The Impact of Social Media on Aggressive Behavior: A Comprehensive Analysis

Abstract

Psychology Topic: How is social media such as video games, Facebook, YouTube, television, and any social media platform linked to aggression on users? To what extent does social media/internet cause hostile and aggressive behaviours? Testing Hypothesis Hypothesis: Social media is linked to adverse outcomes amongst its users, such as aggressive behaviours. To test my hypothesis that social media is linked to adverse outcomes of behaviour issues such as aggression, I propose a combination of qualitative and quantitative data collection approaches to achieve a comprehensive and meaningful report. For this reason, I will precisely choose to ask questions and conduct thorough research; thus decide to use surveys and questionnaires (open-ended and closed-ended) and interview to enhance success in testing my hypothesis. The effects of the rapidly advancing technology over the past few decades are too loud to be ignored. The Internet proves to be among the primary areas in that technology has expressed impressive development. People have turned to the internet as a way of communicating about all things in life. For this reason, social media has taken its role in redefining the behaviours of its users with addictions defining the root of social media effects amongst its users. However, though social media enhances connectivity amongst users and makes life more fun and interesting, over-reliance on the same social media proves a potential threat to human well-being. It is the extent of harm that social media exposes to its users that the proposed qualitative and quantitative data collection methods aim to analyze to enlighten all social media users who serve as the primary target audience of this essay. Open-ended questionnaires will give the sample participants a chance to speak out their inner feelings towards the study question instead of a specific answer. In contrast, the closed-ended question will allow for statistical reports on the matter. Surveys also serve as a potential approach whose report is practically countable. At the same time, an interview will offer a qualitative response towards the issue, thus enhancing the realization of a substantial report confirming or refuting the hypothesis under consideration. Measuring Variables Social media, as earlier argued, has adverse effects on its users. For this reason, this report aims at analyzing social media as the independent variable and aggression behaviour as the dependent variable. While defining social media as the independent variable, it is good to note that it serves as the cause of "aggressive behaviour," which becomes the dependent variable of this study. To this effect, the need to manipulate social media (independent variable) serves as the key to measuring the extent of its outcome or impact as hypothesized (aggression) amongst its users. Nicholas Carr serves as a potential scholar whose urge to enlighten humans on the effects that the internet has on its users is well defined. In his book "The Shallows," Nicholas argues that humans' minds and behaviours have been tuned by technology, limiting their potentials to think critically or make sound decisions without seeking help from the advancing technology (Carr, 2020). Paying close attention to learning and acquisition of knowledge, Carr argues that since the internet is a medium based on interruption, it serves as a threat to humans as it changes the way they read and process information. Since humans are not machines, trying to load so much information from so many sources becomes an addiction upon over-reliance on the internet, which defines the origin of acquiring aggressive behaviour. Following Carr's research arguments and results, I will be able to survey the extent to which social media enhances the negative or positive impact on its users, refuting or confirming the study hypothesis. In understanding the extent of influence that media has on its users, it is imperative to note that the media is out there for everyone to see. Media is at an all-time high whether on news, radio, phones, social media, TV, and games, among other platforms that use the internet as the network source. Following Martínez-Ferrer and Musitu's (2018) arguments, one can confirm that social media expose its users to aggressive thoughts upon constantly seeing or hearing harmful contents on/from the media, such as violence. These authors argue that the problematic use of social networking sites proves a significant public health concern with adolescents expressing aggressive behaviours upon over-reliance on the internet, which substantially affects their well-being. The availability of internet access exposes adolescents to experiencing problematic internet use, with girls expressing more adverse effects than adolescent boys (Martínez-Ferrer and Musitu, 2018). Their research report proves essential as it offers clear insights on the extent to which social media use remains a threat amongst its users. Most especially the young generation whose urge to learn more about their issues of interest cannot be ignored. Therefore, using this source is of great relevance as it will enhance a proper analysis on the problem of study, thus compiling a comprehensive report confirming or refuting the hypothesis with defined and reasonable facts. In the article "Social media as a vector for youth violence," Patton et al. (2014) confirm that there is a strong correlation between social media and aggression amongst its users. These authors argue that one’s network serves as a potential predictor of any negative behaviour that the user expresses. In their social networking analysis, these authors use interviews and questionnaires on the sample participants whose responses confirm a strong connection between social media use and the individual behaviour users express in the long run. Unfortunately, their report describes an adverse effect of social media reliance on users, especially the youths whose source of violent behaviours are closely connected to the content they view, learn about, or hear from the media. Using these authors' arguments will enhance the efficiency of this report in compiling valuable facts that are for or against the hypothesis under study. Interestingly, based on the three sources I have analyzed in this report, it is clear that there is a strong correlation between social media and the negative behaviours...