The Dangers: The Negative Effects Of Social Media

When you look around what do you see? You may see millions of people looking down at their hand held devices, which could range from cell phones to tablets. The question that someone of older age would ask is, what are they doing? My answer to that question is using a social media site. Social media, it is the newest trend among pre- teens, teens, and adults. It is the greatest invention next to the smart phone, tablet and ipad. Technology has improved drastically over the years, which makes suffering the web a lot easier and convenient. Advertisement for social sites is everywhere as well, making them hard to avoid. Social network sites also known as SNS, are often and effectively used for communication purpose such as long- distance communication with loved ones and friends. Using a social media such as Facebook and Twitter is a great way to stay in contact with loved ones and friends, but they can also have an extremely negative influence on our youth’s lives leading to such dangers as moral defying behaviors, mental abuse and even death.

Social media sites are sites people use to communicate with people around the world via internet (Boyd 211). Communication has improved so much over the years, from word of mouth, to letters from letters to telephones and now we have social media.

It has become a major part of their everyday life, meaning they are susceptible to the negative behaviors on line (Hooper). One of the major negative influences on the youth is moral behaviors. Many people are not aware of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) (O’Keeffe). The COPPA was established to help keep children under the age of thirteen protected websites collecting their information (O’Keeffe). This mean no persons under age of thirteen is prohibited to have a profile (O’Keeffe). By the age of thirteen you are trying to fit in with the crowd, which led to negative behavior