Social Media And Its Effects On The Lives Of Everyone

Social media has become deeply embedded as a part of today’s American culture and lifestyles, changing the way people interact and communicate with one another. Americans use social media every day; to not only communicate, but to express themselves. These online media sites and blogs serve as entertainment for its users and give them a sense of a social life if they do not already have one. Some users become so obsessed with their online lives that they lose the ability to successfully communicate with people in real life. Their craving for the use of social media becomes an addiction to where they can spend countless hours on their social sites. Facebook, a popular social media cite, has been proven to cause Facebook Depression, a sickness in which a person is emotionally depressed and in self denial. Studies have shown that sites such as Facebook, are a direct link to an individual’s physical and emotional well being.

When it comes to teens using the Internet and social media applications, there are many opinions people have in regards to security, privacy, and addiction for these luxuries. It seems that every day, I see news articles, blogs, and other posts about teens and the way they use the Internet. Mainly, the concern that parents need to have in order to protect their children from being personally identified or having an addiction to apps like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. When reading this book, I found that this whole concept of teens using this type of network goes deeper than people may think.

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.

In today’s society, computers and mobile devices have become a big part of our everyday routine. The internet is also a part that many of us have learned to appreciate. Social media, for instance, is a part of the internet that has created a way for people to communicate across the world. However, our teenagers that have taken on the use of social media to the extent that if it is not monitored properly, it can have some very bad effects on their overall well being. Even though social media is known as a great social network tool, its harm in our society. Teenagers use of social media is of particular importance not only because they are vulnerable, but also because they are among the biggest users of social networking.

The excessive utilization of technology in today’s society is a major contributing factor to distraction among the general population, consequently exposing our youth to adult-like subjects. The exaggeration of social networking sites alone, has led parents to disregard their routine obligations, therefore setting bad examples for their children and ignoring the responsibility of remaining great parental role models. Our technological advances have significantly promoted the ease of utilization of all the current social media sites. Once upon a time we chatted online, emailed and surfed the web with only the use of a computer. In today 's modern world there are hand held devices such as cell phones and tablets, with a simple swipe of the touch screen your entire account is accessible. Over the past 10-15 years, many new social networks have been created and they seem to gradually become more appealing to the average human. Every time a new website is customized, the contents are more advanced than the last, making communication almost effortless, allowing for more rapid use. "Around 59 percent of children have already used a social network by the time they are ten, and 43 percent have messaged strangers online by the age of twelve"(Williams 1). Caretakers need to start being more observant to the dangers that their kids are facing and monitor their use, so that they are able to appropriately instill safety guidelines. An

You are walking out of the new Star Wars movie, posting about how superb it was, when suddenly you are swooped up and thrown in the back of a vehicle. No one would have thought posting about how you were there earlier would provoke such a situation. After all, social networking is “safe” and “friendly.” Now, social media is defined as “A form of electric communication through which users create online communities to share information,” according to Merriam-Webster Dictionary. Social networking began in 2004 and has sky-rocketed since, due to its sense of world connectivity in a mere moment. However, with this increase, a growth in seemingly harmless threats has occurred. Users sitting behind a screen are usually unaware of how complex and diminishing social networking can be. Social media may be considered negative for society as it changes what members view as behaviorally normal, increases the risk of cyber-suicide, and reduces the amount of privacy in one’s life.

To start off, as the use of social media increases, the safety of many teenagers becomes more of a concern. The safety of a teenager may include risks involving one’s privacy and experience of online

According to a study from the Pew Research Center, 92% of American teens go online to post, like, comment, tweet, and re-tweet at least a hundred photos a day. Preadolescents between the ages of 9-15 primarily use social media websites as a portal to communicate with past friends, find new ones, and to post about their day. However, the use of these sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube etc. can put young kids at risk of being bullied online, stalked by predators and pedophiles, and subjected to inappropriate pictures and videos. The truth is today youths lack the basic understanding of the dangers that lurk within social media, and therefore should not be allowed to use them until they can fully comprehend all the risks attached to using these sites.

Social media and media is used worldwide for multiple purposes, but it can create a toxic environment for many of the young people who use it. Beauty is said to be in the eye of the beholder, but our society has a tendency of setting specific beauty standards. Beauty standards are not only set in the United States, but all over the world. Television shows and magazines, such as Cosmopolitan set certain standards for young women around the world. Media platforms set nearly unattainable goals for young people, more commonly girls. These so called goals lead to multiple issues, such as medical disorders and reinforce gender roles, although, some will argue that media platforms are good because they allow us to connect to each other, many of

Social media comes in many different varieties, but within those varieties there is one constant; hiding behind a computer screen. Social media allows people to not see the emotions of others when communicating with them. When humans do not see the reactions of others, and have the ability to hide behind the screen, it tends to be common for comments to be aggressive, uneducated, and/or rude. Arguments and debates have the ability to be civil, formal, and respectful of the opposing side and can end in a peaceful disagreement. Social media gives users the freedom to post things anonymously and without seeing the other people face-to-face, causing many fallacies to be used within debates online. Many people do not directly post their

Americans are slowly being separated from one another through electronics. In fact, most of that is due to the social media that is easily obtainable on devices such as IPhones, Computers, and TV’s. Social media is what keeps people away from family and keeps them from going outside of the house and actually bonding with others. When people choose to connect over social media rather than connecting in person it means they are disconnecting from society and its causing human interaction to steep downwards. People socializing through social media has become a serious problem, and it happens more and more each day as technology continues to advance. Disconnection is caused by social media and technology because the latest devices are so easily obtained and it creates the elimination of human interaction.

The amount of likes, followers and comments has consumed the thriving minds of our future generations. It has forced our teens into conformity to where they feel the content of their instagram is more important than the content of their character. Technology has swept our society and it’s people, billions of people are on some social platform. Though the targeted, are our younger generations. Social media has become a growing force in the everyday lives of children everywhere. Today kids are tweeting and instagramming every day rather than playing hide-and-seek and jumping rope. Our younger generations are being faced with problems that are well out of their realm of experience and understanding. The media overall has sacrificed the stability and mental health of our adolescents.

Magazines and advertisements are full of beautiful women that do not appear to have a single flaw. These women are constantly portrayed to be popular, happy, and have it all together. Many adolescents viewing these ads or reading these magazines are constantly comparing themselves to these women. It feels almost impossible to be just like these models. This is most likely a result of these women being airbrushed and enhanced to appear to be exceptionally more flawless than they actually are. The standard of body shape that the media presents influences how people view themselves, and can possibly lead to long term health issues.

Social media can be wonderful. It’s a way to connect with people around the world who are interested in the same things that you are. You’re able to make friends with people whom you’ve never met and engage with the world across a variety of topics. But, like anything, social media has a dark side as well. The anonymity of the internet allows for people to troll and bully others. It also allows people to pretend to be someone they’re not. Teenagers are still learning and figuring out themselves; they don’t know everything (even if they pretend that they do); and it’s a parent’s job to protect them from things that they don’t know how to be on the lookout for - such as sexual predators.

Technology is a wonderful and ever advancing science that has now created another host of problems for parents in this day and time. Internet and other data usage is often a source of conflict for teens and their parents. This leaves the parents with a choice to determine what level of restriction and monitoring that they feel is necessary for their children. The internet and the numerous social media applications are a great way for teens to stay up to date, but it is becoming increasingly dangerous. Children as young as 8 years old now own smartphones and are logging onto the internet and social media accounts. The design of social media accounts and the internet are drawing more and more children in each day thus leading to more