
ironically trivial actions on social media outlets can terminate the established trust and respect of
friendships, which diminishes the ideas of positivity that have been established among the
supporters of social networking usage. Prevention of constructive interactions among American
students due to social media usage can also be viewed in the connection and correlation between
social networking sites and cyberbullying. Acts of bullying in areas outside of school settings
have increased due to the accessible opportunities for students to engage in social networks
(Fodeman 92). Cyberbullying has been proven to be a major result from social media usage and
has inevitably led to harmful effects on students happiness and confidence. The current extent
of cyberbullying among students on social networks has been revealed in a study from
ProCon.org, which shows that 49.5% of students [have] reported being the victims of bullying
online. Acts of suicide have also been reported due to involvement on social media, including
the notable cases of Phoebe Prince and Tyler Clementi in 2010 (Fodeman 106). These cases,
along with others, have raised awareness among citizens across the nation about the possibilities
of depression and suicide that can occur as a result of social media usage among American

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teenagers. The detrimental effects of cyberbullying continue to be evident among students in the
secondary levels of compulsory education as another study from ProCon.org reveals that
Middle school children who [are] victims of cyberbullying [are] almost twice as likely to
attempt suicide. This statistic shows the inflicting and harmful influences that social media
usage can have on many children in middle school, but these influences also occur among
students in elementary school and in the upper levels of compulsory education. The act of
cyberbullying has the potential to grow increasingly due to the rapid growth of social
networking, which can prove harmful to students as they develop their confidence and selfconcepts (Fodeman 92). Participation on social media demonstrates a decline in the stability of
interpersonal relationships and serves as sources of bullying and negative behavior among
American adolescents.
While social media sites allow their users to find out more information about their peers
and discover new job opportunities, I believe that social networks obstruct these acts for
American students as these sites disregard their guarantee for user safety and allow others to
invade personal rights to privacy. Advocates of social networking usage value the idea that
social media sites are efficient ways to discover information about others and search for job
opportunities. This idea is especially relevant to college students as they desire to learn more
about their peers and discover information about future job offers after graduation. Social
networking sites, like Facebook and LinkedIn, provide these college students and other
adolescents with opportunities to present information about themselves to the public and learn
readily accessible information about their classmates and job opportunities in return. The idea
that this information is so accessible to other students and members of the public ultimately leads
to its limits on a students individual rights to privacy. Students who participate on social

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networking sites often do not realize the extent to which their material is not private and can be
accessed by others. Although privacy settings that block designated information do exist on
social networking websites, these settings are updated constantly and changed to the students
obliviousness. As a result, students on social media can have their personal information shared
to the public without the students knowledge. The unreliability of the changing privacy policies
on social networking sites is supported in Safe Practices For Life Online: A Guide For Middle
And High School as Fodeman and Monroe present the notion that virtually nothing is private
online, not even student password-protected social networking pages (156). The constantly
revising privacy policies on social networks are not the only threats to students privacy on social
media. Internet hackers utilize social networks in a variety of illegal ways in order to uncover
information about students that is supposed to be private. These actions of Internet hackers can
be detrimental for student users as personal information, including credit card information, can
be uncovered by the methods of hackers. The lives and futures of adolescents in the nation are
also at risk due to the actions of college admissions workers and employers. The fact that
college admissions officers and human resource workers search for students profiles on social
media sites threatens the future opportunities of these students as these adolescents subject
themselves to the disclosure of personal information and the potential denial of admission to
college or employment to a job. The unreliability of privacy standards on social networking sites
causes significant risks to a students safety and confidentiality.
Although the usage of social networking sites offers simpler and reasonable methods for
American students to communicate with one another, I trust that social media promotes
inclinations to avoid physical forms of contact among American adolescents and leads to
artificial forms of conversation. Supporters of social networking usage for students think that

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social media fosters the development of interpersonal relationships among individual students as
its many formats allow American students to connect with one another. These advocates value
the convenience of social media and express their belief that Social networking gives
individuals the power to be heard (Nakaya 14). This view does have truth in it as social
networking provides many forms in which students can discuss their beliefs and converse with
their peers. In addition, social networking sites serve as these sources of communication to
American youth and allow these students to interact with one another directly without being with
one another in the same room or area. However, these supposed advantages of social networking
ironically represent one of the main obstacles of social media and exhibit the negative effects of
social networking on the interpersonal relationships of American students. The simple and
accessible aspects of communication on social networking sites have allowed students in the
modern age to rely on social networking sites for interaction with one another. In recent years,
educators have discovered that students who are users of social networks have a more difficult
time with interpersonal communications and establishing themselves as real-life individuals
(Arnett 16). Social networking sites have the unfortunate abilities of eliminating much of the
content in genuine conversations between students and diminishing the meaningfulness of their
interactions. Social media exempts the potentially positive moments of face-to-face
communication and provides students with outlets for trivial conversation, which has often been
described as more superficial because it has been edited (Nakaya 20). Access on social
networking sites provides students with opportunities to revise their comments before posting
them to the public, which promotes artificial and shorter responses among students on social
media. The prevalence of low self-esteem and anxiety in social situations has also increased
among many American students who rely mainly on social media for interactions with others.

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Many students develop this low confidence by examining the posts of their peers and comparing
their classmates social experiences to those of their own. Due to the expanding presence of
social networking, this possible risk to the social development and self-esteem of students
presents a threat to young children during their educations. Children who are in elementary
school and middle school are now becoming accustomed to the opportunities of social
networking that allow them to exempt face-to-face communication, which can influence their
confidence and maintenance of interpersonal relationships. These effects on younger children
have the potential to negatively influence interpersonal interactions in future years as some of
these children will continue to rely on social networking for communication and never [know] a
world without the Internet (Arnett 15). As a whole, social media constrains many student users
from developing social skills in public situations and viewing the opportunities and advantages
of face-to-face communication. Social networking usage reduces the abilities of students to
participate in physical contact with one another and obstructs the development of their
personalities and confidence in public social settings.
In conclusion, social networking sites produce negative opportunities and effects that are
harmful to American students and their successes in academics and interpersonal interactions.
Social media usage among adolescents in the nation has great potential to interfere with
academic capabilities and cause acts of harassment and bullying through the Internet.
Disadvantages to privacy and to the personal development of social characteristics among
American students are also presented from social networking usage. Continuing research on and
observations of the unfavorable effects of social media on American students has caused me to
ultimately question my maintenance of accounts on social media sites and rethink my
participation on these seemingly appropriate and trustworthy social networks.

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Works Cited
Arnett, Autumn A. "Insta-Student." Diverse: Issues In Higher Education 31.15 (2014): 15-17.
Academic Search Premier. Web. 4 Nov. 2014.
Dangers of Social Networking Video Clip Collection. Kicking Teens Facebook Addictions.
Films On Demand. Films Media Group, 2010. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. <http://digital.films.
com/PortalPlaylists.aspx?aid=3503&xtid=43505>.
Fodeman, Doug & Monroe, Marje. Safe Practices For Life Online: A Guide For Middle
And High School. Eugene, Or: International Society for Technology in Education, 2012.
eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 7 Nov. 2014.
Nakaya, Andrea C. Thinking Critically: Social Networking. San Diego: ReferencePoint
Press, Inc., 2014. Print.
ProCon.org. "Social Networking Pro.Con.org." ProCon.org. 23 Sep. 2014. Web. 7 Nov.
2014.