Multi Modal Essay

Tenicia Thigpen
English
12/08/19
Professor Ferrara
The ever-growing phenomenon of social media, including text messaging, has become a
large part of our culture, not just within America but worldwide. Despite the advancement of
social media, it’s a detriment to a person’s social skills by decreasing face-to-face interaction
with each other, limiting their language, and affecting their mental health.
Even though social media promotes communication both near and far, it fails to
encourage people to have face-to-face interactions with each other. For instance, with people
spending hours on their computer screens, phone screens, etc., it forces them to create shallow
relationships with those they know little to nothing about. For example, the dating app, Tinder,
helps people choose who they want to go out with. However, the app doesn’t encourage its users
to get to know more about the people their interested in: but to simply contact them because they
looked attractive in their profile picture. This is but one of the methods of “communication” in
which social media inspire among our societies. Unfortunately, this issue plagues our millennial
generation worldwide with no signs of slowing down. For instance, research shows that
worldwide Facebook users as a whole login about 10.5 billion minutes on the website everyday;
that amount of time equals up to 19,963 years in just one day (122). As a result, this prevents
people from establishing genuine, long-lasting relationships with each other, becoming more
difficult with each advancement of social media. Creating authentic connections with people is
important in everyday life; from personal relationships with family and friends, to professional
relationships with colleagues and business partners. And excellent social skills are crucial to
developing these connections, such as problem-solving, empathy, active listening, accountability,
and interpersonal skills, among many other forms of social skills.
A particular form of social media that’s been popular since the 90s, texting has become a
special form of communication in its own right. In his essay, Will Text Messaging
Destroy The English Language, Dallas Spires states, :texting is a new code used to
communicate ideas in English accurately and with ease and efficiency through a specific and for
an almost exclusive audience” (126). This technological peculiarity is code shared among the
millennial generation, a code that consists of many abbreviations expressed within its messages.
Such examples are BRB=”be right back”, IKR=”I know right”, NVM=”nevermind”,
SMH=”shaking my head”, YOLO=”you only live once”, among over a thousand more that many
from the older generations would not understand. Because of these many abbreviations, or
textspeak, is the dominant form of language expressed for messaging on a daily basis, it limits a
person’s use of the English language. This is prevalent among the younger generations to the
point that common words and phrases are often misspelled to simplify them even further than is
necessary, such as the word “love” which is usually spelled “luv” within textspeak. So instead of
typing “I love you” when texting, a person is more likely to type “i luv u”, breaking down their
capabilities of speaking the English language in a proper manner. Just as social skills are
imperative to lasting relationships, knowing how to effectively convey a message to which
people can understand is paramount to communication in everyday life.

Lastly, social media is a detriment to a person’s mental health without realizing it.
Despite its purpose to “connect” people with each other, social media creates social anxiety
among its users when spending too much time behind the computer screen or phone screen. Too
often people compare themselves to what they see on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc., secretly
wishing their lives were as exciting as their social media “friends” or wishing they had the same
material possessions. This brings about an empty void of insecurities and a sense of isolation that
lowers a person’s self-esteem, making them feel as though they’re not as special as the people
they see on social media. This constant dread of social comparison prevents them from
acknowledging their own individuality and potential for success. Another way that social media
negatively affects a person’s mental health is that it can become quite addictive. Like alcoholism
or pornagraphy, spending too much time on social media can develop into a very unhealthy
addiction. There is an estimate that over 210 million people suffer from internet and social media
addiction worldwide. In addition to that, a 2018 study found that teenagers who spend 5 hours
per day using their phones were almost twice as likely to show signs of depression than teens
who dedicated only 1 hour on their phones (mediakix.com).
In conclusion, I firmly believe that despite its growing popularity, social media is more of
a detriment to our society ranging from social skills to speech capabilities and even mental
health.
WORKS CITED
Fleming, Chase. "Is Social Media Hurting Our Social Skills" "The Blair Reader,
Ed. Laurie Kirszner, Pearson, 2017, p.p.122.
Spires, Dallas. "Will Text Messaging Destroy The English Language?" "The Blair
Reader, Ed. Laurie Kirszner, Pearson, 2017, p.p.124-126.
“The 8 Social Media Addiction Statistics Everyone Needs To See.” Mediakix, 9
Apr. 2018, https://mediakix.com/blog/social-media-addiction-statistics/.

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Tenicia Thigpen

developing these connections, such as problem-solving, empathy, active listening, accountability,

and interpersonal skills, among many other forms of social skills.

imperative to lasting relationships, knowing how to effectively convey a message to which

people can understand is paramount to communication in everyday life.

who dedicated only 1 hour on their phones (mediakix.com).

Ed. Laurie Kirszner, Pearson, 2017, p.p.122.

Reader, Ed. Laurie Kirszner, Pearson, 2017, p.p.124-126.

“The 8 Social Media Addiction Statistics Everyone Needs To See.” Mediakix, 9

Apr. 2018, https://mediakix.com/blog/social-media-addiction-statistics/.

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