Initial Research on Chosen Topic

As I have decided that I want to focus my issue on the effects that social media has on us, I can start researching further into this topic. In particular I want to focus on how social media effects our relationships with other people/how easily social media can ruin relationships and then obviously effect us, and how social media has massive negative impacts on our self esteem.

I found this most interesting as it is so relevant in todays society as everyones life does revolve around social media in some way and it is also personal to me as I can relate to a lot of issues regarding the negative impacts that social media has. However, this topic is also very controversial as social media can also make a person feel good about themselves and give a person a sort of validation that they think they need.

Furthermore, I have read over some articles that I found interesting regarding this issue and have gathered some research for points/concepts that I want to focus more closely on.

The articles:

-https://thethirty.whowhatwear.com/self-love-social-media

-https://observer.com/2017/12/social-media-love-hunt-where-does-creeping-end-and-dating-begin/

-https://medium.com/rta902/the-negative-impacts-that-social-media-have-on-our-self-esteem-56347f7a00ae

• How fast social media has blossomed from a relatively harmless distraction into the ubiquitous beast that we know today. This lead me to think about how much it'll effect our self esteem in maybe 10 years time? As over the past 10 years it has evolved so much, does something need to be stopped???

• Social media can also be very beneficial at the same time (the controversy) 'My career, for example, puts me in the unique position of relying on Instagram as an extension of my livelihood.' benefits of social media relate to businesses, designers, brands etc...However, once again this is also a negative impact as it makes us compare ourselves to others that are more successful than us in these areas- its an on going spiral circle...maybe this could be a main focus? 'the ongoing circle' 'going around in circles'

• I found this statement from the article 'What is Instagram doing to our self worth?' : 'And when we’re feeling unfulfilled in our real lives, it’s all too easy to turn to the digital version. “Sometimes when I’m bored, I’ll search for something to post because it’s this weird recognition that I swear has a chemical reaction in your brain,” says senior editor Hallie Gould. “When the likes roll in, that’s some serious serotonin shit.”' I thought this point was extremely interesting as it completely relates to my concept and I was also able to see exactly where this person was coming from. I think using social media as a distraction from the 'real life' versions of ourselves can be extremely harmful, as the 'digital' versions of ourselves can be whoever we want it to be.

• 'It’s a world in which our egos are concretized as photo grids, a world in which we can actually quantify validation by way of likes' 

• Proven research shows that social media channels can have damaging effects on confidence and identity. Researchers have found a wide array of negative ripple effects including upticks in anxiety and depression as well as loneliness, envy, and even narcissism because of social media, as it is so easy to get indulged into it all and not be able to break free from it. This leads to the fact that a lot of people including myself have the urge to delete their social media platforms, but find that they 'cant' for some reason- whether that is down to not being able to contact people, staying updated with everything, or to maintain their social media profile/ digital versions of themselves.

A list of alternative strategies regarding these issues from one of the articles: