essay on social media news

How and why do consumers access news on social media?

Social media have played an important role in how many people access the news over the past decade. The networks people use and the way in which social networks showcase news have, however, changed considerably during that time, as existing platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube evolved both in terms of how they work and who uses them, and newer networks such as Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok have grown in importance.

In this chapter, we aim to cast light on the ever-changing news environment on social media by setting out the differences between networks and what social media news users say their motivation is for accessing news on these platforms, and who they say they pay the most attention to. Our analysis relies on both our survey and data from our focus groups, and concentrates on the six largest open social networks measured in terms of weekly use across all 46 markets: Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok. Of these, we pay particular attention to newer platforms with a younger user base – Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat – as much less is known about news usage on these networks.

As is clear from the next table, while well over half of Facebook and Twitter users say they have come across news on these platforms in the past week, for other social media, less than half of users say they have come across news on the platform (and much of this is incidental, the result of seeing news while on a platform for other purposes). In the rest of this chapter, we focus on social media news users specifically, but it is important to keep in mind that this is a subset of all users, and on four of the six platforms we focus on, a minority of regular users.

Motivations for news usage on social networks

In previous reports, we have shown how social networks operate in different ways and address diverse audiences. This year, we also asked social media news users why they use these networks for news. Those who say they not only use a particular platform, but also have used it in the last week to find, read, watch, share, or discuss news, were presented with six options and could pick one that represented their main motivation. 1 These options can by no means capture every choice available on social networks, but reflect some of the most common motivations.

As we wrote in the Executive Summary and see in previous research, while Facebook is far more widely named as a network where people come across news, our data show it is typically not a platform where news consumers intentionally go to access the news (as others have found too, e.g. Boczkowski et al. 2018). Across countries, many of those who use the platform for news say they pick up information incidentally. Twitter, in contrast, is often seen much more as a primary destination for news, while YouTube and other networks such as Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok are valued more for entertainment and fun – as well as for some news.

The UK is a good example of how these factors play out across the three largest networks. It is important to keep in mind that the figures in the next chart describe the percentage of news users on that network that say each is their main motivation for using it for news.

Although 21% of people who use Twitter for news say they do so because it’s ‘a good place to access the latest news’, the fact that only a small minority actually use Twitter for news in the first place means this equates to just 3% of the UK population. In contrast to Twitter, where news looms large among many users, YouTube is a platform where some find alternative perspectives (26% of YouTube news users), while others use it as a fun and entertaining place (15%). Social media news users on Facebook in the UK mostly see news while on the platform for other reasons (56%), though debating and commenting is often part of the news experience.

These patterns are typical of many other Western countries, including the United States. Though less popular than Facebook overall, Twitter is widely used by journalists and politicians and is where the news gets broken first – attracting others with a strong interest in the news, as is clear from our focus groups:

But we see slightly different patterns elsewhere. In much of Latin America and Asia, many more Facebook users say they get news while on the platform, even though much usage remains incidental:

In Malaysia, our data show Facebook is more of a news destination (22% of those who use Facebook for news say they get the latest news) and has a smaller proportion of news users who say they mainly see news incidentally than in the UK. Twitter, while being used by a smaller proportion of people overall, is valued most for the latest news and especially for debate.

What sources of news do people pay attention to on social media?

Social media feeds are full of information and opinions shared by ordinary people, advertisers, as well as posts from activist groups, politicians, and news media that a user follows (or the platform recommends). But who do different audience groups pay attention to across networks? Once again, we presented respondents with a range of options and asked them to say where they placed most attention when it came to news.

Taking the United States as an example, we find that, on both Facebook and Twitter, the largest proportion of social media news users say they are most likely to pay attention to mainstream media and journalists. However, many users also appreciate the alternative perspectives that they find there:

Among social media news users, attention on YouTube tends to be evenly split between a range of sources of news and entertainment, including celebrities, politicians, and ordinary people.

We see these patterns on news sources across most markets, with many social media news users saying they pay the most attention to mainstream media on both Facebook and Twitter. But even here, news brands and journalists have to compete with a range of voices that can often be more engaging and strident.

For instance, politicians and political activists, who often use social media to bypass mainstream media, receive a significant share of news attention on social networks like Twitter. A quarter (26%) of those who use Twitter for news in the US – where the suspension of former president Donald Trump has initiated a debate about private companies’ content moderation practices – say they pay most attention to politicians when looking at news on the network.

Elsewhere, alternative voices play an even bigger role. In India, for example, personalities (such as celebrities and influencers) attract most attention amongst social media news users across all four big networks. Facebook users say they pay as much attention to ordinary people as they do to journalists or news organisations when accessing news. And those using Twitter say they pay almost as much attention to politicians as they do journalists or news organisations.

Finally, we find that, in general, those who trust the news less are more likely to seek out alternative sources and less likely to say they pay attention to mainstream news outlets. This is particularly the case on YouTube in the United States where many partisan and alternative views have found a home. Those with lower trust are five times more likely to say they pay attention to alternative sources:

Youth-based networks and the role of influencers

Over the past few years, the Digital News Report has documented how younger users have adopted more visually based social networks like Instagram, Snapchat, and now TikTok – often while also using older networks.

Though the key motivation for users of these networks is fun and entertainment, serious news topics such as mental health, climate change, COVID-19, and Black Lives Matter have been widely discussed in the last year.

These networks have also been used for political protests in countries like Peru and Indonesia. But when it comes to news, our research shows that many of the conversations are not framed by journalists but rather by ‘personalities’ or ordinary people.

Who are these ‘personalities’ that people pay attention to on social media? The definition used in our survey is rather broad, combining celebrities, such as actors and musicians, with social media influencers and reality stars.

Our open-ended responses suggest that much of the news circulating on Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok is related to subjects like health, fashion, and sexuality as opposed to more ‘traditional’ topics, such as politics or economics. Influencers often have strong opinions on these topics and frequently criticise the media for their perceived unfair treatment of women or LGBTQ individuals.

Setting out facts clearly and accurately is not what these networks do. Indeed, in addition to all the other things they do, influencers and celebrities on social media have been found to be among the key distributors of misinformation about vaccines or the link with 5G networks. 2 Could journalists and news organisations play a more prominent role on these networks and provide more credible information? Some media organisations have already ventured into this arena. The Guardian , for example, produces the ‘Fake or for Real?’ segment on Instagram, where a young journalist goes over the week's claims using the platform’s quiz feature. Strong opinions or a more comedic approach to news may not come naturally to many journalists steeped in traditions of objectivity and impartiality. Still several journalists have experimented with a different tone. The Washington Post ’s ‘TikTok guy’ Dave Jorgenson, for example, creates regular amusing spoofs linked to the news. These examples focus on creating authentic content for a particular demographic using visual content designed to work on a mobile phone.

The success of these experiments, however, depends on the target audience, the network culture, and the algorithmic features of the social network (and sometimes they do not have any clear, direct form of monetisation). For instance, some networks, such as Snapchat, have a separate space for news. But on Instagram and TikTok, news stories blend in with videos and images that other users share. Given that the algorithms are mainly driven by popularity and relevance, content needs to be highly engaging to reach a wide audience. This is perhaps even more important for newsrooms who are actively using – or are planning to use – TikTok, where users spend the most time ‘flopping’ through hundreds of videos on the ‘For You’ page.

In this chapter, we have provided evidence of the differences between the main social networks in terms of social media news users’ motivations and who they pay the most attention to. Platform characteristics mostly play out in similar ways across countries, but the political and social context can make a significant difference. For instance, a social network that is incidentally used for news in Western countries might be a key news destination in countries in the Global South.

For every social network other than Facebook and Twitter, it is a minority of users who say they get news while using the platform in question, and even among the social media news users we focus on in this chapter, the centrality of getting the latest news as a motivation varies (and a desire for entertainment as well as incidental exposure looms large). While our data show that mainstream media capture some attention, even around news, and among social media news users, other voices play a larger role. This is particularly clear on newer networks, among younger people, and among those with lower levels of trust in news, who often seek out alternative perspectives in social media that they believe mainstream media are ignoring.

Social media are a complex space for mainstream media organisations to navigate. They have to share this space with a range of other content creators who do not have the same editorial principles and values. But given the time that people spend on social networks – and the dangers of false information and political propaganda – it still seems important that journalists and news organisations find ways to adapt to these more informal spaces, especially if they want to engage people with low interest in news and young people (groups that rarely go directly to news sites or apps), and especially if social media can convince publishers that the platform in question delivers a reasonable return on investment.

The tone and the formats that young people and others use, especially on newer networks, does not always come naturally to journalists. But the focus on fun and entertainment does not necessarily mean that young people are unwilling to talk about ‘serious’ issues on these platforms. On the contrary, from climate change to Black Lives Matter, many young people use their creativity to raise awareness about the issues that concern them, and celebrities and influencers who mostly focus on entertainment and similar issues sometimes play a key role in these discussions – at best, raising awareness and speaking out on important issues, at worst, spreading false or misleading information.

News organisations have started to recognise the importance of engaging in these spaces. In some cases, these efforts involve adapting existing content using new formats, but in others it may require an entirely new approach involving bespoke content, a diverse agenda and more editorial freedom assigned to younger journalists. The continued growth of the youth-orientated networks makes this work more vital than ever, even as the business side is rarely clear.

1 Respondents first answered a question on which social networks they use for news. Then, for one randomly selected social network they answered two questions on motivations for using it for news and news sources they pay attention to.

2 Ahmadi, A., Chan, F. ‘Online Influencers have Become Powerful Vectors in Promoting False Information and Conspiracy Theories’, 8 Dec. 2020. https://firstdraftnews.org/latest/influencers-vectors-misinformation/

• Fairness in news coverage
• Impartiality unpacked
• Local news unbundled
• Financing the news media
• Social media for news
• Country and market data
• Methodology
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121 Social Media Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

Inside This Article

Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives, shaping how we communicate, share information, and interact with others. With the rise of platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok, the way we connect with one another has evolved drastically. As a result, social media has also become a popular topic for essays and research papers. If you're looking for inspiration for your next social media essay, here are 121 topic ideas and examples to get you started.

• The impact of social media on mental health
• The role of social media in politics
• The influence of social media on body image
• How social media has changed the way we communicate
• The rise of influencer culture on social media
• The effects of cyberbullying on social media
• The role of social media in promoting activism and social justice
• How social media has changed the way we consume news
• The relationship between social media and self-esteem
• The impact of social media on relationships
• The role of social media in shaping cultural trends
• The effects of social media on sleep patterns
• The influence of social media on consumer behavior
• The rise of fake news on social media
• The role of social media in education
• The impact of social media on democracy
• The effects of social media on creativity
• The relationship between social media and mental health stigma
• The role of social media in shaping political opinions
• The influence of social media on young people's perceptions of beauty
• The effects of social media on privacy
• The impact of social media on social skills
• The role of social media in promoting diversity and inclusion
• The relationship between social media and loneliness
• The effects of social media on body positivity movements
• The influence of social media on fashion trends
• The rise of social media activism
• The impact of social media on youth culture
• The role of social media in shaping public opinion
• The effects of social media on political polarization
• The relationship between social media and fake news
• The influence of social media on online shopping habits
• The impact of social media on mental health awareness
• The role of social media in promoting environmental activism
• The effects of social media on self-expression
• The relationship between social media and cyberbullying prevention
• The influence of social media on body positivity movements
• The rise of social media influencers
• The impact of social media on political activism
• The role of social media in promoting mental health resources
• The effects of social media on political discourse
• The relationship between social media and online dating
• The influence of social media on travel trends
• The impact of social media on public health campaigns
• The role of social media in promoting positive body image
• The effects of social media on political engagement
• The relationship between social media and social movements
• The influence of social media on celebrity culture
• The rise of social media marketing
• The impact of social media on community building
• The role of social media in promoting mental health awareness
• The effects of social media on societal norms
• The relationship between social media and political propaganda
• The influence of social media on youth activism
• The impact of social media on mental health stigma
• The role of social media in shaping online communities
• The effects of social media on body image perception
• The relationship between social media and mental health advocacy
• The influence of social media on political mobilization
• The rise of social media influencers in the beauty industry
• The impact of social media on political polarization
• The role of social media in promoting environmental sustainability
• The effects of social media on self-esteem
• The relationship between social media and online shopping habits
• The influence of social media on celebrity endorsements
• The rise of social media activism in response to social injustices
• The impact of social media on mental health treatment
• The role of social media in promoting healthy living
• The effects of social media on political campaigns
• The relationship between social media and online activism
• The influence of social media on travel influencers
• The impact of social media on mental health education
• The role of social media in promoting body positivity
• The effects of social media on political participation
• The relationship between social media and body image issues
• The influence of social media on online shopping trends
• The rise of social media influencers in the fitness industry
• The impact of social media on political discourse
• The effects of social media on societal values
• The relationship between social media and political polarization
• The influence of social media on youth engagement
• The rise of social media activism in response to climate change
• The relationship between social media and social justice movements
• The rise of social media marketing in the beauty industry

These are just a few examples of the countless topics you can explore when writing about social media. Whether you're interested in the psychological effects of social media or the ways it has impacted political discourse, there's no shortage of ideas to choose from. So, pick a topic that interests you and start writing your next social media essay today!

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Essay on Social Media for School Students and Children

500+ words essay on social media.

Social media is a tool that is becoming quite popular these days because of its user-friendly features. Social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and more are giving people a chance to connect with each other across distances. In other words, the whole world is at our fingertips all thanks to social media. The youth is especially one of the most dominant users of social media. All this makes you wonder that something so powerful and with such a massive reach cannot be all good. Like how there are always two sides to a coin, the same goes for social media. Subsequently, different people have different opinions on this debatable topic. So, in this essay on Social Media, we will see the advantages and disadvantages of social media.

Advantages of Social Media

When we look at the positive aspect of social media, we find numerous advantages. The most important being a great device for education . All the information one requires is just a click away. Students can educate themselves on various topics using social media.

Moreover, live lectures are now possible because of social media. You can attend a lecture happening in America while sitting in India.

Furthermore, as more and more people are distancing themselves from newspapers, they are depending on social media for news. You are always updated on the latest happenings of the world through it. A person becomes more socially aware of the issues of the world.

In addition, it strengthens bonds with your loved ones. Distance is not a barrier anymore because of social media. For instance, you can easily communicate with your friends and relatives overseas.

Most importantly, it also provides a great platform for young budding artists to showcase their talent for free. You can get great opportunities for employment through social media too.

Another advantage definitely benefits companies who wish to promote their brands. Social media has become a hub for advertising and offers you great opportunities for connecting with the customer.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Disadvantages of Social Media

Despite having such unique advantages, social media is considered to be one of the most harmful elements of society. If the use of social media is not monitored, it can lead to grave consequences.

Thus, the sharing on social media especially by children must be monitored at all times. Next up is the addition of social media which is quite common amongst the youth.

This addiction hampers with the academic performance of a student as they waste their time on social media instead of studying. Social media also creates communal rifts. Fake news is spread with the use of it, which poisons the mind of peace-loving citizens.

In short, surely social media has both advantages and disadvantages. But, it all depends on the user at the end. The youth must particularly create a balance between their academic performances, physical activities, and social media. Excess use of anything is harmful and the same thing applies to social media. Therefore, we must strive to live a satisfying life with the right balance.

FAQs on Social Media

Q.1 Is social media beneficial? If yes, then how?

A.1 Social media is quite beneficial. Social Media offers information, news, educational material, a platform for talented youth and brands.

Q.2 What is a disadvantage of Social Media?

A.2 Social media invades your privacy. It makes you addicted and causes health problems. It also results in cyberbullying and scams as well as communal hatred.

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Feb 15, 2023

6 Example Essays on Social Media | Advantages, Effects, and Outlines

Got an essay assignment about the effects of social media we got you covered check out our examples and outlines below.

Social media has become one of our society's most prominent ways of communication and information sharing in a very short time. It has changed how we communicate and has given us a platform to express our views and opinions and connect with others. It keeps us informed about the world around us. Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn have brought individuals from all over the world together, breaking down geographical borders and fostering a genuinely global community.

However, social media comes with its difficulties. With the rise of misinformation, cyberbullying, and privacy problems, it's critical to utilize these platforms properly and be aware of the risks. Students in the academic world are frequently assigned essays about the impact of social media on numerous elements of our lives, such as relationships, politics, and culture. These essays necessitate a thorough comprehension of the subject matter, critical thinking, and the ability to synthesize and convey information clearly and succinctly.

But where do you begin? It can be challenging to know where to start with so much information available. Jenni.ai comes in handy here. Jenni.ai is an AI application built exclusively for students to help them write essays more quickly and easily. Jenni.ai provides students with inspiration and assistance on how to approach their essays with its enormous database of sample essays on a variety of themes, including social media. Jenni.ai is the solution you've been looking for if you're experiencing writer's block or need assistance getting started.

So, whether you're a student looking to better your essay writing skills or want to remain up to date on the latest social media advancements, Jenni.ai is here to help. Jenni.ai is the ideal tool for helping you write your finest essay ever, thanks to its simple design, an extensive database of example essays, and cutting-edge AI technology. So, why delay? Sign up for a free trial of Jenni.ai today and begin exploring the worlds of social networking and essay writing!

Want to learn how to write an argumentative essay? Check out these inspiring examples!

We will provide various examples of social media essays so you may get a feel for the genre.

6 Examples of Social Media Essays

Here are 6 examples of Social Media Essays:

The Impact of Social Media on Relationships and Communication

Introduction:.

The way we share information and build relationships has evolved as a direct result of the prevalence of social media in our daily lives. The influence of social media on interpersonal connections and conversation is a hot topic. Although social media has many positive effects, such as bringing people together regardless of physical proximity and making communication quicker and more accessible, it also has a dark side that can affect interpersonal connections and dialogue.

Positive Effects:

Connecting People Across Distances

One of social media's most significant benefits is its ability to connect individuals across long distances. People can use social media platforms to interact and stay in touch with friends and family far away. People can now maintain intimate relationships with those they care about, even when physically separated.

Improved Communication Speed and Efficiency

Additionally, the proliferation of social media sites has accelerated and simplified communication. Thanks to instant messaging, users can have short, timely conversations rather than lengthy ones via email. Furthermore, social media facilitates group communication, such as with classmates or employees, by providing a unified forum for such activities.

Negative Effects:

Decreased Face-to-Face Communication

The decline in in-person interaction is one of social media's most pernicious consequences on interpersonal connections and dialogue. People's reliance on digital communication over in-person contact has increased along with the popularity of social media. Face-to-face interaction has suffered as a result, which has adverse effects on interpersonal relationships and the development of social skills.

Decreased Emotional Intimacy

Another adverse effect of social media on relationships and communication is decreased emotional intimacy. Digital communication lacks the nonverbal cues and facial expressions critical in building emotional connections with others. This can make it more difficult for people to develop close and meaningful relationships, leading to increased loneliness and isolation.

Increased Conflict and Miscommunication

Finally, social media can also lead to increased conflict and miscommunication. The anonymity and distance provided by digital communication can lead to misunderstandings and hurtful comments that might not have been made face-to-face. Additionally, social media can provide a platform for cyberbullying , which can have severe consequences for the victim's mental health and well-being.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, the impact of social media on relationships and communication is a complex issue with both positive and negative effects. While social media platforms offer many benefits, such as connecting people across distances and enabling faster and more accessible communication, they also have a dark side that can negatively affect relationships and communication. It is up to individuals to use social media responsibly and to prioritize in-person communication in their relationships and interactions with others.

The Role of Social Media in the Spread of Misinformation and Fake News

Social media has revolutionized the way information is shared and disseminated. However, the ease and speed at which data can be spread on social media also make it a powerful tool for spreading misinformation and fake news. Misinformation and fake news can seriously affect public opinion, influence political decisions, and even cause harm to individuals and communities.

The Pervasiveness of Misinformation and Fake News on Social Media

Misinformation and fake news are prevalent on social media platforms, where they can spread quickly and reach a large audience. This is partly due to the way social media algorithms work, which prioritizes content likely to generate engagement, such as sensational or controversial stories. As a result, false information can spread rapidly and be widely shared before it is fact-checked or debunked.

The Influence of Social Media on Public Opinion

Social media can significantly impact public opinion, as people are likelier to believe the information they see shared by their friends and followers. This can lead to a self-reinforcing cycle, where misinformation and fake news are spread and reinforced, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.

The Challenge of Correcting Misinformation and Fake News

Correcting misinformation and fake news on social media can be a challenging task. This is partly due to the speed at which false information can spread and the difficulty of reaching the same audience exposed to the wrong information in the first place. Additionally, some individuals may be resistant to accepting correction, primarily if the incorrect information supports their beliefs or biases.

In conclusion, the function of social media in disseminating misinformation and fake news is complex and urgent. While social media has revolutionized the sharing of information, it has also made it simpler for false information to propagate and be widely believed. Individuals must be accountable for the information they share and consume, and social media firms must take measures to prevent the spread of disinformation and fake news on their platforms.

The Effects of Social Media on Mental Health and Well-Being

Social media has become an integral part of modern life, with billions of people around the world using platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to stay connected with others and access information. However, while social media has many benefits, it can also negatively affect mental health and well-being.

Comparison and Low Self-Esteem

One of the key ways that social media can affect mental health is by promoting feelings of comparison and low self-esteem. People often present a curated version of their lives on social media, highlighting their successes and hiding their struggles. This can lead others to compare themselves unfavorably, leading to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem.

Cyberbullying and Online Harassment

Another way that social media can negatively impact mental health is through cyberbullying and online harassment. Social media provides a platform for anonymous individuals to harass and abuse others, leading to feelings of anxiety, fear, and depression.

Social Isolation

Despite its name, social media can also contribute to feelings of isolation. At the same time, people may have many online friends but need more meaningful in-person connections and support. This can lead to feelings of loneliness and depression.

Addiction and Overuse

Finally, social media can be addictive, leading to overuse and negatively impacting mental health and well-being. People may spend hours each day scrolling through their feeds, neglecting other important areas of their lives, such as work, family, and self-care.

In sum, social media has positive and negative consequences on one's psychological and emotional well-being. Realizing this, and taking measures like reducing one's social media use, reaching out to loved ones for help, and prioritizing one's well-being, are crucial. In addition, it's vital that social media giants take ownership of their platforms and actively encourage excellent mental health and well-being.

The Use of Social Media in Political Activism and Social Movements

Social media has recently become increasingly crucial in political action and social movements. Platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have given people new ways to express themselves, organize protests, and raise awareness about social and political issues.

Raising Awareness and Mobilizing Action

One of the most important uses of social media in political activity and social movements has been to raise awareness about important issues and mobilize action. Hashtags such as #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, for example, have brought attention to sexual harassment and racial injustice, respectively. Similarly, social media has been used to organize protests and other political actions, allowing people to band together and express themselves on a bigger scale.

Connecting with like-minded individuals

A second method in that social media has been utilized in political activity and social movements is to unite like-minded individuals. Through social media, individuals can join online groups, share knowledge and resources, and work with others to accomplish shared objectives. This has been especially significant for geographically scattered individuals or those without access to traditional means of political organizing.

Challenges and Limitations

As a vehicle for political action and social movements, social media has faced many obstacles and restrictions despite its many advantages. For instance, the propagation of misinformation and fake news on social media can impede attempts to disseminate accurate and reliable information. In addition, social media corporations have been condemned for censorship and insufficient protection of user rights.

In conclusion, social media has emerged as a potent instrument for political activism and social movements, giving voice to previously unheard communities and galvanizing support for change. Social media presents many opportunities for communication and collaboration. Still, users and institutions must be conscious of the risks and limitations of these tools to promote their responsible and productive usage.

The Potential Privacy Concerns Raised by Social Media Use and Data Collection Practices

With billions of users each day on sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, social media has ingrained itself into every aspect of our lives. While these platforms offer a straightforward method to communicate with others and exchange information, they also raise significant concerns over data collecting and privacy. This article will examine the possible privacy issues posed by social media use and data-gathering techniques.

Data Collection and Sharing

The gathering and sharing of personal data are significant privacy issues brought up by social media use. Social networking sites gather user data, including details about their relationships, hobbies, and routines. This information is made available to third-party businesses for various uses, such as marketing and advertising. This can lead to serious concerns about who has access to and uses our personal information.

Lack of Control Over Personal Information

The absence of user control over personal information is a significant privacy issue brought up by social media usage. Social media makes it challenging to limit who has access to and how data is utilized once it has been posted. Sensitive information may end up being extensively disseminated and may be used maliciously as a result.

Personalized Marketing

Social media companies utilize the information they gather about users to target them with adverts relevant to their interests and usage patterns. Although this could be useful, it might also cause consumers to worry about their privacy since they might feel that their personal information is being used without their permission. Furthermore, there are issues with the integrity of the data being used to target users and the possibility of prejudice based on individual traits.

Government Surveillance

Using social media might spark worries about government surveillance. There are significant concerns regarding privacy and free expression when governments in some nations utilize social media platforms to follow and monitor residents.

In conclusion, social media use raises significant concerns regarding data collecting and privacy. While these platforms make it easy to interact with people and exchange information, they also gather a lot of personal information, which raises questions about who may access it and how it will be used. Users should be aware of these privacy issues and take precautions to safeguard their personal information, such as exercising caution when choosing what details to disclose on social media and keeping their information sharing with other firms to a minimum.

The Ethical and Privacy Concerns Surrounding Social Media Use And Data Collection

Our use of social media to communicate with loved ones, acquire information, and even conduct business has become a crucial part of our everyday lives. The extensive use of social media does, however, raise some ethical and privacy issues that must be resolved. The influence of social media use and data collecting on user rights, the accountability of social media businesses, and the need for improved regulation are all topics that will be covered in this article.

Effect on Individual Privacy:

Social networking sites gather tons of personal data from their users, including delicate information like search history, location data, and even health data. Each user's detailed profile may be created with this data and sold to advertising or used for other reasons. Concerns regarding the privacy of personal information might arise because social media businesses can use this data to target users with customized adverts.

Additionally, individuals might need to know how much their personal information is being gathered and exploited. Data breaches or the unauthorized sharing of personal information with other parties may result in instances where sensitive information is exposed. Users should be aware of the privacy rules of social media firms and take precautions to secure their data.

Responsibility of Social Media Companies:

Social media firms should ensure that they responsibly and ethically gather and use user information. This entails establishing strong security measures to safeguard sensitive information and ensuring users are informed of what information is being collected and how it is used.

Many social media businesses, nevertheless, have come under fire for not upholding these obligations. For instance, the Cambridge Analytica incident highlighted how Facebook users' personal information was exploited for political objectives without their knowledge. This demonstrates the necessity of social media corporations being held responsible for their deeds and ensuring that they are safeguarding the security and privacy of their users.

Better Regulation Is Needed

There is a need for tighter regulation in this field, given the effect, social media has on individual privacy as well as the obligations of social media firms. The creation of laws and regulations that ensure social media companies are gathering and using user information ethically and responsibly, as well as making sure users are aware of their rights and have the ability to control the information that is being collected about them, are all part of this.

Additionally, legislation should ensure that social media businesses are held responsible for their behavior, for example, by levying fines for data breaches or the unauthorized use of personal data. This will provide social media businesses with a significant incentive to prioritize their users' privacy and security and ensure they are upholding their obligations.

In conclusion, social media has fundamentally changed how we engage and communicate with one another, but this increased convenience also raises several ethical and privacy issues. Essential concerns that need to be addressed include the effect of social media on individual privacy, the accountability of social media businesses, and the requirement for greater regulation to safeguard user rights. We can make everyone's online experience safer and more secure by looking more closely at these issues.

In conclusion, social media is a complex and multifaceted topic that has recently captured the world's attention. With its ever-growing influence on our lives, it's no surprise that it has become a popular subject for students to explore in their writing. Whether you are writing an argumentative essay on the impact of social media on privacy, a persuasive essay on the role of social media in politics, or a descriptive essay on the changes social media has brought to the way we communicate, there are countless angles to approach this subject.

However, writing a comprehensive and well-researched essay on social media can be daunting. It requires a thorough understanding of the topic and the ability to articulate your ideas clearly and concisely. This is where Jenni.ai comes in. Our AI-powered tool is designed to help students like you save time and energy and focus on what truly matters - your education. With Jenni.ai , you'll have access to a wealth of examples and receive personalized writing suggestions and feedback.

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How social media has changed how we consume news.

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How we consume news from social media photo credit: Getty

It’s the age of “fake news” and gone are the days of waiting for the morning news for breaking stories or reading gossip magazines for the latest celebrity dirt. We now have all the information we need at the touch of an app and most people now get their news information online, specifically from social media.

Social media has become the main source of news online with more than 2.4 billion internet users , nearly 64.5 percent receive breaking news from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat and Instagram instead of traditional media.

people who get social media news

In a recent survey, 50 percent of Internet users surveyed said that they hear about the latest news via social media before ever hearing about it on a news station. Many internet users will see the breaking stories on their feed and go to the news sites to learn more. The survey found 57 percent increase in traffic to news sites referred from social media.

However, there has been a decrease in how much of an article that people read. Most people will just scroll through their newsfeed and stumble upon relevant news content but just read the headlines or a short video clip of the piece. An average visitor will only read an article for 15 seconds or less and the average video watch time online is 10 seconds .

However, social platforms have a control over what news and information we see. Our social media friends have become the “managing editors” deciding what we see. An article needs to be "liked" and shared multiple times before many people see it in their feed. Therefore social media and your social friends have control over what news pieces you see and what you do not. There are also many "fake news" websites that compete for attention with sensational headlines and ridiculous storylines that tend to get shared more often due to the lack of readers fact checking or reading more than the headline. That means that authentic content is hard to come by now. In fact, fake news is actually more likely to spread than the truth.

“Falsehood diffused significantly farther, faster, deeper, and more broadly than the truth in all categories of information, and the effects were more pronounced for false political news than for false news about terrorism, natural disasters, science, urban legends, or financial information,” the team, led by Sinan Aral of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,  wrote in the journal Science.

Also, timely and sensational news does better like Buzzfeed who has 17.2 million subscribers. Content needs to be shareable and likable so often times it is overly exaggerated for social. Brands can pay more to appear in news feeds and get noticed. While syndication is nothing new, it is more prevalent in social media with so much information allowed to be given at once and 24/7.

News happens fast now. Today’s story will be tomorrow’s forgotten story. It is easy to miss things now because of how quick stories can get turned around and shared. While having so much information at our fingertips is great, it is worth always checking sources and not taking headlines as truth. With social media as our new news managers, it is up to us to be the new fact checkers for media.

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Why social media has changed the world — and how to fix it

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Are you on social media a lot? When is the last time you checked Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram? Last night? Before breakfast? Five minutes ago?

If so, you are not alone — which is the point, of course. Humans are highly social creatures. Our brains have become wired to process social information, and we usually feel better when we are connected. Social media taps into this tendency.

“Human brains have essentially evolved because of sociality more than any other thing,” says Sinan Aral, an MIT professor and expert in information technology and marketing. “When you develop a population-scale technology that delivers social signals to the tune of trillions per day in real-time, the rise of social media isn’t unexpected. It’s like tossing a lit match into a pool of gasoline.”

The numbers make this clear. In 2005, about 7 percent of American adults used social media. But by 2017, 80 percent of American adults used Facebook alone. About 3.5 billion people on the planet, out of 7.7 billion, are active social media participants. Globally, during a typical day, people post 500 million tweets, share over 10 billion pieces of Facebook content, and watch over a billion hours of YouTube video.

As social media platforms have grown, though, the once-prevalent, gauzy utopian vision of online community has disappeared. Along with the benefits of easy connectivity and increased information, social media has also become a vehicle for disinformation and political attacks from beyond sovereign borders.

“Social media disrupts our elections, our economy, and our health,” says Aral, who is the David Austin Professor of Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management.

Now Aral has written a book about it. In “The Hype Machine,” published this month by Currency, a Random House imprint, Aral details why social media platforms have become so successful yet so problematic, and suggests ways to improve them.

As Aral notes, the book covers some of the same territory as “The Social Dilemma,” a documentary that is one of the most popular films on Netflix at the moment. But Aral’s book, as he puts it, "starts where ‘The Social Dilemma’ leaves off and goes one step further to ask: What can we do about it?”

“This machine exists in every facet of our lives,” Aral says. “And the question in the book is, what do we do? How do we achieve the promise of this machine and avoid the peril? We’re at a crossroads. What we do next is essential, so I want to equip people, policymakers, and platforms to help us achieve the good outcomes and avoid the bad outcomes.”

When “engagement” equals anger

“The Hype Machine” draws on Aral’s own research about social networks, as well as other findings, from the cognitive sciences, computer science, business, politics, and more. Researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles, for instance, have found that people obtain bigger hits of dopamine — the chemical in our brains highly bound up with motivation and reward — when their social media posts receive more likes.

At the same time, consider a 2018 MIT study by Soroush Vosoughi, an MIT PhD student and now an assistant professor of computer science at Dartmouth College; Deb Roy, MIT professor of media arts and sciences and executive director of the MIT Media Lab; and Aral, who has been studying social networking for 20 years. The three researchers found that on Twitter, from 2006 to 2017, false news stories were 70 percent more likely to be retweeted than true ones. Why? Most likely because false news has greater novelty value compared to the truth, and provokes stronger reactions — especially disgust and surprise.

In this light, the essential tension surrounding social media companies is that their platforms gain audiences and revenue when posts provoke strong emotional responses, often based on dubious content.

“This is a well-designed, well-thought-out machine that has objectives it maximizes,” Aral says. “The business models that run the social-media industrial complex have a lot to do with the outcomes we’re seeing — it’s an attention economy, and businesses want you engaged. How do they get engagement? Well, they give you little dopamine hits, and … get you riled up. That’s why I call it the hype machine. We know strong emotions get us engaged, so [that favors] anger and salacious content.”

From Russia to marketing

“The Hype Machine” explores both the political implications and business dimensions of social media in depth. Certainly social media is fertile terrain for misinformation campaigns. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Russia spread  false information to at least 126 million people on Facebook and another 20 million people on Insta­gram (which Facebook owns), and was responsible for 10 million tweets. About 44 percent of adult Americans visited a false news source in the final weeks of the campaign.

“I think we need to be a lot more vigilant than we are,” says Aral.

We do not know if Russia’s efforts altered the outcome of the 2016 election, Aral says, though they may have been fairly effective. Curiously, it is not clear if the same is true of most U.S. corporate engagement efforts.

As Aral examines, digital advertising on most big U.S. online platforms is often wildly ineffective, with academic studies showing that the “lift” generated by ad campaigns — the extent to which they affect consumer action — has been overstated by a factor of hundreds, in some cases. Simply counting clicks on ads is not enough. Instead, online engagement tends to be more effective among new consumers, and when it is targeted well; in that sense, there is a parallel between good marketing and guerilla social media campaigns.

“The two questions I get asked the most these days,” Aral says, “are, one, did Russia succeed in intervening in our democracy? And two, how do I measure the ROI [return on investment] from marketing investments? As I was writing this book, I realized the answer to those two questions is the same.”

Ideas for improvement

“The Hype Machine” has received praise from many commentators. Foster Provost, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business, says it is a “masterful integration of science, business, law, and policy.” Duncan Watts, a university professor at the University of Pennsylvania, says the book is “essential reading for anyone who wants to understand how we got here and how we can get somewhere better.”

In that vein, “The Hype Machine” has several detailed suggestions for improving social media. Aral favors automated and user-generated labeling of false news, and limiting revenue-collection that is based on false content. He also calls for firms to help scholars better research the issue of election interference.

Aral believes federal privacy measures could be useful, if we learn from the benefits and missteps of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe and a new California law that lets consumers stop some data-sharing and allows people to find out what information companies have stored about them. He does not endorse breaking up Facebook, and suggests instead that the social media economy needs structural reform. He calls for data portability and interoperability, so “consumers would own their identities and could freely switch from one network to another.” Aral believes that without such fundamental changes, new platforms will simply replace the old ones, propelled by the network effects that drive the social-media economy.

“I do not advocate any one silver bullet,” says Aral, who emphasizes that changes in four areas together — money, code, norms, and laws — can alter the trajectory of the social media industry.

But if things continue without change, Aral adds, Facebook and the other social media giants risk substantial civic backlash and user burnout.

“If you get me angry and riled up, I might click more in the short term, but I might also grow really tired and annoyed by how this is making my life miserable, and I might turn you off entirely,” Aral observes. “I mean, that’s why we have a Delete Facebook movement, that’s why we have a Stop Hate for Profit movement. People are pushing back against the short-term vision, and I think we need to embrace this longer-term vision of a healthier communications ecosystem.”

Changing the social media giants can seem like a tall order. Still, Aral says, these firms are not necessarily destined for domination.

“I don’t think this technology or any other technology has some deterministic endpoint,” Aral says. “I want to bring us back to a more practical reality, which is that technology is what we make it, and we are abdicating our responsibility to steer technology toward good and away from bad. That is the path I try to illuminate in this book.”

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Press mentions.

Prof. Sinan Aral’s new book, “The Hype Machine,” has been selected as one of the best books of the year about AI by Wired . Gilad Edelman notes that Aral’s book is “an engagingly written shortcut to expertise on what the likes of Facebook and Twitter are doing to our brains and our society.”

Prof. Sinan Aral speaks with Danny Crichton of TechCrunch about his new book, “The Hype Machine,” which explores the future of social media. Aral notes that he believes a starting point “for solving the social media crisis is creating competition in the social media economy.” 

New York Times

Prof. Sinan Aral speaks with New York Times editorial board member Greg Bensinger about how social media platforms can reduce the spread of misinformation. “Human-in-the-loop moderation is the right solution,” says Aral. “It’s not a simple silver bullet, but it would give accountability where these companies have in the past blamed software.”

Prof. Sinan Aral speaks with Kara Miller of GBH’s Innovation Hub about his research examining the impact of social media on everything from business re-openings during the Covid-19 pandemic to politics.

Prof. Sinan Aral speaks with NPR’s Michael Martin about his new book, “The Hype Machine,” which explores the benefits and downfalls posed by social media. “I've been researching social media for 20 years. I've seen its evolution and also the techno utopianism and dystopianism,” says Aral. “I thought it was appropriate to have a book that asks, 'what can we do to really fix the social media morass we find ourselves in?'”

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News consumption on social media, who consumes news on each social media site, find out more, social media and news fact sheet.

Digital sources have become an important part of Americans’ news diets – with social media playing a crucial role, particularly for younger adults. Overall, just over half of U.S. adults (54%) say they at least sometimes get news from social media, up slightly compared with the last few years.

Facebook and YouTube outpace all other social media sites as places where Americans regularly get news. About a third of U.S. adults say they regularly get news on each of these two sites.

Smaller shares of Americans regularly get news on Instagram (20%), TikTok (17%) or X, formerly known as Twitter (12%). And even fewer get news on several other sites, including Reddit (8%), Nextdoor (5%), Snapchat (5%), WhatsApp (5%), LinkedIn (4%), Truth Social (3%) and Rumble (2%).

News consumption by social media site

% of u.s. adults who regularly get news on each social media site.

Source: Survey of U.S. adults conducted July 15-Aug. 4, 2024.

PEW RESEARCH CENTER

Some social media sites – despite having relatively small overall audiences – stand out as destinations for news among many of their users. For example, 59% of X users get news there, as do a similar share of users on Truth Social (57%), the site owned by former President Donald Trump. On the other hand, only 14% of LinkedIn users regularly get news on that platform.

About half of TikTok users (52%) say they regularly get news on the site, up from 43% in 2023 and just 22% in 2020. The share of users who get news also has risen on several other sites, including YouTube and Instagram.

Social media sites by portion of users who regularly get news there

% of each social media site’s users who regularly get news there.

The people who regularly get news on different social media sites often differ by gender, age, political party and other factors. For example, women make up greater portions of regular news consumers on Nextdoor (64%), TikTok (62%), Facebook (60%), Snapchat (60%) and Instagram (59%), while men make up greater shares on Reddit (68%), X (64%), Rumble (60%), Truth Social (58%) and YouTube (57%).

News consumers on Snapchat, TikTok, Instagram, X and Reddit tend to be younger than those on other sites. Other patterns are unique to individual sites. For instance, 48% of news consumers on WhatsApp are Hispanic – much higher than on any other site. And LinkedIn has the largest portion of news consumers with a college degree (55%).

There also are partisan differences among those who regularly get news on some social media sites. Overwhelming shares of regular news consumers on Truth Social (88%) and Rumble (83%) are Republicans or Republican-leaning independents, as are half of those on Facebook and YouTube. On Instagram, WhatsApp, TikTok, Reddit and Nextdoor, news consumers are more likely to be Democrats or Democratic leaners. X news consumers are about evenly divided by party.

( Read the Appendix for data on the demographic and partisan makeup of U.S. adults who regularly get news from each social media site.)

• Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, X (Twitter), Reddit
• Nextdoor, Snapchat, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Truth Social, Rumble

This fact sheet was compiled by Research Assistant Christopher St. Aubin and Research Analyst Jacob Liedke .

Read the  methodology and the topline .

Pew Research Center is a subsidiary of The Pew Charitable Trusts, its primary funder. This is the latest analysis in Pew Research Center’s ongoing investigation of the state of news, information and journalism in the digital age, a research program funded by The Pew Charitable Trusts, with generous support from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.

Follow these links for more in-depth analysis of news consumption on social media:

• News Platform Fact Sheet (Sept. 17, 2024)
• About half of TikTok users under 30 say they use it to keep up with politics, news (Aug. 20, 2024)
• How Americans Get News on TikTok, X, Facebook and Instagram (June 12, 2024)
• Many Americans find value in getting news on social media, but concerns about inaccuracy have risen (Feb. 7, 2024)
• 5 facts about how Americans use Facebook, two decades after its launch (Feb. 2, 2024)
• Americans are following the news less closely than they used to (Oct. 24, 2023)
• U.S. adults under 30 now trust information from social media almost as much as from national news outlets (Oct. 27, 2022)
• The Role of Alternative Social Media in the News and Information Environment (Oct. 6, 2022)
• Many Americans Get News on YouTube, Where News Organizations and Independent Producers Thrive Side by Side (Sept. 28, 2020)

Read all our reports and blog posts related to news platforms and sources .

CORRECTION (Oct. 16, 2024): The topline for this survey previously included incorrect figures (refer to topline for details). These have been updated in the topline and do not affect the overall findings in this analysis. Nothing on this page has been changed.

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Introductory essay

Written by the educators who created Covering World News, a brief look at the key facts, tough questions and big ideas in their field. Begin this TED Study with a fascinating read that gives context and clarity to the material.

At the newsstand, on our smartphones and while watching the evening news, we learn about faraway people and places from the journalists, stringers and correspondents who work for news agencies and other media outlets around the globe. Global news is everywhere — from the front page news read by a New Yorker on Madison Avenue to the government radio station broadcasting in Pyongyang.

However, it would be a mistake to consider this a completely new phenomenon or to overstate its pervasiveness. Many people tend to think that global news is both a recent phenomenon and one that we can credit to advances in technology. If we think of 'news' in terms of newspaper articles or television reporting, then news is only as old as the technologies of press and video, and dates back to the first newsletters that circulated in Europe in the 17th century.

But in reality, humans have shared information about current affairs within and across borders for thousands of years, starting with the news networks of the ancient Phoenicians. The historical record also describes merchants sharing political news along ancient trade routes, minstrels and other traveling artists whose fictional performances also carried information about social change, and criers in medieval town squares.

If news is not a product of modern technologies, it's nevertheless true that technological change has had a dramatic impact on how news is made and consumed: where once we had printed newsletters distributed twice a day, now we have Twitter feeds refreshed twice a minute, and carrying information from an ever-widening array of sources. We live, as media critics like Marshall McLuhan have argued, in a global village.

The trouble with this vision of 'global news' is that it's not nearly as complete as we imagine it to be. According to the World Bank, of the world's seven billion people, only 80% have access to electricity (or the gadgets like computer and televisions that depend on it), 75% have access to mobile phones, and a meager 35% to the Internet. Most people on the planet aren't connected to what we think of as the 'global media' at all. As Global Voices founder Ethan Zuckerman points out in his TED Talk, "There are parts of the world that are very, very well connected, [but] the world isn't even close to flat. It's extremely lumpy."

Just as critically, the content that makes up the 'global media' is still heavily focused on a few key centers of power. In her TED Talk, Public Radio International's Alisa Miller shares a powerful map of the news consumed by American audiences in 2008: most of it focused on the U.S., and to a lesser extent, on countries with which the U.S. has military ties. Ethan Zuckerman points out that this lack of global coverage is pervasive, whether it's at elite news outlets like The New York Times or on crowdsourced digital information platforms like Wikipedia.

Moreover, Zuckerman argues, it's not just about the stories that get made — it's about what stories we choose to listen to. Thirty years ago, Benedict Anderson made waves when he argued that political structures (like states) depend upon a set of shared values, the 'imagined community,' and that the media plays a key role in creating those values. Zuckerman, however, argues that in today's world the disconnect between what we imagine to be our community, and the community we actually live in, is a major source of global media inequality. We connect to the Internet, with its technological capacity to link up the whole world, and imagine that we live in a global village. But in practice, we spend most of our time reading news shared by our Facebook friends, whose lives and interests are close to our own. Zuckerman calls this 'imagined cosmopolitanism.'

Compounding the problem, the stories we do attend to can be heavily distorted, reducing whole countries or societies to a single stereotype or image. As author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie explains in her TED Talk about the 'single story,' when all the tales we hear about a country follow the same pattern, we begin to imagine that this pattern is all there is know. The 'single story' can affect all of us, rich and poor: Adichie talks of her own misconceptions about Nigeria's rural poor, of her surprise at encountering the diversity of life in Mexico, and of her college roommate's reductive vision of Africa as poor and underdeveloped. The difference, she argues, is that there are simply more stories out there about powerful countries than about less powerful ones, and that makes it harder for us to reduce those societies to 'single stories' in our minds.

What can we do?

First, we can tell different stories about the places that are prone to reduction. In her TED Talk, Yemeni newspaper editor Nadia Al-Sakkaf takes us to the Yemen she lives in — where terrorism and political upheaval are real problems, but far from the whole picture. Moreover, in her account, each image can tell many stories. A woman with a veiled face can represent the role of fundamentalist Islam in Yemeni society, but she argues that a look behind the veil shows us that many of these women are holding down jobs and earning income, and in so doing, changing their role within their own families and in Yemeni society more broadly.

Second, we can find ways to invest in journalism. As Alisa Miller argues, a major obstacle to a truly global news media is the cost of production, of keeping bureaus in every country and paying for journalists to produce deep, investigative stories. The great paradox of media economics in the digital age is that the Internet makes it possible for us to consume more content, but falling advertising revenues means that each piece of content must cost a little less to produce. That pushes news outlets, even wealthy ones, in the direction of gossip and regurgitated press releases that can be produced by a reporter who hasn't left her desk.

One way to break this cycle, Ethan Zuckerman argues, is to make small and targeted investments in local journalists in the developing world. He describes a blogger training program in Madagascar that became a newsroom overnight when world media outlets needed verified content from a country undergoing revolution. He highlights the critical work of professional curators like Amira Al Hussaini at Global Voices or Andy Carvin at the Associated Press.

At the heart of these recommendations is a shift in the way we understand the mission of journalists — or rather, a return to an old way of thinking about news.

Right up until the early 20th century, all journalists were assumed to be opinion writers. Reporters went places to report, made up their own minds about a topic, and wrote an account that included not only facts, but an argument for what position readers at home should take and what political actions might follow. George Orwell's colorful and opinionated essays from South East Asia, for example, were published as reportage.

Then the Cold War started, and in the democratic West, journalists began to strive for objective impartiality, to distinguish their work from the obvious, state-sponsored propaganda of the Soviet bloc. Many critics at the time questioned whether 'true' objectivity was possible, but no major western news organization disputed that it was the ideal.

Today, we're seeing a return to the older understanding of journalism, towards an acceptance that even independent reporting carries a viewpoint, shaped by the people who produce it. Moreover, contemporary journalists are increasingly coming to see this viewpoint as a strength rather than as a weakness, and using social media to be more transparent to readers about the values they bring to stories. New York University's Jay Rosen, for example, has argued powerfully that the 'view from nowhere' advocated by 20th century western reporters is dangerous because it can lead journalists to treat 'both sides' of a story equally even when one side is telling objective falsehoods or committing crimes.

Many of the speakers in Covering World News describe their journalism — whether it is Global Voices or the Yemen Times — as having an explicit moral and political mission to change our perceptions of under-covered regions of the world.

But no speaker is more passionate on this subject than TED speaker and photojournalist James Nachtwey, who credits the activist context of the 1960s for inspiring him to enter journalism, using photography to "channel anger" into a force for social change. Nachtwey's work has brought him, at times, into partnership with non-profit aid organizations, an alliance that is increasingly common in today's media world but would surely not have fit within the 'objective' media of a half-century ago. Nachtwey sees himself as a 'witness' whose place in the story is not to be invisible, but to channel his own humane outrage at war or social deprivation in order to drive social and political change: in one case, a story he produced prompted the creation of a non-profit organization to collect donations from readers.

This kind of work is a form of 'bridge building,' a theme that emerges in many of our talks. For while there may not be one 'global media' that includes all communities equally and reaches all parts of the globe, there are many individuals whose skills and backgrounds enable them to go between the connected and less connected pockets of the world, bridging gaps and contributing to mutual understanding. That, perhaps, is the way forward for international journalism.

Let's begin our study with Public Radio International CEO Alisa Miller, an ardent advocate for a global perspective in news programming. In her TEDTalk "The news about the news," Miller shares some eye-opening statistics about the quantity and quality of recent foreign reporting by American mainstream media organizations.

Alisa Miller

How the news distorts our worldview, relevant talks.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

The danger of a single story.

Ethan Zuckerman

Listening to global voices.

James Nachtwey

My wish: let my photographs bear witness.

Nadia Al-Sakkaf

See yemen through my eyes.

Home > Blog > Essay on Social Media: Top Topics To Tackle

Essay on Social Media: Top Topics To Tackle

• Smodin Editorial Team
• Published: October 3, 2024
• General Guide About Content and Writing

If you want to write an essay on social media, there are many topics you can choose from. In this article, we’ll give you a few ideas that you can consider to kick-start the writing process. You’ll see that there’s a wide range of interesting ideas you can explore to get top marks.

We’ll share everything from argumentative essay topics to how you can stay safe. These are popular topics that people want to know more about. Therefore, by the end of this article, you’ll have a good idea of how to get started with your article.

Keep reading to learn more about what essay topics to tackle when writing about social media platforms.

Table of Contents

How To Write an Essay on Social Media

Do you want to learn how to write an essay on social media? We’ll share what you need to include when writing social media essays. In this section, you’ll see an example of what type of topics and sections you can include in your essay.

Introduction

Social media has transformed the way we communicate, share information, and connect with others globally. It has become an integral part of modern life. That’s because it influences various aspects, such as culture, business, and personal relationships.

This essay explores the impact of social media on society, examining its benefits and drawbacks. Additionally, it discusses its role in shaping communication, social interaction, and the spread of information.

Benefits of Social Media

Social media offers numerous benefits, including instant communication, easy access to information, and the ability to connect with people worldwide. Love it or hate it, there’s a lot of utility to be gained from social media tools.

Hence, it has become a powerful tool for businesses to reach customers, for individuals to build personal brands, and for communities to mobilize for causes. Additionally, social media platforms enable the sharing of ideas in a rapid fashion.

Negative Impacts of Social Media

Despite its benefits, social media also has significant drawbacks. Issues such as cyberbullying, misinformation, and the erosion of privacy are prevalent. Also, social media can lead to addiction, mental health issues, and a decrease in face-to-face interactions.

Your essay on social media sites can cover this aspect of the technology. It’s trending news nowadays, so the topic is current and relevant.

The Role of Social Media in Society

Social media plays a crucial role in shaping societal norms, trends, and public opinion. Furthermore, it has given a voice to marginalized groups, enabled social movements, and influenced political landscapes.

However, it also raises concerns about surveillance, censorship, and the concentration of power in the hands of a few tech giants.

Social media is a double-edged sword that offers both opportunities and challenges. That’s because while it enhances communication, connectivity, and access to information, it also poses risks to mental health.

You could base your essay conclusion on social networking sites by providing a balanced opinion on the pros and cons. Also, you can add something for the audience to ponder so your content leaves a lasting impression.

Essay on Social Media’s Negative Effects: 5 Essential Factors To Include

Now let’s turn our attention to the process of writing an essay on social media’s negative effects. We’ll present the top negative effects in this section to give you an idea of what material you can tackle. Here are the top negative effects of social media to include in your essay:

• Mental health issues: Social media can negatively impact mental health by fostering feelings of inadequacy, anxiety, and depression. Furthermore, the addictive nature of social media contributes to increased screen time, which leads to disrupted sleep patterns and reduced real-world social interactions.
• Cyberbullying: Cyberbullying is a significant issue on social media platforms that involve a lot of human interaction. This is where individuals can be harassed, threatened, or humiliated online. The anonymity of the internet often emboldens bullies and leads to severe emotional distress for victims.
• Spread of misinformation: Social media platforms are breeding grounds for misinformation and fake news. The rapid sharing of content, often without verification, allows false information to spread quickly, influencing public opinion and behavior. This can lead to the erosion of trust in legitimate news sources and increased polarization. It can also result in real-world harm, as people act on inaccurate or misleading information.
• Privacy concerns: The pervasive nature of social media raises serious privacy concerns. Users often share personal information without fully understanding the implications. This can lead to data breaches, identity theft, and unauthorized surveillance. Moreover, social media companies collect vast amounts of user data.
• Social isolation: Paradoxically, while social media connects people online, it can contribute to social isolation in the real world. Excessive use of social media can reduce face-to-face interactions and weaken personal relationships.

Argumentative Essay on Social Media: A Top Example

You can write an argumentative essay on social media to get top marks, and there are many potential topics. A top example would start by acknowledging the transformative power of social media in connecting people, spreading information, and enabling social movements.

This highlights the benefits of the technology. For instance, fostering global communication, providing a platform for marginalized voices, and facilitating education and business opportunities.

However, your essay can also critically examine the downsides, such as the spread of misinformation, cyberbullying, and the erosion of privacy. This would discuss how social media can negatively impact mental health, create echo chambers, and contribute to social isolation.

The essay would argue that while social media offers significant advantages, these come with serious risks that need to be addressed.

In the conclusion the essay might advocate for a more responsible use of social media, suggesting that users, platforms, and regulators work together to mitigate its negative effects. You can also emphasize the importance of digital literacy to use social networking sites the right way.

How To Protect Your Personal Information on Social Media Essay

Do you want to write a how to protect your personal information on social media essay? Then you can tackle a number of essay topics by going over the different methods.

Protecting personal information on social media is crucial to safeguarding privacy and security. An effective essay on this topic would advise users to limit the amount of personal data shared online and during social media usage. Also, they can use strong and unique passwords, or enable two-factor authentication for added security.

You can also emphasize the importance of adjusting privacy settings to control who can see your content and being cautious about accepting friend requests from unknown individuals. Additionally, the essay would highlight the importance of regularly reviewing and updating security settings. Adding these topics helps improve the flow of the content .

How To Stay Safe on Social Media Essay

Another good idea is a how to stay safe on social media essay. There are several different ways that users can stay safe on social media which make for good topics. Here are the top ones:

• Use strong passwords: Creating strong and unique passwords for each social media app is essential for security. Your essay could cover things like using a mix of letters, numbers, and symbols, and also avoiding common phrases or easily guessable information. Also, it helps to regularly update your passwords and consider using a password manager to keep track of them.
• Enable two-factor authentication: Two-factor authentication (2FA) adds an extra layer of security to your accounts by requiring a second form of verification. Top examples include a code sent to your phone, in addition to your password. Enabling 2FA makes it significantly harder for hackers to gain access to your account, even if they have your password.
• Be mindful of what you share: Think carefully before sharing personal information on social media features like instant messaging. Therefore, avoid posting sensitive details like your home address, phone number, or financial information. Even seemingly harmless details can be used by malicious actors for identity theft or social engineering attacks.
• Adjust privacy settings: Regularly review and adjust the privacy settings on your social media accounts to control who can see your information and posts. Therefore, limiting visibility to trusted connections reduces the risk of your data being misused by strangers or malicious individuals. You should always use social media responsibly.
• Avoid clicking on suspicious links: Be cautious about clicking on links or downloading attachments from unknown or untrusted sources. Cybercriminals often use phishing scams to trick users into revealing personal information or installing malware. If something seems suspicious, it’s best to avoid interacting with it.

How To Promote a Product on Social Media Essay: 3 Best Strategies To Use

Looking for ideas for a how to promote a product on social media essay? This is an excellent topic because promoting products on social media is a popular practice. With that thought in mind, here are the top strategies for promoting products on social media websites:

• Utilize influencer marketing: Partner with influencers who align with your brand to reach a broader and more targeted audience. Influencers can provide authentic endorsements of your product. Also, you can leverage their credibility and followers to boost your brand’s visibility. This strategy can significantly increase your product’s reach and impact through trusted recommendations.
• Use paid advertising: Invest in social media advertising to target specific demographics with precision. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn offer advanced targeting options. Therefore, you can potentially reach prospective customers based on their interests, location, and online behavior. Also, paid ads can drive traffic to your product, increase sales, and provide measurable results.
• Engage with your audience: Actively engage with your audience by responding to comments, answering questions, and encouraging discussions about your product. Furthermore, you can build a community around your brand to foster loyalty and trust.

Social Media Essay Topics: Consider These Best Practices

Now let’s turn our focus toward choosing the right social media essay topics. Choosing the right social media essay topic involves considering relevance, scope, and personal interest. You can start by selecting a topic that is timely and pertinent to current trends or issues.

Furthermore, consider the scope of the topic by choosing one that is neither too broad nor too narrow. Also, reflect on your own interests and expertise. That’s because writing about a topic you are passionate about can lead to a more compelling and insightful essay.

Additionally, consider the audience and purpose of the essay to avoid common writing mistakes. It might be for academic purposes, informative content, or persuasive writing. Make sure to tailor your topic accordingly to get the best results.

Lastly, ensure there are ample resources and credible sources available to support your arguments. Otherwise, you may find that after starting your essay on a social media platform topic, there’s not enough data to make a strong thesis statement.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the benefits of writing an essay on social media.

Writing an essay on social media allows you to explore a highly relevant and dynamic topic that impacts various aspects of society. Furthermore, it provides an opportunity to analyze the influence of social media on communication, culture, business, and personal life.

Such essays also help develop critical thinking by evaluating both the positive and negative aspects of social media, thereby making it a valuable learning exercise.

How can I structure a social media essay?

A well-structured social media essay typically includes an introduction, body paragraphs, and a conclusion. Therefore, you can start with an introduction that presents the topic and your thesis statement .

Consequently, the body should contain several paragraphs, where each one discusses a different aspect of social media. Finally, you can conclude by summarizing your main points and restating the thesis.

What are common topics for social media essays?

Common topics for social media essays include its impact on mental health, the spread of misinformation, privacy concerns, and its role in political activism.

Additionally, other topics may explore social media’s business potential, such as its effects on relationships or the ethical implications of its use. These topics allow for a comprehensive analysis of social media’s multifaceted effects.

How do I support my arguments in a social media essay?

To support your arguments in a social media essay, use credible sources such as academic journals, news articles, and expert opinions. Furthermore, include data, statistics, and real-world examples to back up your points.

Essay on Social Media: Write Your Topic With Smodin AI

The topics about social media platforms in this article will give you some food for thought. You can use these ideas and come up with a unique angle that you find interesting. Genuine curiosity for a topic is the best approach since it allows you to dig deeper into an area of interest.

You can try writing an essay on social media with AI tools to save time and get suggestions. These tools can quickly generate text based on high-quality writing prompts . You’ll need to practice the prompts yourself to get the best results.

Do you need further help writing your social media essay? Then consider using Smodin AI for an automated approach. Our innovative AI tool provides an optimized user interface, which makes it easy for beginners to use. Try Smodin AI now , and you won’t be disappointed!

Home — Essay Samples — Sociology — Sociology of Media and Communication — Social Media

Argumentative Essays About Social Media

Social media argumentative essay topics.

This is a comprehensive resource to help you find the perfect social media essay topic. Whether you're navigating the complexities of digital communication, exploring the impact of social media on society, or examining its effects on personal identity, the right topic can transform your essay into a captivating and insightful exploration. Remember, selecting a topic that resonates with your personal interests and academic goals not only makes the writing process more enjoyable but also enriches your learning experience. Let's dive into a world of creativity and critical thinking!

Below, you'll find a curated list of essay topics organized by type. Each section includes diverse topics that touch on technology, society, personal growth, and academic interests, along with introduction and conclusion paragraph examples to get you started.

Argumentative Essays

• The Influence of Social Media on Teen Self-Esteem

Introduction Example: "In the digital age, social media platforms have become central to our daily interactions and self-perception, particularly among teenagers. This essay explores the impact of social media on teen self-esteem, arguing that while it offers a space for expression and connection, it also presents significant challenges to self-image. "

Conclusion Example: "Having delved into the complex relationship between social media and teen self-esteem, it is clear that the digital landscape holds profound effects on individual self-perception. This essay reaffirms the thesis that social media can both uplift and undermine teen self-esteem, calling for a balanced approach to digital engagement."

• The Role of Social Media in Political Mobilization

Introduction Example: "As political landscapes evolve, social media has emerged as a powerful tool for political mobilization and engagement. This essay investigates the role of social media in shaping political movements, positing that it significantly enhances communication and organizational capabilities, yet raises questions about information authenticity. "

Conclusion Example: "Through examining the dual facets of social media in political mobilization, the essay concludes that while social media is a pivotal tool for engagement, it necessitates critical scrutiny of information to ensure a well-informed public discourse."

Compare and Contrast Essays

• Instagram vs. Twitter: Platforms for Brand Promotion

Introduction Example: "In the competitive realm of digital marketing, Instagram and Twitter stand out as leading platforms for brand promotion. This essay compares and contrasts their effectiveness, revealing that each platform caters to unique marketing strengths due to its specific user engagement and content dissemination strategies. "

Conclusion Example: "The comparative analysis of Instagram and Twitter highlights distinct advantages for brands, with Instagram excelling in visual storytelling and Twitter in real-time engagement, underscoring the importance of strategic platform selection in digital marketing."

Descriptive Essays

• Describing the Social Media Landscape of Today

Introduction Example: "Today's social media landscape is a vibrant tapestry of platforms, each contributing to the digital era's social fabric. This essay describes the characteristics and cultural significance of current social media trends, illustrating that they reflect and shape our societal values and interactions. "

Conclusion Example: "In portraying the dynamic and diverse nature of today's social media landscape, this essay underscores its role in molding contemporary cultural and social paradigms, inviting readers to reflect on their digital footprints."

Persuasive Essays

• Encouraging Positive Social Media Habits

Introduction Example: "In an era where digital presence is ubiquitous, fostering positive social media habits is essential for mental and emotional well-being. This essay advocates for mindful social media use, arguing that intentional engagement can enhance our life experiences rather than detract from them. "

Conclusion Example: "This essay has championed the cause for positive social media habits, reinforcing the thesis that through mindful engagement, individuals can navigate the digital world in a way that promotes personal growth and well-being."

Narrative Essays

• My Journey with Social Media: A Personal Reflection

Introduction Example: "Embarking on a personal journey with social media has been both enlightening and challenging. This narrative essay delves into my experiences, highlighting how social media has influenced my perception of self and community. "

Conclusion Example: "Reflecting on my social media journey, this essay concludes that while it has significantly shaped my interactions and self-view, it has also offered invaluable lessons on connectivity and self-awareness, affirming the nuanced role of digital platforms in our lives."

As you explore these topics, remember to approach your essay with an open mind and creative spirit. The purpose of academic writing is not just to inform but to engage and provoke thought. Use this opportunity to delve deep into your topic, analyze different perspectives, and articulate your own insights.

Each essay type offers unique learning outcomes. Argumentative essays enhance your analytical thinking and ability to construct well-founded arguments. Compare and contrast essays develop your skills in identifying similarities and differences. Descriptive essays improve your ability to paint vivid pictures through words, while persuasive essays refine your ability to influence and convince. Finally, narrative essays offer a platform for personal expression and storytelling. Embrace these opportunities to grow academically and personally.

Some Easy Argumentative Essay Topics on Social Media

• The Impact of Social Media: Advantages and Disadvantages
• Is Social Media Enhancing or Eroding Our Real-Life Social Skills?
• Should There Be Stricter Regulations on Social Media Content to Protect Youth?
• Social Media's Role in Relationships: Communication Enhancer or Barrier
• Does Social Media Contribute to Political Polarization?
• The Role of Social Media in Shaping Perceptions of Divorce
• The Impact of Social Media on Mental Health: Benefit or Harm?
• Can Social Media Be Considered a Reliable Source of News and Information?
• Is Social Media Responsible for the Rise in Cyberbullying?
• Impact of Social Media on Mental Health
• Does Social Media Promote Narcissism and Self-Centered Behaviors?
• The Role of Social Media in Business Marketing: Is It Indispensable?

Hooks Examples for Argumentative Essay about Social Media

• "In an era where a single tweet can ignite a movement or ruin a reputation, social media's influence on our lives is undeniable. But is this digital revolution more beneficial or harmful to society?"
• "As social media platforms increasingly shape public opinion and behavior, the debate intensifies: Do they promote free expression or fuel misinformation and division?"
• "Social media has transformed how we communicate, but at what cost? Exploring the impacts on mental health, privacy, and societal norms reveals a complex web of benefits and drawbacks."
• "With billions of users worldwide, social media holds unprecedented power. Should we celebrate its role in connecting people or scrutinize its potential to manipulate and mislead?"
• "From viral challenges to political campaigns, social media is a double-edged sword. Is it a force for positive change or a threat to our privacy and well-being?"

Social Media is Beneficial to The Mankind

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Discussion on Whether is Social Media Beneficial Or Harmful for Society

Negative effects of social media: relationships and communication, social media pros and cons, social media - good and bad sides, a study of the role of social media concerning confidentiality of personal data, how social media causes stereotyping, social media addiction: consequences and strategies for recovery, the role of social media in making us more narcissistic, the effect social media is having on today's society and political atmosphere, digital/social media, censorship in social media, why teenagers are addicted to social media and how it affects them, advantages and disadvantages of social media for society, enormous impact of mass media on children, the role of social media in the current business world, social media is the reason for many of the world’s problems and solutions, impact of social media on society, how social media can effect on your career, the impact of social media on productivity, social media vs print media.

Social media is a digital platform that allows users to create, share, and exchange information and ideas.

Social media's origins trace back to May 24, 1844, with the telegraph's electronic dots and dashes. Modern narratives often cite the 1969 creation of ARPANET as the internet's beginning. In 1987, the National Science Foundation's NSFNET, a robust nationwide digital network, was established. A significant milestone in social media history occurred in 1997 with the launch of Six Degrees, the first genuine social media platform.

• Social Networking Sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace.
• Microblogging Platforms: Twitter.
• Media Sharing Networks: Instagram, YouTube, and Snapchat.
• Discussion Forums and Community-Based Platforms: Reddit and Quora.
• Blogging Platforms: WordPress and Blogger.
• Social Bookmarking and Content Curation Platforms: Pinterest and Flipboard.
• Messaging Apps: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and WeChat.

Facebook (2004), Reddit (2005), Twitter (2006), Instagram (2010), Pinterest (2010), Snapchat (2011), TikTok (2016)

• Increased Connectivity
• Information Sharing and Awareness
• Networking and Professional Opportunities
• Creativity and Self-Expression
• Supportive Communities and Causes
• Privacy Concerns
• Cyberbullying and Online Harassment
• Information Overload and Misinformation
• Time and Productivity Drain
• Comparison and Self-Esteem Issues

The topic of social media is important because it has revolutionized the way we communicate, connect, and consume information. It has a significant impact on businesses, politics, relationships, and society as a whole. Understanding the implications and effects of social media is crucial in today's digital age.

• Social media users spend an average of 2 hours and 25 minutes per day on social networking platforms. This amounts to over 7 years of an individual's lifetime spent on social media, highlighting its significant presence in our daily lives.
• Instagram has over 1 billion monthly active users, with more than 500 million of them using the platform on a daily basis.
• YouTube is the second largest search engine behind Google.
• Social media has become a major news source, with 48% of people getting their news from social media platforms. This shift in news consumption highlights the role of social media in shaping public opinion and disseminating information in real-time.
• The average internet user has 7.6 social media accounts.

1. Schober, M. F., Pasek, J., Guggenheim, L., Lampe, C., & Conrad, F. G. (2016). Social media analyses for social measurement. Public opinion quarterly, 80(1), 180-211. (https://academic.oup.com/poq/article-abstract/80/1/180/2593846) 2. Appel, G., Grewal, L., Hadi, R., & Stephen, A. T. (2020). The future of social media in marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing science, 48(1), 79-95. (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11747-019-00695-1?error=cookies_not_support) 3. Aichner, T., Grünfelder, M., Maurer, O., & Jegeni, D. (2021). Twenty-five years of social media: a review of social media applications and definitions from 1994 to 2019. Cyberpsychology, behavior, and social networking, 24(4), 215-222. (https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/full/10.1089/cyber.2020.0134) 4. Ruths, D., & Pfeffer, J. (2014). Social media for large studies of behavior. Science, 346(6213), 1063-1064. (https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.346.6213.1063) 5. Hou, Y., Xiong, D., Jiang, T., Song, L., & Wang, Q. (2019). Social media addiction: Its impact, mediation, and intervention. Cyberpsychology: Journal of psychosocial research on cyberspace, 13(1). (https://cyberpsychology.eu/article/view/11562) 6. Auxier, B., & Anderson, M. (2021). Social media use in 2021. Pew Research Center, 1, 1-4. (https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2021/04/PI_2021.04.07_Social-Media-Use_FINAL.pdf) 7. Al-Samarraie, H., Bello, K. A., Alzahrani, A. I., Smith, A. P., & Emele, C. (2021). Young users' social media addiction: causes, consequences and preventions. Information Technology & People, 35(7), 2314-2343. (https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ITP-11-2020-0753/full/html) 8. Bhargava, V. R., & Velasquez, M. (2021). Ethics of the attention economy: The problem of social media addiction. Business Ethics Quarterly, 31(3), 321-359. (https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/business-ethics-quarterly/article/ethics-of-the-attention-economy-the-problem-of-social-mediaaddiction/1CC67609A12E9A912BB8A291FDFFE799)

Relevant topics

• Media Analysis
• Effects of Social Media
• Discourse Community
• Personal Identity
• Social Justice
• Cultural Appropriation
• Sociological Imagination

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Science News

Social media harms teens’ mental health, mounting evidence shows. what now.

Understanding what is going on in teens’ minds is necessary for targeted policy suggestions

Most teens use social media, often for hours on end. Some social scientists are confident that such use is harming their mental health. Now they want to pinpoint what explains the link.

Carol Yepes/Getty Images

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By Sujata Gupta

February 20, 2024 at 7:30 am

In January, Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook’s parent company Meta, appeared at a congressional hearing to answer questions about how social media potentially harms children. Zuckerberg opened by saying: “The existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health.”

But many social scientists would disagree with that statement. In recent years, studies have started to show a causal link between teen social media use and reduced well-being or mood disorders, chiefly depression and anxiety.

Ironically, one of the most cited studies into this link focused on Facebook.

Researchers delved into whether the platform’s introduction across college campuses in the mid 2000s increased symptoms associated with depression and anxiety. The answer was a clear yes , says MIT economist Alexey Makarin, a coauthor of the study, which appeared in the November 2022 American Economic Review . “There is still a lot to be explored,” Makarin says, but “[to say] there is no causal evidence that social media causes mental health issues, to that I definitely object.”

The concern, and the studies, come from statistics showing that social media use in teens ages 13 to 17 is now almost ubiquitous. Two-thirds of teens report using TikTok, and some 60 percent of teens report using Instagram or Snapchat, a 2022 survey found. (Only 30 percent said they used Facebook.) Another survey showed that girls, on average, allot roughly 3.4 hours per day to TikTok, Instagram and Facebook, compared with roughly 2.1 hours among boys. At the same time, more teens are showing signs of depression than ever, especially girls ( SN: 6/30/23 ).

As more studies show a strong link between these phenomena, some researchers are starting to shift their attention to possible mechanisms. Why does social media use seem to trigger mental health problems? Why are those effects unevenly distributed among different groups, such as girls or young adults? And can the positives of social media be teased out from the negatives to provide more targeted guidance to teens, their caregivers and policymakers?

“You can’t design good public policy if you don’t know why things are happening,” says Scott Cunningham, an economist at Baylor University in Waco, Texas.

Increasing rigor

Concerns over the effects of social media use in children have been circulating for years, resulting in a massive body of scientific literature. But those mostly correlational studies could not show if teen social media use was harming mental health or if teens with mental health problems were using more social media.

Moreover, the findings from such studies were often inconclusive, or the effects on mental health so small as to be inconsequential. In one study that received considerable media attention, psychologists Amy Orben and Andrew Przybylski combined data from three surveys to see if they could find a link between technology use, including social media, and reduced well-being. The duo gauged the well-being of over 355,000 teenagers by focusing on questions around depression, suicidal thinking and self-esteem.

Digital technology use was associated with a slight decrease in adolescent well-being , Orben, now of the University of Cambridge, and Przybylski, of the University of Oxford, reported in 2019 in Nature Human Behaviour . But the duo downplayed that finding, noting that researchers have observed similar drops in adolescent well-being associated with drinking milk, going to the movies or eating potatoes.

Holes have begun to appear in that narrative thanks to newer, more rigorous studies.

In one longitudinal study, researchers — including Orben and Przybylski — used survey data on social media use and well-being from over 17,400 teens and young adults to look at how individuals’ responses to a question gauging life satisfaction changed between 2011 and 2018. And they dug into how the responses varied by gender, age and time spent on social media.

Social media use was associated with a drop in well-being among teens during certain developmental periods, chiefly puberty and young adulthood, the team reported in 2022 in Nature Communications . That translated to lower well-being scores around ages 11 to 13 for girls and ages 14 to 15 for boys. Both groups also reported a drop in well-being around age 19. Moreover, among the older teens, the team found evidence for the Goldilocks Hypothesis: the idea that both too much and too little time spent on social media can harm mental health.

“There’s hardly any effect if you look over everybody. But if you look at specific age groups, at particularly what [Orben] calls ‘windows of sensitivity’ … you see these clear effects,” says L.J. Shrum, a consumer psychologist at HEC Paris who was not involved with this research. His review of studies related to teen social media use and mental health is forthcoming in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research.

Cause and effect

That longitudinal study hints at causation, researchers say. But one of the clearest ways to pin down cause and effect is through natural or quasi-experiments. For these in-the-wild experiments, researchers must identify situations where the rollout of a societal “treatment” is staggered across space and time. They can then compare outcomes among members of the group who received the treatment to those still in the queue — the control group.

That was the approach Makarin and his team used in their study of Facebook. The researchers homed in on the staggered rollout of Facebook across 775 college campuses from 2004 to 2006. They combined that rollout data with student responses to the National College Health Assessment, a widely used survey of college students’ mental and physical health.

The team then sought to understand if those survey questions captured diagnosable mental health problems. Specifically, they had roughly 500 undergraduate students respond to questions both in the National College Health Assessment and in validated screening tools for depression and anxiety. They found that mental health scores on the assessment predicted scores on the screenings. That suggested that a drop in well-being on the college survey was a good proxy for a corresponding increase in diagnosable mental health disorders. 

Compared with campuses that had not yet gained access to Facebook, college campuses with Facebook experienced a 2 percentage point increase in the number of students who met the diagnostic criteria for anxiety or depression, the team found.

When it comes to showing a causal link between social media use in teens and worse mental health, “that study really is the crown jewel right now,” says Cunningham, who was not involved in that research.

A need for nuance

The social media landscape today is vastly different than the landscape of 20 years ago. Facebook is now optimized for maximum addiction, Shrum says, and other newer platforms, such as Snapchat, Instagram and TikTok, have since copied and built on those features. Paired with the ubiquity of social media in general, the negative effects on mental health may well be larger now.

Moreover, social media research tends to focus on young adults — an easier cohort to study than minors. That needs to change, Cunningham says. “Most of us are worried about our high school kids and younger.” 

And so, researchers must pivot accordingly. Crucially, simple comparisons of social media users and nonusers no longer make sense. As Orben and Przybylski’s 2022 work suggested, a teen not on social media might well feel worse than one who briefly logs on. 

Researchers must also dig into why, and under what circumstances, social media use can harm mental health, Cunningham says. Explanations for this link abound. For instance, social media is thought to crowd out other activities or increase people’s likelihood of comparing themselves unfavorably with others. But big data studies, with their reliance on existing surveys and statistical analyses, cannot address those deeper questions. “These kinds of papers, there’s nothing you can really ask … to find these plausible mechanisms,” Cunningham says.

One ongoing effort to understand social media use from this more nuanced vantage point is the SMART Schools project out of the University of Birmingham in England. Pedagogical expert Victoria Goodyear and her team are comparing mental and physical health outcomes among children who attend schools that have restricted cell phone use to those attending schools without such a policy. The researchers described the protocol of that study of 30 schools and over 1,000 students in the July BMJ Open.

Goodyear and colleagues are also combining that natural experiment with qualitative research. They met with 36 five-person focus groups each consisting of all students, all parents or all educators at six of those schools. The team hopes to learn how students use their phones during the day, how usage practices make students feel, and what the various parties think of restrictions on cell phone use during the school day.

Talking to teens and those in their orbit is the best way to get at the mechanisms by which social media influences well-being — for better or worse, Goodyear says. Moving beyond big data to this more personal approach, however, takes considerable time and effort. “Social media has increased in pace and momentum very, very quickly,” she says. “And research takes a long time to catch up with that process.”

Until that catch-up occurs, though, researchers cannot dole out much advice. “What guidance could we provide to young people, parents and schools to help maintain the positives of social media use?” Goodyear asks. “There’s not concrete evidence yet.”

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Essay on Social Media

Introduction about the Topic - Essay on Social Media

In the vast landscape of the digital age, social media stands as a captivating tapestry that weaves connections, information, and expressions together. It has become an integral part of our lives, shaping how we communicate, share experiences, and stay informed. As we delve into the realm of social media, let's unravel its diverse threads, exploring both its positive influences and challenges that accompany this dynamic phenomenon.

The social media has undoubtedly changed the way we communicate and interact with people nowadays. It has brought people closer and helped them connect with each other in ways that were never think about this way. It is now becoming one of the largest way of communication and rapidly gaining popularity. Social media enables you to share ideas, content, information, news, many more., faster. In this essay article, we shall look at some essays on social media that talk about the effects, importance of social media, and its advantages and disadvantages.

Why is the Essay on Social Media Important For Your Exams? 

Social media is an integral part of contemporary life, reflecting current communication trends and societal interactions. Understanding social media is crucial for developing technological literacy, a skill increasingly valued in academic and professional settings.

Composing an essay on social media requires research skills, enhancing the ability to gather, analyze, and present information effectively. Exploring the essay topic helps students comprehend the broader societal implications of social media, including its influence on culture, relationships, and information dissemination.

Given the prevalence of technology-related topics in modern exams, writing about social media ensures students are prepared for questions that reflect current realities and issues. Crafting an essay involves articulating thoughts coherently, refining written expression, and honing communication skills essential competencies for academic success.

Long and Short Essay on Social Media

We have given down below short and long essays on social media in English.

These social media essays will improve your knowledge of the subject and make you aware of its advantages and disadvantages.

After reading the essays, you will be able to explain the meaning of social media and its many constituents, its advantages and disadvantages, etc.

You can use these social media essays in your school’s and the college’s many essay writing, speech and debate competitions, etc.

Essay on Social Media (100 words) 

Social media is like a big online playground where people share stories, pictures, and messages. It helps us stay connected with friends and family, even if they are far away. We can learn new things, play games, and discover exciting places. However, we need to be careful and kind online. It's important to use social media responsibly and not share personal information with strangers. Like a superhero, social media has both good and not-so-good sides. By being smart and respectful, we can enjoy the positive aspects and make the internet a happy place for everyone.

Essay on Social Media (150 words)

A tool that has become extremely popular among all generations because of its user-friendly interface is known as social media. The most dominant user crowds of social media are the youth, which is both impressive and a dangerous issue at the same time.

Our connections have increased thanks to social media, and almost the entire world is available on our phone. But among all the fleeting but intriguing trends on social media that impact us, we must be careful not to lose our uniqueness.

The massive reach quality of social media is a powerful quality that makes us wonder about times when it is not be used for positive purposes. And it is no news that industries have also acknowledged the power of social media on our lives and have started using it in their favor.

To sum up, social media has both good and bad aspects, which is a debatable topic, just like our opinions. It also gives rise to several online arguments and debates on social media.

Essay on Social Media (200 words)

The time we are living is a time of digitalization and time of internet. Nowadays People are connected with each other wireless with the help of social media. Social media is having a really wonderful impact on our social life. Most of the people think social media is a boon for us, but some of them think it’s actually a curse.

People have been connected to social media in a high range, and there are pro and cons of social media. We can do so many good things and along with we can do so many bad things, it’s all about our mindset and intention of a user.

Someone can become a social media marketer; who can help people to grow their business on social media. It’s an amazing platform to build anyones business. So you can acknowledge there are a lot more good sides to it. For example, I have found lots of my old school and college friends that I lost due to communication.

Facebook and Twitter help me find them and have a friendship again. That is definitely awesome for everyone as it helps us to find new people, make new friends, and open lots of opportunities in front of us.

Essay on Social Media (250 words)

The most remarkable power in the current scenario is the ability to control information that consumes millions of minds. Social media, in recent times, has become a tool to control and manipulate people’s mind. Popular social media apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc., are helping people stay connected by sharing information with just a click. With highly interactive platforms and user-friendly nature of social media, it becomes more versatile and accessible.

Benefits Of Social Media 

It works as an excellent education tool. Social Media platforms like Whatsapp and Facebook help people stay connected. Instagram and Twitter are excellent marketing tools for small and medium sized businesses that can’t afford to advertise. These platforms help people keep updated with the latest news happening around the world.

Disadvantages Of Social Media 

Online scams and fraud are increasing with on social media. Excessive use of social media results in addiction and reduced attention span. Oversharing in social media leads to cheap comments and bullying, ultimately affecting the user's mental health. Invasion of privacy is also a major issue.

With millions of users worldwide, social media has its own advantages. With diligent use, it can be a tool of great help, but over-usage can lead to a series of negative consequences too. Thus, we must use this mixed reaction bag efficiently to strike the proper balance.

Essay on Social Media (300 Words)

Social media has become an integral part of our lives, transforming how we connect and share information. It encompasses platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, allowing people to interact globally. However, its impact is a double-edged sword.

On the positive side, social media facilitates communication across distances, helping friends and family stay connected. It serves as a platform for sharing experiences, photos, and updates. Moreover, it has become a powerful tool for businesses, enabling them to reach a vast audience and engage with customers.

Yet, social media has its drawbacks. One major concern is the potential for misinformation to spread rapidly. False news and rumors can gain traction, leading to misunderstandings and even influencing public opinion. Additionally, excessive use of social media may contribute to feelings of isolation and negatively impact mental health.

Cyberbullying is another issue, as individuals can hide behind screens to harass others. This has raised concerns about the well-being of users, especially younger ones. Privacy is also a concern, as personal information shared online may be vulnerable to misuse.

Despite these challenges, social media's role in societal dynamics is undeniable. It has played a crucial role in mobilizing social movements, raising awareness on important issues, and giving marginalized voices a platform. Striking a balance between the benefits and pitfalls of social media is essential for harnessing its potential while addressing its challenges.

Essay on Social Media (400 Words)

Social media has become an integral part of our daily lives, influencing how we connect, share, and communicate. It refers to online platforms that allow users to create, share, and exchange content with others. While its impact is vast, there are both positive and negative aspects to consider.

On the positive side, social media facilitates communication on a global scale. It connects people regardless of geographical distances, fostering friendships and enabling the sharing of ideas. Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter serve as virtual meeting places where individuals can stay connected with friends and family.

Moreover, social media serves as a powerful tool for information dissemination. News, trends, and events spread rapidly through these platforms, keeping users informed about the world around them. It has also become a valuable resource for businesses and organizations to promote their products and reach a wider audience.

However, the pervasive nature of social media has its drawbacks. One major concern is these platforms are impacting mental health. The pressure to conform to societal standards portrayed online can contribute to anxiety and stress.

Additionally, the spread of misinformation is a growing problem on social media. False narratives and fake news can easily gain traction, leading to misunderstandings and even influencing public opinion. This challenges the reliability of information shared on these platforms and raises questions about the responsibility of users and platform providers in curbing misinformation.

Furthermore, social media can contribute to the erosion of privacy. Users often share personal information willingly, but the potential misuse of this data raises concerns about digital security and the protection of individuals' privacy rights.

In conclusion, social media has undeniably transformed the way we communicate and access information. Its positive aspects include global connectivity and information dissemination, but there are also concerns related to mental health, misinformation, and privacy. Striking a balance between reaping the benefits of social media while being mindful of its pitfalls is essential for harnessing its potential for a more connected and informed society.

Essay on Social Media (500 Words)

Social media is a medium that is growing quite prevalent nowadays because of its user-friendly behavior. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc are allowing people to unite with each other across distances in one platform. In other words, the whole world is at just one touch finger touch away and all thanks to social media. Today’s generation one of the most aggressive users of social media.

Merits of Social Media

We can see the positive features of social media and find many benefits. Social media becomes most notable being a magnificent source of education. All the knowledge is just a snap away. Learners can teach themselves on different topics using social media platforms.  

Furthermore, live talks are now available because of this medium. You can visit a lecture occurring in America while you are seated here in any where in this world. Moreover, as larger the people are distancing themselves from publications, they are getting more dependent on social media for stories. You are constantly refreshed on the latest happenings of the environment through these platforms.

A person who grows more socially informed of the matters of the world. Distance is not a boundary anymore with the help of social media. Take an example, you can quickly interact with your friends and relatives abroad. Most importantly, it further provides an understanding platform for young aspiring artists to showcase their skills for free. You can perceive great possibilities for a job through these social media too. Another advantage serves companies who want to promote their trademarks or their brands. Social media has converted a hub for promotion and offers you great shots for combining with the customer.

De-merits of Social Media

Instead of holding such huge advantages, social media is known to be one of the most dangerous elements of society. If the usage of social media is not controlled, it can be dangerous as an outcome. It is dangerous because it can make you feel isolated like never before. The oversharing incident on these platforms delivers children a victim for predators and hackers. 

People who are obsessed with Social media can also generate communal cracks. Fake news is published with the application of it, which destroys the minds of peace-loving civilians.

Positive Impacts of Social Media

Social Media is a good tool for education.

It can create awareness for many social issues happening across the world.

There is a fast transfer of information online, so the users can stay well informed through these platforms.

It can also be used as a news media.

Social Media can provide great employment opportunities online.

Negative Impacts of Social Media

It enables cheating in exams.

Dropping grades and lack of performance of students during exams.

Lack of privacy.

Users are vulnerable to cyber crimes such as hacking, identity theft, phishing crimes, etc.

Conclusion on Social Media Essay

In short, actually social media has both gains and losses. But, it all depends on the user. The new generation must especially create stability between their academic fulfillment, physical exercises, and social media. Excess use of anything can be dangerous and the same applies to the use of social media. Accordingly, we must attempt to live a pleasing life with the proper balance.

Frequently Asked Questions 

Question 1: What is social media in 5 lines?

Answer: Social media is an online platform or digital technology that enables users to create, share, and interact with content and connect with people globally.

Question 2:What are the 4 main social media?

Answer: The four main social media platforms commonly referred to are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. However, the social media platforms is vast and continually evolving, with many other platforms gaining popularity.

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How Harmful Is Social Media?

In April, the social psychologist Jonathan Haidt published an essay in The Atlantic in which he sought to explain, as the piece’s title had it, “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid.” Anyone familiar with Haidt’s work in the past half decade could have anticipated his answer: social media. Although Haidt concedes that political polarization and factional enmity long predate the rise of the platforms, and that there are plenty of other factors involved, he believes that the tools of virality—Facebook’s Like and Share buttons, Twitter’s Retweet function—have algorithmically and irrevocably corroded public life. He has determined that a great historical discontinuity can be dated with some precision to the period between 2010 and 2014, when these features became widely available on phones.

“What changed in the 2010s?” Haidt asks, reminding his audience that a former Twitter developer had once compared the Retweet button to the provision of a four-year-old with a loaded weapon. “A mean tweet doesn’t kill anyone; it is an attempt to shame or punish someone publicly while broadcasting one’s own virtue, brilliance, or tribal loyalties. It’s more a dart than a bullet, causing pain but no fatalities. Even so, from 2009 to 2012, Facebook and Twitter passed out roughly a billion dart guns globally. We’ve been shooting one another ever since.” While the right has thrived on conspiracy-mongering and misinformation, the left has turned punitive: “When everyone was issued a dart gun in the early 2010s, many left-leaning institutions began shooting themselves in the brain. And, unfortunately, those were the brains that inform, instruct, and entertain most of the country.” Haidt’s prevailing metaphor of thoroughgoing fragmentation is the story of the Tower of Babel: the rise of social media has “unwittingly dissolved the mortar of trust, belief in institutions, and shared stories that had held a large and diverse secular democracy together.”

These are, needless to say, common concerns. Chief among Haidt’s worries is that use of social media has left us particularly vulnerable to confirmation bias, or the propensity to fix upon evidence that shores up our prior beliefs. Haidt acknowledges that the extant literature on social media’s effects is large and complex, and that there is something in it for everyone. On January 6, 2021, he was on the phone with Chris Bail, a sociologist at Duke and the author of the recent book “ Breaking the Social Media Prism ,” when Bail urged him to turn on the television. Two weeks later, Haidt wrote to Bail, expressing his frustration at the way Facebook officials consistently cited the same handful of studies in their defense. He suggested that the two of them collaborate on a comprehensive literature review that they could share, as a Google Doc, with other researchers. (Haidt had experimented with such a model before.) Bail was cautious. He told me, “What I said to him was, ‘Well, you know, I’m not sure the research is going to bear out your version of the story,’ and he said, ‘Why don’t we see?’ ”

Bail emphasized that he is not a “platform-basher.” He added, “In my book, my main take is, Yes, the platforms play a role, but we are greatly exaggerating what it’s possible for them to do—how much they could change things no matter who’s at the helm at these companies—and we’re profoundly underestimating the human element, the motivation of users.” He found Haidt’s idea of a Google Doc appealing, in the way that it would produce a kind of living document that existed “somewhere between scholarship and public writing.” Haidt was eager for a forum to test his ideas. “I decided that if I was going to be writing about this—what changed in the universe, around 2014, when things got weird on campus and elsewhere—once again, I’d better be confident I’m right,” he said. “I can’t just go off my feelings and my readings of the biased literature. We all suffer from confirmation bias, and the only cure is other people who don’t share your own.”

Haidt and Bail, along with a research assistant, populated the document over the course of several weeks last year, and in November they invited about two dozen scholars to contribute. Haidt told me, of the difficulties of social-scientific methodology, “When you first approach a question, you don’t even know what it is. ‘Is social media destroying democracy, yes or no?’ That’s not a good question. You can’t answer that question. So what can you ask and answer?” As the document took on a life of its own, tractable rubrics emerged—Does social media make people angrier or more affectively polarized? Does it create political echo chambers? Does it increase the probability of violence? Does it enable foreign governments to increase political dysfunction in the United States and other democracies? Haidt continued, “It’s only after you break it up into lots of answerable questions that you see where the complexity lies.”

Haidt came away with the sense, on balance, that social media was in fact pretty bad. He was disappointed, but not surprised, that Facebook’s response to his article relied on the same three studies they’ve been reciting for years. “This is something you see with breakfast cereals,” he said, noting that a cereal company “might say, ‘Did you know we have twenty-five per cent more riboflavin than the leading brand?’ They’ll point to features where the evidence is in their favor, which distracts you from the over-all fact that your cereal tastes worse and is less healthy.”

After Haidt’s piece was published, the Google Doc—“Social Media and Political Dysfunction: A Collaborative Review”—was made available to the public . Comments piled up, and a new section was added, at the end, to include a miscellany of Twitter threads and Substack essays that appeared in response to Haidt’s interpretation of the evidence. Some colleagues and kibbitzers agreed with Haidt. But others, though they might have shared his basic intuition that something in our experience of social media was amiss, drew upon the same data set to reach less definitive conclusions, or even mildly contradictory ones. Even after the initial flurry of responses to Haidt’s article disappeared into social-media memory, the document, insofar as it captured the state of the social-media debate, remained a lively artifact.

Near the end of the collaborative project’s introduction, the authors warn, “We caution readers not to simply add up the number of studies on each side and declare one side the winner.” The document runs to more than a hundred and fifty pages, and for each question there are affirmative and dissenting studies, as well as some that indicate mixed results. According to one paper, “Political expressions on social media and the online forum were found to (a) reinforce the expressers’ partisan thought process and (b) harden their pre-existing political preferences,” but, according to another, which used data collected during the 2016 election, “Over the course of the campaign, we found media use and attitudes remained relatively stable. Our results also showed that Facebook news use was related to modest over-time spiral of depolarization. Furthermore, we found that people who use Facebook for news were more likely to view both pro- and counter-attitudinal news in each wave. Our results indicated that counter-attitudinal exposure increased over time, which resulted in depolarization.” If results like these seem incompatible, a perplexed reader is given recourse to a study that says, “Our findings indicate that political polarization on social media cannot be conceptualized as a unified phenomenon, as there are significant cross-platform differences.”

Interested in echo chambers? “Our results show that the aggregation of users in homophilic clusters dominate online interactions on Facebook and Twitter,” which seems convincing—except that, as another team has it, “We do not find evidence supporting a strong characterization of ‘echo chambers’ in which the majority of people’s sources of news are mutually exclusive and from opposite poles.” By the end of the file, the vaguely patronizing top-line recommendation against simple summation begins to make more sense. A document that originated as a bulwark against confirmation bias could, as it turned out, just as easily function as a kind of generative device to support anybody’s pet conviction. The only sane response, it seemed, was simply to throw one’s hands in the air.

When I spoke to some of the researchers whose work had been included, I found a combination of broad, visceral unease with the current situation—with the banefulness of harassment and trolling; with the opacity of the platforms; with, well, the widespread presentiment that of course social media is in many ways bad—and a contrastive sense that it might not be catastrophically bad in some of the specific ways that many of us have come to take for granted as true. This was not mere contrarianism, and there was no trace of gleeful mythbusting; the issue was important enough to get right. When I told Bail that the upshot seemed to me to be that exactly nothing was unambiguously clear, he suggested that there was at least some firm ground. He sounded a bit less apocalyptic than Haidt.

“A lot of the stories out there are just wrong,” he told me. “The political echo chamber has been massively overstated. Maybe it’s three to five per cent of people who are properly in an echo chamber.” Echo chambers, as hotboxes of confirmation bias, are counterproductive for democracy. But research indicates that most of us are actually exposed to a wider range of views on social media than we are in real life, where our social networks—in the original use of the term—are rarely heterogeneous. (Haidt told me that this was an issue on which the Google Doc changed his mind; he became convinced that echo chambers probably aren’t as widespread a problem as he’d once imagined.) And too much of a focus on our intuitions about social media’s echo-chamber effect could obscure the relevant counterfactual: a conservative might abandon Twitter only to watch more Fox News. “Stepping outside your echo chamber is supposed to make you moderate, but maybe it makes you more extreme,” Bail said. The research is inchoate and ongoing, and it’s difficult to say anything on the topic with absolute certainty. But this was, in part, Bail’s point: we ought to be less sure about the particular impacts of social media.

Bail went on, “The second story is foreign misinformation.” It’s not that misinformation doesn’t exist, or that it hasn’t had indirect effects, especially when it creates perverse incentives for the mainstream media to cover stories circulating online. Haidt also draws convincingly upon the work of Renée DiResta, the research manager at the Stanford Internet Observatory, to sketch out a potential future in which the work of shitposting has been outsourced to artificial intelligence, further polluting the informational environment. But, at least so far, very few Americans seem to suffer from consistent exposure to fake news—“probably less than two per cent of Twitter users, maybe fewer now, and for those who were it didn’t change their opinions,” Bail said. This was probably because the people likeliest to consume such spectacles were the sort of people primed to believe them in the first place. “In fact,” he said, “echo chambers might have done something to quarantine that misinformation.”

The final story that Bail wanted to discuss was the “proverbial rabbit hole, the path to algorithmic radicalization,” by which YouTube might serve a viewer increasingly extreme videos. There is some anecdotal evidence to suggest that this does happen, at least on occasion, and such anecdotes are alarming to hear. But a new working paper led by Brendan Nyhan, a political scientist at Dartmouth, found that almost all extremist content is either consumed by subscribers to the relevant channels—a sign of actual demand rather than manipulation or preference falsification—or encountered via links from external sites. It’s easy to see why we might prefer if this were not the case: algorithmic radicalization is presumably a simpler problem to solve than the fact that there are people who deliberately seek out vile content. “These are the three stories—echo chambers, foreign influence campaigns, and radicalizing recommendation algorithms—but, when you look at the literature, they’ve all been overstated.” He thought that these findings were crucial for us to assimilate, if only to help us understand that our problems may lie beyond technocratic tinkering. He explained, “Part of my interest in getting this research out there is to demonstrate that everybody is waiting for an Elon Musk to ride in and save us with an algorithm”—or, presumably, the reverse—“and it’s just not going to happen.”

When I spoke with Nyhan, he told me much the same thing: “The most credible research is way out of line with the takes.” He noted, of extremist content and misinformation, that reliable research that “measures exposure to these things finds that the people consuming this content are small minorities who have extreme views already.” The problem with the bulk of the earlier research, Nyhan told me, is that it’s almost all correlational. “Many of these studies will find polarization on social media,” he said. “But that might just be the society we live in reflected on social media!” He hastened to add, “Not that this is untroubling, and none of this is to let these companies, which are exercising a lot of power with very little scrutiny, off the hook. But a lot of the criticisms of them are very poorly founded. . . . The expansion of Internet access coincides with fifteen other trends over time, and separating them is very difficult. The lack of good data is a huge problem insofar as it lets people project their own fears into this area.” He told me, “It’s hard to weigh in on the side of ‘We don’t know, the evidence is weak,’ because those points are always going to be drowned out in our discourse. But these arguments are systematically underprovided in the public domain.”

In his Atlantic article, Haidt leans on a working paper by two social scientists, Philipp Lorenz-Spreen and Lisa Oswald, who took on a comprehensive meta-analysis of about five hundred papers and concluded that “the large majority of reported associations between digital media use and trust appear to be detrimental for democracy.” Haidt writes, “The literature is complex—some studies show benefits, particularly in less developed democracies—but the review found that, on balance, social media amplifies political polarization; foments populism, especially right-wing populism; and is associated with the spread of misinformation.” Nyhan was less convinced that the meta-analysis supported such categorical verdicts, especially once you bracketed the kinds of correlational findings that might simply mirror social and political dynamics. He told me, “If you look at their summary of studies that allow for causal inferences—it’s very mixed.”

As for the studies Nyhan considered most methodologically sound, he pointed to a 2020 article called “The Welfare Effects of Social Media,” by Hunt Allcott, Luca Braghieri, Sarah Eichmeyer, and Matthew Gentzkow. For four weeks prior to the 2018 midterm elections, the authors randomly divided a group of volunteers into two cohorts—one that continued to use Facebook as usual, and another that was paid to deactivate their accounts for that period. They found that deactivation “(i) reduced online activity, while increasing offline activities such as watching TV alone and socializing with family and friends; (ii) reduced both factual news knowledge and political polarization; (iii) increased subjective well-being; and (iv) caused a large persistent reduction in post-experiment Facebook use.” But Gentzkow reminded me that his conclusions, including that Facebook may slightly increase polarization, had to be heavily qualified: “From other kinds of evidence, I think there’s reason to think social media is not the main driver of increasing polarization over the long haul in the United States.”

In the book “ Why We’re Polarized ,” for example, Ezra Klein invokes the work of such scholars as Lilliana Mason to argue that the roots of polarization might be found in, among other factors, the political realignment and nationalization that began in the sixties, and were then sacralized, on the right, by the rise of talk radio and cable news. These dynamics have served to flatten our political identities, weakening our ability or inclination to find compromise. Insofar as some forms of social media encourage the hardening of connections between our identities and a narrow set of opinions, we might increasingly self-select into mutually incomprehensible and hostile groups; Haidt plausibly suggests that these processes are accelerated by the coalescence of social-media tribes around figures of fearful online charisma. “Social media might be more of an amplifier of other things going on rather than a major driver independently,” Gentzkow argued. “I think it takes some gymnastics to tell a story where it’s all primarily driven by social media, especially when you’re looking at different countries, and across different groups.”

Another study, led by Nejla Asimovic and Joshua Tucker, replicated Gentzkow’s approach in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and they found almost precisely the opposite results: the people who stayed on Facebook were, by the end of the study, more positively disposed to their historic out-groups. The authors’ interpretation was that ethnic groups have so little contact in Bosnia that, for some people, social media is essentially the only place where they can form positive images of one another. “To have a replication and have the signs flip like that, it’s pretty stunning,” Bail told me. “It’s a different conversation in every part of the world.”

Nyhan argued that, at least in wealthy Western countries, we might be too heavily discounting the degree to which platforms have responded to criticism: “Everyone is still operating under the view that algorithms simply maximize engagement in a short-term way” with minimal attention to potential externalities. “That might’ve been true when Zuckerberg had seven people working for him, but there are a lot of considerations that go into these rankings now.” He added, “There’s some evidence that, with reverse-chronological feeds”—streams of unwashed content, which some critics argue are less manipulative than algorithmic curation—“people get exposed to more low-quality content, so it’s another case where a very simple notion of ‘algorithms are bad’ doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. It doesn’t mean they’re good, it’s just that we don’t know.”

Bail told me that, over all, he was less confident than Haidt that the available evidence lines up clearly against the platforms. “Maybe there’s a slight majority of studies that say that social media is a net negative, at least in the West, and maybe it’s doing some good in the rest of the world.” But, he noted, “Jon will say that science has this expectation of rigor that can’t keep up with the need in the real world—that even if we don’t have the definitive study that creates the historical counterfactual that Facebook is largely responsible for polarization in the U.S., there’s still a lot pointing in that direction, and I think that’s a fair point.” He paused. “It can’t all be randomized control trials.”

Haidt comes across in conversation as searching and sincere, and, during our exchange, he paused several times to suggest that I include a quote from John Stuart Mill on the importance of good-faith debate to moral progress. In that spirit, I asked him what he thought of the argument, elaborated by some of Haidt’s critics, that the problems he described are fundamentally political, social, and economic, and that to blame social media is to search for lost keys under the streetlamp, where the light is better. He agreed that this was the steelman opponent: there were predecessors for cancel culture in de Tocqueville, and anxiety about new media that went back to the time of the printing press. “This is a perfectly reasonable hypothesis, and it’s absolutely up to the prosecution—people like me—to argue that, no, this time it’s different. But it’s a civil case! The evidential standard is not ‘beyond a reasonable doubt,’ as in a criminal case. It’s just a preponderance of the evidence.”

The way scholars weigh the testimony is subject to their disciplinary orientations. Economists and political scientists tend to believe that you can’t even begin to talk about causal dynamics without a randomized controlled trial, whereas sociologists and psychologists are more comfortable drawing inferences on a correlational basis. Haidt believes that conditions are too dire to take the hardheaded, no-reasonable-doubt view. “The preponderance of the evidence is what we use in public health. If there’s an epidemic—when COVID started, suppose all the scientists had said, ‘No, we gotta be so certain before you do anything’? We have to think about what’s actually happening, what’s likeliest to pay off.” He continued, “We have the largest epidemic ever of teen mental health, and there is no other explanation,” he said. “It is a raging public-health epidemic, and the kids themselves say Instagram did it, and we have some evidence, so is it appropriate to say, ‘Nah, you haven’t proven it’?”

This was his attitude across the board. He argued that social media seemed to aggrandize inflammatory posts and to be correlated with a rise in violence; even if only small groups were exposed to fake news, such beliefs might still proliferate in ways that were hard to measure. “In the post-Babel era, what matters is not the average but the dynamics, the contagion, the exponential amplification,” he said. “Small things can grow very quickly, so arguments that Russian disinformation didn’t matter are like COVID arguments that people coming in from China didn’t have contact with a lot of people.” Given the transformative effects of social media, Haidt insisted, it was important to act now, even in the absence of dispositive evidence. “Academic debates play out over decades and are often never resolved, whereas the social-media environment changes year by year,” he said. “We don’t have the luxury of waiting around five or ten years for literature reviews.”

Haidt could be accused of question-begging—of assuming the existence of a crisis that the research might or might not ultimately underwrite. Still, the gap between the two sides in this case might not be quite as wide as Haidt thinks. Skeptics of his strongest claims are not saying that there’s no there there. Just because the average YouTube user is unlikely to be led to Stormfront videos, Nyhan told me, doesn’t mean we shouldn’t worry that some people are watching Stormfront videos; just because echo chambers and foreign misinformation seem to have had effects only at the margins, Gentzkow said, doesn’t mean they’re entirely irrelevant. “There are many questions here where the thing we as researchers are interested in is how social media affects the average person,” Gentzkow told me. “There’s a different set of questions where all you need is a small number of people to change—questions about ethnic violence in Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, people on YouTube mobilized to do mass shootings. Much of the evidence broadly makes me skeptical that the average effects are as big as the public discussion thinks they are, but I also think there are cases where a small number of people with very extreme views are able to find each other and connect and act.” He added, “That’s where many of the things I’d be most concerned about lie.”

The same might be said about any phenomenon where the base rate is very low but the stakes are very high, such as teen suicide. “It’s another case where those rare edge cases in terms of total social harm may be enormous. You don’t need many teen-age kids to decide to kill themselves or have serious mental-health outcomes in order for the social harm to be really big.” He added, “Almost none of this work is able to get at those edge-case effects, and we have to be careful that if we do establish that the average effect of something is zero, or small, that it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be worried about it—because we might be missing those extremes.” Jaime Settle, a scholar of political behavior at the College of William & Mary and the author of the book “ Frenemies: How Social Media Polarizes America ,” noted that Haidt is “farther along the spectrum of what most academics who study this stuff are going to say we have strong evidence for.” But she understood his impulse: “We do have serious problems, and I’m glad Jon wrote the piece, and down the road I wouldn’t be surprised if we got a fuller handle on the role of social media in all of this—there are definitely ways in which social media has changed our politics for the worse.”

It’s tempting to sidestep the question of diagnosis entirely, and to evaluate Haidt’s essay not on the basis of predictive accuracy—whether social media will lead to the destruction of American democracy—but as a set of proposals for what we might do better. If he is wrong, how much damage are his prescriptions likely to do? Haidt, to his great credit, does not indulge in any wishful thinking, and if his diagnosis is largely technological his prescriptions are sociopolitical. Two of his three major suggestions seem useful and have nothing to do with social media: he thinks that we should end closed primaries and that children should be given wide latitude for unsupervised play. His recommendations for social-media reform are, for the most part, uncontroversial: he believes that preteens shouldn’t be on Instagram and that platforms should share their data with outside researchers—proposals that are both likely to be beneficial and not very costly.

It remains possible, however, that the true costs of social-media anxieties are harder to tabulate. Gentzkow told me that, for the period between 2016 and 2020, the direct effects of misinformation were difficult to discern. “But it might have had a much larger effect because we got so worried about it—a broader impact on trust,” he said. “Even if not that many people were exposed, the narrative that the world is full of fake news, and you can’t trust anything, and other people are being misled about it—well, that might have had a bigger impact than the content itself.” Nyhan had a similar reaction. “There are genuine questions that are really important, but there’s a kind of opportunity cost that is missed here. There’s so much focus on sweeping claims that aren’t actionable, or unfounded claims we can contradict with data, that are crowding out the harms we can demonstrate, and the things we can test, that could make social media better.” He added, “We’re years into this, and we’re still having an uninformed conversation about social media. It’s totally wild.”

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20 Oct 2024  ·  Mohamed Bayan Kmainasi , Ali Ezzat Shahroor , Maram Hasanain , Sahinur Rahman Laskar , Naeemul Hassan , Firoj Alam · Edit social preview

Large Language Models (LLMs) have demonstrated remarkable success as general-purpose task solvers across various fields, including NLP, healthcare, finance, and law. However, their capabilities remain limited when addressing domain-specific problems, particularly in downstream NLP tasks. Research has shown that models fine-tuned on instruction-based downstream NLP datasets outperform those that are not fine-tuned. While most efforts in this area have primarily focused on resource-rich languages like English and broad domains, little attention has been given to multilingual settings and specific domains. To address this gap, this study focuses on developing a specialized LLM, LlamaLens, for analyzing news and social media content in a multilingual context. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to tackle both domain specificity and multilinguality, with a particular focus on news and social media. Our experimental setup includes 19 tasks, represented by 52 datasets covering Arabic, English, and Hindi. We demonstrate that LlamaLens outperforms the current state-of-the-art (SOTA) on 16 testing sets, and achieves comparable performance on 10 sets. We make the models and resources publicly available for the research community.(https://huggingface.co/QCRI)

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