Social Media Addiction Essay

The use of social media may impact personal relationships, privacy rights, become a worrisome distraction, influence politics, and fuel democratic revolutions. With many people communicating with friends and family online, debate is growing about whether that is healthy for relationships. Critics of social media argue that “teens are showing a decrease … from previous generations when it comes to expressing themselves and interacting with others” (Clemmitt). Critics also argue that many teenagers today are, “forgoing face-to-face conversations whenever possible in favor of writing on a Facebook wall or texting" (“Social Networking”). Critics believe that social media is making relationships difficult because it makes teens lack the ability to talk to someone in person.

Aside from the benefits of being connec... ... middle of paper ... ...ot or not don’t help towards these percentages. There’s a constant comparison with others when teenagers use websites like these and its causing harm on the way they view themselves. To conclude, social media has many negative affects, social media sites have changed the way teenagers think, interact, it affects how they act online and how they view themselves. Social media distracts teenagers from their everyday lives. It leads to unfortunate cyber bullying and it leads to reduction in face to face interactions, the more time the students spend on these social media sites, the less time they will spend socializing in real life.

But, with how rapid social networking is growing it causes one to question what a friend is. The meaning of friendship is lost. People do not communicate with their friends like they did in the past. Also, social can be so addicting and makes people assume friends who they meet online are true friends. In addition, people who are attached to social media interact differently with others.

Rahamathulla argues that this addiction could damage their social skills as well as their ability to form intimate relationships. Rahamathulla says that "The young people who are introverts who are having difficulties establishing a rapport with others are going to go deeper into these kinds of forums to interact with others, that will further shrink their social network." In Rahamathulla’s research he found that while Internet chat rooms are not the ideal form of communication for most of these "addicted" teens, it is better than no interaction at all. The research revealed that these teens are lonely, usually unpopular and that chat rooms contribute to some teenagers fearing one on one situations. Internet chat rooms do not seem like they are targeting this specific demographic, when it is considered that there are chat rooms for basically every interest any human in the world could think of.

Furthermore, the article states that upon further research , it is a known fact that participants use social media to fulfill perceived social needs, but are typically disappointed in the outcome. Lonely individuals are drawn to the Internet for emotional support. This causes problems as it interferes with “real life socializing” by reducing face-to-face relationships", which is confirmed by Mubarack and issued on WordPress.com. This website was also discussed in detail the negative affects social media can have on ones health and inability to concentrate in school. Social media sites tends to bring people together and linked on the other hand it produces social isolation in what the news has come up with.

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. Social media is having negative effects on teenagers. Since teens can feel safe behind a screen they are a lot more comfortable doing things that they should be more cautious to doing. First example of this is sexual encounters online aka “sexting”.

"I think just as damaging as social media can be, it can ... help to build self-confidence, too” (CNN). Several studies show online interactions may decrease social anxiety and loneliness by creating an environment where adolescents can “express their true selves and gain acceptance in positive anonymous ways.” (Are Teens Really Addicted on Social Media? ).They are more likely to experiment with their identities online because of the anonymity the Internet can provide to learn how to interact with people. A study concluded that about 21.5% of teenagers use social media because they are lonely or not fitting in, and 30% because they feel blue, worthless, or hopeless. (Adolescent Weblog

However, given handheld and other communication devices that are always connected to the internet, it is becoming increasingly rare for people to make human interactions such as meeting up with people face-to-face. In some cases loneliness, depression, anxiety, low self-esteem and heightened aggression are possible repercussions of spending copious amount of time on the internet. Using social media gives people, more specifically adolescents, exposure to bullying and harassment. According to a study in UK, social platforms such as Facebook is giving cause to anxiety and increased feeling of inadequacy. In this study, half the respondents stated that social media had changed their behaviour, felt less confident in contrast to their online friends’ achieveme... ... middle of paper ... ... the moment.

Social networking allows teens to create a public or private profile that allows them to chat amongst their friends by e-mail, posting comments, photos, and expressing personal hobbies (Griffith, 2009). Many individuals who participate on social networking sites believe that these sites are beneficial to “our society”. However many other people beg to differ and consider these sites becoming more of a threat than something that is beneficial to our children and teenagers (“Social,” n.d.). Individuals and teenagers claim that social networking is a great place to communicate in regards to their education or personal interests. Whereas, parents argue that networking is dangerous because it’s not secure, it’s a main source to bully one another, online sexual predators try to seek out the young, and teens detach themselves from the real world (Carey, n.d.).

(Online Social Networks - Book Citation) Many social networking users may be ignorant to the fact that even if deleted, much of their information or multimedia is stored by the server in their online databases in order to document user traffic. (1) Much of the information teenagers post such as age, location or photos, can be hazardous to ones safety if it comes into contact with the wrong person, such as sexual predators or kidnappers. In 2007, Cox Communications and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children rendered a survey and d... ... middle of paper ... ... It is clear that the recent and heightened interest in social networking has not been disregarded by the youth of today. If anything, it is the current generation who have brought websites, like Facebook and Twitter, to life.