Week Four: Finding Articles

My research topic question is, what are the negative effects of social media on children and adolescents? This week in my research I found an article that brought to my attention some negative effects that I had not thought about. One of these negative effects was obesity. I thought, well probably because spending a lot of time using our devices for social media makes us less active. That is part of the reason, but what this article brought up was because of the increased amounts of advertising being viewed on social media for things such as fast food. The longer we spend time on it, the more advertising we see. Another issue was increased use of tobacco and alcohol for the same reason, exposure to more ads. For alcohol the advertising is everywhere in social media. There's product ads first and foremost. What I had not thought about were the posts of people at parties or out having fun with pictures of drinks in their hands. They are just helping advertise for these companies. I'm glad I chose this as my topic. I'm really hoping it helps prepare me for a career as an MFT, as well as soon having three teenagers!