Technology has advance far beyond what our parents knew. During the time in which our parents grew up things such as ‘apps’ and ‘tweets’ didn’t exist. But these terms are quite familiar to today’s generation of teenagers. The use of Socially Interactive Technology’s or SIT’s such as online networking sites, text messaging, and instant messaging (IM) are becoming more and more popular among teens (Pierce). Social networking sites such as FaceBook, MySpace, and Twitter are examples of SIT’s. SIT’s can be used by anyone, but they are most popular among teenagers. Though SIT’s are meant to be fun ways to interact with friends, they can also be very dangerous. Socially Interactive Technology’s are dangerous to teens because they can easily put themselves in danger.
There are hundreds of online social networking sites, and they range from general networking sites like FaceBook to sites aimed at certain groups such as CrunchyRoll, which is a networking site for fans of anime and manga. Of the hundreds of social networking sites MySpace and FaceBook are the most popular (Guo 620). MySpace has a current active user count of 115 million. And FaceBook which is a year younger follows with a user base of 60 million and growing (Guo 621). MySpace opened on August 15, 2003 and grew quite quickly afterwards (Guo 621). But why are these sites so popular amongst teenagers? There seem to be quite a few answers to this question, MySpace’s popularity is attributed its openness, anyone claiming to be over the age of 14 can sign up for MySpace (Guo 621). FaceBook which was created a year later by Matt Zuckerberg in 2004 originally limited its membership to college students which resulted in slow growth of success (Guo 622). However once FaceBook opened...
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...fying internet information to be reported to the police. Their information is then added to the National Sex Offender Registry; social networking sites would then have access to this information and can prevent sex offenders from registering to use their sites MySpace has also begun to enact safety measures to protect their teenage users. In 2006 MySpace announced the creation an automated system that compares profiles a database contacting names and descriptions of sex offenders. It’s been reported that since the creation of this program MySpace has removed 29,000 sex offender profiles from their site (Guo 639). MySpace is also developing a program that will provide parents with their child’s profile name, age, and location (Guo 639). A program like this will allow parents to also get involved in protecting their children from the dangers of social networking.
Higher education law attorney Dana L. Fleming voices her controversial opinion in favor of institutionalized involvement in social network protection in her article “Youthful Indiscretions: Should Colleges Protect Social Network Users from Themselves and Others?” (Fleming). Posted in the New England Journal of Higher Education, winter of 2008 issue, Fleming poses the question of responsibility in monitoring students’ online social networking activities. With a growing population of students registering on social networks like Facebook and MySpace, she introduces the concern of safety by saying, “like lawmakers, college administrators have not yet determined how to handle the unique issues posed by the public display of their students’ indiscretions.” However, while Dana Fleming emphasizes the horror stories of social networking gone-bad, she neglects the many positive aspects of these websites and suggests school involvement in monitoring these sites when the role of monitoring should lie with parents or the adult user.
Social networking sites leave opportunities for vulnerability, however, I don’t believe many youths are an easy target. Using ethos, pathos and logos individuals can create their own reality to relate to the internet world who they think are and how they wish to be seen. In mediated publics such as Facebook and Instagram, the user has complete control of his or her profile and is the only one who can allow content about his/herself to be shared. It is my personal belief that as technology has evolved many people have taken to fabricating some truths here and there and omitting details to give an ideal representation of who they are without incriminating themselves or leaving themselves vulnerable for mistreatment. The fantasy of what is or could be is more desirable than reality. In the past few years, privacy settings have been adapted to cover the growing technological advances to keep users safe from online predators.
Since being introduced in the 1990s, social networking sites have taken over people’s lives. From Facebook to Twitter and Snapchat to Instagram, these social networking sites are included in our day to day life. People use these sites to keep in touch with each other and the world. As a prominent fixture of our lives, social networking has a great influence over our opinions, decisions, and perspectives. Out of all its users, teenagers are the most susceptible to social networking’s influence; it can lead them to living an ethically right life that fosters learning and goodwill, or an ethically wrong life that encourages addictions and bad behavior.
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.
So I ask, what is social media? Social Media is websites and applications that allow users to create and share contents or surf social networking. Social Media has its pros and cons. Some social media accounts ask a lot of questions and clarifications about your background, such as your number, email, birthday, and so on to confirm the account you want to make. Other social media don’t ask for much information, maybe just an email and number. Most social media sites say that you have to be at least 13 to make an account. It can be very addicting to people. Without social media, many of us would be bored because we don’t have that variety of didn’t entertaining or interesting things. You can post pictures on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and so on and get a lot of likes and comments. Or if you post on snapchat, you’ll get a lot of views. Social Media gives you the control to post, like, comment, and share. It’s like having your own imaginary world that you have power over. As I said before, social media comes in all kinds of ways and everyone is dean to find something they like about it.
Generally, social networking provides online sexual predators with an easy gateway to youths. Users of online social media services tend to share copious amounts of personal information on online profiles, these same users control who can or cannot see their information by utilizing privacy settings. The problem with these “privacy settings” is that they are often hard to manipulate, leaving a multitude of online profiles vulnerable to often explicit offers from online sexual predators. Lacking the ability to protect their information properly, users are in jeopardy of being contacted by sexual predators. In fact, “[d]uring the years prior to the explosive expansion of social networks, most online sexual predators attempted to contact youths through chat rooms and message boards. In recent years, however, predators are increasingly targeting minors over social networking services”, showing that social networking directly puts youths in peril (Guo, 626). This sheds light on the fact that social networking is basically a way to herd youths and display them ...
With the level of exposure that teens are facing today by joining the social networking trend, they often forget the dangers of social networking such as stalkers and pedophiles, who may use the sites as a major tool of the trade. Said dangers can befriend naïve teens and lure them into dangerous situations. For example, Raymond Wang had a friend being stalked by an unknown person through one of the social networking sites. This stalker acquired private information about her via Facebook, and it got to the point where the stalker was sending her threatening or perverted letters to her actual mailbox detailing what he would do to her. “This has really affected her a lot because now she’s scared other stalkers might do the same and she doesn't want that to happen or have anything happen to her.” (Wang 19) Even though users are given the option to make one’s profile private, there is still the looming threat that stalkers are able to gather enough information about the person’s whereabouts. Another similar incident happened to Regina Chau, a member of a social networking site catered to the raver lifestyle, Plurlife. When she first joined with her offline friends she liked everything about the SNS, but “[where] most of the people you accept to your friends list would probably be strangers.” (Chau 18) she had befriended a person she did not know offline and one these “friends” got a little too friendly with her; “he would keep asking over and over if I wanted to meet up with him at the next event. I found this a little creepy and did not message him back after that.
From the perspective of adolescents and teenagers growing up in such a hyper-connected world, having a smartphone just seems like a necessity, something that all parents feel obliged to giving to their child at a young age, should they have to contact them in case of emergency. But when can an item such as a smartphone turn into a device that sucks away confidence, self pride and the overall well-being of a child? A device that is making a child fear when it should be used in order to help them feel safe. This is what can happen when you introduce social media to children who do understand how to fully use it safely; who don’t understand the implications and consequences that come with silly mistakes made through social media but also don’t
The popular site, Facebook.com, has amassed more than one billion registrants since it started in February 2004. It is another social networking site, just like MySpace.com and Xanga.com, which is common to High School and College students. But this is no ordinary site; people’s lives literally revolve around Facebook. I have a Facebook account and log in at least once a day. I personally believe that Facebook is a fun and interactive site. However, some students may not feel that same way because they have encountered some negative aspects, aside from Facebook’s legal problems.
Smartphones have become a problem in today’s generation especially for adolescences that has shown a decline in focus and intellect in the past few years. Although smartphones are created to help make communication easier, they also affect youth’s performance and productivity in school, in their workplace, home, and their communication with adults. Other teenagers use social media to express their feelings online and to release their anger and stress. Most of the time, when teenagers reveal too much on the internet, violence and rumours can take place afterwards, which results in arguments and misunderstandings. The youth today feel as if they cannot live without their smartphones and without access to the internet. They have become highly dependent on their smartphones and this has changed the way youth interact with adults. The advancement of smartphones has negatively impacted youth’s social relationship with their teachers, employers and their parents.
Social media sites such as Facebook are one of the most popular social media sites that has 700,000-750,000 members joining each day. Connecting with peers shouldn’t be a problem. It’s as easy typing the peers name push search, and some suggestions come up and find your peer you’re looking for and shoot them a message instantly with social media manly targeting young people such as teenagers. Facebook has made it so easy for teens to interact and engage with their peers. It allows teens to come into contact with long, lost relatives and reunite with them. Facebook is a virtual site = which gives teens an endless possibility to engage with peers, family, of maybe even people who they have never meet allowing then to interact making new friends.
In recent years, social networking sites have rapidly gained popularity among people at all ages. A large number of people have registered and become members of some social networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Wechat. Also, people spend a lot of time on these sites chatting, playing games, and making friends. Social networking sites have become a part of people’s life. However, what accounts for the popularity of these sites? As far as I’m concerned, this phenomenon, which social networking sites are very popular nowadays, is caused by three important reasons.
Social media is described as content created and shared by individuals on the web using freely available websites that allow users to create and post their own images, video and text information and then share that with either the entire internet or just a select group of friends (Affilorama, 2012). They are more like a website allowing you to express your daily activities, beliefs, locations, likes, dislikes, photos, music, etc. They are used by creating a profile, and logging in through either the website, or apps now used on smartphones, or any portable device with Wi-Fi connection. Although most social media networks are directed towards adults and young adults, young children are getting into these websites as well. There are usually age limits but there isn’t a certainty that all the users provided their actual age, allowing whoever wants to be a member of these sites to bypass an age limit “security” procedure. Facebook and MySpace require users to be at least 13, but they have no practical way to verify ages, and many young users prete...
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.
In the twenty -first century, teenagers live in a life of social networking and life’s online. It’s hard to believe how much the world has changed over the decades, especially in technology. Technology helps people to contact relatives and friends from long distance more easily and conveniently. People can now talk to each other from everywhere in the world simply through chat and video calls. By time, internet connections have spread throughout households and social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, and Instagram has increased gradually. However, the internet and several modern technologies have wasted many times and has hurt the society. Social media plays such a big role in people’s lives that some people couldn’t even imagine