Introduction:
This is a synthesis paper on How today’s youth is effected by social media. The sources synthesized are CNN article ‘The Upside of Selfies: Social Media Isn't All Bad for Kids’ by Kerry Wallace and ‘Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites’ by Karen Frazier, a PR Executive.
Through my research, I will try to understand if social media has more of a negative influence on teens than a positive one. And is it safe if our online experiences are gradually replacing our real life experiences?
Whether positive or negative, the fact is that social networking sites have made a deep impact on our lives. Children and adults alike are addicted and smitten by the fancy world of social networks. Each of us is familiar with social media sites like Facebook, Instagram, Google+ and Twitter. It is almost impossible to find someone who is not on at least one of these platforms with most of the youth population being on all of these. The past two decades have seen a magnificent rise in this social phenomenon. For the purpose of painting a clearer picture, there are 2.2 billion monthly active users on Facebook as of 2014. This number is one-third of the earth’s total population. The statistic for Instagram is 200 million monthly users. There are a lot of advantages of social media. It is a platform where users get to connect with their friends and colleagues and share information. It helps us reach people at all ends of the world and opens us up to new possibilities. Through a professional networking site like LinkedIn, people can expand their professional network, get recommended and even get better jobs. The pros are many; however, the overuse of social media has slowly turned it into a disadvantage. This effect is especially true for the younger generation. Children and teenagers are using social media sites for most of their communications. Friendships, romantic relationships, group get-togethers are all planned, executed and sometimes ended using Facebook messages or WhatsApp pings. It is theorized that the main aim for people to use social networks is to increase contact with family and friends and the broadening of their social life. Studies have shown that people who are very active on Facebook tend to display signs of narcissism. Experts also believe that too much use of social media is related to academic underachievement. This result is expected the study hours suffer due to the time wasted on social media.
Positive Effects of Social Media: In the article ‘The upside of Selfies: Social media isn't all bad for kids ‘, an attempt is made to explain the various positive effects of social media on the teens. According to the article, teens feel very positively about Social Media. In fact the parents who monitor the Instagram accounts of their children have also realized that there are various benefits of using social networks. It quotes a mother realizing how all the comments on her daughter’s Instagram pictures were uplifting. Surveys conducted revealed that twenty-eight percent of the thousand-plus teenagers interviewed believe that social networking has made them twenty-eight percent more outgoing and twenty-nine percent believe that it has made them less shy. Fifty-two percent believe that social media has improved friendships as opposed to four percent who believe the opposite. The article also points out how social media protected an eighteen-year old from committing suicide by connecting him to official help. Kelly Wallace, critics the media for running negative news about the effects of social media. She ends the article by shrewdly advising parents to talk to their children about the rules of the online world.
Negative Effects of Social Media:
In the article Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites, Karen Frazier explains various points of how social networks are negatively impacting us. The points are summarized as follows:
Privacy: Privacy is another major concern online. People believe their data is safe online. However, this is not always the case. In 2010, researchers at the Northeastern University and Max Planck Institute for Software Systems created an algorithm that identifies the personal characteristics of a person just using their friend list. Their friend list is one of the things people leave public since they don’t believe it to be much of a vulnerable issue. However, using this information, it is possible to discover a lot more about the person like their education background, work information, hometown and others. Additionally, facebook regularly changes its privacy settings, and it is not possible for everyone to keep track of these changes. Tagging and getting tagged in others pictures and photographs also is an invasion of privacy.
Isolation: An irony of social media is the feeling of isolation it brings us. The irony is because it appears to bring us closer and make the world smaller. Due to spending excessive hours on their social media, people have much less time for face-to-face meetings. Scientists believe reduces face-to-face interactions lead to emotional, psychological and even physical problems. An animal study conducted at University of Illinois, Chicago, concluded that social isolation led to high levels of anxiety, aggression, stress and hoards of other mental issues.
Mental Issues: In the October of 2012, a fifteen-year-old Tallulah Wilson, who was suffering from clinical depression, ended her life. She was a talented ballerina, but her depression caused her to create a Tumblr account as a cocaine addict. When her mother discovered the account and the disturbing pictures she had posted, she immediately shut down the account. This restriction to use social media caused Tallulah to leap in front of a train. (The Telegraph, 2014) In the year 2002, a seventeen-year-old Tim Piper suffering from depression, asked his online community for suicide advice. Eventually, he hung himself in his bedroom.(BBC News, 2003) Researchers believe that a person evaluates their life in comparison to what they want their experience to be. Social Media makes us want to display only the best parts of our lives and can be certain that even others would do the same. This routine causes several us to fall into temporary depressions. However, for youth and people suffering from mental illness, this becomes a life-threatening situation. Social media us is also linked with activities like smoking, drinking in teens.
These two articles provide a detailed perspective on both the positive and negative effects of social media. Even though, I do agree with some of the points mentioned by Kerry Wallace, I believe that social media is effecting the youth negatively more than it is positively. The fact that parents must have healthy discussion with their children on the topic of social media is very true. I agree that a lot of teens believe that the cumulative effects of social media are positive, however, I believe that they are not at a mature age to make this decision.
Conclusion:
The negative influences of social media are many. In addition to the ones covered above, there are effects like decreased productivity, poor and careless language skills and creating a sense of a pseudo-social life. One of the most dangerous effects bullying of the prevalence of social media is Cyber bullying. According to the Pew Research Center, the cases of cyber bullying in children has increased to 4,507 in 2012-2013 from 2,410 in 2011-2012. This increase can be attributed to the fact that not all parents can monitor their children’s online usage and also the maturity levels of children. Internet differs from real life in the sense that it stores every action. The responsibility to use social media requires a basic understanding of the technology and a maturity level at which a person can make responsible decisions. However, the younger generation does not have time to grow up before they get familiar with the internet. Rather, it’s one of the first things parents do for their children these days; create their facebook account. These effects do not cover the entire extent of the potential harms of social media. Businesses use social media marketing very heavily. In the year 2011, Facebook earned 1.6 billion dollars. The registering for facebook and the usage is free. Then how does the company earn such staggering revenues? The sites collect user data like work background, interests, personal preferences, etc. to match us to products. This information is the Holy Grail to advertisers, and they pay heavily to the social media networks. Thus, the youth is exposed to innumerable products, and that leads to further distraction and increased costs.
The youth turn towards social media for external validation. There have been episodes where young girls ask the viewers to rate their looks. This trend is extremely disturbing as the habits that are formed at this age continue into our adult life. Seeking validation in real life is bad enough, but doing so on social media is a very dangerous activity. This need for validation exposes the younger generation to predators and cyber-bullies. Teens are also more likely to go into depression or end their lives based on negative experiences on social media. Addictions like smoking and drinking have long held a despicable place in our society. However, the addiction to social media is on the rise and its way to number one spot. It is important to prevent such addictive, harmful behaviors in the youth. Adults must treat it as an important problem that must be dealt with immediately. The onus is on the parents to educate their children about the pros and cons of connecting on social media platforms. It is also better for individuals to monitor the time they spend online and understand what they miss out on by sitting in front of a computer all the time.
Works Cited:
Wallace, Kelly. "The Upside of Selfies: Social Media Isn't All Bad for Kids." CNN. Cable News Network, 7 Oct. 2014. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. <http://edition.cnn.com/2013/11/21/living/social-media-positives-teens-parents/>.
Frazier, Karen. "Negative Impact of Social Networking Sites." LoveToKnow. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. <http://socialnetworking.lovetoknow.com/Negative_Impact_of_Social_Networking_Sites>.
"The Dangerous Impacts of Social Media on Mental Illnesses." TNW Network All Stories RSS. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. <http://thenextweb.com/socialmedia/2014/05/10/dangerous-impacts-social-media-rise-mental-illnesses/>.
