Has Social Media Caused Moral Decay - Essay Example

? Has Social Media Caused Moral Decay Social media Introduction Recent research has shown that most people today both young and aged spent 23 per cent of their time in social media. This is to say that social media has greatly influenced people’s life today. One may ask what social media is or what it entails. There are different forms of social media for instance twitter, YouTube and Face book these are a few of the social media, which have greatly influenced the people in today,’s society (Wheeldon n.d). Recent research has shown that social media brings fresh blood to people’s lives. For instance, it provides a platform for people from all parts of the world to exchange ideas with this; people are able to enlarge their social circles. Although social media has both positive and negative impacts on people, it has made the world a better place to live in. The essay will bring out that social media is not responsible for the moral decay in today’s society it will bring out both negative and positive effects of social media in order to bring out the counter argument appropriately. Thesis statement Social media is to blame for the moral decay in the society. 1. Communication and socialization Social media has resulted to moral decay on different issues in today’s society. For instance, it has resulted to social isolation (Solari Communications, 2012). This is to say that people lack contact with people in normal life situation. In a work place, one may isolate him or herself from his or work mates thus creating a gap between them. People keep on staring at their smart phone even when around people they should socialize. Because of this, young people do not concentrate when being addressed by older people. This shows how young people have become disrespectful because of the use of social media. Recent research has shown that socially isolated people live a shorter life. When one is a socially isolated, you lose the ability to read ones facial expressions and social cues. Because of continues isolation and spending more time in social media, and aiming at creating more online friends, social media results to depression this is because people spent most of their time chatting with friends and strangers thus wasting the time they are supposed to sleep. This result to depression and one may be unproductive in his or her place of work. Research has shown that being on the screen for long hours affects the release of melatonin a sleep chemical thus making one to sleep for less hours thus resulting to depression (Neelamalar & Chitra, 2009). One feels more comfortable when communicating online than face-to-face. Social media also affects once communicating skills for instance, if one is always on social media he or she may never understand the verbal cues and facial expressions. This result to poor communication skills and one may never know how to communicate while in public. In addition, while chatting most young people do not use grammatically correct language. This affects their language especially in their academics. Constant use of social media has resulted to distractions. Many people are hurt while walking simply because of being constantly glued on their phones texting and chatting with friends. In addition, in the class students are distracted from what they are taught because they are on their social websites instead of listening to their teachers by doing so they fail to get the concepts they are supposed to (Wheeldon n.d). This results to poor performance among the students. Today young people seek for sex education in the social websites. Sexting refers to receiving sexually suggestive messages, videos, and photos through the social website. In today’s society, social media has become a leading sexual educator. This is because parents no longer teach their children about sex. Because of this, young people get wrong concepts about sex hence increase in moral decay among the young people. That is why nowadays there is increase in transmission of sexually transmitted diseases and unwanted pregnancies. In addition, young people also suffer from emotional and mental disorders because of harmful sexual behaviors (Pernisco, 2010). One of the greatest effects of social media is the lack of social boundaries in communication that is as a result social media. For instance, before the internet age a teenager would not see photos of nude people. However, nowadays with the development of the social media a girl easily snaps a photo of her boobs and sends them to the boyfriend. They do not see anything wrong with this. On the other hand, the boys snap photos of their penis and send it to their girlfriends. This has greatly resulted to the increase in moral decay in the society (Backe, 2007). 2. Lack of privacy Social media has resulted to lack of privacy one can easily hack someone’s account on Face book thus resulting to lack of privacy. In addition, people do not have sense of privacy online one posts on Face book or tweets each action that he or she makes. In addition, in social networks like face book one gives his or her full names, work place, schools, hobbies, members of the family and uploads his or her photos. This information is viewed by strangers, which may cause more harm than good in one’s life because it increases the rate of identity theft. Social media has increased the level of decisiveness for instance one gives false information by creating false profiles. With the rate of cyber-stalking social media has resulted to lack of social boundaries (Backe, 2007). For instance, people are posting nude photos thus crossing the social boundaries resulting to moral decay in the society. 3. Cyber bullying and hate speech Cyber bullying and hate speech has caused moral decay in the society. This is because people can say anything or post anything in social media websites. Although, most people claim that they are able to get current issues through the social media, social media promotes propaganda. This is because the information is not from a credible source. In addition, many people will say horrible things in the social websites that they cannot say face to face. Social media has become a platform for people to post threats especially politicians. Cyber bullying affects young children it may result to loneliness, anxiety, and unhappiness (Wheeldon n.d). In addition, during elections, journalists take advantage of the social websites and threaten people due to their controversial views on different topics. They may post things in favor of their party or a certain candidate, which makes them to mislead members of the society. Social networks have also opened doors for predators, this mostly happens because of the detailed information that people give in social websites. The predators easily lure the young people into traps because of the information posted on the social media websites, a good example is online dating. Cyber bullying affects the victims by causing mental scars. The mental scars may drive the victim to suicide (Ellison, 2009). With this, it would be wrong arguing that social media is fully to blame for the moral decay in the society. Young people have a choice to make about what they should communicate about in the social media. Social media is of great importance to the society today it is hard to do away with it simply because of moral decay. Many other things besides the social media cause moral decay. Advisably, individuals cannot overlook the great positive impacts of social media. Social media has thus made the world a global village. Social media has many positive impacts on people’s lives in today’s economy. First, the introduction of social network websites such as Twitter and Face book has intensified the rate of communication between people from all lifestyles (Wheeldon n.d). This is to say that social media is an important tool which has kept the people socially active. For instance social website like Face book enables people to join different groups, comment on people’s posts, share people’s post, and most importantly send instant text message. This increases the rate of communication between different members of the society. This helps the people to keep in touch with friends and relatives who are in different parts of the world by doing so it acts as a source of entertainment. Social media increases people’s productivity in the society. People may say that people who use social media are unproductive, research has shown that 9 per cent of the people who use social media are productive than those who do not use. This is because social media breaks the monotony of work. After relaxation, it is easier for one to concentrate on work thus making one more productive. Social media is of great significance because it helps one enlarge his or her social circles. For instance, it breaks the friend-making barrier that is caused by career barrier and geographic isolation. For instance, a person from Spain can have friends from Canada or Japan. This greatly enlarges the social circles. On the part of career barrier, a student can have friends who are journalist, doctors, or teachers via social media like Face book so long as they have the same social interest. Social media breaks those boundaries and helps us to be in contact with the world at large (Solari Communications, 2012). Social media enable people to share their thoughts freely or give their views on different issues surrounding them. As earlier stated, the media is able to get people’s opinions easily through the social media. Some people cannot interact with people face to face; social media helps them to feel comfortable while interacting through the social media. They prefer to interact on the screen than facing a person. This makes them to feel more relaxed and protected thus they freely share is in their mind. Social media for instance Face book helps the college students get a career, which they are interested in they can also enquire more about the career (Pernisco, 2010). One of the most importances of the social media to both adults and teenagers is that it keeps us up to date with the current issues. This is because even if one is a thousand miles away you can easily get updates of what is happening around the world through the social media. Students can also get information from their fellow students on reporting date and on the deadline of submission of a research paper. Social media helps one to be connected with friends regardless of the distance. Through Twitter, one is able to get global and national news. With all this positive impacts it is arguable that social media has simplified life and made the world a better place to live in (Morley, n.d). Social media like YouTube unlashes potential among the young people. For instance, Justine Bieber the great singer was discovered through YouTube. Social media helps young people to unleash their talents. In addition, YouTube has made easy for students to share educative videos and articles with each other. This includes school projects and research articles this has resulted to easy spread of knowledge among the peers. In addition, the social media has been of great help to the marketing sectors. Public relations practitioners easily create company websites thus creating its awareness. They are also able to advertise their products in social websites thus increasing sales. Through social networking, the companies are able to create and maintain links with their customers. The companies or business organisations do this by creating company blogs and inviting people on the social websites to like or comment. In addition, organisations can improve the quality of their services through the feedbacks they get from their customers through the social websites. In addition, social websites have increased spend in sharing of information. Because of this, artists are able to share their artistic works through the social media. By the comments they get through the social media it builds their confidence to pursue their artistic career. Social media has also resulted to creation of job opportunities, organisation are able to advertise job vacancies in their organisations through social websites (Morley, n.d). As evident in the essay above, social media is to blame for moral decay in the society. The essay above shows how social media has negatively affected young people emotionally, psychologically, and socially. Research shows that young people spend a lot of their time in social websites thus affecting their physical and sexual health. Obscenity, sexual transmitted diseases, and depression cases have risen because teenagers are spending most of their time in social websites such as YouTube thus leaving unhealthy life. Negative impacts of social media have increased the rate of moral decay in the society. However, as stated above social media is not to blame fully for the increase in moral decay in the society. This is because social media has many positive impacts, which have greatly influenced the growth in economy. There are other social impacts, which have resulted to moral decay in the society hence the moral decay in the society cannot just be directed to social media alone. Social media enlargers’ social circles thus making the world a global village, thus social media is important in all aspects of life is used appropriately. References Backe, S. (2007). Sexism in the Media and their Effects. Mu?nchen: GRIN Verlag GmbH. Ellison, N. B. et al. (2009). Social Network Sites and Society: Current Trends and Future Possibilities. Retrieved on December 6, 2013 from https://www.msu.edu/~nellison/EllisonLampeSteinfield2009.pdf Morley, M. (n.d). The Positive & Negative Impact of Digital media on Business. Retrieved on November 22, 2013 from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/positive-negative-impact-digital-media-business-20910.html Neelamalar, M. & Chitra, P. (2009). New Media and Society: A Study on the impact of social networking sited on Indian youth. Retrieved on December 6, 2013 from http://www.ec.ubi.pt/ec/06/pdf/neelamalar-new-media.pdf Pernisco, N. (2010). Social Media: Impact and Implications on Society. Vol. 1, Iss 1. Retrieved on December 6, 2013 from http://www.understandmedia.com/pdf/SJMLE-Vol1.pdf Solari Communications (2012). Social Media and Its Effect on Communication. Retrieved on December 6, 2013 from http://www.solari.net/documents/position-papers/Solari-Social-Media-and-Communication.pdf Wheeldon, E. A Social Society: The Positive Effects of Communicating through Social Networking Sites. Retrieved on December 6, 2013 from http://mitcher.yolasite.com/resources/A%20Social%20Society.pdf Read More