Social Esteemcy: The Impact Of Social Media And Social Literacy

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When the alarm goes off in the morning, many Americans start their day by reaching for their cellphones. Reading the newspaper in the morning has been replaced by catching up on tweets, posts, and the latest selfies posted by famous celebrities. The world has been transformed by technology; one of the biggest influences on society today is social media. There are countless numbers of apps that are considered social media. The purpose of these social media apps is to connect people with their friends and to share their lives through photos and short messages. However, the apps are disconnecting people more than bringing them together as one. The apps are focused around the individual and how they present themself. While the apps are focused …show more content…

The use of social media has detrimental impacts on society because of its hidden invasion of privacy, the major issues it is creating with communication all around, and the crushing effects it has on the self-esteem of those who use it. The start of the social media craze began with the creation of the smartphone. Cell phones have evolved dramatically since the eighties. The first cell phone was about the size of a brick and was used solely for phonecalls. Overtime the phones got smaller is size and more programs became accessible. The first mobile device was the car phone. The car phone had to be installed into the car because it was close to one hundred pounds. Following the car phone, the first portable cell phone was released by Motorola in 1983. The Motorola DynaTAC 8000X was extremely expensive, costing close to what would now be ten thousand dollars. Due to the expense, only the very wealthy could afford to have a cell phone. Throughout the eighties and nineties, the brands Motorola and Nokia released multiple versions of the cell …show more content…

When parents and older siblings all have social media accounts, children want to be a part of it too. However, due to COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) a child under thirteen must be granted permission from their parents before using the app. However, it is very easy to get around this law. In a survey done at UCLA to determine who had social media accounts, a little over twenty percent of the children under the age of thirteen said they had accounts; sixty percent of the children who said yes were under eleven years old. Another survey done by Consumer Reports discovered that almost forty percent of people under eighteen years old using Facebook were not even teenagers (Uhls 88-89). The only way social media sites monitor their users age is by asking for a birth date when creating an account; they clearly state before asking for a birth date that one must be over thirteen to be able to make an account. Naturally, children will insert a random birthday to fit the age requirement. Like children, adults also lie about their age. This puts children’s privacy at a greater risk. A grownup could pose as a young person and talk to an unknowing minor. While many argue that chatting with people online encourages disclosing personal information and that it helps form “high-quality” friendships, this can go very wrong (Gold 50). If an adult is posing as

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