Social Media, The Triumph Or Destruction Of Teens

According to CNN, teens spend nine hours a day consuming media. But is that a good thing? Youth can be mocked from posts on social media. Youth is more into their media “life” than real life. One doesn’t even make real friends online. Overall, social media has a negative impact on youth.

Online social network has gained astounding worldwide growth and popularity which has led to attracting attention from variety of researchers around the world. In Carla Poertner article,”Is Facebook Making Us Stupid,Boring and Insecure?” She is right on target about youth being impacted over social networking. Social media has influenced youths whether it being their motives, lifestyle, or even a choice and ways of their realizations. Although, some will argue saying that social network is a good influence towards young people it is morally wrong due to getting themselves into addiction leading to danger, lack of concentrating in school, even their physical and psychological health. In other words, generations of teenagers and young adults

Melissa Healy, a reporter of the Los Angeles Times, in the article Teenage Social Media Butterflies May Not Be Such A Bad Idea, claims that kids who spend lots of time on social media are not the least well-adjusted, but psychologically healthiest. Healy supports her argument by demonstrating how social media is beneficial to a teen’s health. According to a three-year Digital Youth Project, when teengars use social media, it helps them develop important social skills such as communication, grappling with social norms, and developing technical skills. Psychology professor Kaveri Subrahmanyam describes that teens behave the same between offline relationships and online ones, so most teens will use the internet safely. The author’s purpose is

In the adaptive environment of technology and social media, quantifying exact usage of social media by adolescents remains fluid. However, the following statistics are staggering when considering the implications, 7.5 million children under the ‘required’ age of 13 have Facebook accounts, despite the terms of service agreement set forth by the social media network. In addition, on average, 11-18 year-olds spend 11 hours a day exposed to electronic media. (Shapiro)

Over the past decade, the use of technology has exploded. Through smart phones and applications we can access a new digital world of social media. For example, Facebook has over 750 million current users (Bosslet). Gwenn O'Keeffe and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson take a look at the eruption of technology use in their article, “The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families.” According to a recent poll, 22% of teenagers log on to their favorite social media site more than 10 times a day, and more than half of adolescents log on to a social media site more than once a day (Clarke-Pearson, O’Keefe). A highly debated topic among researchers is whether social media has more positive

Social media has been known to help students develop important knowledge and social skills. “At first glance this may seem like a waste of time; however it also helps students to develop important knowledge and social skills, and be active citizens who create and share content.” (Chen 3). The more time teens spend on social media the more they become aware of their own social side and how to interact with others, especially their peers. “Some types of social media has beneficial effects, like helping adolescents establish some sense of identity and build networking skills” (Riley Davis). Too much time being spent on social media can also exploit teens to some harsh realities that they’ve probably never experienced in their lives before.

The availability of technology intensifies each year, and has become the main source of entertainment for people worldwide. As it becomes more available, more people use it in their everyday lives. Teens on average spend 9 hours a day on social media. That is more time than most spend asleep every night. This is a perfect example of how much time we waste on that single form of “entertainment”.

There are many risks that come with excessive social media use. One of which is its effects on important social skills children need in their futures. Texting, Social Media messaging, and even phone calls erode on a child's communication and can harm their relationships with their peers. One way they do this is by reducing the intimacy when communicating. Without a person's face and voice, conversations with them over various Social Media makes the conversation less important and may drive the two people apart. The quality of conversations also plummets as long, descriptive sentences are a taboo when instant messaging. The use of shorter, compact words and text slang may limit the child in how they are able to express themselves later in their life. Finally, Social Media prevents children from practicing empathy. Missing facial expressions, voices, and body language limit the use of this important skill and may keep a child from noticing when a peer or loved one is distressed. A study done by UCLA Scientists took two groups of sixth graders,

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.

The youth is the biggest user of communication technology and changing social interaction in ways not yet understood. Adolescents make friends and form bonds online. Media richness is a concept that is the foundation for understanding human behavior using online communication (e.g., Allen & Griffeth, 1997; Carlson & Zmud, 1999; Kahai & Cooper, 2003; Kock, 2004). The study focused on the development of online friendships among teenagers. It was found that media richness and communication control makes teens want to engage in communication for presentation and friendship development. Being up front with a person will eliminate any doubt and speed up friendship development. Webcams and other MSN features helped facilitate a relationship between two strangers. They helped create first impressions and attract all kinds of friends. Sharing information online makes it easier to get to know someone. The adolescents used believed that self- presentation in important when instant messaging someone new. The typical high school student spent an average of 3.10 hours a day using Instant Messaging. Text messaging helped the newly formed relationships progress. The American Academy of Pediatrics published an article in 2011 about the effects of social media on teens, families. Their goal is to inform parents about the potential dangers of social media sites because not all of them are safe. Today pediatricians are helping parents

Teens now a day are vastly impacted in their social communication skills due to the fact that now the new technology that is smart phones and social media is put into play way more often then it needs to be. For example, as a teenager myself, I can conclude that I have met multiple number of people that I consider to be my friends through the internet via social media.

Even though social media isn’t only used for social interaction, it is an important aspect of adolescents’ lives. Social media provides an avenue for them to stay connected with peers they have met through school, sports teams, church, etc (Ito, 2008). Social networking can also help shy adolescents have a more non-threatening way to interact with peers because they aren’t interacting face-to-face (Rosen, 2011).

Technology is throwing itself at teenagers with full force and it is affecting this generation of adolescents more than any generation before. The advancements with technology have made the way to teen’s brains. Most adolescents communicate through cell phones and social media even when they are right next to one another. According to the Pew Research Center, 72% of teenagers text regularly, and one in three sends more than one hundred texts per day (Stewart, “Does Cell Phone Use Really Affect Our Communication Skills?”). Text messaging is the way teens communicate now, when confronted face to face they may not say anything, afterwards the person text messages the one whom confronted him or her and then says something back. Social networking is also squashing communication among teens; a phone call is not the way to get ahold of somebody anymore, Facebook and Twitter is (Stewart, “Does Cell Phone Use Really

There is no doubt that everyone has a cellphone these days. With these cellphones comes the access to the social media. You can go to a restaurant or store and you will see everyone from a toddler to an elder glued to some kind of technology in front of them. Because this has become so normal to our generation, most are too occupied to the technology to realize how they are being affected by it. Everyone is using it daily, all day, causing it to impact many people, including the youth of today. Social media and technology can have a positive impact on youth, but it can also have a negative impact.

Social media sites allow millions of people to interact with friends,family and anyone around the world. A large portion of social media users are teenagers; researchers and parents both believe that social media is having a multitude of possible effects on teenagers. This literature review will analyze research of the positive and negative effects social media are having on today’s impressionable youth. Much of the research focuses on the age range of 10-16 from well-to-do families and college students. Understanding the online environment that teenagers live in can help parents relate to their children and teach then about the dangers and benefits of being on the Internet.