Busisiwe “Mabusana” Shibambo

Assignment No 3: Writing an abridged research proposal

Media Research

Blog Entry No 6

Unique No: 737502

 

1.    Introduction

Social media have grabbed the interest of teenagers in today’s world and have become a common destination for almost everyone around the world. People create profiles on the social media in order to share their personal relationships, pictures, progress of their lives and many other issues. Teenagers enjoy the attention they receive on social media and most of them can’t live without their smart phones that give them access to social media sites.

2.    Title of the research: Effects of social media on teenager’s lifestyle

 

3.    Problem statement

According to Wagner, C et al (2012) explanations research problem means that before the researcher start with the research you need to identify your research topic or research problem you are interested in and want to investigate. Finding a suitable topic is very crucial at this stage as it will lead to the whole process of research projects

• Research topic: Effects of social media on teenager’s lifestyle

3.1.        Research question: Do social media have negative or positive effects on teenager’s lifestyle?  

 

3.2.        Is there something wrong in the society?

Social media has become huge part of people’s lives. Most people’s lives actually revolve around the use of social media. There are different types of social media and all have different influences on the lives of teenagers. For the purpose of this study the researcher will focus on the following social media: Facebook, WhatsApp, You-Tube and Twitter. Teenagers are hooked on this social media and they basically live their lives based on what they see and read on social media.

Lately we have seen high number of statistics indicating that most teenagers either tried to commit suicide or have committed suicide due to what they have read about themselves or due to peer pressure on social media.

Social media does not only negatively affect the lives of young people but also positive influence their lifestyle. Östman, J (2012) points out that teenager’s social contexts, along with their desires to maintain relationships express themselves to diverse audiences, and discover new information and ideas, profoundly shape their social media engagement.  However this also pose a high risks as in most cases they don’t know the people they communicate with on social media.

Teenagers are kidnapped by people in the of their cycle of Facebook friends. The problem with some of the social media is that there are many imposters who are preying on vulnerable teenagers. People hijack other people’s Facebook in order to do their dirty business online. The society, parents, teachers, politicians and everyone in the community has the responsibility to caution the children about the social media teenagers are engaged in.

Parents need to be inquisitive on what their children get up to on the mentioned social media.Teens are naïve and fall for anything they see or read on social media and they easily get depressed. They follow on celebrities and believed what they do to be cool and most of those celebrities are on drugs so they can cope with the limelight.

3.3.        Evaluation of the problem

The use of social media by teenagers distracts them from reality and from their academic life. They are so dependent on social media that they spend less time with their families. Their lives are entirely based on social media. Teenagers no longer show respect to their parents as they learn bad habits through social media. They find social media to be cool and believe that this is how life should be lived.

3.4.        Background

Today, lives are influenced by the new technology that has infiltrated the whole world. It is a fact that we cannot avoid the use of social media regardless of age. Social media is one of the important and most effective way of communication. The introduction of social media has cut down on the geographical barriers, people are now able to share and communicate with each other regardless of the distance. Social media has good and bad effects on teenager’s lives and lifestyle. On the positive site teens can have group discussions via the social media such as WhatsApp.

On the negative site social media such as Facebook, you tube can be positive and dangerously negative. People create false profile and befriend teenagers and even adult and most fall into a trap where they are exploited. Kids are exposed to sites that contain pornography, drug abuse and violent images that badly affect the behaviour of young lives.

3.5.        Reasons for the problem to be considered important to the society

 

§  Social media can be considered a serious problem. Our kids are the future of our country hence if they are exposed to the life of social media and are detached to real issues of lives then it is a serious challenge.

§  Our country face with cases of suicided by young people because of social media peer pressure

§  Heavy use of social media on teens is addictive which distract them from focusing on real issues such as school work and other chaos.

ü  An example of overuse of media is that young people tend to envy the lives of individuals who post their successful lives on social media, the challenge is that they start to follow everything about such people to an extend that it negatively affects their wellbeing some fall into depression and anxiety.

ü  Another example is that kids like imitating the behaviour of their idols, mostly they will experience the lifestyle of such people more special on drug abuse because they want to feel what their idols feel ( in their language they want to be cool).

 

3.6.        Purpose

The purpose of study is to analyse and evaluate the effects social media it has on the lifestyle of teenagers.

Ø  Goals

• To create social support groups in the communities for teenagers
• To promote and restore the culture of reading booking amongst teenagers to reduce high use of social media

Ø  Significance

My focus is to analyse the effects of social media on teenager’s lifestyle, whether it positively or negatively affects them. Most teenagers are addicted to the use of social media and neglect the real things in life such as spending time with their families, hanging out at the movies with friend and just playing as children use to.

The study is important to the society, and if the study is not conducted our country might not have a good future in the next coming generation.

 

SOURCES CONSULTED

Wagner, C, Kawulich, B & Garner, M .2012.Doing Social Research:  a Global Context. 1^st Edition. Berkshire: McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Research methodology. [Sa]. [O]. Available

http://research-methodology.net/research-methodology/research-types/

Accessed on 2017/09/25

Journal of King Saud University computer and information sciences. 2016. [Sa]. [O]. Available

http://www.sciencedirect.co/science/article/pii/S131957816300787

Accessed on 2017/10/15