An Analysis of the Negative Impacts of Social Media on Young Adults

This essay explores the various adverse effects of social media on young adults. It begins by highlighting how social media platforms facilitate hate speech, often targeting vulnerable groups and going unchecked by authorities. The essay then delves into the issue of social distrust and how young adults may adopt aggressive behaviors based on online content. Furthermore, it addresses the prevalence of cyberbullying and identity theft on social media platforms, emphasizing the risks associated with sharing personal information. The essay concludes by discussing the dangers of online grooming, where pedophiles exploit social media to target and manipulate young adults, exposing them to potential harm. The author uses references to support the arguments.

Running Head: ENGLISH COMPOSITION Student Name: 1
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ENGLISH COMPOSITION Student Name: 2
Social media is a medium of interaction through which individuals share content, ideas, thoughts,
and other forms of interaction online through virtue of communication. This is a medium that
was expected by its innovators to be of positive use and impact people positively (Zivnuska 2).
However, this is not the case for young adults since it is more harmful and has turned to be so
toxic. Generally, there are varieties of the adverse effect that social media has to young adults
(Heffer 464). Social media has been used as a medium through which young adults spread hate
speech regarding other people, political leaders, their nations, among others. For example, when
young adults use social media that are available today, such as Facebook and Twitter, they are
likely going to fall as the victims of the hate speech spread on these platforms, and to some
extent, they find themselves spreading hate speech without their know-how based on their age.
This problem can be more severe to girls and other young adults who belong to minority
communities since most of the times, the kind of hate speech spread through social media is
gender-based or even tribal-based. The annoying part of it all is that the government is not taking
any legal action against those who spread hate speech on social media. This reluctant act by the
government attracts the young adults to practice hate speech since they know at the end of the
day, the government won't act on them. Rarely do the government take legal action against
individuals who spread hate speech in social media which attracts young adults to practice it
knowing the government won't take any action against them (Hogue 3)
There is a lot of social distrust happening through social media. Young adults may indulge in
aggressive or offensive behavior in their daily lives through what they view in social media. This
is because adults may think what they see in social media is what they should practice in their
daily lives of which is very far from the truth. Also, social media is a medium through which
people practice cyberbullying today (Heffer 462).

ENGLISH COMPOSITION Student Name: 3
Though social media, there is a lot of identity theft taking place (Hogue 4). Many of them thinks
that, sharing their personal information such as photos of themselves in social media is safe
without understanding that, their images and other private information can be used by wrong
individuals thus putting their lives into risk (Hogue 5).
Of recent, social media has been associated with a lot of online grooming. Through the use of
fake soil media accounts, pedophiles can create fake accounts with fake names and pretend to be
of the same age as the young adults they are interacting. Then, they gather information such as
the institutions where these young adults’ study, their places of residence, and where they usually
hang out during their free time. After getting this information, they use it to bully and make
sexual contacts with these adults, thus exposing them to explicit social imagery (Zivnuska 10).

ENGLISH COMPOSITION Student Name: 4
References
Heffer, Taylor, et al. "The Longitudinal Association Between Social-Media Use and Depressive
Symptoms Among Adolescents and Young Adults: An Empirical Reply to Twenge et al.
(2018)." Clinical Psychological Science, 7.3 (2019): 462-470.
Hogue, Jacqueline V., and Jennifer S. Mills. "The effects of active social media engagement with
peers on body image in young women." Body image 28 (2019): 1-5.
Hou, Yubo, et al. "Social media addiction: Its impact, mediation, and
intervention." Cyberpsychology: Journal of Psychosocial Research on Cyberspace 13.1
(2019).
Zivnuska, Suzanne, et al. "Social media addiction and social media reactions: The implications
for job performance." The Journal of social psychology (2019): 1-15.