Effects Of Social Media On Personality Development

The internet and social media are now deeply embedded in our everyday life as well as our daily routines. Today, social media is affecting our social interactions and personality development more than ever. Today’s adolescents, more than previous generations, are dependent on social media because they were born at the time social media was reaching its peak. In recent years, more than 1.5 billion people are a part of the social media site Facebook(Brailovskaia and Margraf). According to Sultan Alzahrani, a computer engineer in Science and Technology, and Christian Bach, an assistant professor and Biomedical Engineer in Technology Management, child and adolescent personality development is becoming more dependent on their interaction and involvement

It is important to see the individual and personal effects social media has on all people and personality development. According to Julia Levitan, a student and researcher at the University of Pennsylvania, social media has monumentally affected culture and society as a whole as well as human interactions. The study done by Levitan shows that the big five personality traits, openness, conscientiousness, extraversion,agreeableness, and neuroticism, positively correlates with social media involvement. Social media has gradually become a dominant factor in determining our ability to socially interact. According to Jean Twenge, an author of more than 130 scientific publications and an American psychologist researcher on generational differences including work and differences, kids are less likely to participate in collective activities and interactions because of their involvement in social media. Social network sites are becoming an influential force in determining our social skills and overall tendency to interact with others. Recent studies have shown that 62% of people observed on a college campus use their electronics in the presence of others (Emily Drago). This information truly emphasizes that social media has gradually become a problem known across the globe. The drawback presented with getting involved with social media is that while it can be

Many studies have revealed the link between the use of social media and extroversion. Ozguven and Mucan, qualitative social researchers on communication and media, acknowledge that using social media may leads to stronger relationships than might have been possible through face-to-face methods. It is validated that if an individual has a strong face-to-face interaction they have had referred to social media repeatedly. While social media does help extroverts in some aspects, it can also be a detrimental factor of their social interactions and personality. According to Kabadayi, a researcher on social relationships, along with his colleague, Alan, extroverts are more likely to be engaged and involved in social media. Being that extroverts are more likely to participate in face-to-face activity, social media is detracting from the physical and more personal interactions. Through various studies on extrovertism, the result shown is that extraverts do engage in social media the most, thus yet again lessening the value of face-to-face interactions and relationships. One advantage that comes with social media is that the more time spent on social media, the more extroverted one becomes. As reiterated by researcher Julia Levitan in her article Social Media Use as a Predator or Personality, extroverts benefit more than introverts from social media because it fuels outgoing behavior. Overall, social