Social media essays have been popularly assigned over the last few years due to the rise in the usage of social media as well as rapid technological advancments. As it can be inferred from the title, a social media essay deals with describing, analyzing, as well as comparing and contrasting a variety of social networking sites, such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and others. Social media are a significant part of the modern society since they serve as means of communication that is used to connect with friends, family, and colleagues. Besides, for an average person, it can be really hard or even next to impossible to imagine himself/ herself without social networking sites and personal profiles there. If you have to submit an essay on the topic of social media, you need to be well-versed in the networking sites and their principles, and thus be able to tell your readers a lot about the subject.
As you are assigned plenty of different academic writing assignments on a daily basis, keep in mind that all of them differ. A social media essay may greatly differ from an essay on your hobby or something you are passionate about. You may think that only a topic is different, but in essence the whole structure and approach to writing may also differ a lot. If you want to know more tips and guidelines on how to cope with social media essay topics, read on the article and get brilliant examples.
What Is a Social Media Essay?
A social media paper is an academic writing type that requires one to introduce an essential social media topic and analyze it in depth. As a rule, a topic can be analyzed in terms of its advantages and disadvantages, or strengths and weaknesses. If you want to choose an appealing social media essay topic, keep in mind that it should be up-to-date and significant. When you are working on this type of essay writing, you do not necessarily have to provide your own opinion (of course, unless it is an opinion paper). The paper should be rather more informative and descriptive to provide one with an idea why the topic is so significant. Regardless of the topic that you have chosen, a social media paper should end with a proper conclusion, where you reiterate the main argument and also weigh the main findings or arguments.
Another purpose of social media writing is to provide readers with the latest social media essay ideas that highlight both positive and negative effects of social media nowadays. Some other essays are meant to be written for the purpose of providing a critical paper where the development of social media stays at the core. At times, the conclusions in social media papers should provide a call to action. Besides, it would be great if you chose a topic that is both interesting to you and appealing to the target audience.
How to Write a Social Media Essay?
Nowadays, the world has seen a tremendous increase in the usage of various social media networks, namely Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn among others. It takes approximately three hours per day for an average millenial to use social media networks. The ways of social media network usage are also different: they can range from expanding a professional network to staying in touch with family or friends. A great thing about writing social media essays is that the topic is rather controversial as different people have different opinions on it. So, if you are in need of getting some tips and guidelines on successful social media essay writing, check out the information below.
Create a Social Media Essay Outline
Before working on a social networks essay, or any other type of academic writign in general, it is recommended to start the writing process with an outline. Metaphorically speaking, an outline is a kind of an extended plan that serves as a backbone of the paper. It helps you to organize the brainstormed ideas into a logical order so that you find it easier to work on the body of the paper. With the help of an outline, you can ensure that you will not overlook any important ideas and that you will develop the paper in the required order. When it comes to what information should be included in the outline, keep in mind that you should mention the topic, formulate the thesis statement, identify how many body paragraphs you will have and write topic sentences for each of them, briefly include the main supporting evidence, examples or illustrations, and conclude the paper with a wrapping-up statement.
Below you will find a sample of a social media paper outline:
Topic: The Effects of Social Media on the Modern Society
Thesis statement: Although social media networks have revolutionized the way people spend their leisure time and get in contact with others, the concept has both advantages and disadvantages for the society.
Idea 1: Positive effects
Effect on the ways of communication.
Effect on different types and sectors of education.
Effect on business.
Idea 2: Negative effects
Impact on time management.
Impact on mental well-being.
Increase in spreading fake news and false information.
Conclusion:
Reiterate the thesis statement.
Provide the main supporting points (the main findings).
Provide a call to action.
Writing a Social Media Essay Introduction
A social media essay intro sets the background and provides a roadmap for the further development of ideas. The essay should be appealing from the very opening sentence, so it is strongly recommended to provide a “hook” – an attention-grabbing statement. When you are writing an introduction, make sure you explain the topic and provide sufficient background information on the topic. You need to start with general information in the beginning and then narrow it down so that you are able to logically move forward to the thesis statement.
Writing the Main Body for a Social Media Paper
The main body should explain the main arguments you intend to put forward. Apart from merely stating them in the topic sentences, you need to explain and illustrate them as well. So, each idea or point that was previously mentioned in the thesis statement should be properly elaborated. Make sure that the longer the essay is required to be, the longer the body paragraphs should be. Provide as many facts as possible in order to make the essay clear and comprehensive.
If you are interested in knowing the social media paper structure, check out the most essential features of organizing body paragraphs:
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- Topic sentence
It should serve as the beginning of each body paragraph. In other words, it can be compared to a thesis statement, which is only written in body paragraphs. Besides, it should tie together the idea or message that you intend to convey.
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- Provide social media essay examples
You need to provide an ample amount of illustrations and supporting facts for the statements you make. As such, these may be some graphs, tables, statistics, and other expert evidence taken from the outside sources.
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- Transitions
All sentences should be logical and coherent, so pay attention to appropriate transitional phrases. Some of them are: moreover, furthermore, however, besides, in addition, for instance, and many others.
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- A closing sentence that concludes the main idea of each of the body paragraphs
Make sure to have these wrapping-up sentences as they will indicate that the idea has been discussed.
Writing a Social Media Essay Conclusion
Conclusion for social media essay will help the target readers to understand the main findings and see what the essay’s outcomes are. The conclusion is what helps readers understand the paper significance and also get the main findings.
Types of Social Media Essays
Papers on the topic of social media are challenging to explain since some people consider them to be focused only on positive aspects, whereas the others claim that they are more negative. So, while coming up with a topic, make sure that you have a definite standpoint on it. It should be easy for you to analyze the topic and express your opinions on it. If you are interested in how different social media papers can be, check out the following types:
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- Persuasive social media paper
As it can be guessed from the social media essay titles, this one should have a persuasive tone of writing. Make sure that you are clear about your position because you will have to provide strong arguments to sound convincing to your target audience.
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- A social media speech
This one belongs to brief papers that concisely convey an idea that will be further used in a speech. The most important point here is to be precise and succinct in the statements. Often such academic papers are presented at some occasions, such as meetings or discussion clubs.
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- A personal reaction social media paper
The basis of this paper is your personal observation and conclusion that you have come to after investigating a specific topic in the sphere of social media. Normally, only minor or no research is required since it should deal with your individual analysis.
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- An argumentative social media paper
Unlike personal opinion essay or a persuasive essay, where you can provide your viewpoints and be subjective about the topic, in an argumentative paper you need to be as objective as possible in order to provide a well-balanced argument. As such, you need to rely on expert evidence taken from credible and up-to-date sources.
Extra Tips on How to Write a Social Media Paper
Think of what topic you would like to elaborate on well in advance. Try to pick the one that is appealing both to you and to your target audience.
Make sure you understand the underlying principles of academic writing, namely word order, sentence structure, punctuation, grammatical structures, spelling rules, and others.
Think of appropriate vocabulary to use througout the paper. Make sure that it is well-understood even by the general audience. Avoid excessive usage of professional terms and jargons.
Review and proofread the essay before submitting it. You need to pay attention to the consistency of ideas, proper structures, and clarity of the main message conveyed.
Positive and Negative Aspects of Social Media
For a student to develop a strong argument, he/ she should take a certain standpoint on whether he/ she considers social media to be good or bad. Usually, to succeed in essay writing, you need to adhere to one specific stance. The following list of pros and cons may probably help you choose ideas for your essay.
Positive aspects:
- Students can enjoy the benefits of distance education and take online courses.
- People can be aware of global issues and get to know different perspectives on some problems.
- One can get invaluable information about the pressing environmental problems.
- For people, social media act as the main source of instant news related to some emergencies.
- With the help of social media networks, people from different countries can get acquianted with each other.
- Professionals from different spheres can connect with each other and interact in different publics.
- Social media help in fighting bias related to different groups of people, especially minorities.
- Social media are a great place for artists to interact.
Negative aspects:
- Breach of privacy and confidentiality issues.
- Violation of personal privacy via Facebook posts, photos, and other visual content.
- Youths may often get an idea of the wrong body image.
- Decrease in student`s academic performance.
- Higher risks of identity thefts.
- Distraction of attention due to uncontrolled online communication.
- Addiction to sharing online and FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out) cases.
- Increasing risks of online bullying and incidences of peer pressure.
How to Choose a Successful Research Paper Topic Related to Social Media?
Even though for many students it may seem easy at first, but coming up with an effective social media topic can be time-consuming and rather challenging. You may want to hurry with that in order to have more time for the actual process of writing, but you should not be in a haste with it since the choice of topic may influence the further writing process. A properly chosen social media topic that is considered to be successful may help you attract your target audience and clearly present your own opinions.
If it is really hard to formulate a topic, start thinking about some general concepts related to social media. First, it is essential to outline your area of interest – and then you can narrow down the topic and focus on one specific idea. The second step will be to focus a social networking site you would like to write an essay on. You may as well consider the following questions that may help you make up your mind:
- What is the main feature that tells apart a social media website from other websites?
- What emotions fill me up while I am using a social media network?
- What is the main purpose people pursue for using social networks?
- Who and how can a social media network negatively affect?
- What benefits may one derive from using social media?
- What are the differences in style and functions of your chosen platform when it comes to other social networks?
When you get answers to these questions, it will be easier for you to find ideas what you want to write about.
Pro tip: You are strongly recommended to write a paper outline since it serves as a backbone for your future paper ideas. Besides, it will make the writing process easier.
Some of the other aspects that you may need to consider before choosing the type of social network essay are the following:
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- Do you prefer to write “for” or “against” essays?
Some writers are really good at providing informative essays, where they clearly convey the main idea and provide numerous facts. On the other hand, some writers like to unveil some hidden truth or negative aspects behind the usage of social media networks. Stay loyal to yourself and choose the position you feel more fluent in.
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- Do you know what topics your target audience is interested in?
If you cannot decide what topic to choose, shift your focus to identifying what topics your target readers are potentially interested in. You may even seek for some advice on forums.
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- Can you find reliable and credible information that could serve as supporting evidence for your essays?
At times, some topics that you are particularly interested in may still remain unstudied. As such, before choosing such topic for your future essay or research paper, double-check whether you can find sufficient supporting evidence for it.
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- Are you ready for your own topic investigation or would you like to rely on former research of others?
Some students like to choose thoroughly explored topics, whereas some others are not against conducting some experiments and carrying out surveys in order to find out something new on their own.
List of the Most Appealing Social Media Paper Topics
It can be interesting but at the same time rather challenging to write on social networks. Often one may get particularly inspired when he/ she looks through a ready-composed list of essay topics. To ease you the writing task, we have provided such a list for you below:
- The influence social media networks have on the society.
- How do social media affect youngsters?
- How has the social media impacted the educational process over the recent years?
- The influence of social media on communicational styles and social interaction.
- How can the popularity of Twitter among famous people be explained?
- The main purpose for professionals’ using LinkedIn.
- Strengths and weaknesses of Facebook.
- Is social media a social trouble or a social way out?
- What is more inherent in social media usage: breaking or strengthening relationships?
- Ways to prevent social media addiction.
- Comparison of social communication before and after the social media era.
- Specific ways how the social media has modified the studying process.
- Should the usage of social media be regulated in order to reach balance in the society?
- Is the usage of social media closely connected to the increasing cases of cyberbullying?
- How are businesses influenced by the social media networks?
- What new ways of doing business have appeared since the beginning of social media use?
- What new horizons have the social media opened for digital marketing?
- Are there any ways that parents can protect their kids from the negative effects of social media usage?
- What are the ways of earning money online?
- Can communication via social networking sites fully replace real-time communication in the future?
- What impact does the usage of social networking sites have on schoolchildren’s behavior and their further development?
- How are women’s bodies desexualized in advertizements?
- Can a blogger’s profession be a top way of self-realization in the modern world?
- What would a typical day of a modern-day teenager look like without social media?
- Is it a serious issue that women`s bodies are used for commercial purposes?
- Can the usage of social media help people tackle bias and prejudice?
- Is a social networking site a good place where to voice your opinion?
- Are social networking sites doing more harm than good?
- If all social networking sites suddenly disappeared, how would people live the day?
- Can social media be one of the stimulants of mental problems?
Essay writing entails not only gathering information and brainstorming ideas but also being able to provide strong arguments and supporting them. Hopefully, the aforementioned tips and guidelines will greatly help you in writing a successful social media paper.