Research Proposal: Social Media's Impact on Young People in the UK

This report is a research proposal examining the impact of social media on young people in the United Kingdom. It begins with a background on the increasing role of social media in daily life and its potential privacy and security risks. A literature review highlights the significant changes social media has brought to young people's habits, including news consumption, entertainment, education, and personal interactions. The report aims to analyze the positive and negative effects of social media on young people, including its influence on adolescent mental health, and provides suggestions and conclusions. It also outlines key areas of focus, including various social media sites and their popularity, along with the methodology, which involves interpretivism and a deductive research approach using secondary sources. The report concludes that technology has led to enhanced social media use by young people, with both positive aspects like easy data sharing and fast communication, and negative ones like health issues and data security threats. Reference sources include academic journals and online resources to support the research. The report is a comprehensive overview of the topic and provides a framework for future research.

IMPACT OF SOCIAL
MEDIA ON YOUNG
PEOPLE IN UK

Table of Contents
Selected Topic: Social media impact on young people in the United Kingdom ...........................1
Background .....................................................................................................................................1
Literature review .............................................................................................................................1
Aim .................................................................................................................................................1
Objectives .......................................................................................................................................1
Key areas to be focus ......................................................................................................................2
Key sources......................................................................................................................................2
Methodology....................................................................................................................................2
Timeline ..........................................................................................................................................2
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................3
Reference.........................................................................................................................................3

Selected Topic: Social media impact on young people in the United Kingdom
Background
In present scenario a rapid advancement and improvement is seen in technology that has
increased the use and role of social media in day to day operations of an individuals. Social
media is basically a collection of various application and websites that are created to allow easy
sharing of data and information across different person in a less time period and in cost efficient
way (Hodder and Houghton, 2020). But sharing of data on a social network site is has also out
some privacy risk and other security threats. Thus, current investigation is lade to evaluate about
the impact of social media on the young people of UK in girder to analysis and evaluate both
positive as well as negative implication of social media.
Literature review
As per the view point of Leyva, R., 2017, it has been evaluated that maximum number of
adults and young people of UK are relied on social media for a wide range of reasons that
comprises of various uses of social media. Thus, social media has lead a significant level of
change and impact on the young people of UK that comprises of change in way of watching
news and entertainment along with educational and personal habits of an individual (The
Influence of Social Media on Young People, 2020). Use of social media lead both positive and
negative impact on the individuals through leading a fast and convenient way of communication
along with enhancing the privacy and security threat.
Aim
The main aim associated with current project is, “To examine the social media impact on
young people in the United Kingdom”.
Objectives
 To analyse the type of impact of social media on young people.
 The positive and negative influence of social media and adolescent mental health.
 To give suggestion, conclusions and reflection.
Research Questions
 What social media sites are there?
 What is the most popular social networking site? How many users it has?
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Key areas to be focus
The areas which need to be focus during course of current investigation comprises of
evaluation of impact lade by use of social media on the young people of UK along with
emphasising on the negative and positive influence of social media on the mental health of
adolescent. Further, current assignment also having a focus on various social media sites in order
to evaluate most popular social networking site.
Key sources
The current assignment consists of evaluation of various key sources and literature that
comprises of online links, articles and other authentic journal and secondary sources available in
form of literature to develop better understanding about the topic of impact of social media.
Methodology
The current assignment is based on interpretivism research philosophy as it ensures and
lead to better interpretation and analysis of human interest in a better way along with the use of
deductive research approach to support the secondary findings collected for current investigation.
The investigation is based on Qualitative research which leads collection of in-depth information
(Serenko, Turel and Siddiqui, 2020). Further, collection of data is only made through secondary
sources as it provide a easy and simplest way of data collection in limited period of time.
Timeline
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Conclusion
On the basis of current research proposal a conclusion can be drawn that rapid
advancement and improvement in technology has lead to enhanced use of social media by young
people that have both positive and negative impact. The positive impact of use of social media
comprises of easy sharing of data and fast communication where as negative comprises of
enhance health issues and data security threats. Further, it has been also summarised that use of
secondary sources of data allows a better and simper way for gathering information.
Reference
Hodder, A. and Houghton, D. J., 2020. Unions, social media and young workers—evidence from
the UK. New Technology, Work and Employment. 35(1). pp.40-59.
Leyva, R., 2017. Exploring UK millennials’ social media consumption patterns and participation
in elections, activism, and “slacktivism”. Social Science Computer Review. 35(4).
pp.462-479.
Serenko, A., Turel, O. and Siddiqui, H., 2020. The Impact of Social Networking Sites Use on
Health-Related Outcomes Among UK Adolescents.
Berryman, C., Ferguson, C.J. and Negy, C., 2018. Social media use and mental health among
young adults. Psychiatric quarterly. 89(2). pp.307-314.
Online:
The Influence of Social Media on Young People. 2020. [Online] Available Through:
<https://www.fenews.co.uk/press-releases/40316-the-influence-of-social-media-on-
children>
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