Social media has both benefits and risks. While it allows people to connect with friends and family, it also exposes personal data that can be sold or mined for advertising. Additionally, social media enables cyberbullying, which can seriously harm the mental health and well-being of victims, increasing risks of depression and suicide. Studies show that a significant percentage of students report experiencing cyberbullying, highlighting the need to address this issue and implement laws to curb its harmful effects. While social media facilitates new forms of political and civic engagement, the collection and analysis of personal data online also allows political campaigns to micro-target voters in potentially alarming ways.

1. Hannah Clay
FYS-100
Harold Blanco
20 November 2015
Why Social Media Is Hurting
Social media and all that it represents gives users all over the world many concerns that
we will discuss here briefly. Many internet users visit social media sites daily and some almost
hourly. The need to constantly check Twitter, Instagram, Facebook for some users becomes
almost as automatic as taking their next breath. As more and more people add information to the
social media sites, the potential for that data to be shared, sold, and even used for the wrong
purpose increases. Some advertisers will use customer shopping patterns, likes and dislikes, and
frequency of page visits to pattern information specifically targeting them (Clemmit, 90). In
some instances user information is being sold to marketing companies against their wishes
(Clemmit, 90). Sometimes photos are taken from users pages and used as a search resource to
track them (Clemmit, 81). Even political campaigns have recently begun using social media
websites to target potential voters and use this power to influence party voting (Clemmit, 90).
There are several benefits of social media and below I will list a few. Today, social media
include social networks such as Facebook that allow people to reach out to friends, and stay in
touch with friends of friends (Clemmit, 83). Instagram allows users to share photos with friends
instantaneously making them almost come to life. There are other social media sites like the

2. “virtual world” such as “World of Warcraft” where people from around the world meet, compete,
collaborate and play adventures games together (Clemmit, 83). Most people use these social
media sites to stay in touch with family members that previously could only be seen on vacations
or contacted by phone. Social media gives people the opportunity to reach out and see, talk, and
interact with friends and family that 10-15 years ago was not possible. Twitter gives users the
ability to send out short messages that can be seen by followers and people from all over the
internet if you only sign up for and account. All of these social media sites give people from all
over the world the outlet to interact with peers and express themselves in ways never thought
possible.
The use of social media is used daily by people who meet, converse, work, and compete
with others. Because social media draws users by the billions online its use can come with a
price. Every photo upload or click of a "like" button puts users personal data online, much of
which is sold to help business target advertising (Clemmit, 81). Data mining endangers long
cherished privacy rights, but these same social media supporters say it’s a small price to pay for
the benefits of online socializing (Clemmit, 81).
Critics of social media express concern that scores of people of this current internet
fueled generation will fail to develop necessary communication skills because the want to avoid
the face to face conversations. Many of todays kids prefer not to talk face to face. They prefer
and rely on written communication only, mainly via text or social media sites, especially when
communicating with adults. Some feel that this choice might damage young people's
communication skills for years to come. When people rely entirely on written messages"where
you don’t have access to nonverbal cues, things are ripe for miscommunication," says Larry
Rosen (84). Some feel that social media allows people to broach uncomfortable subjects when

3. you don't have to look someone in the eye. This can be a problem because some feel
vulnerability is a key to strong relationships.
Campaigns of recent years had access to more than 500 points of data for every member
of the public, including data from surveys, commercial and financial transactions, magazine
subscriptions, and so on (Clemmit, 89). While all this data on its own is not very meaningful,
some analysts have said that they can use statistical patterns to construct a profile of a person
most likely to be swayed to vote for a specific candidate. This in itself should be alarming for
most people who have no idea that this information is being collected. Kreiss of the University of
North Carolina believes campaigns should be required to reveal basic information about how
they use personal data and whether it's to be used to swing voters form candidate to another
(Clemmit, 89). While he doesn’t think all this data collected from social media gives campaigner
any superpower to manipulate voters, it still can convince a small subset of people ripe for
changing their minds. During the recent presidential campaign both President Obama and GOP
candidate Mitt Romney sent special tweets to their followers before debates, bringing people into
closer contact to campaigns than ever before (Clemmit, 99). The Internet's potential to ignite a
more civically engaged populace by making policy information and political debate easily
accessible has excited people who never before took notice of these areas of life. The kind of
personal political engagement is happening more and more among young people of all races and
ethniticities (Clemmit, 85).
Social media, introduced to this era around the 2000’s, has influenced our society in a
way that is potentially harmful. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and Tumblr are just a few of the
social media worlds that humans use to interact daily. Social media is a place to connect with
friends and share about ones life. Although some people use it to connect with others, some

4. people use social hide behind their computer screens. In doing so, people will say things online
that they would never say to another human being in real life. This form of harassment is called
cyberbullying.
Cyberbullying is one of the most harmful aspects that has come about from social media.
Sharlene Chadwick, the author of Impacts of Cyberbullying, Building Social and Emotional
Resilience in Schools, states in her book,
“The serious long term effects of cyberbullying, such as the higher prevalence of youth
depression, anxiety and lower self-esteem, reinforce the need to address the issue
effectively within a broad social context. The increased rate of poor mental health among
young people has contributed to a wealth of programs designed to address a range of
issues, particularly bullying behaviors (Chadwick, pg. 19-21).”
Chadwick gives eye opening statistics from a study she researched telling us that 43% of
students have been cyber-bullied, 81% admitted that it is easier to bully someone online rather
than at school, and 58% admitted that someone has said something hurtful to them online
(Chadwick, pg. 17). Christopher P. Davis and Carl H. Stein wrote an academic journal for the
North American Journal of Psychology titled The Dangers of Cyberbullying. In this article they
state, “The internet has provided a new medium with which people can commit inappropriate,
harmful activity. The damaging activities include, but are not limited to, cyber-hacking, cyber-
stalking, and other forms of harmful behavior that include bullying (Davis and Stein, pg. 595).”
Not only this but in the last year 75% of school students have experienced cyberbullying (Davis
and Stein, pg. 576). These authors also explain how these school students believe it is okay to be
even more aggressive because it is not face to face (Davis and Stein, pg. 577). Cyberbullying can

5. be extremely dangerous to a students well-being. In the article by David and Stein, they studied
an article which shows that students who are cyber-bullied are “two-times more likely to attempt
suicide” (Davis and Stein, pg. 600). In both articles so far, it is proven that students who are
cyber-bullied have serious mental issues that follow the crucial bullying. Edwina Thomas
Washington, the author of "An Overview Of Cyberbullying In Higher Education” in the Adult
Learning Journal, explains how dangerous cyberbullying can be at any age. In a study she found,
“They found that 38% of students reported cyber-bullied, 22% reported having been cyber-
bullied, and about 9% reported cyberbullying someone else” (Washington, pg. 23). Washington
gives us more statistical evidence that cyberbullying does exist even at a college age and it is still
very dangerous.
Cyberbullying leads children and even adults to be depressed. This leads them to have
suicidal thoughts. Focusing on cyberbullying is an important issue. Students all around the world
each day are being cyber-bullied by their peers, and because of this some students are taking
their lives. Washington says, “To date, 18 states have laws to address cyberbullying. compared
with 49 states, all except Montana having laws to address bullying” (Washington, pg. 24). As our
nation progresses, cyberbullying needs to have laws accompanying it. There are dangerous
people in this world who say dangerous things and America needs to have an active way to stop
these people.
References
Chadwick, Sharlene. Impacts Of Cyberbullying, Building Social And Emotional Resilience In
Schools.
Cham: Springer, 2014. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). Web. 17 Nov. 2015.

6. Clemmitt, M. (2013, January 25). Social media explosion. CQ Researcher, 23, 81-104. Retrieved
from
http://library.cqpress.com/
Davison, Christopher B., and Carl H. Stein. "The Dangers Of Cyberbullying." North American
Journal
Of Psychology 16.3 (2014): 595-606. Business Source Alumni Edition. Web. 18 Nov.
2015.
Washington, Edwina Thomas. "An Overview Of Cyberbullying In Higher Education." Adult
Learning
26.1 (2015): 21. MasterFILE Premier. Web. 19 Nov. 2015.