Scholarship / Social Media's Impact: Personally and on the Future Generation. Scholarship Essay. [2]

Hello everyone, I require assistance in writing an essay for a scholarship. The scholarship application needs to be completed by May 1st, 2013.

The prompt is:
As the generation that has come of age with the advent of social media, how would you describe its impact on you and how do you see it impacting the next generation.

As stated by the rules, the essay should be between 350 and 500 words.
My essay is given below. Currently, it has a length of 398 words.

There are over a billion monthly active users on Facebook, a widely known social network. This just goes to show the advent of social media in this time, just as my generation has come of age. Social media is prevalent in today's society, and its effect is certainly noticeable.

To me, social media has had a great impact. Due to social media, I have become more concerned with my standing in society. Prior to the advent of my significant usage of social networks, I did not pay much attention to the social aspects of school, especially those involving school friends. I care about social aspects much more now, given the exposure to social media, and I give more attention to the thoughts of social conformity and "fitting in" society.

Social media has also given me utilitarian benefits. Due to the interconnected nature of social networks, I am now able to keep contact with those whom, in real life, are not able to talk to me that often. Also, I have become more informed about social organizations and events due to the information-giving nature of social media.

Considering social media's impact on me, I have wondered how social media will impact the next generation. The future generation's people will be exposed to social media early on in their lives. I strongly contend that social media will impact those people of the next generation by making them even more concerned with their standings in society. Overall, the next generation will be even more extroverted than this generation-that is, the next generation will tend to be more social-take part in more gatherings and shy away farther from isolationism.

With all this interconnectedness, however, I foresee an issue for the next generation: There will be a decrease in intellectualism due to all the emphasis on the social aspect of society. This will be detrimental to the advancement of society, given that many of the advancements today occur in the sciences and engineering, both of which require much intellect.

Overall, the advent of social media can be said to have a large impact. I feel that I have become much more socially aware due to social media and that social media will considerably affect the future generation. The rise of such a medium of communication has resulted in a paradigm shift that will transform society from this point in time forward.