Pros And Cons Of Social Media

Social Media Use is the use of Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, etc. In 2017 around 81% of Americans use social media. In 2008 only 24% of Americans used social media, that is a 57% increase in less than 10 years. In this paper I’m going to talk about, teen use of social media, the long term effects of social media use, and the advantages and disadvantages of social media.

Even with the dangerous developments in social media over the past several years, many parents have chosen to allow their children to use these sites despite age restrictions. There are three reasons to argue for age restrictions on social media sites: lack of supervision by parents, targeting of children by pedophiles, and the prevalence of children falsifying their age. The ability of pedophiles to conceivably target children with social media proves that this is an issue that parents need to examine so that they may better protect their children. The threat from pedophiles causes an enormous problem for millions of children on social media sites. Unfortunately, Western Daily Press states that “Pedophiles can get away with grooming young teenagers on social media sites.” My essay will argue that age restrictions need to be in place, and additional regulations should ensure that law enforcement agencies have the tools required to supervise underage children 's use of social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Quoting from Business Wire, “three out of four parents feel that social network sites are not protecting children.” According to Irish Independent, “four out of ten children falsify their age” when using social media. I will also argue that additional research on this topic can be used to raise the awareness of parents, and can also help to alert the children themselves to the danger. My essay will also examine questions, such as: How can social media sites protect

Online predators and Stalkers can easily gain access to social media users’ personal information by either requesting to be a user’s friend or simply finding a way around the user's privacy settings. According to June Ahn, chat rooms are public and is an unmonitored space where online predators are more likely to be. “Adolescents are less likely to be targeted for unwanted sexual solicitation in social media than chat rooms.”(Ahn, June) I have found that, 412 adolescents were more likely to talk with strangers. This is hazardous for young children and adolescents because their lack of life experience leads them to blindly accept all friend request. The effort to seem popular by having many friends online can damage credibility and truth worthiness.

It is not uncommon for someone to exaggerate the truth or to leave out facts about themselves on the web. In fact, you may even find that the person you thought you knew on the internet is nothing like their profiles in real life. Whether it is to stand out in the crowd or to fool someone into thinking you are someone else entirely, you should not believe everything you see or read online. With photo enhancements, little white lies, and the scam termed catfishing, you just never really know who you are talking to or what their intentions are. Michele Fleming and Debra Rickwood, authors of “Teens in Cyberspace”, determine that parents and the public share the concern of teens encountering predators and pedophiles on the internet and could lead to inappropriate relationships on and off the web. The young generation typically communicates with peers and people close in age, however, Fleming and Rickwood advise “Even though many teens appear Net-savvy, they still need to be reminded of the potential dangers lurking online. There may be many friends in cyberspace but there are undoubtedly a number of

One Click Away! The year is 2008, the smartphone is now becoming a common thing among the general population. With this new technology comes a new reasonability, people now can reach millions with the press of a button. This rapid delivery can be very treacherous if not cautious of the dangers when using them. Dana Fleming discuses the threat in her article “Youthful Indiscretions: Should College Protect Social Network User from Themselves and Others?”

Checking the news, keeping up with friends, and sharing quips of witty posts of a hundred and forty characters or less are the normal things for anybody to do while using a social media network. With ages ranging from the very young to the old, therein lies an assimilation of individuals whose information, location, and almost anything else are within their profile, just far enough away to keep the average stalker at bay, but close enough for a person with immoral intents to reach out and simply snatch. As the article, “Social Networking” observes, “…as Internet socializing grows, so do fears that the practice exposes the vulnerable – especially young people – to sexual predators” (627). Sexual predators are not the only people prowling around the Internet, for the range of criminals run the gamut, from potential murderers to vicious kidnappers, with their greatest weapon being something nearly everyone has access to in this modern era. Thus, through social media platforms, alone, these websites contain the information of millions upon millions of unique individuals, where, sometimes, it is as simple as scrolling down to select someone to hack into next. Often enough, these Internet forums are places where even a high school kid can do some damage, but not in the form of using personal information for selfish

As technology evolves daily, offenders of sexual victimization will use this outlet to continue victimization. The internet is easily accessible and is used frequently by numerous people. When one is on the internet they are able to hide behind a computer screen. One way these offenders have used the internet for sexual victimization is creating create fake social media accounts where they pose as someone else. Although social media is intended to be a place to connect with friends and family, some have abused these websites and have become online predators. Offenders can target a victim by first following their profile, commenting on pictures, or statuses, and then began online chatting. Through these messages they can attempt to make false

It’s no coincidence that a 16-year-old teenage girl, who thought she was meeting with her teenage pen pal, met with a 43-year old man and came up missing the next morning. It’s also no coincidence that a 13-year-old homosexual boy, who was constantly harassed with cruel messages online, hung himself last night. CNN reports that teenagers in the US spend approximately nine hours on social media a day. That’s over 250 total hours of average social media usage a month! Meanwhile, within the countless hours that the typical teenager spends online, it only takes one second for trouble to transpire. The large amount of time that teenagers spend online paired with the millions of users on major networks leave the door for social media abuse wide open.

One danger that is often overlooked by social networking users is social comparison. The phrase “social comparison” refers to the idea that people determine their own self-worth through evaluating and comparing themselves to others. This is especially prevalent on social networking sites. Users of social networking sites often strive to make their lives seem perfect. In order to achieve this, users will only post their “highlights” or positive points in their lives. One author states, "When you're on a site like Facebook, you get lots of posts about what people are doing. That sets up social comparison — you maybe feel your life is not as full and rich as those people you see on Facebook,” ("Social Media: Does social media have a positive impact on the world?"). However, it is not the fact that the users may unintentionally be posting only their highlights that could be potentially dangerous. Rather, it is the fact that another user may compare their own life to another user’s. For example, a user could be scrolling through a site and see another user’s highlights and begin comparing their own life to the other user’s. As a result, a user could start to develop a lower self-esteem. Their sense of self-worth may also be damaged in the process. This obsession of one’s self-image can have severe consequences such as feelings of depression or loneliness ("Social Media: Does social media have a positive impact on the world?").

In recent years the world has become very accepting; some might even go as far as to say overly accepting to the convenience of social media. There are a number of different applications, and websites that are available to us for example: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine, Tumblr, Snapchat, Kik, and Pinterest to name a few. These different venues provide a means of communication, reconnecting with long-lost friends and family, networking for business, as well as it is an outlet for self-expression. But just like anything else that is put to good use; there are those who abuse these privileges. More often than not it is the children how suffer from the misuse of having the World Wide Web so easily available to all. With the emergence of catfishing, privacy intrusion, and cyber bullying; children are facing some serious dangers. The minimum age to open an account on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr, Kik, and Snapchat is 13. For Vine, Tinder and Yik Yak it 's 17. YouTube requires account holders be 18, but a 13-year-old can sign up with a parent 's permission. Despite these clearly stated and published age restrictions, large and growing numbers of children 12 and under are using social media networks, often with their parent 's knowledge and consent. (Graber, D. 2014). This essay is being presented to argue the need for better reinforcement of age restrictions on social media.

Social media has changed many lives and caused many addictions. In today's society many people misunderstand emotions of others through social media. Personal information can be leaked in many ways. For example, identities can be stolen through personal information people share on social media. Identities can lead to a term called “Catfishing”, the phenomenon of internet predators that fabricate online identities and entire social circles to trick people into emotional/romantic relationships. Social media causes issues, concerns and is time consuming.

Social media has changed the way that people interact; instead of relying on phone calls and face-to-face conversations, people can easily send information to 500 of their closest friends. However, social media has also made it much easier and even expected to lie, or pretend to be someone else. These lies can range from the creation of new personas to prey on others to minor exaggerations to gain popularity. Both of these discrepancies between appearance and reality are harmful, and in some cases can lead to similar consequences.

In today’s century social media is the main way to communicate with people with people all over the world. It has become very popular... even more popular than a text or video message. Social media is a computer technology that facilitates the creation and sharing of information, ideas, career interests and other forms of expression via communities and networks. The variety of social media services that are currently available can help benefit businesses, introduce an event, or even help you find a friend, family member, or long lost soulmate. Some social sites even help you find love. However, there are many positive things that can come out social media but there are many negatives too.

Just as there are positive effects of social media, there are also negative effects as well. False connections are often made on SNS. Ninety percent of students have Facebook which is constructed to be socially shared with any user. It may seem obvious that users of social networking cannot stray far from reality from his or her online identity, although the users can depict what he or she wishes to display (Moreno et al. 452). There are many young teenagers on social networking websites posting true personal information, but there are also many young teenagers who false information. In fact, many young users of social networking, especially boys, give false information (Moreno et al. 251). Manipulation can occur in order for young users to join that network. Many times younger users have to lie about his or her age which is not always approved by his or her parents (Moreno et al. 253). A survey was done from children ranging from eight years old to twelve years old to provide the results that those who lied about their age did so within a four year range of their actual age. Thus, they knew they had to use false information, so they provided it with care (Moreno et al. 256). Because of the easiness to create an account falsely, it also makes it simpler to deceive one another. Deception is used to attack another user potentially causing upsetting consequences. The deception taking place online from networking is typically used to mislead others (Tsikerdekis and

Social networking sites are web-based platforms used by many individuals to interact with friends and family over the Internet, as well as to build social relations with people who share similar interests. Each user has an individual account represented by a profile that allows them to share personal interests such as pictures, music, videos, hobbies, activities and events within their individual networks. Most networking sites are free of cost and only require basic information such as full name, date of birth and an email, in order to create an account, through which the user can have access to millions of other profiles and their shared data. The personal information used to create an account is not verified and could be effortlessly made-up, making it easy for predators to create profiles with bogus information and, allowing them to pose as someone else. Many parents consider that these social networking sites enhance their children’s communication skills and social connections, while serving as a form of entertaining portal that allows young people to express themselves. Social networking sites have become a contemporary medium of connection highly appealing to teenagers. However, the lack of secured member identity confirmation on these sites poses a risk especially to teenagers that are easily impressionable and naive. This gives predators the upper hand when it comes to having all the tools to facilitate them taking advantage of their targets. The dangers this way of