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CCT205 Group Research Assignment: Social Media
Nicolette Byrd Graham, Priyanka Kumar, Lauren Morettin, Shae Milutin
Thursday March 1st, 2012
Social media has inevitably become apart of the average persons day-to-day life. Especially in a program like CCIT, social media plays a vital role in the topics taught in our program. As introduced in class, Web 2.0 is the foundation that social media (groups of internet-based applications) build upon. It allows for the creation and exchange of user-generated content (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). With this type of widespread appeal, social media spreads across numerous mediums for its users to take advantage of. Our common concern regarding social media is its impact and effects it has on its users. The influence that social media has on its users is certainly powerful, although it is beneficial the negative often go unseen. Our research will be exploring the physical repercussions, psychological factors, and social effects it has on its users. Our communication strategy will focus on the encouragement of getting active, especially for teens and young adults, and decrease the dependency on social media outlets.
The influence that social media holds extends into a person’s own well being as it has the ability to affect a person’s health in multiple ways. With scientists and psychologists looking further into the lives of users of social media and activities such as texting and using social networking sites being examined, it is being found that these actions have consequences related to the condition of the mind and the body. Touching upon the psychological effects prior, Neuroscientist Susan Greenfield has the belief that exposure to social networking sites is causing a rewiring of the human brain (Derbyshire, 2009). She argues that sites like Facebook and Twitter which allow users to view and intake updates and information at an increasingly fast pace are “infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights” (Greenfield, 2011).
Wei Qin Kai discovered that adolescents with Internet addiction suffered brain structure abnormalities and also sees the evolution of the human brain due to the cyber world in a study. Greenfield believes that this generation of social media users, including users of chat rooms, computer games, instant messaging and of course social networking, are acquiring reduced attention spans. She suggests that the increase in the number of diagnoses of autism currently taking place may in fact be related to people spending more time doing the mentioned social media activities (Derbyshire, 2009).
This “live for the moment” mindset being adopted by today’s users is related to a region of the brain called the pre-frontal cortex. When it is not being used its ability to function correctly decreases, and when this part of the brain is not active people are prone to taking more risks and becoming more reckless (Lench, 2009). If someone does something wrong in a video game, they will just keep on playing. These tendencies are being learned by users of social media and affecting other aspects of their lives including diet. Similarly, without thinking about the costs of doing so, people will overeat or eat unhealthy foods (Lench, 2009). If this way of thinking is repeated as a result of continuous social media use, it will lead to being overweight and ultimately obesity. An alternative way that social media leads to obesity is more obvious; a lack of physical activity. Obesity is largely centred on a person’s social activities, and if these activities are playing video games, texting friends, and spending hours on Facebook compared to going for a walk around the mall then those people are at a much higher risk of being obese (Arnold, 2011). As many young people view social media as an integral part of their lives, it is having its own effect on the state of their health and changing the way their brains operate. Social media is affecting the way people look at risk, which in return is affecting diet and eventually the physical health of the body.
The psychological effects of social media users have been growing areas of interest due to its change of the way individuals communicate with one another. Social media has created platforms for users to communicate numerous aspects of their day-to-day activities with one another. With this type of instant, real time availability more and more users have been accessing social media sites daily. In Australia, which has the highest social media usage in the world, over 9 million users are spending nearly 9 hour per month on social networking site, Facebook (Crowling, 2010). This poses the discussion of the addictiveness of social media, are users addicted to social media? La Barbera and La Paglia (2009) conclude that addiction is too strong of a word and those social media technologies are simply integrated into our focused demographics (15-28 years of age) lives.
Users of social media expectations are always high for frequent and instant contact and a study done by International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) students showcase what life would be like without contact with social media. The study showed that, users cared about what was happening amongst their friends and families. Further more about what was going on in their community; they even cared about what was going on in the world at large. This reiterates the notion of being disconnected from the world and virtually being cut off from that instantaneous flow of information that comes from all forms of social media.
A research study done by Psychologist Larry Rosen showcased the potential adverse effect social media has on its teen users, who are our primary demographic. Rosen research showed that teens that utilize Facebook show more narcissistic tendencies. Young adults will a strong Facebook presence (i.e. a lot of friends) show more signs of other psychological disorders including antisocial behaviors, mania and aggressive tendencies. These social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter can be distracting and can negatively impact learning. Studies found that middle school, high school and college students who checked Facebook at least once during a 15-minute study period achieved lower grades. Not to mention the array of problems that can arise from these outlets due to their intrusive nature, cyber bullying has been able to occur. The daily overuse of media and technology has a negative effect on the health of all children, preteens and teenagers by making them more prone to anxiety, depression, and other psychological disorders, as well as by making them more susceptible to future health problems (Rosen, 2011). Although social media present risks and benefits its psychological impact on users is a vital aspect of our research in hopes to help users decrease their usage.
Social media has become increasingly popular, and as its popularity rises, concerns have emerged as to how it will impact social interactions. Previously, with the emergence of email and chat rooms, this issue has been presented, but because of undeveloped technology, it has never been so pressing. Many experts believe that social media is beginning to replace face-to-face communication, and the way people create and maintain relationships is being revolutionized.
The way social media replacing face to face communication is possible because social media websites are designed in a way that catalyzes genuine social interaction (Grimmelmann, 2009). According to Jeffrey Grimmelmann, social networking websites almost immediately give people a strong sense of relationship with other users, and by using “real names (rather than usernames)…humanize the interface, giving a stronger psychological impression of direct interaction.” (Grimmelmann, pg. 1156). Social media uses a three pronged approach to create their interfaces. “The first prong—profiles— emphasizes identity: users create profiles that represent them. The second prong—contacts—emphasizes relationships: users establish one-to-one connections with others. The third prong—traversing lists of contacts— emphasizes community: users occupy a specific place among their peers.” (Grimmelmann, pg. 1150).
Researchers Nicole B. Ellison, Charles Steinfield and Cliff Lampe’s argue that social media is not only eliminating face to face communication, but it is also driving down the quality of relationships (Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe, 2007). They believe that the focus of many social media websites, for example Facebook, foster superficial relationships, not nurturing meaningful ones. Anyone on Facebook could be a users ‘friend’, and emphasis is put on how important it is to have as many Facebook friends as possible. The individuals involved in the study however, felt that while they had hundreds of Facebook friends, they had fewer than ten people who they interacted with regularly. Furthermore, the images of the user that are shared on Facebook to humanize the experience are often staged, and only the most perfect ones make the cut. This eliminates the surprises and spontaneity of face-to-face interaction (Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe, 2007).
A study conducted by Byron Reeves and Clifford Nass in 2007 showed that on average, teenager and young adults, ages 15-26 years old spent an average of nine hours a week on Facebook, and an additional five hours a week on other social media websites, while outside of school and work they only spent one and a half hours of week socializing with friends, and of the time spent with friends, only about a quarter of an hour were spent without any form of electronics (Reeves and Nass, 2007). Social media has influenced the way people have relationships, which is why the average person spends more time on websites that encourage virtual relationships, than they do with interacting with people face-to-face. Users of social media need to spend time away from their virtual friends, and refocus their attention to nurture and expand their existing relationships.
To combat the major influence social media has on its users our communication strategy is simple. Inform the users of the problem through the very social mediums that holds them. Our major demographic here are users between the ages of 15-28 years old because it seems as though this is the age of the most avid social media users.
As said before we will communicate with said demographic through the very social media that has a hold upon them. So while a certain user is scrolling through their Facebook newsfeed, we will place an advertisement on the sidebar promoting signing off Facebook and going outside. As a user reads their tweets on Twitter, we will have a sponsored tweet encouraging them to call a friend and go shopping. With a huge following, a promoted trending topic on Twitter would be advertised as “#BeforeSocialMedia”, would engage Twitter users to share their experiences before existence of social media and reminisce on the things they did prior to; possibly prompting them to engage in those actives.
As users repost photographs on Tumblr, we’d have sponsored imaged tumblr-ed that will encourage people to stop virtually tumbling and do some exercise tumbles. These posts would also include interesting did you know type of statistics that would bring awareness to the impact and influence social media has on its users. This would be executed through sponsored tweets with a “did you know” hash tags, with hopes of becoming “trending topics”. On other outlets like Facebook and Tumblr, comical photographs with these statistic would also circulate through those particular platforms.
The company STIHL would provide the images that we will have to help us promote turning off social media outlets. STIHL came out with numerous posters that promote going outside and being active. One of which is an image of a bird outside on a branch, with bold lettering “Where the first tweet was made. Get outside.” This helps promote our message quite well; this is exactly what we want our demographic to do. Get off twitter and go outside. Besides that particular poster, STIHL has many more, that help our cause by promoting the exact message we want to users to hear. Seeing these posters on Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr will help get our message to our demographic, and it will be powerful because these messages are coming to them through the very same mediums that are holding them back.
Another aspect to our communication strategy would include collaborating with certain celebrities to convince users to decrease their use of social media outlets. Celebrities such as Beyoncé and the English Royals have already done so with the “Get Moving Movement” where they attending numerous schools and held performances to get students active. Our method would be to make a YouTube video with someone influential that communicates the message for people to get off their social media outlets and do something productive, whether going for a jog, or calling a friend. We would either upload this video on YouTube as a YouTube user, or try to get it to become a sponsored video that may be played before other videos or as the sponsored message on the top of the YouTube page.
Social media impacts and effects its users in various ways. The influence that social media has on its users has proven to be powerful and although it is beneficial, the negative often go unseen. Our research has explored the physical repercussions, psychological factors, and social effects it has on its users. Our communication strategy encourages getting active, especially for teens and young adults, and discourages the dependency on social media outlets. These social media outlets are addictive in nature and often leave its users with a feeling of “missing out”.
References:
Arnold, Kylene. (2011)"Causes of Obesity: Eating and Social Habits." Livestrong. Demand Media, Inc., <http://www.livestrong.com/article/539442-causes-of-obesity-eating-and-social-habits/>.
Crowling, David. (2010). Social Media stats in Australia-Facebook, Blogger, MySpace http://www.socialmedianews.com.au/social-media-stats-in-australia-facebook-blogger-myspace/
Derbyshire, David. (2009)."Social Websites Harm Children's Brains: Chilling Warning to Parents from Top Neuroscientist." Mail Online. Associated Newspapers Ltd., <http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1153583/Social-websites-harm-childrens-brains-Chilling-warning-parents-neuroscientist.html>.
Ellison, Nicole B., Steinfield, Charles, and Lampe, Cliff (2007). "The Benefits of Facebook “Friends:” Social Capital and College Students’ Use of Online Social Network Sites." Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication: 1143-168. Print.
Greenfield, Susan. (2011)."Virtual Worlds Are Limiting Our Brains." Sydney Morning Herald Print.
Grimmelmann, Jeffery (2009). "Saving Facebook." Iowa Law Review 94: 1137-206. Print.
International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) and students at the Phillip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park, USA.. A Day Without Media. http://withoutmedia.wordpress.com/
Kaplan, Andreas and Haenlein, Michael (2010). __"Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media"__. Business Horizons 53 (1): 59–68.
La Barbera, D. & La Paglia, F. (2009). Social Network and Addiction. Annual Review of Cybertherapy and Telemedicine. Vol 7.33-36
Leach, Ben. (2009)"Computers Could Be Fueling Obesity Crisis, Says Baroness Susan Greenfield."The Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group Ltd.
Reeves, Byron, and Nass, Clifford (2007). "How People Treat Computers, Television, and New Media Like Real People and Places." The Media Equation (2007): 1-36. Print.
Rosen, Larry (2011). Social Networking’s Good and Bad Impact on Kids. Amercian Psychological Association. http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2011/08/social-kids.aspx.

Welcome to our page! This wikispace is for the final CCT 205 assignment(s).
Our group consists of Priyanka Kumar, Nicolete Byrd-Graham, Lauren Morettin and Shae Milutin.
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Mark Kindly!
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