IMPACTS OF SOCIAL NETWORKING
Impacts of Social networking
Thesis: Social networking can ultimately destroy lives as evidenced by the exposure to predators, the loss of family connections and cyberbullying.
Introduction
Social networking is a phenomenon that has gained an outstanding popularity around the world whilst attracting many researchers who are focusing on the analysis of its impacts. Results from varying researchers have found out that all generations in the current world have come to embrace the changes that relate to the impacts that are brought up by the social networking. According to McCann, social networking has a great impact on the lives of young adults and youths in particular.
Researchers have discovered that using social utilities like Twitter, Facebook or WhatsApp by the teens poses both positive and negative effects on them. Austen McCann has expressed his concern by elaborating his point that the “social media has allowed young people to take their life online and instead of saying goodbye to friends at school and waiting to see them in the following day”. According to the Austin McCann’s case, social networking is now becoming more than a home to teens and young adults. Teenagers usually complain that they are being stressed by homework but a close research has revealed homework isn’t the real cause of the stress, but rather the strain that teens put on such social utilities.
It cannot be denied that the social networking is positively impacting the lives of teenagers as opposed to the thesis statement above but basically research states that one out of seven youth who uses social media is alleged to accesses internet and access relevant information, with the major factors affecting the world progress inclusive. Social networking can act as a good source of information for the teens to use or apply in solving family issues when they arise anytime (Kommers, 2015).
Negative impacts
The thesis itself provides an overview of the impact of social networking on the teenagers and young adults. Cyberbullying can be described as the kind of bullying that teenagers are facing while they access the internet and is one of the pragmatic effects that occur when teenagers are exposed to the internet. In this phenomenon, predators take advantage of ruining the lives of young adults and teenagers by exposing them to humiliating text messages that are abusive. Violence and sex in some of these scenes may damage the behavior of the kids who practice what they see. Some of the predators may also expose young children to non-ethical pictures and images as well as movies which will encourage the teens to lose the interest of their dear lives and break up with their families. Social networking also leads to addiction as the teens spend so many hours in the internet and divert their attention from daily tasks allocated to them by parents. Their motivational level is lowered as they rely on social networking to solve daily problems instead of experiencing real life setting (Kommers, 2015).
Solution
Essentially, the impression of the thesis can give an option of considering the pragmatic measures that are relevant to avoid the impacts of social networking. Dealing with teens to avoid social networking to some extend may be hard, but encouraging them to spend less time on social media as well as spending less time interacting and socializing through the internet may be the best option.
Conclusion
Cyberbullying also has risen in the past few years as a result of teens exposed to social networking, currently, parents tend to escape from the impacts but they find it difficult to do so. Teens and young adult may find it difficult thinking that their exposure is the best of all but they fail to understand that they are hidden on a black screen. In my opinion, I ultimately belief that a moderate usage of social networking along with checks and balances on how the teens are using social utilities, always firmly grasping real time content, then social networking social utilities are neither evil nor Godsend, but somewhere in between.
References
Chen, L. H. (2016). A meta-analysis of factors predicting cyberbullying perpetration and victimization: From the social cognitive and media effects approach. new media & society.
Dumitrica, D. (2016). Imagining engagement Youth, social media, and electoral processes. Convergence. The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 22(1), 35-53.
Herring, S. C. (2015). Teens, gender, and self-presentation in social media. International Encyclopedia of Social and Behavioral Sciences (2 ed.). Oxford: Elsevier,.
Paluck, E. L. (2016). Changing climates of conflict: A social network experiment in 56 schools. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (Vol. 3).
Issa, T. Isaias, P. Kommers, P. (2015). Social Networking and Education: Global Perspectives. Springer, 3 Oct 2015 - Education - 356 pages
