Introduction:
In my introduction I will start by introducing the main purpose of my research proposal. I will discuss that within the recent years there has been a significant increase in technology and social media usage in our everyday lives and while this has often been seen as a positive, unintended negative consequences have been arising. This research proposal will look at two different age groups, one being children under the age of 18 (aprox. 10-17 year olds), and young adults that are college age (aprox. 18-22 year olds).
Research Hypothesis:
The more significant amount of time an individual spends on social media will also lead to an increased amount of negative thoughts the individual has (low self-esteem, depression, anxiety, etc.). Furthermore, the younger age range might also be more susceptible to these negative consequences of social media usage due to their rapid development and an increased desire to fit in with their peers.
Literature Review:
In this section I will take a look at previous research conducted on this topic. I will look at sources that look at specific age ranges and compare and contrast their results to see if the author’s findings support my hypothesis. I will also discuss the different viewpoints and opinions on why social media is having these impacts and whether or not there is a way to avoid these negative consequences without having to completely cut out all social media usage.
Methodology:
We will take two different groups of 100 people a piece. One group will be composed of children under the age of 18 ranging from 10-17 years old. The second group will be young adults aged 18-22 years old to focus on the college aged individuals. Both of these groups will be given a questionnaire that asks various questions about both their social media usage and their mental health. Some rough examples of potential questions are:
- What social media sites do you actively use?
- How much time daily do you spend on social media?
- How long have you been using social media?
- How often do you feel depressed?
- How much do you enjoy using social media?
- How confident are you about yourself?
Discussion:
First, I will analyze the results of the data I collected through the questionnaires filled out by the participants.
- Are the results supporting or opposing my hypothesis?
- Are the results comparable between groups or is there a distinct difference?
- Are there results that were not anticipated?
- Are there any weaknesses in my research?
After looking at the results of the research I will then look at the comparisons and contrasting views between my research and the other sources that I compiled for this research.
- Any drastic differences in results?
- Any similarities in results?
- Compare/Contrast the differences in methodology
Finally, I will look ahead and discuss the potential for future research and what could be altered to make my research stronger or refine my research to get more specific results. I will also discuss whether or not my research provided either strong or weak results.
- Did my research find any correlation to increased social media use and negative mental health?
- Potential changes that could be made to methodology to strengthen research?
- Where there any findings that should be looked at more closely in the future?