The Impact of Social Media on Young People

The Happiness Effect

Freitas, D. (2017). The happiness effect: How social media is driving a generation to

appear perfect at any cost. Oxford University Press.

Introduction

The Happiness Effect by Freitas (2017) is a story about young people and their use of social media—and its impact on their lives—told largely in their own words. It is a probing and sensitive examination of a techno-cultural phenomenon, one that has never been seen before in all of human history, and Freitas takes care to allow those taking part in this phenomenon to provide their own perspective on it. This paper summarizes and critiques the book and provides an examination of the consistency, validity, and adequacy of the arguments of its author. While the book does offer some important insight, it does come up short in terms of addressing point-blank the ultimate issue, which is that social media is more of a burden and a problem than a tool—and young people need to know that they are better off without it.

Summary

Freitas (2017) explores the love-hate relationship that young people have with social media by surveying and interviewing students across a number of different college campuses. The main idea of the book is to show that young people struggle with the demands that social media places on them: they feel they must do everything they can to appear happy and successful on social media. They also worry that if they post the wrong thing it may be used against them later in their lives. This latter point is especially significant in the age of cancel culture, where a tweet or Facebook post from years ago can end up costing a person his career later on.

The fear of young people is understandable, and Freitas (2017) pays special attention to it throughout the work. The book begins with a look at how young people feel social media obliges them to show the “good times” and it creates a sense of envy and competition among people—they want to show that “I’m in a better place than you are and I want to prove that to you and show you that I’m extremely happy” (16). Freitas (2017) describes the students she meets and brings them to life so that the reader can visualize these people and understand that they are real.

The author also discusses Facebook Cleanups, which are taught to young students so that they know not to post anything offensive online that might come back to haunt them. Students actually learn this lesson in high school; they are aware “how important it is to watch what you say online because you never know who is keeping an eye on you” (53). Young people are basically being groomed to accept cancel culture for what it is and to play along.

There is also a discussion of selfie culture. One young person interviewed explains how she used to hate the idea of selfies and how she thought people posted them just as a way of getting attention and getting likes. However, then she began to take them and post them and she justified this by saying that it was just a way of making oneself feel good. Essentially, she admits to caving to the pressure to be vain—even if she does not say so in so many words. But her actions are clearly indicative of a trend among young people to embrace vanity out of peer pressure: Freitas (2017) writes that “for Elise, selfies offer a way to capture a moment when you are feeling attractive and good about yourself” (83). It is justified because it is interpreted as an expression of who one is—as though who one is depended upon everyone else noticing one and potentially giving a like. It is identity based on vanity no matter how one views it, and selfie-haters, as Freitas (2017) points out, tend to see that more than selfie-lovers.

Another topic covered is live-streaming and using social media just to open oneself to others. Another is the act of sexting, using social media to engage in sexual activities with others: some grow out of it and some grow into it. But again the same justification is always given: the person sexting does not see a problem with it for “he sees social media as just another outlet to express himself” (205). The author goes on to discuss how young people are addicted to their smart phones: they cannot live without them and they are constantly on them, unable to get through a day without spending ample amounts of time on them. One young person interviewed said that his phone does not get in the way of what’s essential to him, but basically revealed that “his phone is essential” (223). The author concludes that social media is here to stay and the question is how adults can help young people deal with it. Ultimately, she states: “we may simply need to stop using social media as a place to measure, judge, and evaluate” (275). However, there is no firm argument to abandon social media altogether—the author comes up short on that matter.

Critique

The author does more showing than telling in terms of making an argument. The main purpose of the book, after all, is to present the social media phenomenon through the eyes of the young people who are the main users of social media. The idea is simply to understand what they are thinking, what they are experiencing, why they use social media, what they get out of it, and what impact it has on their lives. It is extensive and exhaustive in terms of the manner it adopts to show social media usage from the perspective of these young people. So there is nothing really missing in terms of understanding that experience.

Where the book is light is in terms of an argument. The author hints at the possibility that maybe social media usage among the young is not the best option—but the author also seems to accept that social media is simply the way of the world and one cannot go against the current. The lack of an adamant position is telling and it suggests that what these young people really need to hear—which is, “Get off social media!”—is something even this author is unwilling to state so plainly.

Why is that? The author is presenting the work simply as a way for readers to see what is going on with young people. It does not aim to offer a way forward or a solution or even an attempt to explain whether or not social media is even a problem, really. It does conclude with a challenge for young people: see if you can unplug from the smart phone—see what happens. It is not an emphatic condemnation of social media usage—just a weak appeal to consider life for a few days without it.

And perhaps that is the best approach. Perhaps if the author was shouting to the reader about the need to abandon social media, readers would close the book. Perhaps this soft approach is really better because it gets the young person thinking about whether he or she actually needs social media, whether it is doing anything for the young person, whether it is worth all the effort, the hassle, the time, and the commitment. Then again perhaps the soft approach will do little to sway the opinion of the young person and the young person will go right back to using social media as it is the way of the world and there is no point swimming against the current.

The book does very little in terms of making a case for why the young person ought to swim against the current of the modern techno-culture. Instead, it prioritizes giving voice to several different young people and describing their individual experiences in essentially non-judgmental terms. There is a remarkable lack of judgment and condemnation in the book. That will appeal to some readers; others might be turned off by it.

The book is consistent throughout in terms of not making judgments. The author sincerely wants to hear from young people, wants to put herself in their shoes and wants to know what it is like to be a young person having to navigate the frontier of social media, where one wrong step could mean that one’s life, all one’s work, all one’s hopes are canceled overnight. That is clearly a lot of pressure and stress to put on a young person—and one can well wonder why so many young people put themselves in a position like this and why they don’t simply avoid all social media altogether. But if the reader is wondering that, the author does not appear to notice—for there is not a great deal of discussion on the matter. The assumption is simply that social media exists, young people use it, and the alternative to not using it is to not have a social life, not have friends, and not be in connection with one’s peers and family.

That assumption is not validated in the book. Indeed, the author appears to second-guess it in the conclusion when she issues her challenge to young people to get off the smart phone for a few days. It seems that the author senses the harm that social media does to young people even if she does not want to come right out and say so in explicit terms.