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 has taken over the younger generation at a staggering rate. In 2012, 94% of teenagers have reported that they have a Facebook account. They average to have 425 friends as well. (Marketing Land, Greg Sterling p1). These are mind boggling statistics. Social networking has replaced the “face to face” encounters that the generations before had to do if they wanted to talk to their friends or family. Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have transformed the way we speak or see our friends, family, and a lot of times strangers that we have never met offline. I've come to realize that kids my age are a lot more shy and not as easy to converse with in person as people our parent's or grandparent's age. That could come from talking behind a computer or a cellular device all the time with texts instead of verbally speaking. The impact of social media is putting a negative effect on the younger generation.
There are numerous studies on the impact of advancing technology on adolescents, usually leading to the conclusion that social media networks often take part in creating the teen to isolate themselves from anything other than the internet. Social media however, does allow anyone to connect to the people living on the other side of the world. It is a way to keep in touch with old friends, and meet new people no matter where they live. Social media is often used to keep up with the latest news and often informs users of what is going on before the news channels catch it. It is obvious that social media has various positive uses. While these points are important, the fact that the younger generation spends most of their time with their heads down looking at a screen rather than engaged in conversation takes precedence. An article by Morgan Hampton states that,“children and teens spend 75% of their waking lives with their eyes fixed on a screen.” Social media connects people through a screen, but cannot excuse the fact that people are being disconnected from what is right in front of
What good can possibly come from teenagers spending so much time on social media sites and at times communicating with complete strangers? To many people social media has several benefits such as building confidence and socializing skills. But, as technology continues to advance rapidly, social media becomes a huge part of our daily lives and changes the means of communication by far. Technology and social media exposes teenagers to so much unwanted and unmonitored content. Part of what they are getting exposed to is great amounts of sexual content and violence. Consequently, creating several negative effects that now outweigh the positives ones. Teenagers today are at a higher risk of cyber bullying through online shaming, exposure to uncensored sexual content, and affecting the development of self-character. Even so, if social media sites such as Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and many others might have some positive influences, social media is also known to have serious negative effects on the psychological development of teenagers’ self-character formation, which should be a huge concern in today’s society.
This study focuses more on the youth that ranges from 15-24 years old based on the statistics. Adolescents spends considerable amount of their time in interacting with people through social media. They constitute the largest population of the active social media users. Wall Posts, Status Updates, Activity Feeds, Thumbs Ups, and Profiles are some of the ways that youth today communicate with one another. These tools are features of social network sites (SNS), such as Facebook and MySpace (Ahn, 2011). The youth uses social media for three common reasons like keeping a line of communication with friends and family. Second is, to access information easily and lastly is to keep them from being
Historically, social media has increasingly become popular and the phenomena of portable media such as the development of text messaging and the trend of social networking sites are becoming a part of today’s culture. The development of this media has altered communication amongst people, therefore communication has become less personal and through electronics. We are not confined to one way of communication. Social Interaction through faceless means of communication started with email. Years later came cell phones, and gradually the option for text messaging was available for cell phone users. Since then more innovations of portable and social media have come along and has caused a change in behavior and tangible social interaction. However, the major development that is taking a major toll on interaction among young adults and teens are the social networking sites and the use of portable devices with interactive media.
While this research gave her a very detailed insight into how social media can have a positive effect on younger people by improving social interactivity it also revealed that when a child is bullied on social media it can have an extremely injurious effect on their mental health. She feels that with the presence facebook especially, it leads to narcissism antisocial tendencies and aggression, while overuse cases anxiety and depression. The two main causes of anxiety and depression due to social media are researched to be bullying and unrealistic expectations such as unrealistic looks, weight and valuables. When teenagers, especially females, see these unrealistic expectations and understand that it is unreasonable to achieve these so called desirable factors they put an immense amount of pressure on themselves as they feel that they aren 't good enough which causes anxiety and depression (Sternberg Clinic, 2015). Another major negative impact that social media can have on an young individual 's mental health when used excessively is impacting the quality of students school work and overall performance. Teens are masters at keeping themselves occupied in the hours after school and way past their bedtime, which results in them not attempting to complete their homework. When students try to multi-task by studying and checking
Through these past years, social media has taken communication to a new level worldwide and, new technology has taken place at the beginning of this century. In this generation, social media has become an important part of people’s daily life around the world. Social media is defined as online websites, and applications that users use to share content on the internet. Some of the popular social media tools, and sites includes: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and many others. Disregarding the fact that social media has become an important aspect in the lives of teenagers to connect with their friends as well as making new friends; it is increasingly becoming a necessary component in the
The use of social networking sites is rising at great rates. According to a report conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2012, ninety-five percent of individuals aged 12-17 use the internet; and eighty-one percent of those use social network sites (Pew Interest). Although it is known that social media can have a useful impact on lives, often times people forget that with a positive comes a negative. The continual use of social network sites will impact teen lives more negatively than positively because they can cause huge distractions from valuable and critical pursuits like education; they can also cause mental health issues and a reduction in communication skills.
“Engaging in various forms of social media is a routine activity that research has shown to benefit children and adolescents by enhancing communication, social connection, and even technical skills” (O’Keefe). From using the different sites, children and adults get better motor skills, and they can stay in communication with friends and family. The amount of users of online sites has increased, and kids in today’s society use the sites as a getaway for entertainment and communication (O’Keefe). The amount of time that people are on a social media site is an astounding number. “According to a recent poll, 22% of teenagers log on to their favorite s...
Social media or cancer? Just like cancer, social media slowly withers away people’s brains, especially in teenagers, when they consume almost everything they read. Social media has grown exponentially while attracting the young minds of teens and molding them without teens knowing. They latch on to things that they feel comfortable with, because they are still trying to find who they really are. Today, social media is used by almost every teenager in America. Sites like Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, and Facebook can affect them in a negative way, making them feel worse about themselves or even changing who they really are. Social media can seem harmless to many teens, but it can actually hurt them and cause mental health issues.
Social media has rapidly increased in the past few years, and has become one of the most significant parts of our daily lives. With websites such as Facebook and Twitter, we are now able to communicate with people half a world away. With just one click, you are able to keep in touch with relatives, gawk at the latest celebrity gossip, and even see what your friends had for breakfast. However, with access to unlimited sources of information, many of us have grown dependent on our phones and computers. Teens, in particular, are one of the most prominent age groups affected by this epidemic. In 2010, 93% of adolescents ages 12-17 were on the internet. With teens now spending copious amount of time on the internet, we are starting to see the negative health repercussions. This technology has led to social media addiction, cyber-bullying, and an increase in negative body images.
There has been controversy as to whether parents should limit the use of social media by teenagers. Teenagers feel that there is no need to limit the use of their social media networking, but on the other hand parents should feel the need to limit their use and also keep track of their teen’s social networking. Social media has allowed to be connected with their peers, teens who post positive status are more likely to be involved in extracurricular activities, and to many teens putting up “selfies” is a self confidence boost; however, too much social media can affect students GPA in school, cyber bulling can affect social health. Social media networks can give out personal information.
Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest. These are only a few of the websites that have become omnipresent in the typical teenager’s life. First launched in 2004, Facebook seemed like the perfect means to connect with old friends and take part in organizations. Eleven years later, the social media industry has snowballed from its original purpose of simply a network for interaction. Most likely launched by the incredible popularity of Facebook, other networks have popped up. According to The Huffington Post, 71% of teenagers engage in more multiple social media networks, 24% of these teenagers admit to checking social media almost constantly. Scrolling, posting, and liking are actions
Social media has created a social problem in society and it is distorting how people are communicating with each other face to face. Social media in today’s day is seen as a worldwide antisocial epidemic amongst the younger generation and a few older adults born in the millennial. Social media is notably used more by the younger people in our society and around the world, considering that technology is more accessible and easier to use for them. This is because their generation was born into a technological and advancing society that it has adapted into modern society’s culture. Social media has become a part of today’s norm, in which people who own a smart phone have downloaded some sort of social media app in order to stay intact with family