The Relationship Between Social Media and Empathy in Children and Teenagers

This persuasive essay explores the impact of social media on empathy in children and teenagers. It discusses the positive effects of social media on children, how it helps to develop social awareness in teenagers, and the negative impacts of social media on youth empathy.

Comm1007: Persuasive Essay Outline
Due: Thursday, July 2, 2018
Name: ___________________________
Outline:
Hook:
Social media is a platform where people can express their feelings, communicate with others
and understand the perspective the way others think which is referred to as empathy. It helps
in developing a strong relationship that lasts for 3 months to 2 years. Social networking sites
allows a person to depict one true self to new people. However, if this relationship is
maintained in both online and offline, it is expected to stay forever.
Thesis Statement:
Empathy can be broadly described as perceiving others pain and feelings. It is considered as
one’s ability to feel the pain after seeing the other person in pain. A lot of research have found
that the various online networking sites have been successful in creating such feelings in people.
The above lines say that there is strong relationship between social media and empathy, there is
no need to train children and teenagers to re-engage in the real world to increase empathy.
Background Paragraph
I. Topic Sentence: Social media has positive impact on children
Supporting Points
a. Children between the ages of 9 to 10, who use social media, has more physical
activity, less family conflict and more empathy.
b. Power of communication in social media is much more than the other general
Medias
c. When a child reacts to the posts, status or comments with empathetic reply
he/she is trying to give comfort to that person
Supporting Research (Ideas on how I plan to use this source in my essay (i.e., which part of my
argument does it support? Are there direct quotes or summaries of key ideas I can use? If so, what are they?)) :
Empathy can be expressed in Social media like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram through inbox
messaging, wall posts status liking and so on. In addition, another literature review on online and
offline communication in children revealed that computer-mediated communication tends to
share the same feeling and emotion as that of face-to-face communication. It is even said that the
children might convey feelings and empathy more in online than in offline communication.
Citation: The Positive Effects of Social Media On Teens. (2018). Retrieved from
https://igreviews.org/2017/10/positive-effects-social-media-teens/
Evidence Paragraph
II. Topic Sentence: Social media helps to develop social awareness in teenagers
III. Supporting Points
a. Extrovert teens find it easier to mingle with friends and family however, the
introverts faces a severe problem while communicating with others face-to-face.

They find Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApp to be the best platform to express
their feeling and understand others
b. Social media improved cognitive as well as affective empathy over time.
IV. Supporting Research (Ideas on how I plan to use this source in my essay (i.e.,
which part of my argument does it support? Are there direct quotes or summaries of key ideas I
can use? If so, what are they?)): Last year when someone had stolen the violin of a
homeless man and a social media user posted that on Facebook asking to help
that man by giving him a violin. The video went viral and helped to raise voice
against that person who stole the violin
Citation: Do Today's Tech-Obsessed Teens Have Less Empathy?. (2018). Retrieved from
https://www.teensafe.com/blog/todays-tech-obsessed-teens-less-empathy/
Rebuttal Paragraph
V. Topic Sentence: Negative impacts of social media on youth empathy
Supporting Points
a. Children who use Facebook tends to be more aggressive and depressed
b. There are a lot of children who just scrolls down the news feed without even
reading them. They are quite ignorant to people feelings
c. Online conversation is considered non-verbal communication and therefore, it is
assumed that the teenagers might become unable to communicate face-to-face
Supporting Research (Ideas on how I plan to use this source in my essay (i.e., which part
of my argument does it support? Are there direct quotes or summaries of key ideas I can use? If so, what
are they?)): Parents often complain that children are becoming unsocial and reluctant to
attend social gatherings. It affects the mental health of the teenagers. It is said that
offline communication is the best way to portrait ones feeling. The real world empathy
only comes with face-to-face communication as revealed by some of the authors
Citation: Tandoc, E. C., Ferrucci, P., & Duffy, M. (2015). Facebook use, envy, and depression
among college students: Is facebooking depressing? Computers in Human Behavior, 43,
139-146.