The Evolution of Human Behaviour in Young Society Through Social Media

Levina Jasmine Robson, Curtin University Dubai

March 14th, 2021

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Abstract

Networking platforms such as social media allow their users to communicate, build relationships and share a different perspective of current social issues. For certain, social media has become part of our daily habits and has attracted more users in the younger society. Hence, it is essential to explore both the harm and benefits of social media to understand its capability to influence human behavior easily. This research focuses on the top three social media: Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube, to study the different online crises and how the professionals managed these issues. As a result, social media can become a cruel and unreliable source for its users, but despite that, social media can unite different communities and allow users to voice out.

Keywords: Internet, communication, human behavior, social media, culture

1 Introduction

In this digital era, the majority of the population is dependent on the internet. As technology keeps developing, the internet plays a vital role in providing entertainment, knowledge, and network. The power of the internet has significantly been visible through the social media world that never sleeps. The most popular social media such as Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube have more than millions of users worldwide sharing content from education, business to their personal life. Despite the many advantages of social media, many argue that there are weaknesses such as inauthentic expressions and an increase in the young society's lack of self-esteem. Thus, social media has influenced the change in human behavior for better and for worse.

2 History

Social media have started way longer than we realize; despite many of us consider it is the new shift of communication, social media, such as the Facemash or known today as Facebook, is the growth of social media over hundreds of years. The first social media form was the postal service or letter that has started way back in 550 BC and it was the first written alternating communication from one person to the other over a vast distance (Hendricks, 2013). Then, in 1791 Samuel Morse invented Telegraph allowing a short message to be delivered faster in a long-distance compared to using transportation back in the 1790s (Hendricks, 2013). Subsequently, in the 1890s telephone and the radio was invented and are still used today. Both telephone and radio were revolutionary, seeing that it allows people to communicate back and forth instantly (Hendricks, 2013). Forward to the 20th century, networking technology got upgraded; computers and the internet were invented, email was developed, and blogging became a social media talking point.

Today and since the early 2000s, a variety of social media became a sensation around the world. To name a few, in 2004, Facebook was created, allowing users to connect through sharing their interests, thoughts, and opinions with whomever they want. In 2005, YouTube launched and allowed its users to watch, share, react and interact through the videos. Furthermore, in 2010, Instagram allows users to edit, share, follow, publish and interact on creative content. Each social media is used and known through its different purpose, offering an entirely new way for individuals to interact and share over long distances with each other (Hendricks, 2013). Today, there are many social networking sites, and many of them can be joined together to allow cross-posting. With that said, social media serves as a source in which users can reach a massive amount of people without losing the intimacy of face-to-face communication. We can only hypothesize what the future of social media will look like for the next decade from now, although it seems obvious that it will remain to exist for as long as we are alive.

3 The Impact of Social Media

Being socially connected is beneficial for teenagers' emotional development, and now, many teenagers use social media to connect with their friends and for entertainment. Social media can be positive to them as it allows teenagers to brainstorm, voice out and be creative. Moreover, they can interact with their friends while developing technical skills, learning cultural and societal issues and be active in society. Despite being independent, unfortunately, young users on social media should still be monitored and aware that these platforms can negatively impact their social lives.

Figure 1: Reach of Selected Social Networks in the United States 2020, by Age

(Tankovska, 2021)

According to Statista, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube are the top social media that reaches young users from the age of 15 to 25 in the United States of America by 2020 (Tankovska, 2021). To support, according to SproutSocial demographics, Facebook has 51% active users at the age of 13-17 years old and 76% for ages between 18-24 (Chen, 2020). In comparison, Instagram has 72% of teenagers at the age of 13-17 and 67% from 18-29 (Chen, 2020). While with the highest percentage, YouTube has 85% of teenagers from 13-17 and 91% from the age of 18-29 (Chen, 2020). With these facts, it is suitable to analyze young society's pros and cons in these social media.

Due to the large audiences found on social media, it has the potential to be used as a platform for gain, but sometimes mistakes are made and they lead to ugly consequences. When talking about gains, a good example is the Dollar Shave Club Ad on Facebook or celebrities voicing out their concerns as discussed in 3.1 and 3.2 below.

3.1 Facebook: Dollar Shave Club

In 2016, a men's grooming product exploded with customers through their humor and thoughtful advertisement. The company called the Dollar Shave Club created an ad that includes comparing His and Hers grooming products. The company put shame on other companies that are promoting pink tax (Shewan, 2020). The ad includes a statement and image that supports equality in genders, and of course, the public reacted positively, they shared the post, and the company gained almost twice their original subscribers. Dollar Shave Club uses Facebook to connect with their new audiences, which are women and succeeded with sharing a smart ad that changes societal values (Shewan, 2020). This ad campaign has been used for marketing studies for students to learn and get inspiration. Just like this ad, many companies have had successful campaigns on Facebook since it reaches a large group of audiences with communities that share similar interests, allowing users to connect, interact, comment, and subscribe (Dhaoui & Webster, 2020).

Furthermore, most Facebook posts that are about grooming or gender are related to puberty and identity. Therefore, companies need to focus on their target audience and possible audiences, such as young teenagers. These great examples can be a reflection for the students, yet when companies approach in a negative or inappropriate tone, it may be misunderstood by the youth society and could impact a future conflict. A study by Roberts and Faranda also claimed that Facebook's misunderstanding could affect young adults' various mental health outcomes. Unfortunately, Facebook has also become a social comparison platform that can be depressive for users (Faranda & Roberts, 2019). Roberts and Faranda mentioned that mental health professionals should take responsibility to voice out the influence of social comparison on an individual (Faranda & Roberts, 2019). Other cons of Facebook have become a global issue, such as privacy leaks, addiction for users, cyberbullying, and fake profiles.

Another study by Reynol Junco researched college students' relationship between frequency and student engagement on Facebook (Junco, 2012). Junco explains that participation in Facebook can be both positive and negative predictive for college students. Facebook has a great outcome when used for co-curricular and becomes negative when spent on online games shown later in their academic outcomes (Junco, 2012). He then simplifies that Facebook can help students be involved in discussion yet negative when becoming a platform for distraction resulting in an addiction.

3.2 Instagram: Cosmopolitan Philippines Photoshop

In 2018, Lili Reinhart and Camila Mendes from the TV series Riverdale opened up the truth of models being photoshopped on many cover magazines (Logan, 2021). Lili went on her own Instagram story to share her experience with Cosmopolitan Philippines and shocked her fans. The cosmopolitan Philippines published Reinhart's cover with slimmer and unrealistic body features that Reinhart attached to her story side by side with the original shot. Reinhart pushed herself to voice out to celebrate International Women's Day as she felt responsible for being a role model for many young teenagers since her debut on the popular Netflix series (Logan, 2021). Reinhart and her friends mentioned that they had worked hard to feel confident and comfortable in their bodies, yet unrealistic beauty standards will hurt her and many of her followers again if this continues (Logan, 2021). She also encourages other media and celebrities to avoid photoshop and be comfortable in their unique bodies. Many applauded Reinhart's action and inspired many celebrities to do the same.

Unfortunately, unrealistic body features and rich lifestyles are promoted every day on Instagram by celebrities, influencers, and other companies. This "promotion" has created issues such as body shaming and lack of self-esteem. Another problem faced by Instagram users would be an undying competition to look wealthy and successful on their profiles, even though it might not be true for many. This social issue has come to a serious line of the younger society having anxiety and lack of confidence. Besides that, Instagram has also created a community of influencers that gives reviews on new products. Although sometimes, the products they are advertising are not suitable for most audiences. Many influencers have been in trouble of faking or bias towards their feedback since the companies pay them. Many users only use Instagram to show their happiness, wealth, and beauty, taking advantage of Instagram's smart algorithm.

During the COVID-19 lockdowns, many have found opportunities on Instagram to open up small businesses and support their financial struggles. Despite Instagram having negative points mentioned, it is still an application that allows people to be creative and share two-way communication with their followers. The users enjoy Instagram more as it keeps updating its features such as the latest Instagram TV and filters that the users can make themselves.

On the contrary, sometimes bad decisions take the best of people and lead to some bad aftermath. The best example of the ugly mistakes made on social media is described by the incident summarised in 3.3 below.

3.3 YouTube: Logan Paul's Japan Incident

In comparison with Reinhart, unfortunately, Logan Paul instead disappointed his fans. Logan Paul was a popular YouTuber until his Japan incident in 2018 ("YouTube punishes Logan Paul over Japan suicide video", 2018). Logan and his friends traveled to Tokyo to vlog his experience in Japan, but then, unfortunately, Logan mistakenly recorded himself in a sacred place sensitive to many Japanese. His unrespectful action of recording in the suicide forest grabs many Japanese and his international viewers' attention. Many found his clips disgusting and insensitive toward the Japanese Culture ("YouTube punishes Logan Paul over Japan suicide video", 2018). Not long after the video was published, a flood of people and negative comments made Paul decide to delete the video. YouTube also smartly noticed and cut ties with Logan Paul. Paul realized his mistakes soon after and shared an apology video for everyone who watched the videos. With more than 15 million subscribers at the start, the number started to go down. This incident made many people realize that it is important to rethink your actions and words before uploading the video. Similar misbehavior has happened on YouTube several times. YouTubers sometimes forget that their followers are real people and would make silly mistakes. Although at the same time, the YouTube community can be too rough on the negative comments and forgets that YouTubers are also humans that have feelings (Caron, Raby, Mitchell, Théwissen-LeBlanc & Prioletta, 2016).

However, other than YouTubers' or Influencers' mistakes, YouTube is a popular platform for all ages, including babies, to get entertainment or information. YouTube allows users to share their creative and educational content as well as memories. Many parents have found that they can watch their old baby movies and found YouTube very resourceful when they need to distract their teenagers.

4 Conclusion

To sum up, technology keeps developing and social media has become a daily habit for everyone. Many users have become addicted to the advantages of technology. The research gathered made clear that social media can be entangled between being constructive as well as unhealthy. While many points support social media's advantages, particularly on increasing social skills and creativity, social issues could still distress young society, as mentioned, cyberbullying or lack of self-esteem and many more. Without the internet, we would not see any development in networking which is a key system of social change in the interaction of international relations, culture, and technology. What is important, the network society is stronger than it seems. Many communities are noticing the harm in social media towards the young society, that they are making awareness to change the negative environment of social media.

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5 References

Caron, C., Raby, R., Mitchell, C., Théwissen-LeBlanc, S., & Prioletta, J. (2016). From concept to data: sleuthing social change-oriented youth voices on YouTube. Journal Of Youth Studies, 20(1), 47-62. doi: 10.1080/13676261.2016.1184242

Chen, J. (2020). Social media demographics to inform your brand’s strategy in 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2021, from https://sproutsocial.com/insights/new-social-media-demographics/#FB-demos

Dhaoui, C., & Webster, C. (2020). Brand and consumer engagement behaviors on Facebook brand pages: Let's have a (positive) conversation. International Journal Of Research In Marketing, 1-20. doi: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2020.06.005

Faranda, M., & Roberts, L. (2019). Social comparisons on Facebook and offline: The relationship to depressive symptoms. Personality And Individual Differences, 141, 13-17. doi: 10.1016/j.paid.2018.12.012

Hendricks, D. (2013). Complete History of Social Media: Then And Now. Retrieved 14 February 2021, from https://smallbiztrends.com/2013/05/the-complete-history-of-social-media-infographic.html

Junco, R. (2012). The relationship between frequency of Facebook use, participation in Facebook activities, and student engagement. Computers & Education, 58(1), 162-171. doi: 10.1016/j.compedu.2011.08.004

Logan, E. (2021). Lili Reinhart and Camila Mendes Spoke Out About Photoshopped Cosmopolitan Philippines Images. Retrieved 14 February 2021, from https://www.wmagazine.com/story/lili-reinhart-camila-mendes-cosmopolitan-philippines-photoshop-controversy/

Shewan, D. (2020). 7 Awesome Facebook Ad Examples (And Why They Work). Retrieved 14 February 2021, from https://www.wordstream.com/blog/ws/2016/05/23/facebook-ad-examples

Tankovska, H. (2021). U.S. internet user social network usage by age 2020. Retrieved 14 February 2021, from https://www.statista.com/statistics/378198/share-internet-users-accessing-social-network-by-age/

YouTube punishes Logan Paul over Japan suicide video. (2018). Retrieved 14 February 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-42644321