Social Media: The Better Argument 1

Social Media: The Better Argument

Kati Vaughan

University of California Santa Barbara

Social Media: The Better Argument 2

Abstract

Academic disciplines can tackle the same topic; however, they would do so from

different perspectives and utilize different forms of evidence. When looking at the topic of social

media, the article “The Relation between Media Multitasking, Intensity of Use, and Well-Being

in a Sample of Ethnically Diverse Emerging Adults” by Tyler Hatchel takes a psychological

perspective while the article “Election Campaigning on Social Media: Politicians Audience, and

the Mediation of Political Communication on Facebook and Twitter” by Sebastian Stier analyzes

social media in the political realm. After analyzing both pieces of academia, it is evident that the

types of conventions and evidence used in Hatchel’s article creates a better argument as a whole

rather than Stiers. Both are exemplary pieces of work for their field of academia and analyzing

them along their fields guidelines, one cannot say one or t ether is better, however from an

outside perspective, Hatchels argument is better.

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Just like a song writer has a purpose behind his or her lyrics or a children’s author has a

purpose behind the lesson he or she is trying to convey to the audience, works in academic

disciplines have a purpose behind their writing as well. Whether it is to persuade or inform, each

academic discipline states a claim or argument that they present to their peers and support it

through a plethora of evidence. The chosen evidence reflects the priorities and conventions

utilized in the given academic field which, as a whole, creates a reliable, credible and valid

argument that other scholars in that field of study will agree with. Furthermore, it is evident that

academic disciplines take different angles of approach to a topic even when they are analyzing

the same one. This idea is apparent in the psychology article “The Relation between Media

Multitasking, Intensity of Use, and Well-Being in a Sample of Ethnically Diverse Emerging

Adults” by Tyler Hatchel where the topic of social media is brought to the surface and analyzed

through a psychological lens while the political science article “ Election Campaigning on Social

Media: Politicians Audience, and the Mediation of Political Communication on Facebook and

Twitter” by Sebastian Stier analyzes social media in a political realm. However, when looking

through a critical lens, Hatchel’s work has a more thorough argument than Stier’s due to the

theoretical evidence utilized and a plethora of statistical evidence.

Professionals in the field of psychology tend to observe the behavior of individuals along

with looking deeper into the mind and thinking behind that said behavior. Psychology primarily

relies on studies which further theories that explain our cognitive and behavioral actions. When

called to study the topic of social media, professionals in this field looked into the question of the

what effects social media have on emerging adults in our society. In the article “The Relation

between Media Multitasking, Intensity of Use, and Well-Being in a Sample of Ethnically

Diverse Emerging Adults.” by Tyler Hatchel, the author utilizes statistical and theoretical
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evidence to attack the question at hand. They came to the conclusion that “intense digital media

use may be problematic for some youth's psychological well-being, but also beneficial for other

youth” (Hatchel, 2018). To attempt to answer this, these scholars set up a study which questioned

a diverse group of college students to see the correlation of social media use and the well-being

of oneself; They came to conclude “intense digital media use may be problematic for some

youth's psychological well-being, but also beneficial for other youth” (Hatchel, 2018). By

utilizing countless charts and graphs which highlight their data they thoroughly supported their

finding. For this specific scientific discipline, statistical evidence is the logical path to follow

because it clearly outlines the data produced from the study. Other psychologists reading this

work can easily analyze the data and make sense of what it says along with knowing its valid and

reliable. A sense of reliability and validation are established due to the utilization of concrete

facts which can be referred to if needed. Not only does the statistical evidence create validation

and credibility, it is also established through the author’s use of theoretical evidence that calls

upon other psychologist’s work and theories proven. Solely looking at the reference pages

(Hatchel, 2018, p.122-123), the audience can see that the ideas and theories presented in the

article are backed up by countless other psychologists who also studied and proved their claim to

be true. For instance, the author pulls information from J. J. Arnett’s book “Emerging adulthood:

A theory of development from the late teens through the twenties” which gives their claim a little

more backbone and strengthen. For the specific field of psychology, utilizing theoretical and

statistical evidence poses a hard argument to disagree with and makes it harder to disprove if

someone wanted to.

Professionals in the field of history and political science tend to analyze political theory

and behavior throughout history and use it in today’s political realm; A wide array of evidence is
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utilized in this discipline to support the arguments being made. In the article “Election

Campaigning on Social Media: Politicians, Audiences, and the Mediation of Political

Communication on Facebook and Twitter” by Sebastian Stier, it addresses the question of how

social media platforms interact with political campaigns and what topics are proposed to the

public. To attempt to answer this question, Stier and his colleagues knit picked social media

sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, and closely look at the language presented and created a

study just as the psychology discipline had done. Even though this discipline also utilizes

statistical analysis, the main two pieces of evidence found in this source are analytical and

textual evidence which prove to be more effective for their audience of politicians who heavily

rely on the idea of “who said what”. On page 64, they have a whole section of research dedicated

to “Analysis at the Word level” which delves into the deeper meaning behind the words, phrases,

and language utilized by politicians on social media. They directly pulled common words from

these sources, found on pages 60-61, which revealed how politicians use Twitter and Facebook

to draw in different crowds and try to gain support from the mass audience (Stier, 2018). Along

with analytical evidence, the author also uses textual evidence to gain more credibility for their

claims and findings in the study. Stier makes his findings stronger by directly quoting other

politicians, researchers, and a plethora of researches which delve into social media in a political

campaign. As seen on pages 58-63, Stier and his colleagues use textual data such as charts in

order to convince the audience that this information is correct and reliable. All of these combined

have the intention to further support the claim “that social media is not an ideal data source for

citizens seeking clearly structured information on policies or researchers using textual

information to locate parties in an ideological space” (Stier, 2018). By using textual and
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analytical evidence, other politicians who would be reading this are able to trust the findings in

this article and use it to draw the same conclusions.

Both of these articles were successful in presenting their information through their chosen

evidence however there are always holes in arguments. Looking from an outside perspective it is

easier for the reader, who is not associated with that scholarly field, to knit pick the work and

find weaknesses that lie within it. As stated above, Hatchel’s article heavily relies on statistics

and theoretical evidence which allows it to gain credibility and validity in the eyes of their peers;

nonetheless, numerous weaknesses can be overlooked with this type of evidence. Despite

statistics presenting hard facts, it can also be deceiving through the way it is presented to its

audience. If an author wants to omit part of the data collected, they could easily cloud it by

providing a plethora of information which can lead the audience to overlook the flaws within the

data. The data is in the palm of the author and they could highlight only the things that agree

with what they are arguing which creates a flawed argument. Also, they could easily skew the

graphs and tables to their liking and convey a different message than what the data actually

presents. Despite these flaws, the information presented still is strong and built upon hard facts

which is hard to deny. Theoretical data is backed up by numerous accredited scholars who came

to the same conclusion which again is very reliable and hard to deny by anyone who reads it. Just

as the psychology article, Stier’s political science article is also successful in the presentation of

its information. As noted above, Stier utilizes statistical data however primarily uses analytical

and textual evidence; By utilizing analytical and textual evidence, the authors claim is more

believable, however this evidence references other professionals in their field whose beliefs can

be biased. It makes sense as to why Stier would quote other professionals in this discipline, for

their views on these topics would prioritize what he is trying to argue versus someone who might
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not in another field of academia. Even though Stier pulls quotes from other pieces of work, at the

end of the day it boils down to the fact that those are merely opinions and bias. Someone can

easily disagree with what they are saying or can easily find another source that says the contrary.

Again, Stier’s argument is well supported for its field however, as a whole, someone reading

from an outside view can easily see that these are opinions and can discredit the argument easier

than they can with Hatchel’s.

When overviewing these pieces of work, Hatchel’s argument is more effective by

analyzing social media from numerous outlets and taking on a well-rounded argument with a

plethora of hard evidence. Even when looking at the title of the psychology article, “The

Relation between Media Multitasking, Intensity of Use, and Well-Being in a Sample of

Ethnically Diverse Emerging Adults”, there are three main points that are being analyzed to

come up with a common argument which reveals how well rounded the argument is compared to

Stier’s. The political science article “Election Campaigning on Social Media: Politicians,

Audiences, and the Mediation of Political Communication on Facebook and Twitter” solely is

looking at how election are proposed to different audiences on only two different social media

platforms; Looking at this from a surface level, this is a solid argument however it is attacking

the topic from one perspective versus the three in the psychological article. Stier and his

colleagues analyze an abundance of linguistics and language on each social network site which,

in turn, supports their argument; However, these scholars only do this with Twitter and Facebook

while there are other forms of social media that cover campaigns as well; Branching out could

have brought more support to their argument as a whole and created a more well-rounded

argument with less holes. As previously stated, by utilizing more textual and analytical evidence

a reader could easily disagree with what someone was claiming despite the credibility of them. It
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would be exceptionally easier for someone to find a counterargument to a quote than for concrete

data and statistics. Furthermore, it is evident Hatchel’s article, which utilizes theoretical and

statistical data, creates a more thorough, strong, and reliable argument in comparison to Stier’s.

Again, for each field of academia, Stier and Hatchel create compelling arguments that are

effective and appeal to their intended audience, however from an omniscient point of view there

is no debate, psychology wins.

Hatchels argument in “The Relation between Media Multitasking, Intensity of Use, and

Well-Being in a Sample of Ethnically Diverse Emerging Adults” develops a more thorough and

reliable argument compared to Stier’s “Election Campaigning on Social Media: Politicians,

Audiences, and the Mediation of Political Communication on Facebook and Twitter” primarily

due to the evidence utilized. Though Stiers argument did have a compelling argument supported

through analytical and textual evidence, Hatchel’s argument better supported itself through its

use of statistical and theoretical evidence along with approaching the issue of social media and

how it effects the minds of the youth from different angles. Writing for a specific discipline

poses an unwritten format that scholars in each field follow even if that evidence is not the

strongest in terms of every academic field, however for their own discipline it could speak

wonders. Furthermore, the purpose behind an author’s decision to utilize certain conventions,

which in the readers eyes could strengthen or weaken the argument, is all situational. Looking at

it from an outside perspective, Hatchel’s argument appears to be sounder however when

analyzing it from a psychological perspective it may not be as sound as the reader thinks; Again,

it is all situational. It is evident that it all depends on what audience the reader falls into; for the

purpose of this assignment, it is clear that the evidence utilized is the key to a compelling and

solid argument.
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Resources

Hatchel, T., Negriff S., & Subrahmanyam, K. (2018). The relation between media multitasking,

intensity of use, and well-being in a sample of ethincally diverse emerging adults.

Computers in Human Behavior, 81, 115-123. Doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2017.12.012

Stier, S., Bleier, A., Lietz, H., & Strohmaier, M. (2018). Election Campaigning on Social Media:

Politicians, Audiences, and the Mediation of Political Communication on Facebook and

Twitter. Political Communication, 35(1), 50-54. doi:10.1080/10584609.2017.1334728