In today's modern world, it is extremely common for teenagers, between the ages of 13 to 17, to have some sort of online profile with popular websites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. Many of them update their status at twice once a day, sharing life events with friends, and family abroad, and have on average, 150 friends linked to their online profile. However, there is a darker side to the social networking hype, our teenagers health, friendships, and relationships are at stake. Too much time on these popular social networks can be dangerous to our youth's health mentally, and physically.
One such health risk comes from a term known as hyper networking. Hyper networking is a condition in which a person binges on modern communication technologies such as cell phone texting and social networking. The American Public Health Association conducted a survey in what they called a “typical Midwestern county” and found that 1 in 5 teens engaged in hyper texting, defined by sending over 120 text messages per school day. Even more so, they study found that 'hyper-texters' were 40 times more likely to try cigarettes, twice as likely to have tried alcohol, twice as likely to have had sex, and three times more likely to have had more then 4 partners. However, these gut wrenching findings do not stop there. Teens that spend more then 3 hours per school day are more likely to use illegal drugs, have poorer academic grades, and even suicide due to depression.
With a large majority of cell phone users being teenagers now, 20 percent of fatal teenage car accidents are due to texting while driving. This is because teenagers feel like they have to have their cell phone on them at all times so they wont miss a call or text message. They also ...
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...be at stake. In the future, when today's teenagers are grown up and is ready for the job market, an employer may view their online profile to gauge whether the applicant is worthy of a position. However, if that job opportunity requires face-to-face interaction and people skills, those skill may be ill developed and they risk losing their job.
Works Cited
Case Western Reserve University. "Hyper-texting and hyper-networking linked to health risks for teens." ScienceDaily, 9 Nov. 2010. Web. 16 Aug. 2011.
British Association For The Advancement Of Science (2007, September 14). Is Social Networking Changing The Face Of Friendship?. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 16, 2011, from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/09/070912161147.htm
University of Georgia. "Facebook Profiles Can Be Used To Detect Narcissism." ScienceDaily, 23 Sep. 2008. Web. 16 Aug. 2011.
Over the past two decades the use of cell phones has grown significantly and statistic from the past two years have proven that driving while on the phone or texting is becoming one of the leading causes of traffic accidents today. In 2011, a survey of more than 2800 American adults revealed that even thought they know that using a cell phone or texting while driving is distracting, they do it anyway, and teens surveyed admit that texting while driving is their number one distraction. "Each year, 21% of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were the result of cell phone usage. This result has been expected to grow as much as 4% ...
Fleming begins her argument by paralleling the transformative properties of the invention of the telephone years ago to social networks today (Fleming). But, Fleming states that “students’ online identities and friendships come at a price, as job recruiters, school administrators, law enforcement officers and sexual predators sign on and start searching” (Fleming). Social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook are frequented favorites, especially by college students. These sites have become so popular that “friending” a person is now a dictionary verb. However, Fleming believes that students are not as cautious as they should be. In fact, “thirty percent of students report accepting ‘friend’ reques...
The fastest growing form of communication in America’s society is texting. David Mercer brings up a valid argument about how the appearance of texting was not a slow process, parents never had an opportunity to experience texting so they have no way of teaching their children how to use it responsibly (Carter). Texting is so common it carries over into our everyday lives easily and at times becomes controlling. America’s society thrives on the conveniences texting provides us. While texting is fast and convenient it has numerous faults that affect our society mentally and socially. Texting can be beneficial as it simplifies our lives at times; however, there are numerous negative effects texting has on our society.
Teenagers don’t want to be inconvenient with having to wait to respond to their friends about the latest party or school event that’s coming up. Driving is just as good of time as any to text their best friends about the upcoming weekend or update their Facebook status in the mind of a young adult. Even though most teens know they shouldn’t text and drive many are guilty of doing it several times a day. An overwhelming 75% of teens even admit to text messaging while driving (“Distracted Driving,” 2016). Young drivers are more likely to get into an accident due to lack of experience than that of any other driver on the road. Add in texting to the mix it is a recipe for disaster. About 54% of teenage motor vehicle crash deaths occur on Friday, Saturday or Sunday – with Saturday being the deadliest day of the week for teens (Hosansky, 2012). Teenage motor vehicle fatalities are at the highest in the summer months.
People are constantly fixated on their phones, checking social media and texting and they seem to have become accustom to doing this wherever they please, whether it be at dinner, at work or in the car. The use of a cell phone while driving is extremely dangerous and destructive to not only the driver, but also everyone driving around them. Every year, twenty one percent of fatal car crashes involving teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 were the result of using their cell phone while behind the wheel. This statistic is expected to grow as much as four percent every year. But, texting and driving is not just a problem among teen drivers. One-fifth of adult drivers in the United States also report sending text messages while driving (“Cell Phone & Texting Accidents”). To help fight this problem, the government needs much take a stronger stance and try to stand up against texting and driving to make the idea a bigger deal and implement harsher punishments, as well as stressing the damaging effects of texting and driving to children and teens early on in
How the social networking influents young people’s psychological well-being? Since the World Wide Web appeared in the world in the year of 1991, the internet has significantly changed people’s life on almost every level. Especially when the social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, became popular during the last decade, people’s lifestyles have greatly changed by this form of communication, which consequently brings many psychological effects on the young people. As the result, according to the recent researches, the teenagers and the young adults in this era are bearing many mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and addiction, due to the social
Texting while driving is a widespread epidemic in the United States that has unfavorable effects on our society.“Driving while texting is the standard wording used for traffic violations” (Bernstein). It causes many people to be distracted which can lead to accidents. “Eighty-nine percent of people own a cell phone” (Gardner). That is a plethora of people that are at risk of texting while driving. Also, texting has increased by ten times in three years(Bernstein). “The risk of a crash for those who are texting is twenty-three point two times greater than those who are not” (Gardner).Driving drunk only makes a person seven times more likely to be in a crash (Bernstein). This means texting while driving is three times more dangerous than driving intoxicated. One in five drivers admits to texting while driving(Gardner). This shows that that texting while driving is a widespread epidemic. When a survey asked teenagers whether they text and drive,“seventy five percent of teens admitted to texting while driving” (7).Distracted driving causes seventy-eight percent of car crashes(Bernstein). “No distraction causes as high of a risk of an accident as texting while driving” (Gardner). Also with these statistics, it is not hard to understand why accidents in teenagers that are driving have risen. The Bluetooth capability in cars gives a driver a hands-free way to talk on the phone, but is still not completely safe (8). Also, only 1 out of 3 US cars sold in 2009 had this feature. New systems are being developed that will use Bluetooth as well a global positioning technology to allow parents to monitor cell phone use and texting while driving (10).
According to a new study from the Pew Research Center over 92% of teens report going online daily, including 24% who say they go online almost constantly. ("Teens, Social Media & Technology Overview 2015."). The use of social media is playing a big role in today’s society. Social media in some cases affects the children and adolescents psychologically, physically and socially. Social Media has always been a great tool for advertising, entertainment, education and communication between family and friends, but although social media has these benefits, for the past years its negative role has been affecting children and adolescents. As the years are passing by the development of technology is increasing, the use of social media is becoming more addictive to children and adolescents.
Social media can have detrimental effects on the formation of an adolescent’s identity such as social isolation meaning that the individual will spend excessive amounts of time attached to any electronics that will provide him with social media access. Social networking has been debated to have beneficial or detrimental effects, as overuse and abuse of the Internet can be harmful to someone, such as an adolescent. According to the National Crime Prevention Council, over one million teenage girls are victimized psychologically as well as physically, through social media.
First and foremost, health problems due to the increase in technology usage is becoming a bigger issue than one might think. With technology becoming a bigger factor in everyday life, diseases and other health issues that used to be less prevalent are now becoming epidemics (Rowan). For example, obesity, which is a condition in which a person is very fat or overweight. Obesity is caused by not getting a proper diet and exercise. Technology is causing this to become an epidemic in children, because children need at least sixty minutes of physical exercise a day and when they are watching TV, on the computer, or playing video games, they are not physically active (Loop). Also, when children are less active and on electronics, they are more likely to eat food that is not healthy for them, such as high calorie junk foods (Martin). With obesity can come many other diseases or health problems. For example, people who are obese are more likely to develop heart problems, diabetes, or high bl...
Imagine trying to function properly on four hours or less of sleep each night. Imagine a straight “A” student who just received their first “F” on a report card. Imagine sitting in sixth period anxiously watching the clock tick, waiting to bolt out of class to go home and curl up in front a seventeen inch PC screen to log on. Imagine personal insecurities escalating to the point where ending life seems like a conceivable option of escape from the cruel reality of the world. These are only a few hazardous effects that some encounter using social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter. Many teens use these websites daily, hourly, and in some severe cases, even minutely. A 2009 Compete.com study ranked Facebook the most-used social networking service by worldwide monthly active users. Because the public is more apt to be exposed to the positive, fun side of social media, many users are completely oblivious to the numerous dangers that lurk within the networks’ pages.
These teens tended to score lower on literacy tests than those that did not (Plester, Wood, Bell 143). It was also observed that high texters scored lower on verbal and non-verbal reasoning than those who do not text and minimal texters (Plester, Wood, Bell 140). Results from studies on texting indicated an overall negative effect on literacy test results (Verheijen 595). It has been suggested that students are not distinguishing between informal and formal environments and are texting at the wrong times and places (Verheijen 587). The general message that the media sends about the effects of texting tend to be rather negative overall. For example, texting and driving is considered very dangerous due to a distracted driver. Many teens are involved in accidents due texting and driving. It was elicited during a study that participants took longer and made more errors when they had to read text messages as opposed to reading Standard English (Kemp and Bushnell 18). Thurlow is quoted saying that texting “signals the slow death of language” and is “a threat to social progress” (qtd. in Verheijen 586). Texting has more of a negative effect on teens’ literacy and could possibly cause the English we use today could become
There is a kind of people who cannot leave from their phone at all even just one minute appear to the society. They use their phone to check their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram or other social networking sites when they are eating, before sleeping, during walking, in the class and etc, whenever and wherever possible. That shows how intensely those social media influence human’s life. Pew Research Center (2015) reported almost three out of four online adults use social networking sites in 2014. The impacts of social networking sites also act on children and teenagers besides adults. So there are many researches study the impacts of social networking sites for different people, which include two articles. One is “Social Networking Fact Sheet”,
"How Does Social Networking Affect to Lifestyle of Teenagers?" HubPages. Simply Aide, 21 Mar. 2014. Web. 15 May 2014.
According to the article, “10 Ways Social Media Affects Our Mental Problems,” Degreed claim that social media make us restless by “two-thirds admitted to having difficulty relaxing when unable to use their social media accounts.” Teenagers are always tired when they have to stay up late at night to catch up with all the news feed on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter that make them have no energy to go on the next day. Based on the newspaper, “Excessive Social Media Use Harms Children’s Mental Health,” by the Telegraph shows that “children who go on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more than three hours a day are more likely to have mental health problems.” Social media can lead to bullying that affects teenagers mental health issue and being stressed. Social media have now taken a part of human life and some are addicted to the point where they can’t even live without