Social Media: How is it Affecting College Students?

Abstract

Research shows how participation in social media creates issues with self image, instant gratification, low self-esteem, affects relationships and exasperates symptoms of anxiety and depression. Social media has participants in nearly every age group, race, class, ethnicity, culture and socioeconomic background. Social networking sites (i.e.: Facebook), microblogging apps (i.e.: Twitter) and content sharing apps (i.e.: YouTube, Snap Chat, Tumblr) have become such an ingrained part of society that people check their phones constantly throughout the day, at work, even while driving. More than 98 percent of college-aged students use social media, says consumer insight service Experian Simmons (Gerlich, 2011) . In addition, an annual nationwide survey of college students by UCLA found that 27.2 percent of college students spent more than six hours on social media a week (Kalpidou, 185).