Social media use is on the rise and shows little signs of slowing down. In fact, according to some of the most recent statistics (2019), there are 4.8 billion social media users worldwide, equating to about 42% of the current population.
Standing most obviously among these giants of popularity is Facebook, with over 2.32 billion active monthly users, making it the most widely used social media platform. Approximately two-thirds of U.S. adults (68%) now report that they are Facebook users.
With this many people on Facebook, and other forms of social media, the topic has obviously become part of our international dialogue regarding community standards, fair use, and protecting one's privacy online. For these reasons, as you enter into a learning community, you'll likely be asked to write a social media essay or an essay on the topic of social media.
In this article, we will discuss how to:
- Research your social media essay
- Draft an outline for it
- Write your social media essay (with samples)
Research
Ready to get started? Obviously, researching the topic is the first step to writing a social media essay once you've determined what you want to write about. In this case, the broader topic is social media but you'll need to narrow that down in order to determine how to organize your essay. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
Social media essay topics
- How has social media changed culture over the past 10 years? Do you think these changes were good or bad?
- Do you think social media has brought us closer together? Or has it caused distance between people?
- What are some ways social media has been used to stir political change or controversy? Has this been a problem or a benefit for society, as a whole?
- Do you think it's important to take a periodic extended break from social media? Why or why not?
- Do you believe cyberbullying is a problem on social media, and if so, how can we fix it or put an end to it?
Find valid sources
Now that you've determined how to narrow down the topic to something interesting to write about relating to social media, let's look at how to find valid sources for your social media essay. Keep in mind that there will be a lot of information available online concerning social media—some of it is useful and important, some of it isn't. The important thing now is to determine what makes a source valid and how to locate that source.
Valid sources are sources that are crafted from research. They are sources written by experts in the field who have a grasp of what's going on across its ever-changing landscape. You can locate valid sources by looking for marketing studies that have been done, such as those conducted by organizations like Pew Research. According to its site, Pew Research is a nonpartisan fact tank that informs the public about the issues, attitudes and trends shaping the world.
This means that they provide valid, important statistics and data that can help shape research.
Draft an outline for it
Once you get your essay topic determined, it's best to go ahead and start working on an outline based on what you've discovered in your research. For this article, we'll choose the topic: Do you think it's important to take a periodic extended break from social media? Why or why not?
After researching information, my outline might look something like this:
- Introduction
- Mention the purpose of the essay (which is to discuss your narrowed topic related to social media)
- A thesis statement that best answers the question related to your chosen topic. "Those who participate in social media on a daily basis should take periodic extended breaks from their social media use to encourage mental wellbeing."
- Body para 1
- Psychologists have determined that extended social media use can be damaging for a person's mental wellness.
- Offer examples
- Body para 2
- Social media and cell phone use make us more lonely and depressed.
- Offer examples
- Body para 3
- Taking sporadic, extended social media breaks allows the brain to reset and return to a less agitated condition
- Offer examples
- Conclusion
- A brief restatement of your thesis
Write your essay
Now it's time to write the essay. Using your research and the outline you've created, your social media essay might look something like this:
Sample social media essay
Have you ever sat through minutes of endless scrolling and wanted to take a break from social media? If you answered "yes", apparently, you're not the only one. In fact, those who participate in social media on a daily basis should take periodic extended breaks from their social media use to encourage mental wellbeing. A recent study conducted by the Associated Press and NORC at the University of Chicago asked 790 American teens (between the ages of 13 and 17) about their daily habits surrounding social media, messaging, and video content. According to the results, teens do, in fact, take social media breaks—both because they are forced to and because they choose to willingly.
According to Dr. Kristen Fuller, Psychologist and writer for Psychology Today, all the social media use makes us constantly compare our lives with others—and not in a good way! We forget that we are only seeing the "highlight reel" of their lives, and when we compare our own, our own can look pretty drab by comparison. Dr. Fuller writes, We live in a world where we constantly compare our lives to others and oftentimes do not take time to recognize our triggers, defeats, challenges, accomplishments, and endeavors because we are so busy trying to present ourselves in the best form possible. We don't take a moment to unwind, take a deep breath, and disconnect from the world. Rarely do people post their daily struggles on their social media accounts, partially because we are driven by society to showcase the best parts of our lives and not our struggles.
Beyond this, social media use can affect our mental wellbeing, including factors of loneliness and depression. In one University of Pennsylvania study, researchers examined how social media use causes fear of missing out. Some of the participants in the study limited their time on social media to 30 minutes a day, while the rest continued to use social media as they normally would use it. After three weeks, the participants who limited their time on social media said that they felt less depressed and lonely than people who had no social media limits.
When we take sporadic breaks from social media, we allow ourselves to return to a less-glossy "highlight" reel. We focus more on day-to-day interactions that are face-to-face—interactions that are necessary for our emotional and spiritual wellbeing. If your best friend is having a birthday, calling him or her up to wish them a happy birthday is always more intimate and bonding that posting something on their Facebook wall. It shows that you went out of your way to have a real interaction—one that isn't influenced by a lot of other people's chatter and memes.
In conclusion, I believe that social media plays an important role in society and has some benefits. However, it can also make us compare ourselves with others too quickly, or compare our real lives with their "highlight" reel on social media, since few posts about when they're having a bad day. Without moderating our use of it, we could be allowing social media to send us into a spiral of depression and loneliness on the days when we are on it too much. That's why regular, consistent social media breaks are important—to allow our brain to "reset" and return to remembering what it means to live life off of a digital highlight reel.
