Effects of Internet Social Networking on the Lives of Teenagers - Essay Example

With the evolution of technology, and particularly the internet, the process of spread of information has become enormously quick. Online social networking is essentially the use of websites to connect with other people and share news and information with them. This is commonly achieved by making a profile that is password protected, and can thus only be accessed by the person owning the profile. Such sites allow the members to socialize with their friends by adding them to their profile, sending them messages and commenting on their statuses displayed on the pages of their profiles. Social networking sites most commonly in use today are Facebook and Twitter. Most teenagers necessarily visit these websites several times in a day all over the world. According to a recent research generated by the Pew Internet Project, as many as 93 per cent of the teenagers in America between the age of 12 years and 17 years are regular users of the internet, and 55 per cent of such teenagers spends most of the time using social networking websites (Hall). Social networking sites cause a lot of troubles in the life of teenagers. As a result of the expanded social circle because of internet social networking, teenagers are prone to fall in the hands of pedophiles and kidnappers. Internet social networking increases the interaction of a teenager with others. In fact, many studies have found the social networks of internet using teenagers to be much larger than others that do not use the internet. Not only their social circle increases, but also the way they communicate changes. Nowadays, many teenagers can be heard speaking to one another in slang. The time that teenagers spend socializing with others in the virtual world is no less effective than the real world for building relationships and socializing with others. Everyday, hundreds of teenagers fall prey to pedophiles and end up getting into dangerous real world activities. Anonymity is a special feature of the social networking sites. This allows the unscrupulous people to approach the immature teenagers and involve them in harmful activities by conversing with them. The predators can easily project themselves as teenagers. This allows them to draw the teenagers into harmful activities in the real world along with the virtual world. They send messages to the teenagers via these websites. Many teenagers respond to them. The predators may use social networking sites to drive the teenagers into the business of drug dealing or child pornography. Drug smuggling, prostitution, and cyber terrorism are the common results of crimes conducted through net. The privacy control is also an important feature of most of the social networking sites, but not many teenagers are prudent enough in their use of the internet to use the privacy control. Besides, not many predators get caught by the monitoring of profiles. Identity theft is one of the biggest risks of social networking through websites, that exposes teenagers to the risk of abduction. Teenagers tend to display their personal pictures on their profiles and display their contact numbers, house numbers, and other necessary information that is required by the kidnappers. There are many causes of such a massive display of personal information on the websites. First, children tend to display their complete and accurate information so that it would be easier for their old and lost friends to access them online. Secondly, many teenagers tend to display information to show off that they are living in a particular city or studying at a popular college or school or have joined some famous club in the town. There are many other causes as well. Social networking sites are an excellent source of information regarding any individual as well as his/her family for the kidnappers. In the recent years, a lot of people have been kidnapped all over the world. Teenager boys may be kidnapped for sex business or for acquiring money from the relatives. On the other hand, girls are most kidnapped for smuggling into far off countries for sex business. Such events totally ruin the life of teenagers that lay in the hands of predators and they have to spend the rest of their lives as slaves. The kidnapped teenagers have to suffer both physically and emotionally. Conclusion: Internet social networking has improved the social relationships of teenagers with both the good and the evil in the society. Socialization with either of the two types of people has its own repercussions in the life of a teenager. A teenager may develop links that might help him/her secure a good job in the future. There are equal chances of insecurity because of the tremendous number of predators and hackers socializing with teenagers on the internet. Works Cited: Hall, Sharon H. “Problems With Social Networking and Teens.” 2011. Web. 7 Apr. 2011. . Read More