Social Media And Its Effects On Society Essay

Social media is nothing, but a distracting, timewasting, nuisance to everyone surrounded by it, right? Wrong. Social media has changed the world as we know it. People can share information quickly, publish their thoughts, and exchange their ideas. Social media is becoming a certainty in this modern age, which is why it should be embraced rather than criticized. Although there is concern over potential for cyberbullying and lack of privacy, the use of social media is inevitable in teenagers’ lives, and necessary to the positive development of adolescents because it allows adolescents to gain confidence when interacting with others, it encourages users to create and maintain friendships, and it can facilitate learning while promoting educational growth.

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, what do they mutually have in common? They are all social media websites. Social Media has become the number one way to communicate with other people from around the world. It has been beneficial and helpful to many, on the contrary harmful to some. People use social networks to catch up with a childhood friend, endorse their business, or develop news faster. Other people use it to steal identities, cyberbully, and abuse others. It has stated that social media’s are “websites and other online means of communication that are used by large groups of people to share information and to develop social and professional contacts” (“social media.”) With this in mind, how has social media influenced

The use of social networking sites is rising at great rates. According to a report conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in 2012, ninety-five percent of individuals aged 12-17 use the internet; and eighty-one percent of those use social network sites (Pew Interest). Although it is known that social media can have a useful impact on lives, often times people forget that with a positive comes a negative. The continual use of social network sites will impact teen lives more negatively than positively because they can cause huge distractions from valuable and critical pursuits like education; they can also cause mental health issues and a reduction in communication skills.

5.  Pages 443, 445, text, social movements. Write about Facebook, other social networking sites and their impact on society.(good and bad)

In our society today, social media is a monster because it has created unrealistic social expectations and unhealthy relationships with ourselves and others. Social media has become a central platform to everyone in our society today and can cause many problems for a large portion of the users. Many of the problems that associate with social media can cause mental and physical harm to users such as, depression, which can lead to suicidal thoughts or actions, eating disorders, and even lowered self-esteem due to the unreasonable comparisons that people make when compared to popular and successful people. One major issue that social media has brought up is the exploitation of the anonymous identification which bullies use to hide from their victims. This can single handedly cause the issues that was recently stated. The social media crowd is now influencing young teens and kids to do drugs. It causes a sort of pressure for some adolescents to engage in illegal activities such as, smoking and drinking. This can be a real danger because they are too young to realize what they are doing to their bodies and could truly put their lives in danger. Social media also causes a learning deficiency in a large portion of students. These students are constantly on their phones and it takes their full attention away from the task at hand. This causes procrastination of assignments and can lead to lower grades. They are not disciplined enough to control themselves and stay away from their

Social media is such an enormous part of bullying that almost five percent of high school students have attempted suicide because of it. The average teenager today spends twenty times more time compared to one from 2012, with many spending up to 9 hours a day on their phones. Some social media abusers were rejected from a top college they wanted to get into because of the highly offensive content in their profiles. Since social media is the main reason for cyberbullying, many social media users aren’t friendly in real life, either. Social media posts, profiles, and photographs should be reviewed by the admissions panel of TJ because the environment would be more friendly, fewer people in TJ would use social media, and cyberbullying could be reduced.

Everyday more and more people become conditioned to their social media. This has become a bigger problem in today’s society. The reason this is a bigger problem is because of the children who grow up with technology at a hand’s reach. They have no idea what happens in the real world when their devices are glued to their hands.People are becoming more and more addicted to social media.

Social media has gained immense popularity, following increased access to the internet and technology devices including smart phones. Social media is used to denote platforms in which people build and share social connections; thus enhancing information sharing and interaction. Major examples include Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest and Instagram. Through social media, people can connect, interact and exchange information such as pictures, videos and other digital media by registering as users in these platforms and updating information affecting their lives on their profiles. When social media applications came into existence, these were mostly used for interacting and sharing with friends, relations and new friends acquired through these platforms. Social media has however been constantly abused, as people turn it into a ground to vent, lie, insult, bully or threaten others. The social networks no longer serve their intended purpose in the society and users have taken advantage of the free space to say whatever they want with no regard to how it affects others. People have used such domains to brandish their selfish acts and gains.

At this very moment, there are thousands of people worldwide who are retweeting posts on Twitter, liking pictures on Instagram or posting a status on Facebook. Twitter, Instagram and Facebook are few of the many social media platforms that have become prevalent in our society. Because social media applications and websites allow users with easy access to communication with others around the world, individuals all across the globe are able to socially interact on a daily basis. Erving Goffman, Charles Horton Cooley and George Herbert Mead, three of many sociologists who viewed society through the interactionist perspective, would use these daily interactions to make generalizations about society as a whole. The paradigm of symbolic interactionism reaches conclusion about different groups in society, generally by observing everyday social interactions. Accordingly, interactionists would view social media as an aspect of society that consists of constant social interactions that continuously influences and affects individuals and the whole of society.

Social media is another way of communication through technology. The social media trend is growing rapidly. It has become a daily routine for most people. Social media is affecting the world in many different ways. It was initially made to be a positive way of communicating, but over the years it has has a lot of negative impacts. One of the most known impacts is cyberbullying. Cyber Bullying is deliberately using digital media to communicate false, embarrassing, or hostile information about another person (Niemer 4). Although many adults experience this issue it is more common in teenagers. “For many teens, he explains, social media is not just apart of their life, it is their social world” (qtd. in Niemer 9). Studies show that 95 percent of ages between 12 and 17 have access to social media and 15 percent had experienced cyberbullying (Horn). These acts have caused depression in most teenagers. “In fact, a number of studies have found a connection between depression and social media victimization” (Miller 387). Some teenagers are even afraid to stand up for themselves. The usage of social media has caused an increase in fear.

Social media has become prominent parts of life for many young people today. Most people engage with social media without stopping to think what the effects are on our lives, whether positive or negative. Are we as a society becoming more concerned with Facebook "friends" than we are with the people we interact with face-to-face in our daily lives? What will the longterm effects of today 's social media use be? There are many positive aspects, but there are equally as many dangers that come with the use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google +, Tumblr, Instagram, gaming sites, and blogs. Social media has both negative and positive effects on society, it is up to the user to decide what impact they want to make. In order to make the right choices, we must dig in and research this topic thoroughly.

Social media is a controversy topic in today’s society. Some people think that social media destroys human interaction and real life human relationships. While others think that social media is a bless to humanity. Social media makes human interaction much more convenient and much faster than real life human interaction, it makes globalization a reality, it gives a chance for introverted people to express themselves, and it also benefit develop international relationships whether its business or social.

Despite the positives, there are many negatives associated with social media. Using social media can make a person more vulnerable to predators and cyber bullying. In this age, “Cyber bulling is quite common, can occur to any young person online, and can cause profound psychosocial outcomes including depression, anxiety, severe isolation, and tragically suicide” (“American Academy of Pediatrics”). Cyber bullying impacts society in a negative way because it is harming young teenagers’ minds. Bullies, torment, threat, harass, and even embarrass their victims by using different forms of social media. Using social media can also decrease privacy for an individual. People often give out their personal information not knowing who can see it. To average internet users, “A false sense of security may leave social networking site users vulnerable to security attacks such as hacking, leaking sensitive information, and sending viruses” (“ProCon”). Furthermore, Social media can also lead to brain disorders and can cause people to have a hard time interacting with people face to face. “Social networking entices people to spend more time online and less time talking to a person face to face.” (“ProCon”)

Social media is causing teenagers to be negatively influenced. This is an issue, because teenagers are extremely impressionable and social media is negatively impacting their lives each day whether they are conscious of this or not. One anonymous author who wrote the article, “Teen’s Use of Social Media: Positive or Negative?” states, “90 percent of teens have used social media” (Teens’ Use of Social Media). In this statement, it is clear that a large majority of teenagers have already been exposed to some type of social media. Since teenagers learn from direct observation and experience, it is a huge problem when they witness things on social media that concern sexist, racist, or homophobic content. Many teenagers even say that they have an addiction to social media. Teens who have had bad experiences online or who do not use social media on a regular basis said that they have a stronger urge to stay away from the internet. Even though there are many negatives to social media there are some positives as well. NickMcGillivray who is affiliated with the website, TurboFuture wrote the article, “What Are the Effects of Social Media on Youth.” In his article, he states, “There are many positive aspects, but there are equally as many dangers that come with the use of sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Pinterest, Google +, Tumblr, Instagram, gaming sites, and blogs” (McGillivray). In this statement, he makes it clear, that social media has both positives and negatives. One positive of social media that impacts teenager’s lives would be, how they are able to communicate with their teachers and other classmates at any time. This makes it easier for

Technology has provided people, especially students the freedom to achieve various conventional methods of learning. But, it also comes with multiple downfalls. School children are young; their mentality lacks judgment. Children can be easily influenced and lead astray, if not supervised accordingly. Kids get attracted toward the outside world, strangers, and today’s media easily. It is difficult for them to differentiate between right or wrong. If a particular situation happened to take place, it could potentially lead to tragic or even deadly events. The application of social media is drastically increasing, and so is the means to communicate. In a school like an area, the use of social media can be deadly for a student. Teachers find digital tools helpful but 87% also say that sites like YouTube are the most prominent distraction.” Consistently, social media could act as a