Role of Social Networking Sites in the Lives of Contemporary Youth - Essay Example

Role of Social Networking Sites in the Lives of Contemporary Youth Introduction Media as a whole has some influence on its target audience, be it the adults or the young children, depending on the content and extent of usage. Anderson states that people find themselves engaged in media activities without the knowledge of their subconscious mind (16). When it comes to the absorption of media content of any kind, children and young adults are usually the most vulnerable. In this regard, there have been attempts of censorship in order to streamline the media content in line with the policies that protect children from unhealthy content. In the past, children and young adults used to be protected against unhealthy content form the mainstream media outlets such as radio, television, and print media (Carmen 53). However, things have taken a new twist since the advent of the social networking sites that have attracted the attention of most people across the world, including large corporations. Indeed, the social media plays a significant role in the lives of contemporary youth especially in the wake of rapidly advancing technology (Doctorow, Homeland 32). The goal of the SNS research project is to explore the children’s point of view towards the Internet and online social networking sites such as Facebook. This paper seeks to discover the major social networking sites and their connection to contemporary children’s culture by analyzing how children use and view such sites. It accomplishes this through quantitative methodology where the surveys make use of questionnaires in addition to using the three-pronged approach of Douglas Kellner in explaining certain scenarios. According to Carmen, social networking sites are web-based software that allows people to create their profiles and add other individuals with whom they would wish to connect, share, and chat with especially in exchanging updates (57). As the name suggests, their main agenda is to promote socializing among individuals irrespective of their geographical and socio-cultural differences. In this age, children live in a mediated world where advanced technology forms the surrounding that allows them to gain access to the free flow of information and social network through sharing (American Psychological Association para. 1–4). The introduction of social media has indeed changed many things in the ways people, especially children, relate to one another in that it has accentuated the socialization of children through a virtual platform (Anderson 24). The social media in itself is a unique cultural system that has the ability to transform the already existing cultures especially in young children who are eager to learn new ideas without due consideration of their pros and cons (Hammer and Kellner 7). In the modern society, children including those less than sixteen years of age have fully embraced the use of major social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter in promoting their social agenda that varies from child to child (Hammer and Kellner 5). Contemporary children have developed a culture that I fundamentally associated with social media usage, and the trend is worrying as media in general is a critical tool of developing a child both socially and intellectually. The main function of media is to inform, entertain, and educate, hence children undergo constant transformation in their cultures based on the prevailing trends in the social media, as most children, if not duly guided, do not have the capacity to filter social media content and only ingest the most useful ones (Carmen 55). More often than not, contemporary children who are preoccupied by social networking sites, mainly Facebook and Twitter, tend to adopt new cultures as they interact with colleagues and individuals from multicultural backgrounds. Culture plays an important role in shaping the behaviors and character of children and therefore any external information that has cultural inclination deserves a meticulous approach (Doctorow, Little Brother 86). From a cultural perspective, the media including the social networking sites generates a wide variety of information some of which may be harmful to specific audience, especially the children. The major culprits of media influence on the young children, especially the adolescents, are Facebook and Twitter. Most children in the Western world have access to these social networking sites through their personal phones or family owned computers where they have unrestricted access to such sites (Hammer and Kellner 6). Although social media has same beneficial aspects to the children, it is imperative to weigh the negative impacts and the risks involved in allowing young children to have unrestricted access to such sites, especially if they are active users (Share 121). Facebook and Twitter positively influence the children’s ability to socialize and communicate, which is a critical component of their adult life. It accomplishes this by improving their cross-cultural communication techniques. Additionally, it influences their perception of the world in general depending on what and how they consume the social media content. Children can learn several things from friends and mentors from the comfort of their Internet-enabled devices, which can help them improve their academic and personal life (Anderson 32). Another benefit of social media to young kids is that it improves their grasp of the technological aspect of their lives. However, a number of threats, challenges, and adverse impacts face the use of social networking sites by the young children if they are not under parental guidance (Horkheimer and Adorno 94). According to Hammer and Kellner, one of them is that the continued use of social networking sites, more so Facebook, has proved to distract the learning activities of young children, leading to low academic grades at school (7). Additionally, social networking sites prevent children and the young adults from interacting and associating with the real world as the social interaction that they experience in the social networking sites may lack some physical aspects, as is the case with the real world. Lastly, the risks associated with child social media usage are enormous. This is especially so because cyber thugs, kidnappers, and other Internet fraudsters take advantage of unmonitored children and may lure them into dangerous circumstances and situations (Horkheimer and Adorno 95). Methodology This research study related to social networking sites among children involved my friend's cousin and his classmate as participants. The initial stage of recruiting the participants involved obtaining consents from their parents. In this regard, the parents and the children were informed about the nature of the impending study in a study introduction session. Due to the age of most participants that fell below sixteen, a signed consent of the children (using the Verbal Consent Form) and that of their guardians (using the Signed Consent Form) were secured. The parents were provided with a research study description to get them acquainted with what would take place during the study. The quantitative research mainly depended on surveys whereby six children below the age of eighteen years were interviewed about their social networking site usage and perception. Once the required size of participants was reached, the remaining exercise involved giving each participant a guide tour on their Facebook pages. In the process, each of the participants was presented with a questionnaire in which they filled in their response and returned for analysis. Therefore, the research mainly relied on the use of the survey methodology in both data collection and analysis. The research analysis process was guided by Douglas Kellner’s three-pronged approach whereby ethics played a critical role in the success of the final research; therefore, participants’ identities were made private by assigning pseudonyms on their respective responses. Such responses were coded and the research did not reveal real names in addition to giving the options to not answer any questions that they did not wish to answer. The questions presented during the research process and interviews were within the comprehension of the participants, therefore allaying the fears of receiving compromised responses. Results and Discussion Of all the six children that participated in the interview, one child owned a tablet and another had a personal desktop computer in addition to having personal phones that they used to access the social media sites. All the participants had personal Internet enabled phones that they had been holding for at least two consecutive years meaning that the children had been actively using their Internet-enabled devices for over two years with two having used their phones for the longest time, which was four years. Despite the fact that these children lived in the same house with their parents and guardians, they had other siblings, some of whom owned similar devices. The average household income for the families from which the children came ranged between $50,000 and $75,000 depicting that the parents had well-paying jobs to be able to afford such devices. From the responses received, it was evident that the participants mainly used their phones but sometimes they used desktop computers and tablets to access social networking sites. They mainly used their gadgets to have access to such social networking sites as Facebook, Twitter, and Istagram although one of the students used Flicker occasionally. The participants indicated that their major use of the social networking sites was to update one another, share such files as images and videos, chat with friends, and at times play games. Although these were their main purposes for using the social networking sites, they also confessed to using such sites in receiving current information regarding politics, entertainment, and general knowledge (Doctorow, Little Brother 123). From the results it is apparent that social media plays a critical role in the lives of contemporary kids as it forms the focal point of their leisure time. This goes to the extent of influencing their culture as these social networking sites are multicultural, thus enabling the interaction of diversified cultural inclinations (Anderson 33). This has an impact on the way modern kids operate both at home and in schools, as most of them try to imitate what they see or hear their peers doing. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram being the most commonly used social networking sites by the participants offer various services that include the ability to upload and share photos and videos (American Psychological Association para. 1–5). Since the children mainly used the social networking sites for socializing instead of educational purposes, there is a high likelihood that this contemporary trend of children and young adults, especially the adolescents, affects their overall learning culture. On their part, children view the social networking sites from the positive side in that they visualize the future jobs, market trends, education, and market trend relying heavily on the social networking sites. This could be detrimental to their school grades considering the addictive nature of the social networking sites (Share 122). In conclusion, social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter play a significant role in the lives of the contemporary youth. This is mainly tied to the cultural dimension that these sites bring about, and multiculturalism helps children to acquire new social kills besides updating one another. Although critics have come strong against encouraging young children to have access to such sites, the children perceive the social networking sites as just another progress in their digital lifestyles. Works Cited American Psychological Association. Social Networking’s Good and Bad Impacts on Kids. 2011. Web. 20 July 2013. Anderson, M. T. Feed. Turtleback Books, 2012. Print. Carmen, Luke. “As Seen on TV or Was That My Phone? New Media Literacy.” Policy Futures in Education 5.3 (2007): 50–58. http://dx.doi.org/10.2304/pfie.2007.5.1.50 . Doctorow, Cory. Homeland. New York: Tor Teen, 2013. Print. Doctorow, Cory. Little Brother. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2008. Print. Hammer, Rhonda, and Douglas Kellner. Media/cultural Studies: Critical Approaches. New York: Peter Lang, 2009. Print. Horkheimer, Max, and Theodor W. Adorno. Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments. Stanford, Calif: Stanford Univ. Press, 2002. Print. Share, Jeff. “Young Children and Critical Media Literacy.” Ed. Stephen Gennaro. Toronto, ON: York University, 2013. Print. Read More