- Social media and suicide
- Social media platforms are based on likes which can cause suicide
- Digital content receives likes and can cause users to commit suicide
- Number of likes on social media content determines social status which can lead to suicide
- Social status which can be built up on social media platforms can determine self-worth and therefor cause suicide.
Working Hypothesis: If social media sites get rid of allowing the amount of likes a user gets on to be shown on their uploaded digital content, suicide rates will lower, and self-worth will improve all due to a more equal appearance of social status.
Sources
“How many likes did I get?”
Positive feedback on social media allows for people, especially teens, to develop a greater self-worth. Included in this article is a study that was conducted to test just that, with Facebook profile pictures and likes. Positive feedback is proven to increase self esteem among users in this study and even shown to make people feel like they have a purpose. This article highly supports the theory I have, and even gives analytical data that was conducted in an experiment to support it.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0022103116303377
“Social Media and Suicide”
Social media is highly linked to suicide in teens and young adults who use the platform. This article aims to show what affect social media can play on someone’s behavior, especially when linked to suicide. Positive and negatives of social media interaction are discussed as well as what approaches the public should be taking to mitigate these risks. Also touched on in this article is how social media can play as a positive in peoples lives if it is in a good light. (need to get access through library) https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.2011.300608
“Impact of Social Media on Self Esteem”
The main issue that we run into with social media is how we feel after the likes and comments. Over the last few years social media has become increasingly popular with teens and in turn plays a part in their everyday emotions. This paper specifically shows how self esteem has lowered among social media users. The paper gives specific data on self esteem and how much it lowered when used for an hour a day. An astounding number of people are present on social media and with the interactions taking place on these sites daily, self esteem scores are only decreasing. The link between social media and self-esteem proves to be negative from the research gathered.
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3030048
“Self Esteem Levels and Selfies”
Self esteem and selfies that are posted online have a strong correlation. If the picture gets a good reaction with a lot of comment’s and like’s, this can lead to gratification in someone’s life. Strange the way your mood can now be determined by something completely online. Someone who has higher self esteem is able to post and take more selfies, opposed to someone who is less confident in themselves. In addition, the user’s sexual orientation, age, and gender all play a factor into self-verification on social media as well. (This paper pulls a lot of good other sources to check out later down the line).
https://jewlscholar.mtsu.edu/handle/mtsu/4760
“The effects of Instagram”
Social media among college students is increasingly popular as we already know. The psychological wellbeing of a student can be strictly determined based on what’s happening in their social media aspect. Cognitive function is being affected due to social media presence and specifically effecting anxiety levels, self-esteem, and memory. An experimental group was put to the test to prove these true and in fact, the evidence of using Instagram heightened users’ levels of FOMO, and anxiety. The question now becomes how we get this under control. Do we do away with social media completely? Is that even possible in this century? Would showing images without likes on them make a difference?
https://digitalshowcase.lynchburg.edu/utcp/114/
Topics for Smaller Papers
(Definition/Classification Argument)
I could devote a smaller topic of what specific social media sources play the highest roles in self-esteem. I could even dive into what age group is most effected or education level. I’m having a little trouble with what else I could go into specifically.
(Cause/Effect Argument)
My argument already is cause and effect. I could say social media decreases self-esteem in college students and therefor increases the risk of suicide. I could also link it to the number of likes someone gets playing a role in how they feel and if they post to social media frequently or not. Another cause and effect that could be looked at is the demand for social media will never go away so neither will the platforms nor likes completely.
(Rebuttal Argument)
A counterargument of my essay could be don’t use social media if you don’t like how it makes you feel. Someone could easily say to stay off it or don’t make an account. This is flawed because it is the social norm, and everyone has access to electronics. With this being said, someone who is younger will be affected and parents or guardians really don’t have a way to make sure children aren’t on the sites for sure.
Current state of research paper
I feel like I am making great progress. The meeting with you helped and I was able to find a huge number of sources available to me. I have not found any papers with my ex act hypothesis yet so that is a good thing. However, I have found plenty of evidence that points to social media being detrimental to teen development and playing a negative role in a cognitive abilities. From here I hope to keep digging and find sources. I haven’t looked at Wikipedia yet to find further sources. My views have solidified from all of the findings and writing the purposeful summaries helped to give me a road map of each source specifically. I anticipate my outcome to be writing my thesis on this topic. I am super interested in it and found a lot of good information. I hope I can keep working on this and find even more thing to put a good argument together.
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Counterintuitivity 
You’re doing good work, PMFrench, and I’m glad to hear you’re encouraged by your own progress and enthusiastic to continue.
I like the overall topic/theme/focus of your research, and I’m intrigued to see how it will develop. Based on the sources you’ve gathered so far, it could tend in many directions. You’ll need to be careful to keep it from going EVERYWHERE.
In a few places, your Purposeful Summaries only “TALK ABOUT” the material instead of actually making claims about it. Let me offer some examples.
—1. Positive and negatives of social media interaction are discussed as well as what approaches the public should be taking to mitigate these risks.
—2. In addition, the user’s sexual orientation, age, and gender all play a factor into self-verification on social media as well.
—3. Cognitive function is being affected due to social media presence and specifically effecting anxiety levels, self-esteem, and memory.
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Now for a few comments on your sources.
“How Many Likes?”
—Yet, the extent to which self-esteem is sensitive to positive feedback may depend on individuals’ sense of purpose. Study 1 revealed that the number of likes individuals received on their Facebook profile pictures was positively associated with self-esteem. Study 2 replicated these findings experimentally by manipulating the number of likes individuals received on self-photographs posted to a mock Facebook site. In both studies, links between likes and self-esteem were diminished for those with greater purpose.
—”Impact of Social Media on Self Esteem”
Further this research proves there that there is a strong relationship between social media and self esteem. Increase in social media usage causes the self-esteem of individuals to decrease. One hour spent on Facebook daily results in a 5.574 decrease in the self-esteem score of an individual.
—”Self-Esteem and Selfies”
The study found a significant relationship between low self-esteem levels and posting selfies to boost self-confidence.
—”The Effects of Cognitive Stimulation”
An independent samples t-test and a mixed-model ANOVA found that those exposed to Instagram had heightened levels of FoMo.
I hope these reflections will help you think deeply or differently about your sources. That’s my only goal as your instructor at this stage. Let me know if you’d like guidance of a different sort, PardonMyFrench.
And put this post back into Feedback Please at any time.
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Thank you for all of the advice and guidance on this topic. As I am working on the definition subtopic essay I am still a little confused. I feel as though my topic is so large its hard to narrow specifically what I want to talk about. Any advice on if what I wrote in my white paper for the definition essay was appropriate regarding my topic? Thanks, I just wanted to make sure before I submit it.
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Let’s look at your proposal:
I haven’t read your sources beyond the Abstracts, but they do seem to point in many directions, making it hard to focus our attention. Categorically, you want to claim that:
1. Teens belong to a high-risk group for suicide. Right? You should be able to find evidence for that. If you do, it will focus the need to reduce the risk.
2. Teens users belong to the group “Likely to suffer low self-esteem,” or “Unduly influenced by others’ opinions.” That should be demonstrable with research, whether or not the research has ANYTHING to do with social media.
3. Social media belong to the category of places where social acceptance (approval AND disapproval) can be easily QUANTIFIED! Very dangerous.
4. “Likes” belong to an interesting category: ambiguous feedback! Some users will see every like as an affirmation. They might also easily misinterpret the anger, laughter, and even love emojis.
These are the first four that occur to me, PMF. If you’re reading good sources that provide you evidence that teens are more likely than adults to be influenced by the approval or disapproval of others, or are much needier of approval than other age groups, or that they’re more likely to overreact to others’ disapproval (or lack of affirmation), even violently overreact, or that, even worse, they’re more likely to misinterpret gestures, emojis, or gifs or the lack thereof, then you’ll be well on your way to describing a set of circumstances that can easily lead to catastrophe.
That’s the goal of the Definition/Categorical essay. To set the table by describing the components of a volatile mix. Then in your Causal, you’ll follow the logical chain of what occurs when the parts start to interact.
Does that help?
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