Social Media and Its Negative Effects on the Current Generation - Essay Example

Social Media and Its Negative Effects on the Current Generation Social media have brought a notable revolution in the waythe current generation communicates and socializes. On the other hand, the platform has also brought negative effects in terms of privacy, productivity, recruitment, cyber-bullying cases, real-life communication and a bad impression of adult responsibility. The current Generation has developed unrealistic impression of adult responsibility in the current world. The young generation has unlimited exposure to technology and media devices that give them instant and easy results. They hope that the same way they turn off or block friends or people on Facebook will apply when they are dealing with rejection in real life. Social media platforms offer new ideas that apply in the short term, but they do not prepare them for the long-term commitments for adulthood. The same generation is stuck on the belief that their social media followers must validate what they do in their lives (Joseph 283). The decisions they make as adults are determined by what their friends on Twitter or Facebook will say. Taking up such advice or opinions influences their expectations, and they may or not fulfill their goals as adults. Losing a job opportunity is possible through social media. Young applicants and graduates in the current generation post virtually everything on the web. They have their resumes and cover letters written explicitly on LinkedIn. The current employers or human resource personnel can get information on a particular applicant by looking at their profile. The potential employer can access the status updates on Facebook or the kind of pictures they upload on Instagram and get brief information about an applicant before meeting them in person. Currently, human resource departments in United States have come up with social media strategies and incentives that would enable them hire workers based on the impression they make on social media (Olivas-Lujan and Bondarouk 53). An applicant will be branded according to the content the potential employer gets online. The employers are not disqualifying candidates based on the impression made by cover letters and resumes alone, but the conversations and content they find on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or any other choice social media choice. Human resource management traditional practices may question the authenticity of the information posted on social media, but hirers can dislike an applicant due to awful pictures or comments they have posted on social media. The current generation must be careful with what they post on social media accounts because that content has become a target for recruitment. Young applicants and graduates targeting employment in the current work environment should focus on creating positive personal brands on social media in order to increase chances of getting employed. The brand boosts an impressive resume, cover letter or work experience. Social media interactions have led to diminishing real life communication because the current generation has lost value for face-to-face communication. It is easier to communicate and access a larger audience with the current social media platforms (Whiteman). Young adults nowadays value the bonds they create every day on social media than the meaningful relationships that define real world. They tend to dedicate an integral part of their time online chatting with strangers and ignoring the immediate members of their families. The behavior has weakened the bond between the meaningful lives of the current generation in the real world. Many young adults prefer to content with mental, physical emotional and psychological problems based on the opinions and comments they get on social media. The group would prefer to express their depression on the internet instead of approaching a person in real life to help them overcome the problem. They would also opt to get captivated by a person they meet through their computer than invoking a person they know in the real world. The generation has lost touch of real world experiences and has resulted to more complaints among teens and kids who waste hours before computers, iPads, and smartphones. Online interactions have destroyed work ethics and decreased productivity levels. A research study conducted by Nucleus found out that Facebook has reduced productivity levels in the office with 1.5%. Morse also claims that many British companies have incurred a loss of more than 2.2 billion annually due to social networking phenomenon (MarketingCharts). Youthful worker or employees who are social media usage savvy are more concerned about the notifications they get on Facebook on their work computers or their personal phones than the assignments they have been given by their supervisors. The current working generation spends a portion of work time to read current trends of fashion, celebrity gossip, and discussions going on social media. They end up submitting assignments late and fail on deadlines because of using office hours for social networking. The situation has resulted to warnings and costly dismissals as a result of violating work policies. Companies are struggling to find ways to define social media practices that are within the limits of work ethics without affecting the morale of employees because the same platforms have played a role in communication within firms. Youths and kids have become a target of cyberbullies because they are now spending more time online through their computer and easily accessible devices such as smartphones. Kids are susceptible to mental torture because of cyberbullying perpetrated by strangers on social media sites. The perpetrators are creating false profiles within the intention of terrorize their peers or kids who hardly have knowledge about their identity. Youths and kids end up developing mental scars courtesy of the anonymous bullies on the internet. The young adults and kids who have become victims have attempted suicide and developed depressions due to the dark impulses brought out by the bullies through social media. Online harassment has affected the psychological and social outlook of the school children and young adults who fall prey to the online attackers. Though appropriate laws have been enacted to bring cyber bullies to book, it brings immense tension and distress to young generation (Whiteman). Social networking has destroyed privacy for the users in the current generation. The users do not think twice when they are revealing their personal information on social sites. They hardly know that the information has now become one of the causative factors for the rising cases of identity theft, stalking and cybercrimes such as hacking. Companies that are now considering employees information on social media would not opt for a prospective employee who has an embarrassing content on their social media profile (Olivas-Lujan and Bondarouk 55). The behavior or revealing too much personal information has also affected the privacy of relationships in the current generation. Couples are breaking up easily when they find undesirables posts or content posted by their loved ones on their social media feeds. Users barely know when to use filters when they are posting content on their social media account, and it ends on public domain for consumption. Social media sites such as Facebook have provided users with control options that allow them to censor the people who see their information, but the ignorance of the current generation has led to such details being forgotten. It is evident that social media may be beneficial to companies when they are using it for networking and advertisement. Companies can use it for recruiting workers by conducting background checks, but the prospective users who have undesirable content are losing opportunities for jobs based on bad content on their social media feeds. Not only has social media destroyed the privacy of users in the current generation, but also has impacted on their overall productivity at work. Social media come as an invaluable resource for universal human need for social interaction, but it has resulted to the loss of value in real world experiences. The current generation would rather consult strangers on the internet than the immediate people they know. Work Cited Joseph, Jacquie. The Softball Coaching Bible. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics, 2002. Print. MarketingCharts,. Social Notworking Costs Firms 1.5% Of Productivity. N.p., 2009. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. Olivas-Lujan, Miguel R, and Tanya Bondarouk. Social Media In Human Resources Management. Print. Whiteman, Honor. Social Media: How Does It Really Affect Our Mental Health And Well-Being?. Medical News Today. N.p., 2014. Web. 24 Nov. 2014. Read More