PROPOSAL

Impact of social media on young generation

Submitted by:
Rabia Zia
BS- MC 7TH
SEMESTER
SUBMITTED TO:
SIR HAROON

Research Proposal
Impact of Social Media on Young Generation
Problem Statement
The word social media is very common now a days we can say social media
is a big instrument on communication among the people. It gives us information in
every field of life, but its up to us how we use the media? Because everything has
positive and negative impacts.
Social media affect our life crucially. We are up dated with the society, we
could be moderated with the help of social media what is happening whats new
technology; new field of learning, new fashion, new way of living, new styles
reach us through social media.
It has great advantage for people. We can compete with the world through
these Medias. Now a days Internet has become very popular among the people we
can get any type of information from internet. Different search engines help to get
information.
Today Facebook become very popular among the people its a big social
media we can communicate easily with everyone. Mobile phone also included in it.
Skype solve the problem of the people which live abroad, we can check each other
what they do in their daily life. But at the same time it has some disadvantages as
well. The serious problem of social media is that young generation waste their time
in extra harmful activities.

Social Networking Explained

Social networking is the grouping of individual into specific groups. It could
be a group of college student, teenagers, a religious, or political groups, coming
together to exchange information of their interest, mostly online. The online
networking is called social sites. The most known of all are face book, MySpace,
Yahoo! 360, and twitter. These websites are easy to access, and in most cases are
free of charges. Users of social networking share common interests, and they feel
like a close family. Since the introductions of internet to the general public, a
number of social sites launched. The earlier social site had been sixdegree.com,
launched in 1997. The site was intended to facilitate online dating, and the first
time were able to allow users to surf the network, and at the same time to create
profiles, and post it online. After sixdegree.com, other social sites were launched,
and served for a while, and failed to become a sustainable business entity. Since
then Ryze.com (2002), match.com, were launched and used by many users. With
the advancement, and sophistication of technology, and the high demand for use by
the public, new and more sophisticated social sites emerged. My space, face book,
and twitters are some of the most prominent of all. Despite all the important
contribution of social networking sites, there is a legitimate concern of its
disadvantage. Using social networking site has advantages and disadvantage. It is
the best interest of the user to know which site to use, when and how to use them.
Some of the advantages of using social networking are it is like the virtual meeting
places where people can just meet and discuss with different issue of common
interest. Some people use these sites to meet new friends, establish relationships,
and even marry, and have children. Others use this websites, to find and meet old
high school friends, and reestablish friendships. Using social net working makes
easier and faster to get the most up to date and latest news around the world
instantly. Universities and colleges are becoming members of the social
networking. Which make easier for students to find information easily, and freely.
Companies started using social networking, to recruit employees by examining the
users profile, and background. Since social networking sites are operating
worldwide; it breaks some of the cultural barriers around the different part of the
world. A college student from united state, who have friend from Ethiopia, will
have at least some exposure of the culture of the other side of the world. The other

advantage of this networking site is, it creates a sense of family, users of this social
websites are highly dedicated to one another, and spend a lot of time chatting each
other, which emotionally helps those who are lonely and desperate to think
positive, and feel sense of hope. Police and law enforcement agencies use this
social networking site to hunt criminals, and illegal activities. So, social
networking also is used by different government agencies as a source of
information. Business and corporations use social networking to promote their
products, and enhance sales. This is a good thing to create job, and economic
growth. Different interest groups, like political parties, environmental
organizations, even presidential campaign, and others, use social networking sites
to reach out their supporters. People from different part of the world, are able to
meet with their families, and loved ones easily and without any cost. Social
networking transforms communication, and brings the world together.
Although social networking site has its advantages, there are also disadvantages as
well; personal identity theft is the main concern. In order to use social networking,
users must provide personal information first before they are allowed accessing the
sites. Recent news and information proved that some social networking sites
compromised users personal information. Advertisers evade users privacy.
Criminals, and sex offenders usually visit this sites to hunt there next victims.
Young people, who post embarrassing photos or information, will have hard time
to find a job. Social networking makes cyber bullying much easier, and faster,
which in some instance lead to the death of teens. People spend more time on
social networking sites which created a poor performance by young kids at school.
But, the most frightening of this social networking, is the most addictive nature of
the sites. Users spend a lot of their time surfing this sites. This will hinder the
ability of young people to develop real social life, face to face meeting of people,
which is very important in developing conversation and speech. Social networking
sites users are so addicted to their web site friends, and almost cut off from the real
world life. This has adverse effect on society. First of all, many of the online
friends do not provide their real identity, so they are not real friends. When young
people discover the real identity of their online friends, they will be disappointed,
and even depressed. Secondly, the amount of time users spends online with fake
friendship is hurting them. Their time is consumed by surfing websites, and they
lag or fail in other aspect of their life. Third, the over addictiveness nature of this
sites, detached the users from face to face interaction with family, and friends in

the real world. The new generation is highly obsessed with these new sites, they
are reading less, and their communication, and imaginative skill is highly
constrained.
Social networking is an important and positive change in our society. It becomes
an important aspect of our day to day activities. It is obvious that they contribute a
lot, and still contributing. But, there is also disadvantage of using these sites. It is
our responsibility to manage which site to use, and how to use them with extra
precaution.
The Positive and Negative Impacts of Social Media on Young Generation
According to Internet Live Stats : Afghanistan is the number 100th country
amongst 198 countries with internet users of 1,856,781 and the user growth per
year is 172,462 in fact Afghanistans Internet User Growth rate is 10% which is
higher than USA, UK, China , France, Canada and many more countries, while we
are at number 3rd country after Burkina Faso & South Sudan in the list of 10
Countries With the Worst Literacy Rates in the World in a report published on
www.care2.com by Christina Chew. Now we can understand from our poor literacy
rate that most of the internet users or using internet for social media not for study,
research, business or trade purposes hence we have more users addicted to social
media in Afghanistan. There are people who cant even write their own name and
they are only able to recognize himself and people by their pictures have full
access to internet and constantly check their Smartphones for status updates.
As social media has influenced our population there is a need to know for the good
and bad impacts of the social media on our next generation and make a proper plan
in both cases if the usage of social media is good or bad. In my first sentence I tried
to make it very clear that the overdose of even medicine can kill us.
The prime bad effect of social media is addiction Constantly checking
Facebook, Instagram, VK, Tumblr, Flikr, Twitter, LinkedIn, Vine or other social
media updates. This addiction could negatively affect other valued activities like
concentrating on studies, taking active part in sports, real life communication and
ignoring
ground
realities.
There are very serious examples likewise Danny Bowman, a 19 year old selfie

addict in the UK, spent 10 hours every day taking over 200 pictures of himself. For
six months, he obsessively tried to take the perfect picture. But when he couldnt,
Danny tried to kill himself. I was constantly in search of taking the perfect selfie
and when I realized I couldnt I wanted to die. I lost my friends, my education, my
health and almost my life, Danny said. He first posted his photos on Facebook,
where others reactions to his appearance affected him deeply. There are many
other examples of posing for pictures for social media has gone wrong and even
resulted in lives losses, some even have already killed themselves trying a gun
selfie and cliff selfie. It makes us deeply think that why were we not taking selfie
when there was no social media ? it may be an alarm that social media is directly
affecting our thoughts and sometimes makes us do so many risky things and
actions
to
make
others
attracted
towards
our
profile.
A University of Michigan study seem to indicate that in young adults, Facebook
use leads to decline in subjective well-being. The more young adults use Facebook,
the worse they feel moment-to-moment and the less they feel satisfied with their
lives overall.

Afghan Rugby Coach , Sabir Slaimankhel If our players concentrate more on

their performances I am sure that they are unbeatable, but looking at the players
they are concentrating more on their social media profiles and sometimes during
the matches pointing to their friends with smart phones to take few of their pictures
in action. The negative impact of social media seems not limited only on education
and study but in all sectors of life, as stated that sport players are addicted to
facebook and that is why they are keener to think and pose good for pictures not
for the victory of the team.

DoSometing.org, one of the largest organizations for young people and social
change, lists several bad effects of social media, which includes sleep disorder,
depression, addiction, 24/7 stress, isolation, insecurity, and fear of missing out
(FOMO). In fact if we go through some of our Afghan MPs, Senators, Ministers,
Politicians and police chiefs they seem to be addicted too , some of them are
posting only their pictures with location only while looking at some of their
pictures they seems that they cannot shake hands till there is a camera standing by
to take their pictures, hence it is not an addiction for kids and teens but for our very
mature and influential personalities too and as they are leading our next generation
so that they have to copy them and as a result they waste more and more time in
taking pictures. It will not be out of order to state that some of our MPs & Senators
have more pictures on their profiles as compare to Hollywood and Bollywood
celebrities.
On the other hand, other experts like the MacArthur Foundation see it differently.
They claim that kids and teens are developing important technical and social skills
online in ways that adults do not understand or value:

Mizuko Ito of the University of California states that spending time online is
essential for young people to pick up the social and technical skills they need to be
competent citizens in the digital age. Kids are learning basic social and technical
skills to fully participate in modern society. Kids learn to adapt to permanent and
public socializing and managing elaborate network of friends and acquaintances.
Social networking makes kids more peer-based. Young people are motivated to
learn from their peers online. They interact and receive feedback from one another.
They are motivated to learn more from each other than from adults. Teachers and
adults are no longer the only sources of knowledge. It makes kids more networked
than ever. It is easier for kids to make friends with people all over the world, most
of whom they will never ever meet without these technological advances.
Social networks actually make kids more relationship-oriented, considerate, and
emphatic. Kids remember peoples birthday and greet them. They comment on
pictures, videos and status of their friends. They create longer term friendships by
being in touch online even when friends are no longer physically meeting.
Professor Larry Rosen notes that teens are developing the ability to show virtual
empathy for distressed Facebook friends and that the empathy is actually wellreceived by friends, positively influencing their mood. This virtual empathy, he
says, can even spill over into the real world, teaching teens how to empathize with
others in everyday life.
Some of our teens join social media not to post their pictures but to find friends
with whom they can share their thoughts, and sometimes it goes wrong and they
interact bad people and such relation could lead to kidnapping. The Facebookrelated abductions are increasing and we can find too many of such examples
where facebook has helped the kidnappers eg. A man in Indonesia who posed as a
photographer on Facebook was arrested and accused of kidnapping and raping
three teenage girls. Authorities said he lured them into meeting him with him by
promising to make them models, and then locked them in a house. Police found
dozens of photos of naked girls on his camera and laptop.
A 13-year-old Mustafa Rizwan was abducted by his facebook friend in Pakistan
and this story really warned the parents not to let their children unsupervised on
internet.

It is now proven that Teens who use Facebook more often show more narcissistic
tendencies while young adults who have a strong Facebook presence show more
signs of other psychological disorders, including antisocial behaviors, mania and
aggressive tendencies.
The overuse of social media and technology has a negative effect on the health of
all children, preteens and teenagers by making them more prone to anxiety,
depression, and other psychological disorders, as well as by making them more
susceptible to future health problems.
The experts have already made it cleared that social media negatively impact
learning. Studies found that middle school, high school and college students who
check social media networks at least once during a 15-minute study period
achieved lower grades. There are even some teens who are addicted to maintain
more than one account on social media networks in some cases when boys sent
requests to girls and they do not accept their requests they try to make a fake
accounts using feminine names and display pictures and try to add others. There
are hundreds of thousands of fake accounts on social networks who are boys
pretending to be girls to be friends with girls and in most cases this leads to
embarrassments and disappointments which finally result in facebook depression.

There are even challenges and competitions amongst the teens on who uploads
more pictures , who gets more likes and who gets more friends and requests which
really make our new generation more busy and obsessed towards social media and
they cant manage to give proper time to real life issues and think about their
future.
If there is awareness about the risk of social media in our community it will not
lead to anything bad but there is always lack of public awareness and as mentioned
above that the graph of internet users is getting higher and higher while we are still
far behind in the field of education thus public awareness is very difficult in
societies with lack of education.
Objective of the Study
Objective of the study is to find out whether social media is really effecting the
young generation or not?