Discovering Social Media

Abstract

In March of 2020, the pandemic started, and everyone had to go into isolation. We were in lockdown for a couple of months, and even then, we had to be extra careful about who we saw and in what context. I felt isolated and alone until I went on social media. After two years, I wanted to know if people used social media more now than ever. I wanted to know if people benefited from social media during the pandemic by using it to interact with more people or if the screen just added to the isolation and social media had negative repercussions. There were not many articles on the impacts of social media in the United States, so research was needed to fill the gap. I used surveys to collect data. First, I went to my school community, and then I wanted to know what everyone else thought. I got approximately 300 people to take my survey. I found that social media usage had a more positive effect on people. It allowed people to connect with others to feel less isolated. I also found that people use social media as entertainment more than anything else and that it made people happier. Some limitations were that some people took the survey as a joke. Another one is there were some biases because my friends and their friends did the survey, so it was not a super diverse population of people taking the survey.