Social Media: The Negative Effects of Facebook

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Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter allow you to find and connect with just about anyone, from old high school friends to co-workers and neighbors. Participating in social media sites such as these can make you feel more connected, but such an easy, casual connection in an electronic environment can also have its downside.

First of all sites like Facebook promote sharing details of our lives with one another. Posts can range from a simple update on what shows someone is watching, cooking for dinner, or pictures of you and your friends having drinks and doing shots at a local bar. Where this becomes a problem is when people begin to bypass the filters they normally would use in person and post more personal things that can be incriminating. Something as simple as a picture of your friends doing shots may not appear harmless to you, but to a future employer this does not look very good.

Another issue that social media presents is that it allows for cyber bullying. Cyber bullying has become a major issue for teenagers in more recent years, as it allows its victim's "friends" to post things in front of their peers. Cyber bullying can also take other forms such as email, text, chat rooms, mobile phones, mobile phone cameras. Those who cyber bully someone also have the ability to pose as someone else, or even create false identity to terrorize their victims. National Children's Home study in Britain found that one in four children reported being bullied on the Internet. This issue can and has left teenagers with deep mental scars, and has even lead to teen suicides (Campbell, 2005).

Along with the issues previously mentioned, social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter can also create a false sense of connection.

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