Final Essay

According to “Statista”, “In 2016, 78 percent of U.S. Americans had a social media profile, representing a five percent growth compared to the previous year” (Percentage of U.S. population). Social media is a huge part of our society now. Most people are becoming addicted to social media and it has mainly caused a negative impact on our society. I believe that social media should be used less, so things can change for the better. Social media has caused stress, cyberbullying, and has affected how people interact with each other.

Some people believe that social media is good for communication. In the article, “Internet Changing the Way We Communicate”, they talk about how communication is better with social media. According to Wellman, a sociologist

Paul Booth, PhD, an assistant professor of media and cinema studies in the College of Communication at DePaul University in Chicago, reveals how social media affects our communication. Paul Booth states that, “Social media certainly affects how we engage with one another across all venues and ages. There has been a shift in the way we communicate; rather than face-to-face interaction, we’re tending to prefer mediated communication. We’d rather e-mail than meet; we’d rather text than talk on the phone.” Social media has changed the way we communicate with people for the worse. It is harder to have a quality conversation and it creates gaps between people’s conversations. If people lessen their social media use, then it will allow them to interact more face to face and be more connected with their surroundings. As a result, it is clear that social media needs to be used less. MIT psychology professor Sherry Turkle also explains how social media affects our communication. Turkle says that, “The rise of social networking has coincided with an erosion of the quality of conversation. As we ramp up the volume and velocity of online connections, we start to expect faster answers.To get these, we ask one another simpler questions; we dumb down our communications, even on the most important matters”. People that are using social media, are constantly ruining the meaning of communication for themselves and others. The quality of conversation has gone down which can cause social confusion. This makes it evident that people should lower their use of social media. In addition, not only communication is affected by the use of social