Internet: The Emotionless Reality
The internet revolutionized the way of communicating. Subsequently, social media transformed the way of expressing ideas, sharing feelings, and relating to people. While more young people connect online, they never seemed more socially disconnected with each other than now. Because of the emotionless nature of the Net young people find themselves dumbfounded when confronted with real-life events in the classroom and other social activities. As a result, teenagers long for real-life interactions and meaningful life experiences without knowing where to begin.
The behavior teenagers express online differs from that in real life. Young people can create personas that surpass them in audacity and bravado. They say and do things they would never attempt in the classroom or state at home. For example, a perfectly straight-A student who threatens no one suddenly posts death threats to his bully. In data collected from 30 schools (middle school and high school) Catherine Steiner-Adair a Clinical Psychologist recorded, “messages and content that they would never say to someone’s face, language that, if used with classmates at school would lead to disciplinary action.” (The Big Disconnect) So why do seemingly good teenagers to act in such disturbing manner?
When social media made its introduction to the public, the consequences appeared irrelevant at the time. For example, MySpace and early Facebook phase seemed naive; moreover, one could post a
The article, “What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow up in Cyberspace,” written by Brent Staples discusses negative influences that internet has toward teens. The author elaborates that teens are far more comfortable with online conversations. Social Media has high expectations to how a teen should act or look. Media emotionally scars teens, demanding them to have clear skin and skinny body. The more people that are connected to their phones, higher the chance of losing relationships. The internet has left many teens with unreal social skills. Real life experiences such as law, teens are not knowledgeable. Teenagers miss out on life experiences that can help them grow into adulthood.
Older generations don’t realize how much technology has affected this generation of teenagers, along with the social media that comes along with the technology. As stated in “How Social Media Changed Teens’ Lives Forever”; “Negative posts or comments also can do great damage to a teen’s self-esteem.” (Ashley Black, Thomas Atseff and Colleen Kaveney) While many parents think social media is just a way to connect with others, many teenagers take it for granted. For example, “quitting social media because it made her miserable and obsessed with appearing perfect online”, is what a teenager felt about social media and what it has done to her. Though many think that social media is a great way to connect, teenagers take it to another level.
Social Media is affecting our society in a negative way. From being the number one cause of divorce, ruining people’s careers, and being a haven for teen suicides, many misfortunes arise due to social media. People may not notice its damaging side effects yet it is slowly but surely proving detrimental to all involved in the game. By taking a step back and maintaining self-control, any human being immersed in the frenzy of social media can enjoy its perks without getting caught up in the whirlwind of unfortunate events.
Alan Norton Writes for TechRepublic, a newspaper creating ways to survive in the world of business. He Listed 10 reasons why he will not be joining social networking sites like Facebook, twitter, Instagram and Myspace. Norton brings up the idea that whatever is posted is out on the Internet for everyone to see. Say a high school student posted an opinionated tweet, four years later they attempt to get a job. That opinion and tweet is out there for the employer to see, which in many cases won’t be a good first impression. Vocabulary, grammar, and spelling are
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.
, Chandra Johnson claims more young people are connected than ever before through media, the value of the communication that they take part in is leading to an inability to communicate successfully. Johnson argues that youth need face-to-face social communications, and that technology cannot replace traditional public situations. She states that youths today are not creating the empathetic ties that they should be, damaging their relationships. Per this article, young people need to balance technology with essential face-to-face
Social media can be seen from completely different aspects and points of views. A major role in these different opinions plays mostly the age of the beholder, because social media made an enormous change in the last 50 years. One very important aspect in our today’s society is to get as many information as possible in a very short time period ("Impacts of social media”) Through social media and especially social networks such as twitter and Facebook, the information gets spread extremely fast. There are for example reporters who search on those networks to get information for their news and articles. (“Impacts
Said (2005) precents the statement that technology is increasingly becoming engrained in our everyday lives. Consumers of the internet are using it for vast reasons. The internet has created a virtual community that is universally diverse, bringing forth different backgrounds, life styles and and interests. Where they can interact, learn and create experiences through chat rooms, forums, gaming and social media. Pizzato, Rej, Akehurst, Koprinska, Yacef, and Kay (2013) advices that as the internet has rapidly been integrated into individuals everyday lives more and more people are turning to the internet to seek out potential partners, companionship or friend to share their interests with. Seidman (2007) articulates that for some online
Response: I agree that we depend too much on technology nowadays and teenagers are constantly on their phones. Everything on our cellular phones, computers, tablets, etc. keep us disconnected from the real world. It is much easier to talk about your feelings online than it is to talk about them with a real
The technological and innovative advancements that young adults have access to today can attest to how vastly times have changed. Presence of the internet and social media has opened doors to life altering opportunities that were thought unattainable. However, there are two sides to every coin. With these possibilities come unrealistic expectations that are forced on the youth of the world inevitably leading to dire outcomes.
Various individuals long for a time when technology did not take over the world. For teenagers, it is difficult to imagine a life without the World Wide Web and its countless perks at their fingertips. Social media consumes young lives more than any other form of technological advancement. Social media has a few pros, but also its fair share of cons.
Young adults’ reliance on the internet has developed into an addiction, resulting in teenagers to feel isolated and disconnected from their peers. In an experiment conducted in “The Effect of Social Network Sites on Adolescents’ Social and Academic Development: Current Theories and Controversies” June Ahn “found that longer use of the Internet was related to increased depression, loneliness, and smaller social circles.” The younger generation lacks genuine socialization because of the extensive amount of time teenagers spend isolated in their own virtual world. The lack of physical interaction has taken a toll on youths’ ability to develop social skills and friendships. With a lack of these social skills, today’s youth will experience trouble socializing, affecting their ability to create and maintain friendships. Furthermore, in Keith Hampton’s article “Is Technology Making People Less Sociable?” he reveals today’s youth, “spend so much time maintaining superficial connections online
As a dominant factor of our society amongst teenagers of this generation, technology cause a lack of communication and social skills. Technology plays an important role in our society, but the more and more it is over-used, the less face-to-face interactions occur. Nowadays, teenagers tend to prefer a phone call or text, rather than a real-life conversations. Technological attachment is a major part of our societies reality. Due to social media and technology use by our generation, communication and social skills are making their way to becoming a more challenging aspect for us to learn. Personal interactions are becoming more obsolete as teens now prefer communication thru methods such as social media and instant messengers. The newest forms of technology can be overwhelming, with technology having the power to execute almost any command one may wish via cell phone or computer. Due to this, in person conversations and communication is fading away from our society and the meaningfulness of interaction and conversation is becoming less and less important. This rids our brains of enjoying the simple real life pleasures of conversation, and making real life connections with one another more challenging to have. This has led to the decrease of communication skills amongst people, especially young teens, in our society.
Social media is any website that allows social interaction. Social media is growing rapidly throughout the world. More adults and teenagers are joining sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to interact with friends, family, and strangers. The introduction of social media has changed the world in many ways. It affects each individual in different ways. Today it can be used as a very helpful tool in changing a person’s life, but at the same time cause such conflicts which can negatively impact a person. While there are some negatives associated with social media, the positives in communication all around, has made the world stronger and a better place to live in.
At any given time of day, anyone can access an abundant amount of information at the click of a button. Men, women, kids, teenagers, adults and even the elderly are learning how to use the internet to their advantage. Among all the benefits the internet has provided to us, online communication has proven to be the most beneficial. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and MySpace have made it easy for everyone to stay in contact with each other. Regardless of how far apart a family member or friend is, everyone is just one click away. If someone is not having a good day, they can share their feelings with everyone in a matter of seconds. These social networking sites have become quite popular among adolescents. They allow teens to stay more connected with their friends outside of school. Now teens have become more obsessed with their friends Facebook or Twitter status than engaging in outdoor activities like football or