Trevor Tanas

Professor Padgett
ENGL 1102
4/7/14
Research Paper

Today we have new technologies, new ways of doing things like staying connected or
meeting new people. Society and social interaction have changed due to the rise of social
medias like Facebook and Twitter. Social medias are websites or applications used for social
networking. It opens up multiple possibilities when it comes to connecting and sharing, and it
is how everyone is killing their spare time. Everyone uses social media, young and old alike
even though adults tend to use it less and for different reasons social media is dangerous yet
profitable in many ways to both adults and our children. Everyone who uses social media
typically uses it for social interactions; however there are many other purposes of social
media besides communicating with each other. Businesses and teens are taking social media
and using it for all it can be.
Social media is a new way of doing things and everyone wants to be a part of this new
movement. It has turned the way we date, communicate, and do business upside down. Social
media has had such a great influence on us so far that now it has become a part of our
everyday life. As a result, we no longer have a choice on whether we do social media; the
question is how well we do it says Qualman. More and more now take social media and
look at it from a business point of view. Executives have struggled to develop effective
ways of sharing what their organizations know says the Girards. It is easy, quick, and can
Comment [AP1]: Best title?
Comment [AP2]: Media is already plural
(plural of medium)
help you make a lot of money. The thing that makes social media so powerful is the mass
amounts of people you can share an idea within a few seconds. This is what makes Twitter
popular among so many different celebrities because it makes it possible to communicate
with all their fans. It can be very profitable for big companies and I can see why it is so
appealing. A truly revolutionary way of branding and advertising has opened in the form of
social media. Business, the internet, and social media all go hand and hand. Small businesses
and large corporations are already taking advantage. Business opportunity is one of many
clear positives to social media and we need to understand the countless possibilities that may
occur with improvements.
There are some who find social media to be harmful and dont see any benefits. Things
like Lol! and wtf are shortened phrases that are commonly used among teenagers and
some experts dont agree. It has the potential to dumb down the way we communicate, the
way we interact, and even the way we speak. These slangs are seen as positive by some
because it is a quick and easy way to communicate. This is just silly ridiculous in my
opinion. If anything we are moving backwards with improper English and laziness in terms
of Social Media slang. I understand that these slangs are not used on official documents and
that it is an easier and quicker way of communicating, but if we keep moving in this direction
then soon we will be communicating whole sentences with just a few letters. Hopefully we
will not be allowing the next generation to use any of these slangs in future educational
documents. While some may see these shortened terms as a way of stepping forward, I
believe them to be one of the biggest dangers of social media and if we keep using them I see
society falling into a very slippery slope. Our childrens future education can dramatically
change if we are not careful.
Comment [AP3]: Good point here
Comment [AP4]: This makes me wonder
who your ideal audience is here. what is your
ultimate purpose?
Comment [AP5]: Im not sure this
necessitates an explanation.
Comment [AP6]: Dont agree about what?
Im a little confused here.
Comment [AP7]: Who are some
Comment [AP8]: Seems like a lot of
conjecturing here. what support do you have
for this claim?
Even though there are some holes that need to be filled in how we deal with social media,
business isnt the only rewarding part of social media. The main reason newer social
networks have been created is to find better ways of staying connected to our friends and
family. Thanks to the invention of social media, young men and women now exchange
ideas, feelings, personal information, pictures and videos at a truly astonishing rate says
Wang. I would agree completely and I would also add that it is also enjoyable to use for most
users. People like to see what their friends are up too. We live for others anyway. Social
interaction is what keeps us all sane. However for all the good we may see in the time we
spend on social media, there is also a danger. Social media sites encourage negative
behaviors for teen students such as procrastination and they are more likely to drink and use
drugs. If a teenager sees his buddy having a good time getting drunk on Facebook, chances
are that teen is going to want to get drunk too. Monkey see, monkey do. Although not every
teen is posting pictures of parties or the use of illegal substances, they are there. If I were to
go onto Facebook now I would see at least one of these pictures. So we have this new
technological wave of communication in the form of social media that has both positives and
negatives. The only thing we are left pondering is if the positives outweigh the negatives and
I believe they do. There are still many dangers that wait for our youth but we can avoid this
by setting limits for ourselves and by supervising our children whenever they are on social
media. Obviously there will always be negatives about social media but we can seriously
reduce them with a little more diligent work to make social media a safer and more
purposeful place for all of us.
There has always been this worry of addiction to the internet. There are games online,
you can shop online, social media is online, and a lot of people work online too. The average
Comment [AP9]: Sounds like a potentially
good thing to me. what relation does this
have to your thesis?
Comment [AP10]: How do you mean? And
who is we? who are you speaking for?
Comment [AP11]: Again, this seems like
too much conjecture.
Comment [AP12]: You need citation for
this.
American spends about 4-5 hours a day on the internet. Some think that this is something we
should be worried about but I believe that such worries are a bit indecorous. We live in a
different day and age where using the internet including social media has become a part of
everyday life. How can something that is considered a part of everyday life to also be
considered addictive. Thats backwards thinking. We just have new ways of doing things and
we do them all in one place.
Teenagers see both the benefits and the dangers of social media on a daily occurrence.
While adults do see a lot of benefit with minimal use of social media, there are still dangers
and negatives for the way they go about using social media. The only real danger adults have
on social media is lack of involvement. Facebook, Twitter, and other major social media sites
are filled with teens. The only group of social media sites that have a majority of adults over
teens is popular online dating sites like match.com. Maybe this will change soon. Maybe it
will not. What everyone needs to realize is that it will change eventually. Everyone will be
using social media for business, for personal social interaction, for information, and for the
sharing of ideas.
In the end social media is what we make of it. If we are smart or productive, social
medias could provide us with vital connections, income of all sorts, the best and quickest
way of advertising, and countless ways of sharing ideas and memories. Time on social media
can be extremely beneficial for just about anyone. If we fail to monitor our youth on social
media properly, fail to maintain privacy on social medias correctly, or allow our teens to
continue bad habits like procrastination while on social media, then it will be a dangerous
place.
Comment [AP13]: This makes me wonder
what counts as on the internet. I grade
papers with the internet on in the
background, so while Im not browsing the
internet, am I on the internet?
I learned that Social media is typically more dangerous for children than it is adults and
more profitable for adults than it is for children. This is simply because more and more adults
are using social media for business purposes rather than only for social interaction, while
children are still bullied and made fun of over social medias. Simply put, it is more likely for
social media to be dangerous for our youth. That being said, social media has taken us to new
heights that society has never experienced before. Complete privacy is extremely hard to
achieve today, while information about our friends and family are getting easier and easier to
find. Checks and balances should be made to improve privacy while keeping pictures, posts,
and other things of our loved ones easy to find. There will always be problems with social
media and the dangers that come along with it, but if we are smart and adapt, I can only see
social media continuing to grow and become more of a daily occurrence.
Trevor,
I think you have an interesting and though-provoking discussion here, but Im thrown by the
amount of conjecture (or possibly the lack of in-text citation; Im not sure which), and the
various disparate topic you cover in this one paper. I really would like to see a more specific
thesis, and that one thesis should be argued for throughout the paper. You seem to talk about
literacy, time management, and business all in the same discussion. I need more focus here.






Comment [AP14]: What is children?





Works Cited

Floros, G. D. "742 Internet Addiction and Related Addictive Behaviors in a Sample of
Medical School Students." Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Qualman, Erik. "Socialnomics : How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do
Business." (Book, 2009) Hoboken, Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Zappavigna, Michele. "The Discourse of Twitter and Social Media." (Book, 2012) Michele
Zappavigna, Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Girard, John P., and JoAnn L. Girard. "Social Knowledge : Using Social Media to Know
What You Know." (Book, 2011). Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Wang, Q., Chen, W., and Liang, Y. (2011). The Effects of Social Media on College Students.
Johnson & Wales University, Providence, RI.