Presenter(s): Taylor Kissinger
Faculty Mentor(s): Kim Sheehan
Oral Session 3 C
This study explores how Generation Z’s behavioral expectations for each other on social media impact their relationships, health, and overall well-being. According to a 2016 study published in the Journal of Adolescence, about half of the time that teens spend on the internet is dedicated to social media. Adolescents experience heightened pressure to be active on social media out of fear of becoming “irrelevant” or fading into the background of their friends’ social circles. In addition, previous studies have shown that young people are experiencing heightened levels of depression, lack of sleep, problematic social media usage, and social media addiction. And unlike any previous research, this study looks at the intersection of social media usage with inter/intrapersonal relationships and wellness. Generation Zers who consistently use social media must think about how their online activity could be perceived by their friends. Due to social media’s transparency in revealing real-time activity, the digital landscape has created an authentic level of complexity to relationships and a coinciding unspoken set of social standards to abide by online. I predict that these hidden norms are pervasive and relevant in the minds of Generation Z, that Gen Zers individually hold themselves to lower social media standards than their peers, and that social media expectations negatively impact their real-life friendships. Eighty-six participants completed a scenario-based survey that gauged how they would feel or react in a situation on a given social media platform. The results show that social media is no longer an outside element from interpersonal communication; it is an entangled third entity that can drastically and irreversibly change a friendship. It is imperative to study how online interactions can alter relationships so that we can foster healthy social media usage in the coming generations.