Effects of Social Media on Teenagers Real Social Lives in America - Essay Example

Effects of Social Media on Teenagers’ Real Social Lives in America Introduction In the society today, social media networking is becoming wildly popular with young adults and adolescents. Ninety percent of the young people in America within the age bracket of twelve and seventeen are widely using the social network in their communication. A high percentage of college students have reported that they have Facebook accounts and other social media accounts, and this percentage is increasing day by day. As the use of online social networking usage increases in prevalence, so do psychologist’s interest about the impact virtual communication has on teenagers’ social development. Current studies report that teenagers spend a considerable part of their daily time interacting with the social media. Therefore, there are controversies and questions emerging regarding the effects of social media on the life of the adolescents (Allen & Hare, 2010). This paper seeks to analyze the effects of social media in the social lives of the American teenagers. Negative effects The current tools of adolescent communication go by an unusual set of names. Status progress, wall post, activity feeds, profile and thumbs up are some of the significant ways in which teenagers use to communicate with each other. These tools are characteristics of social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The issue of the teenagers being connected to the social media has become frightening to both the educators and parents. Parents and teachers in US face challenges concerning the students who are connected to the social media. Some scholars argue that students learn in new ways through using the social media and that educators should adapt to this new learning platforms. However, many schools in United States have blocked access to social network systems while parents are worried about the effects and safety of their children’s social development. As research indicates, teenagers are the unique population of social network users. This population is among the first to have been raised up wholly surrounded by communication technologies. Teenagers are also in the era of rapid growth, development and maturation. The research about social media affects adolescent’s promises to contribute significantly to the interests of adults who umpire access to these social media networks. Furthermore, adolescents have proven to be technologically connected as everybody else. They can connect to social media like Facebook, Twitter, and they are enabled to chat in concurrently with their friends who are many miles away. Many American youths receive and send texts messages approximately 200 times a day. If the adolescents are not on their phones texting then they are on social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook where they chat, share video and photos and engage in gaming. The negative impacts of being addicted to these social media have started having extensive effects on the teenagers. Because social communications come devastatingly online instead of face to face, America teenagers are showing a severe lack of social skills. They have become more comfortable with technology than they are interacting with people physically. They are unable to learn the proper conversation and communication skills, how to tackle interpersonal situations and getting to know other people behind the screens. Researchers have reported that college, high school and middle- school students who usually use Facebook in a span of fifteen minutes have lower grades in schools. Many adolescents more often than not have sleepless nights on social media without their parents noticing. The disruption of sleep has inherent impacts on teens. It has resulted in cases such as mood swings, insomnia, lack of concentration in school and increased obesity among other disorders. In addition, social media is becoming a replacement for establishing and building connections in the real world and this fundamentally wrong to carry on with this mentality. Social media has extensively contributed to antisocial networking whereby youths do not interact face-face with their peers. Direct interaction is not regarded as the best means to communicate anymore among the teens, and people are not valuing face- face interactions as they did before. Direct interactions are beneficial as it allows people to understand each other intensely and enables people to know each other deep to the most crucial parts of whom they are. Social connections and social media do not have this profoundness and connectedness. This is the reason there is a false sense of connection that comes because of social media. Social media can cause harmful psychological effects if the medium is used to replace direct interaction instead of using the medium to develop a better social interaction. The emergence of social networking, has led to a difference in the means by which people approach companionship and relationships technology. Psychologically, individuals have a different mentality from that of the past generations because of the current technology. Social media has brought onward drastic change in how persons see relationships. This mental alteration on how people treat this kind of online technology is not a way that should be taken as it can cause serious trouble for the future generations. Social media is affecting adolescents on not only how they behave socially but also how they feel social when using the sites. An online social network should evoke feelings of emotional satisfaction, as this form of communication is social in nature. However, as youth continue using social networks such as Twitter and Facebook the more emotionally and anxious, they become. Social media are said to be causing negative emotions to its users. Teens who are regular users of social media are reported to be less content and more often get in trouble a lot. This group of teens is more often sad, bored and unhappy due to their passive nature. In California, twenty percent of the teens are found to be exposed to depression as they do not a physical interaction with other people. Additionally, sixty percent of girls nationally say that they have a negative experience with using social networks. Some youths reported that social media such as Facebook are prone in inciting fights, particularly with the development of “burn” pages developed for the precise purpose of teasing or taunting others. The increased use of social media among the youths has also laid platforms for cyberbullying in United States. Social media has created a chance for emotional anguish from receiving harassing, threatening, or humiliating communication from one teen to the other. In United States, twenty percent of teenagers reports of being threatened or humiliated by their peers. Cyber bullying has shown increased levels of anxiety and depression for victims than the usual bullying and has increased the cases of youth suicide. The teens who are at the risk of cyber bullying are gays, lesbians, transgender, bisexual (LGBT) and allied youth. Allied youths are young people who are advocates for LGBT. Females are ranked second top to be at the risk of being cyberbullied. In America, women report more than that twenty percent of cyber bullying incidences. The victims of cyberbullying are more likely to be perpetrators. Research indicates that teenagers are mostly worried about their privacy. When teenagers are more anxious about risks, with will be involved in privacy protecting acts, such as altering their profiles from the public to private profile access. A private profile does not provide identifying information or provides false information and usually avoids particular websites. However, most teens ignore the privacy policies of some websites or they are very unaware of such policies, and their information becomes at a risk of being disclosed to third parties such as advertisers. Additionally, posts on social media most often present a view through rose-tinted glasses of what is happening, how things are going or how things look like. This can lead to adolescents to constantly compare themselves to other teenagers. It shows that social media has changed people ways of life as people are usually comparing themselves to what is perceived ideal. Social media has led to fear of missing out, commonly referred to as FOMO. Fear of missing out is a situation that occurs when teenagers feel pressure to whatever other teenagers are doing. This includes attending every event and sharing every life experience enjoyed by other teenagers. It can bring anxiety and can lead to social media users’ question why everybody is enjoying themselves without them. Social media make youths feel insecure because they may feel that they are not creative or crafty enough. Also, the users may feel as if they are not smart or successful enough as they think that other people are better than them. While most teens use social media responsibly, it can also act as a private and powerful communications medium that can be used irresponsibly. With social media, teens cannot see the response of the people receiving the messages, so their acts can be separated from the consequences. Many teenagers have been punished for messages they have sent through the social networks. These text messages can be used to humiliate or bully other teens. Additionally, an upsetting or embarrassing video can be uploaded or transmitted to any of the social media or video-sharing sites such as YouTube. Adolescents can also use social network sites for sexting, where individuals receive or send sexually suggestive naked or nearly naked images and messages. Many teenagers have been reported of posting nude or half-nude pictures of themselves in social media. In many parts of United States, sexting is a transgression offense for teens below the age of 18. Teens that are caught in sexting can be suspended from school and victims can undergo an emotional distress and mental health conditions. A current research that explored the link between teenagers, drug use, and social media found out that approximately 70% of teenagers between the age of twelve and seventeen use social media. Those who use it on a daily basis are five times more probable to use tobacco, two times likely to use marijuana and three times likely to use alcohol. Also, forty percent of the teens have been exposed to pictures of people using drugs and alcohol in social media. Positive effects of social media on teens Despite the many inherent disadvantages of social media on teens, social media is a beneficial tool that has allowed people to become more connected than ever before. Social media is associated with numerous benefits for adolescent development and health. Many youths use the social networks site to extend the friendships they already from other places of their life, sports, religious and other local activities. Social media provides a way for teenagers to experience opportunities and connectedness to gain knowledge from each other. Additionally, social media can offer a supportive atmosphere to explore friendship, romance, and social status. Nowadays, social media provides an opportunity to discuss and share their taste in the knowledge of television, music, online games or videos and aspects of teen’s culture. Social networks can allow youths to find support online that they have lacked in their traditional relationships, especially those who are marginalized such as LGBT teens, the disabled and those that feel that they physically unattractive. Currently, the youth perceives social networks as a primary source of advice and information. Most teens often search for information from the online sites in what they refer to as critical development. Teens are widely using social networks to attain answers pertaining their health concerns such as getting fitness and dieting. Social networks have been a valuable tool that has significantly empowered young people. Adolescents have been the first to utilize social media because their age group is of a nature to concentrate on social relations and peer interactions. Social media has allowed teenagers make new friends, maintain existing friends and find old friends. Teenagers have been using social media in community engagement where they raise money for donations and volunteering in local events. High school and middle students are using social media to link with one another to group projects and homework. For instance, Facebook and other similar social media programs enable students to gather and exchange ideas about their projects and assignments. Some schools are using blog sites as teaching tools that are beneficial in reinforcing skills in written expression, English, and creativity. Students have been able to interact with students from other schools and share experiences in school. Parents should on the watch out to check what their children are doing in the social media and ensure that their use is beneficial. Conclusion In conclusion, social media networking is becoming wildly popular with young adults and adolescents. Ninety percent of the young people in America within the age bracket of twelve and seventeen are widely using the social network in their communication. . Status progress, wall post, activity feeds, profile and thumbs up are some of the significant ways in which teenagers use to communicate with each other. These tools are characteristics of social network sites such as MySpace and Facebook. The increased use of social media among the youths has also laid platforms for cyberbullying in United States. Social media has also increased the rates of antisocial interactions in the society. A current research that explored the link between teenagers, drug use, and social media found out that approximately 70% of teenagers between the age of twelve and seventeen use social media. Social media is also associated with numerous benefits for adolescent development and health. High school and middle students are using social media to link with one another to group projects and homework (Allen & Hare, 2010) References Allen, J. P., & Hare, A. L. (2010). Adolescent Peer Relationships and Behavior Problems Predict Young Adults’ Communication on Social Networking Websites. Developmental Psychology, 46-56. Read More