With the advancement in technology in a short matter of time it has impacted the world in many ways such as how the world communicates and our life styles. One of the many revolutionary inventions or evolutions is called social networking sites (SNS). Social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and many more, are where people gather in the internet, create a personalized profile about themselves, and interact with people around the world. With the lack of parental supervision between the ages of fourteen to seventeen, which makes one of largest demographics using social networking sites, these teens could be subjected to mature elements. Young teens between the ages of fourteen to seventeen should not be allowed to have a profile on social networking sites because they do not have the capability to make proper logical decisions.
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.
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...
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 the late 1990s, the proliferation of social networking sites has grown to permeate the lives of not only Americans but also people worldwide. Beginning in 1997, the use of social networking sites has grown to the point where “Facebook reported one billion monthly users worldwide on October 4, 2012” (Procon.org). Established less than ten years ago in 2004, Facebook is currently the world's most popular social networking on the planet, counting one out of seven people worldwide interacting with its site. Academic literature has exhaustively researched the use of social networking in recent years but one question has yet to be resolved: Do social networking sites cause more harm than good? This discourse takes the position that, despite the many harmful effects observed by the use (or misuse) of social networking sites, on balance they been of overall benefit to both individuals and societies across the globe. While this brief discussion cannot hope to unequivocally determine the question of good versus harm, it will present an argument to support the conclusion that social networking sites have both useful commercial, with personal applications, and should be considered a boon rather than a bane to our 21st century world.
Social Networking sites play an essential role in today’s culture as they provide people with the ability to interact, blog, share pictures and videos, flirt, and date without having to move an inch. People pour their minds and hearts into the world of cyber communication; it is an easier way for them to clear their heads without having a face-to-face confrontation. Undoubtedly, this is advantageous to certain people. It helps establish connections with people, friends and family from any corner of the world, but one cannot ignore the extensive privacy breach that occurs in the universe of online social media.
Social networking has increasingly had a huge impact on society. Technology has opened the door to a vast amount of information and to the ability to relay that information to practically anybody at anytime and anywhere. People are constantly checking their email, updating their status on Facebook, sending tweets on Twitter, instant messaging, and texting. The debate of whether the use of social networking is a negative or positive aspect is a continuous one. In the case of Steven Pinker, his essay “Mind over Mass Media” argues that media technologies have a positive effect on mental development. In contrast, Sherry Turkle’s essay “Connectivity and Its Discontents” asserts that technology has a negative effect on interpersonal relationships. Although Pinker makes many excellent points on how technology is improving intelligence and Turkle provides exceptional ideas of how technology is damaging to relationships, neither Pinker nor Turkle provides the best answer to this question due to their lack of credibility and inclusion of logical fallacies. Instead, we should, while aware of the risks and dangers of social networking, use the Internet to its full potential.
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.
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 ...
The first aspect being addressed is the problem with social network sites exposing information. Social networking has created an environment where it is nearly a duty to expose oneself. Profiles on these social websites are updated everyday with personal information such as locations, status, and future plans. Anyone can search another’s name and find information about their history, pictures, and activity. With the help of social networking sites...
I believe that the key to safe and secure social media begins with proper use. Illegal and highly discouraged activities should not be tolerated and consequences should be mandatory. In terms of social media use in teens and young adults, it is important for parents to teach their children what acceptable use of computers and social media is so that they can understand the potential danger and all minors should be monitored while using the Internet to ensure safe usage is being followed. Regardless of age, all users of social media should think twice before clicking the post button about what unintended consequences that post could have.
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 allows students to be connected with their peers, teens who post positive status are more likely to be involved in extracurricular activities, and for many teens putting up “selfies” is a self confidence boost; however, too much social media can affect students GPA in school, cyber bullying can affect social health. Social media networks can give out personal information. 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.
Today technology has created new styles of communication on the internet for us all. This technology has made great impact on everyday life in today’s society. Cyber communications have become hugely popular in the last decade, especially those websites that help people to find new or old friends, keep in touch with families, and even help people to find potential dates! The numbers of people using cyber social networking are growing in millions every year. Cyber social networks have helped people link to each other with common interests, and expand personal ideas and support worldwide. But people are getting too friendly with this technology. Dangers are slowly appearing, and there still have a lot of hidden threats. Cyber social networks are threats to our personal social lives, lead into new addictions, and compromise the security of privacy issues.
Our society today has become dependent on social media to entertain, excite, and inform each other on the newest and latest hot topics of today’s world. Some people cannot go as long as an hour without checking their social media websites whether it is on the phone, computer, Ipad, or any other electronic devise with internet. The creators of social media have made it easier to recognize and draw the user in with notifying pop-ups every time something new happens in the cyber world. The easier it gets, the more addicting it makes it to check every second. Also, it’s not only the youth and teenagers using these social media cites; it also claims adults as well. One of the main reasons people make social media accounts is because people are nosey about other people’s lives. They get a social media page such as Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram to monitor people and see what they are missing out of in the world. People post pictures to their “page” for everyone to see how good they look or how funny they are. Since everyone has a social media account, others feel obligated to make one, two, or even three accounts. What used to be rare is now typical for a normal person to have at l...
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...
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
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