As a psychology major, I thought that writing about the effects of social media on friendships was a good choice. Establishing intimacy on physical and emotional levels is something that social psychology is concerned with. Social media has also changed many things in society, such as the way that we interact with people and our social behavior, which also applies to psychology. Social media has also contributed to the higher levels of crime, forensics connected to this, this subsection of psychology an interest of mine.

I found most of the sources for the social media and friendship paper on the school library databases. I admit that doing the research as a bit stressful at times. I have been out of school for five years and things have changed since then. There is more of a focus on online research versus just going to the library and conducting it in person.

My confidence in writing papers is also being re-established again. As I wrote the 12-page paper, I had to keep asking myself if it sounded right and if I had used the correct grammar and syntax. I always want to do a good job with writing and making my ideas sound good. Also, I questioned myself a lot on what I wanted to include. How many facts and statistics should I put in? Was I adding too many personal details into it? Writing a paper needs to have a solid balance of research that has some empirical data, themes and connections, as well as some personal thoughts. I probably could have included more future research areas and limitations and gaps in the research. That is something that I can work on for next time. Time management is also something that I need to work on more. Instead of writing it a few days before it was due, I should have worked in the paper an hour per day.

Writing my paper was a process, mostly positive with some areas of weakness that surfaced. However, I am more comfortable with the process and know some areas to change in the future.