College Students Facebook Effects
Unit 3 Project-Is Facebook Bad for College Students
This pro and con project will center on Facebook, but can also extend to social media in general.
The learning outcomes for this project include
- Understanding that research shows that social media may increase the likelihood of negative social comparisons which are associated with lower self-esteem and rumination, which are pathways to depressive symptoms.
- Recognized that social media can become a large part of an individual’s lives and that dependence and addictions to social media are dangerous and detrimental to mental health.
- Some research indicates that Facebook can enhance self-esteem through selective self-presentation which leads to intensified relationship formation.
- Recognize the nuances in how individuals use social networking sites to better understand the differences in research findings.
For this unit you will read two peer reviewed research articles. In the 2 previous units you read one research article and one non research article.
The first talks about the negative impact of facebook on mental health. The second talks about the positive impact of facebook on self esteem. You will read both articles and answer a series of prompts. To flesh out your response you are always welcome to use other research.
The prompts that you will answer.
- Do you think that Facebook and other social media sites are bad for the mental health of students specifically, or the general population? If so, at what point does it become less concerning for our mental health?
- Does social networking sites have any responsibility in promoting mental health among their users? Is so, how might they go about doing so?
- Do you believe that the increase use of social media can impact the intimacy vs isolation stage of young adulthood? Does social media change the types of interactions and expectations when it comes to the psycho-social “search” for closeness?
- How generalizable do you find the results of the research presented cross culturally?
- What are points of overlap that you find in the research presented and what differences do you see that can explain the different outcomes? (Looking for nuances in design, measures, population etc).
These are the research articles.