Jackson

Jenna Jackson
Sotirakopulos
English 2 H
18 November 2015
Benefits of Social Media
Social media has become an important part of our society and can be defined as tools that
allow people to create and share content in virtual communities. Its earliest origins begin with
social networking sites such as Classmates.com, founded in 1995. But, social networking hit its
stride with the launch of websites such as Friendster (2002), LinkedIn (2003), MySpace (2003)
and Facebook as a website for Harvard students only (2004) until it opened to the general public
(2006). Now, there are hundreds of social networking sites, some of the most notable being
Twitter (2006), Instagram (2010) and Snapchat (2011). Social media is an ever changing idea and
is widely popular. There are many uses of social media. It can be utilized as a business tool for
marketing, to communicate with people around the world, to find new information, to maintain
relationships and can be used as an outlet for ones thoughts. The benefits and detriments of
social media are hotly debated topics, with no clear conclusion on whether social media does
more harm or good. The main argument of the opposition is that social media creates a more
isolated society and that relationships are becoming more shallow. As an active user of social
media, I believe that social media is not a detriment to intelligence, actually causes more
meaningful friendships/communication and can be utilized as a healthy outlet for ones thoughts.
To understand the beneficial causes and effects of social media, one must understand the
demographics of Internet users and what they spend their time doing. PewResearchCenter
authors Duggan et al. conducted telephone surveys on the demographics of social media users in
2014. They found that 52% of online adults use multiple social media sites. 71% of online adults
use Facebook, 23% use Twitter, 26% use Instagram, 28% use Pinterest, and 28% use LinkedIn.

Jackson

Women are likely to use more social media outlets than men. Authors Hampton et al. also
conducted a report on social media usage through telephone interviews in 2010. They found that
internet users are more trusting than others. Internet users also get more social support than other
people. A daily Internet user generally scored 3 points higher in total support, 6 points higher in
companionship, and 4 points higher in instrumental support than their non-Internet using
counterparts. Facebook users are also more politically engaged than most people. Since these
findings are from 2010, one can assume that Twitter users are also more politically engaged, as
that social networking site has blown up in the last few years. Social networking sites also seem
to revive dormant relationships and are increasingly used to keep up with close social ties,
which I will discuss in further detail later.
One argument that researchers debate is the effects of social media on intelligence. Some
argue that text talk has negatively impacted millennials, leading to poor grammar and prose.
Andrea Lunsford, a professor at Stanford University, conducted a study on how students writing
has changed. She collected 877 freshman composition papers from 2006 and compared them to
papers from 1986, 1930 and 1917. She found that the number of errors had virtually not changed.
She found 2.11 errors per 100 words in 1917 to 2.26 errors in 2006. Furthermore, Lunsford
actually found a positive shift in papers from the last century. In 1917, a paper was on average
162 words long. In 2006, they were on average 1,038 words long! They were also more complex
and seemed to be more thoroughly researched. With the Internet and social media, students have
a wealth of information at their fingertips to assist them in their writing. Students are also
spending more time writing outside the classroom than ever before. This just may be for a tweet,
a status update, or an online forum but it still constitutes as writing. In these cases, their audience
is their peers, a responsive audience, which motivates them to write more compelling content.

Jackson

One of the main arguments against social media is that it is creating a more isolated
society, shallow relationships and is decreasing interpersonal skills. PewResearchCenter authors
Hampton et al. actually found that social networking site users have more friends and closer
relationships. Their research states that the average American has an overall network of 634
social ties. They then compared Internet users to non-users and found that the former has 669
social ties on average while the latter has 506. Furthermore, the average cell phone user has 664
and the average social networking user has 636 social ties, which are all higher than the base 634
number. The time spent on the Internet also seems to positively correlate to the size of their
network. A user with Internet access on their cell phone also tends to have a higher network.
What social networking sites cause users to have what types of friendships? Twitter and
LinkedIn users tend to have larger networks while Facebook users tend to have closer
connections. Hampton et al. utilizes this data to come to the conclusion that, [t]he average user
of a social networking site has more close ties and is half as likely to be socially isolated as the
average American (Hampton et al) Social networking users are utilizing these sites to maintain
contact with people who are important to them, not avoid face to face contact.
Researcher Zeynep Tufecki is a firm believer in the claim that social media has a positive
role in relationships and does not cause isolation. She has many published and unpublished
papers on this topic of social media and relationships. Tufecki focuses on two groups of people;
those who were already social and who are becoming even more social offline as a result of
offline connectivity, and those who have felt awkward offline and who are benefiting from online
socializing Tufecki believes that social media helps maintain close ties as people who are on
their devices are typically communicating with people who they care about, not just bots as some
researchers claim. She also looks at who acquires friends via social media with two different

Jackson

ideas, rich get richer vs seek and ye shall find. People who are social offline are more likely
to get more social benefit from online use. People who seek relationships online are more likely
to find them. Although Tufecki carries this belief, she also takes in account the other argument.
Tufecki has coined a concept she dubs, cyberasociality, which represents the possibility that
some segment of the population remains unable or unwilling to relate to others via social media
as they do when physically-present (Tufecki). People who are cyberasocial are actually at a
disadvantage as communicating via social media, texting, etc is becoming increasingly popular
and almost necessary in our society.
As an active user of social media with access to tens of thousands of followers, I carried
out my own research to prove that social media causes friendships and can be an outlet for ones
thoughts, focusing on teenagers. Utilizing SurveyMonkey, I created a survey which I then asked
my followers to take. I received 100 responses within minutes. 92 of respondents were females
while 8 were males. 36 of respondents were between the ages of 13-15, 59 between 16-18, 3
between 19-21, and 2 over 21. As expected, Twitter was the favorite site with 67 votes. I asked
respondents how many hours a day they spent using on social media on average, and the
majority was 5+ hours. Giving that information, one can conclude that the majority of
respondents were heavy Internet users. I then asked why they used social media. Common
responses included to connect with people from around the world, stay informed, express
feelings, keep in touch with friends and family and to curb boredom. 91 respondents made
friends through social media, 98 believe social media can be utilized as an outlet for expression,
and 60 turned to social media as an escape or distraction. All responses were collected on
November 14th, 2015.

Jackson

After distributing my survey on social media, I asked my followers to message me their

experiences with making friends online and how they utilize social media. I received 20+
responses. A common response I received was that a social media user connected with another
user over common interests and then an online friendship blossomed. Some may argue that these
online friendships may be shallow, but I would disagree. Many of my respondents told me that
they trust these friends more than their real life friends at times, they talk everyday and care for
each other deeply. Some are hundreds of thousands of miles apart and have even met their
Internet best friends in person. These respondents that have made friends through social media
also utilize it as an outlet for expression. Social media has given them a medium for their
thoughts, lets them be who they are and helps them feel less alone. The Twitter account I used to
gather these responses is @allcapspoetry, which can also be used for my research as people send
me their poems and I post them, offering an outlet for them to get their work out there as well as
relate to others, thus feeling less alone and bonding with those going through similar
experiences.
The debate on whether or not social media is more beneficial or detrimental is most likely
far from over. Many researchers argue that the Internet is a detriment to intelligence and
relationships. Researchers such as Lunsford, Hampton and Tufecki have all proven that these
statements are one sided and false. Utilizing their research and my own, one can conclude that
social media causes more sociality, rather than curbs it.

Jackson

Works Cited
Duggan, Maeve, Nicole B. Ellison, Cliff Lampe, Amanda Lenhart, and Mary Madden. "Social
Media Update 2014." Pew Research Center Internet Science Tech RSS. N.p., 09 Jan.
2015. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
Hampton, Keith , Lauren Sessions Goulet, Lee Rainie, and Kristen Purcell. "Social Networking
Sites and Our Lives." Pew Research Center Internet Science Tech RSS. N.p., 15 June
2011. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
"The History of Social Networking." Digital Trends. N.p., 04 Aug. 2014. Web. 01 Dec. 2015.
Jackson, Jenna. Social Media. Survey. 14 November 2015.
Lunsford, Andrea A., Jenn Fishman, and Warren M. Liew. "College Writing, Identification, and
the Production of Intellectual Property: Voices from the Stanford Study of
Writing." College English 75 (2013): n. pag. Web.
Thompson, Clive. "The Dumbest Generation? No, Twitter Is Making Kids Smarter." The Globe
and Mail. N.p., 13 Sept. 2013. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.
Tufekci, Zeynep. "Cyberasociality and the Online Sociality Divide: Third Level Digital Divide?"
(n.d.): n. pag. Web.<http://technosociology.org/wpcontent/uploads/2012/04/cyberasocialzeynep-asa-2011.pdf>.
Tufekci, Zeynep. "Social Media's Small, Positive Role in Human Relationships." The Atlantic.
Atlantic Media Company, 25 Apr. 2012. Web. 29 Oct. 2015.
Tufekci, Zeynep. "Who Acquires Friends Hrough Social Media and Why? "Rich Get Richer"
versus "Seek and Ye Shall Find"" N.p., n.d. Web.
<http://www.aaai.org/ocs/index.php/ICWSM/ICWSM10/paper/viewFile/1525/1850>.

Jackson