University Research Report: Social Media Among Adolescents and Careers

This report investigates the influence of social media on the career skill development of adolescents. It begins with an introduction highlighting the increasing prevalence of social media among young people and its potential impact on their future careers. A literature review examines existing research on social media usage, its impact on education, and its role in career development, including the use of platforms like YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. The research problem focuses on how social media influences adolescents in developing their career skills, with specific questions on both positive and negative impacts. The methodology section outlines the research design, approach, and data collection methods, including ethical considerations. The report then delves into the impact of social media on career development, including the benefits of skill-building, networking, and online presence, and also explores the negative effects, before concluding with a summary of the findings and recommendations.

Running head: SOCIAL MEDIA AMONG ADOLESCENTS
Social Media among Adolescents in Developing Career Skills
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
Research Problem and Question......................................................................................................4
Literature review..............................................................................................................................6
Introduction..................................................................................................................................6
Social Media Platforms in the Present Age.................................................................................6
Social Media use that can Impact Career Skills among Adolescents..........................................7
Impact of Social Media for the Development of Career Skills...................................................8
Career Development of adolescents with Social Media Platforms...........................................9
Negative Impact of Social Media..............................................................................................10
Chapter 3: Research methodology.................................................................................................11
3.0 Overview..............................................................................................................................11
3.1 Research outline...................................................................................................................11
3.2 Research philosophy............................................................................................................11
3.3 Research approach...............................................................................................................12
3.4 Research design...................................................................................................................13
3.5 Research strategy.................................................................................................................14
3.6 Sampling size and sample technique...................................................................................14

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3.7 Data collection process........................................................................................................15
3.8 Data analysis technique.......................................................................................................16
3.9 Ethical considerations..........................................................................................................16
3.10 Accessibility issues............................................................................................................17
3.11 Summary............................................................................................................................17
Chapter 5: Conclusion...................................................................................................................18
References......................................................................................................................................20
Appendix........................................................................................................................................24
Survey questionnaire.................................................................................................................24

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Introduction
In today’s world the social networking sites realm have increased rapidly and various
scholars have started probing into the key aspects of social networking sites. It has been noticed
that the usage of social networking sites among the adolescents or college students is higher than
any other group of people. Besides, it can be said that the use of social media platform has turned
into a necessity for the teenagers.
This topic has interested our team because we wanted to research on a theme which influences
the future business. In the current scenario, social media platforms has a vital role in determining
the success of a business and adolescents being the next generation entrepreneurs, we as a team
wish to research on the impact these social networking platforms would have in developing the
career skills among the adolescents.
Literature Review
It has been researched that the modern forms of education in schools, colleges and
universities permits the students to use laptops and smart phones for changing the classroom
dynamics, staying organized and assessing learning (Park et al. 2009).
Another study was conducted by Ellen B Meier and Keol Lim (2012) that clearly
analyzed and provided an in-depth overview about the influence of social networking sites on the
Korean students. The entire study focus attention on how there is an increase of international
students getting admission in US universities. It constrained themselves for two specific
questions like how the international students use various social networking sites and how does
these students make out the influence of these sites on developing affective career skills?

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A research study by Moira Burke and Cameron Marlow (2011) named “Facebook as
social capital” gave special importance in distinguishing the uses and the users. According to
them, social networking sites are treated as an activity of monolithic.
Petter Bae Brandtzaeg and Jan Heim (2009) considered the key shape of impetus factors
that inspects the usage of social networking sites among college students. The researchers
critically found that the major subjective motivational reasons for using the social networking
sites are key attempts for understanding the use of choice, adoption, acceptance, and diffusion of
social networking sites mainly among the college students.
Nicole Ellison (2008) studies that social networking sites has great significance in
students for provoking the level of insights. The study specifically disclosed that about 85%
participants are active in more than one social networking site which shows that there has been a
significant increase in using these sites in the past couple of years.
Research Problem and Question
Over the past decade, many research studies have been conducted all around the globe for
investigating how the social networking sites may influence the adolescents in development of
career skills. This is the research problem that we intend to address that would prolifically
facilitate a clear overview about the distinctive dimensions of influence of social networking
sites in adolescents in developing their career skills.
Thus the research focuses on the following Primary question:
 How do social media influence adolescents in developing their career skills?
Also, the following sub-questions will be looked into:

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 What are the positive impacts of social media to develop career skills in adolescents?
What are the negative impacts of social media to develop career skills in adolescents

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Literature review
Introduction
Social media is now an integral part of lives of the adolescents. The adolescents in the
present age use social media platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Facebook, Snap chat, twitter
along with LinkedIn that helps them in staying connected with the world. Since the last decade
the use of social media is increasing rapidly throughout the world, especially among adolescents.
Evidently social media have become an integral part of the lives of these youth (Gemmill and
Peterson 2006).Around 95 % of the teenagers have access to smart phone and 45 % admit to the
fact that they stay online constantly (Moreno et al. 2015). Adolescents in the present age make
use of the social media platforms so that they can develop their career skills. The adolescents can
nurture their career skills with the help of a variety of social media platforms like Youtube and
Instagram that helps them in developing their professional career. This will drastically help them
in developing their time management and inter personal skills. Communication with the friends
along with the family causes the adolescents all over the world to make use of technology. Social
media has emerged to become an important aspect in lives of adolescents in Western countries as
it helps them in sharing the interests and exploring the identities. It helps them in staying
connected to the global communities on the basis of their interests. This literature review throws
light on the role that is played by social media for developing the career skills among the
adolescents.
Social Media Platforms in the Present Age
There are various kinds of social media platforms in the modern age like Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn, Google +, You tube, Pinterest along with Instagram. Facebook has more than

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1.59 billion monthly active users that helps in connecting people across the world (Huda et al.
2017).Business in the present age makes use of Twitter so that they can carry out interaction with
the prospective clients. LinkedIn is another social media platform that is used for the purpose of
professional networking. It helps in connecting the people who are from similar industries and it
helps in displaying the business related information along with the statistics. The Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) value of Google + has helped it in becoming popular in the present age that
caters to the need of the small business. YouTube is the name of a social media website that is
video-based and is hugely popular among the young generation. According to Gandini(2016),
the social media platform of Pinterest makes use of the digital bulletin boards that helps the
business in pinning the content. Instagram is a visual social media platform which has various
kinds of filters along with photo editing features. Since this platforms uses pictures to describe
their ideas it attracts a major portion of the youngsters.
Social Media use that can Impact Career Skills among Adolescents
Social media tools have become accessible over the Internet in present era and they can
easily be accessed with the help of various kinds of Smartphone applications. It has been argued
by Yonker et al.(2015), that the social media helps the adolescents in the arena of social
comparison along with self-disclosure that has made them popular now a days. The adolescents
can share the information with other people by collecting the information using social media
platform. According to Weinstein(2018), the adolescents take recourse to the platform in social
media for the purpose of impression management. It helps the adolescents in highlighting the
positive aspects in relation to their self-esteem and it minimizes the characteristics that are
thought of to be unattractive in the society. Moreover it has been found that the use of Social
media is helpful for curing some psychological problems including low life-satisfaction and low

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self-esteem (Ellison 2017).There are various kinds of new social media platforms like the
Snapchat, Instagram along with Tumblr that helps in the development of youth. Social media is
used by the youth for various kinds of adolescent development task that is inclusive of identity
development along with aspiration development (Vermeulen, Vandebosch and Heirman 2018).
The adolescents strive for the aspect of the autonomy that makes them take recourse to the social
media platforms. It can help the adolescents in getting the social support and provides them with
the opportunity in relation to the self-disclosure.
Impact of Social Media for the Development of Career Skills
There are various sort of benefits that are achieved by the adolescents’ especially the
college students in searching necessary information about career development skills (Madge et
al. 2009). The social media websites helps in highlighting personality traits which the employers
want to see. It makes the job seekers more conscious about their aptitudes along with the abilities
and helps them in sharpening their skill set. According to Bond (2016), the potential employers
look for experience along with qualifications in the present era and social media platforms helps
in connecting the employer with that of the employee. According to de Vries et al. (2016), it can
help the adolescents in knowing about the opportunities of volunteering work that can help in
building the skill set of the adolescents. It also helps them to engage in volunteering work in any
kind of organization which enables them to develop their professional skills for a long term. It
has been stated by Bányai et al. (2017), that social media pages can be used by the adolescents in
demonstrating their written communication skills that proves to be of great help for the
adolescents. Social media is used by the adolescents in promotion of the industry-related blog
post that great serves their interests in the modern era (Sajid 2016). It can also help in engaging
themselves with various kinds of industries that proves to be beneficial for the adolescents living

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all over the world. The adolescents can research the companies where they want to work which
proves to be of great benefit for their future (Özgür 2016).
Career Development of adolescents with Social Media Platforms
According to Vitak (2008) there are various reasons as to why individuals use Social
media. Social media encourage sociability and social interaction (Keenan and Shirile 2009).In
addition to that, the usage of social media can help in building communication skills among the
adolescents that can prove to be advantageous for them. These youngsters can gain knowledge in
relation to the various subjects that can help in their professional development. Social media can
help in strengthening the aspects of friendship that can help in consolidating the knowledge of
the adolescents. Donna Reid and Fraser Reid (2004) focused on how Social media can positively
impact interpersonal communication. The study states that adolescents were found to be more
likely to discuss their “real-self” through social media compared to other means of
communication. It appears that there is something special about Social media that allow
adolescents to develop their interpersonal relationship with others .Through social media
adolescents tend to maintain their interpersonal relationship with their online friends. This can
make them feel empowered and can help them in making connection with the world. The voices
of the adolescents can be heard with the help of the social media that can help them in
sharpening their skills.
Social media helps the adolescents in the arena of the genuine relationship-building that
proves to be of great help for the youngsters in their career development (Chassiakos et al.
2016). Social media can train the adolescents in the area of copy writing along with public
speaking that can prove to be of great help in landing themselves in their area of interest. It can
help in the development of online presence of an individual which motivates them in the arena of

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job search (Radovic et al. 2017). It can also help the people in posting the job offers and job
requirements which simultaneously help the adolescents in finding suitable job based on their
qualification. Social media helps the employers in reviewing the profile of the candidates that
can aid in the professional development of the individuals in the society. The vital social media
platform used for Job hunting is LinkedIn.
Negative Impact of Social Media
Social media makes people vulnerable to the acts of cyber bullying. The adolescents
become prone to cyber bullying that takes their mind away from their career. Personal data along
with the privacy of the individuals can be hacked very easily, which can lead to loss of privacy
and also increase their stress level and lead them to depression (Vannucci, Flannery and
Ohannessian 2017). Facebook accounts along with personal Twitter accounts of the individuals
can be hacked that can prove to be detrimental for the adolescents in the modern era of
technology (Cookingham and Ryan 2015).

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Chapter 3: Research methodology
3.0 Overview
This chapter developed comprises of different types of methodological tools that are in
existence followed by mentioning, defining and justifying their selection for determining how
social media platforms influence adolescents in developing their career skills. The chapter is
developed in accordance with the research topic “Social media among adolescents in developing
career skills” and listing selected methodologies those are used for achieving the research aim
and objectives.
3.1 Research outline
For conducting the research on topic, “Social media among adolescents in developing
career skills”, positivism, deductive approach, descriptive design and interview research strategy
has been used. Based on the aforementioned selected methodologies, 5 adolescents were selected
using non-probability sampling technique for gathering adequate data using primary data
collection process and using qualitative data analysis technique.
3.2 Research philosophy
Research philosophy is defined as the methodological tool that is used for research
gathering data using relevant information, data validity and reliability. One branch of research
philosophy is epistemology. Epistemology mainly deals with nature, possibilities, sources and
limitations in the field of the selected research topic. On the other hand, epistemology is also
regarded as the study that follows the criteria by which the researcher can decide what does and
does not include in the study. Therefore, epistemology emphasizes on what is known to be true
and is opposite of ontology. Epistemology has many branches such as essentialism, historical,