The Internet and Social Media

In the article “ Teenage Social Media Butterflies May Not Be Such A Bad Idea “ by Melissa Healy, social media isn’t as bad as you think. According to Amori Yee Mikami teenages are using social media to communicate with their friends and not strangers . Some adolescents count their parents as their friends on social networking sites. According to a L.A. psychology professor kaveri Subrahmanyam says children on and offline have the same relationship on social networking sites and in reality . Another thing Subrahmanyam said was that teens use social media in wayś that don't harm their well being. Some teens that struggle with depression or other type of behavior are most likely to be bully or harass, and also take online risks such as sexting

Let me guess you probably checked Instagram, Twitter or Snapchat in the last five minutes. Nowadays it seems like all we do is go on social media, considering that it has been on the rise for the last decade. On average a teenager is an electronic device for more than three hours a day. (Curtis, Sweeny). What we do on a day to day basis is determined by how much time we spend on those sites. Since we spend so much time on social media, can it have a negative effect on teenagers? Is social media dangerous or are there benefits to it? Just how social media is on the rise so are these questions, which have researchers wondering on the effects of social media as teens continue to let it control the way they spending their time. (Goff).

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 use of social media is more prevalent than ever. People’s devices are an extension of themselves; they cannot go anywhere without them. People are consumed with the need to say connected to what is happening on social media. The first thing people do when they wake up and the last thing they do before they go to sleep is check their social media. It is nearly impossible to get away from. While many people do not see a need to get away from it, there may be more of a need than people realize. Although many different age groups are on social media, the main users are teenagers. Teenagers are more focused on maintaining their online persona instead of building quality relationships. Cyberbullying is a rising issue in today 's culture because of the use of social media. Cyberbullying can cause teenagers to be afraid to interact with one another. Since teenagers spend so much time online, they forget how to interact with each other outside of a screen. These issues can add up to teenagers committing suicide. Suicide rates are higher than ever among teenagers. The use of social media is having negative effects on the lives of young people. Parents need to limit their child 's use of technology in order to help avoid these issues.

Social media is one of the most common ways for people to communicate anywhere and at any time in modern society. Some people think that it is beneficial to have in society. Although, many people are starting to see negative effects arise from the use of social media as well. These negative effects are increasing and becoming more problematic every day. The disadvantages of social media far outweigh the advantages. Social media effects everyone in society, especially teenagers by negatively impacting their lives, face-to-face interactions, and mental health.

In the past decade, the use of social media has been on the rise due to its easy accessibility on cellular devices. Almost seventy-five percent of adolescents and teens have a cell phone, where twenty-four percent feel as though they are “constantly connected”, and fifty percent confess feeling addicted to their cell phones. Overall, social media does have qualities that do benefit some people. Some of which include the ability to access new concepts and information, the ability to easily communicate with others, and help with early learning. Although, it is when social media is not used in moderation or when it is not used with the right intentions, that the lines start to get blurred. The negative affects social networking sites can have on teens and adolescence include larger rates of obesity, feelings of depression, having access to false information and unsuitable subject matters, and the loss of privacy. Social media has negative effects on mental health by subjecting teens and adolescents and introducing them to the dangers of cyberbullying, child grooming, and sleep deprivation.

Social media affects many people’s lives. The world has changed so much in the last twenty years, and contributing factors like the invention of the phone and computer are a large part of the journey. Teenagers can now talk to anyone, anywhere, at any time. Although it is true that there are dangers within social media, its benefits outweigh the drawbacks. Social media platforms are positive outlets for teens and young adults to express themselves.

On average, one person will spend five years and four months in their lifetime on social media alone (Asano). Social media is defined as “forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other such content” by the Merriam Webster Dictionary. There are lots of platforms out there such as Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, etc. Our society chooses not to see the side effects of the mass amounts of time spent on social media instead of socializing with the people face-to-face. Through the use of social media platforms, people isolate themselves from their peers and society causing as increase in bullying, anxiety, and depression.

Imagine a high school student as . They are struggling and failing many of their classes. tTthey are not aren’t getting their homework in on time and are not aren’t studying for their tests or quizzes so they are failing. This student goes home everyday from school and is capable of passing and being the elite and prodigious student they can be and are not devoid of it, but is distracted by something called social media . These networking sites which minimizes their the student’s time to do their homework and study or preclude them or incapacitating their time completely. Social media is where you can go online and post pictures or look at other posts and you can collaborate and banter with your friends. This can be a very big thing in someone’s life and can also be the biggest detriment because your profile might be congested with notifications saying your friends posted something. You might go home one day and see that your friend posted something. You would stop your homework and probably check and stay there for hours. Then, you have no time for your homework. Social media can cause this to ruin many students’ lives. Even though social media can benefit students by giving them entertainment and using it for relevant topics as their school work, it is more likely to create a negative impact on a teen’s their life and career.

In a world where technology and social media are essentials to everyday life, parents need to know the negative effects it has on their children. Since the rapid growth of the internet in the past several decades, social media has become one of its most utilized services. Today’s youth document their everyday lives through various social media platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, among many others. Although many will believe that this is considered an escape for teens in this crazy world we live in, there are negative repercussions that come with social media. The negative effects of social media outweigh the positive effects which in turn create a major concern for our youth. They are our future and we need them to prosper in order to better their own lives. Being exposed to social media may lead to cyberbullying, poor health and negative life decisions, and lack of social skills. Parents and guardians should be more informed on this issue in order to protect their children from the negative effects of social media.

Social media is a trap! Although social media is a common practice in a person’s daily life, it is slowly taking over the world. A few years ago social media was just an idea, and now it is everywhere surrounding everyone and everything. Social media has taken the place of face-to-face interactions between people and the free time in everybody’s lives because it is always conveniently there. Social media has a negative influence on people, especially teenagers, who use it on a consistent basis because a person can become stuck into thinking solely about what is happening on social networking sites, it can affect how people view themselves and their self-esteem, and can affect a person’s mental and physical health.

Social media is a booming new-age industry. With billions of active users, and billions more in ad revenue, it's safe to say that social media is here to stay. This seemingly economically beneficial platform could be detrimental to today's and future generation's to come youth. Social media is harmful to the adolescent mind.

Technology and Social Media have a huge impact on the youth today. From cyber bullying, to not knowing how to communicate with people, to self- image, and to something as simple as not knowing how to read a map, are just some of the many negative ways that social media and technology have impacted the youth. People have forgotten the meaning and value of family, kids don’t go outside and play anymore, and our faces are constantly buried in our phones.

Social media is bad for the teenager aspect of life by causing world corruption in many ways. Social media can change and become cyberbullying, social outcasting, lack of communication skills, and most of all, not being able to find whom you can become. This is not only through social media, but also video games, television, and self-reflection caused through these. Social media have progressed so far that communicating through face to face talks don’t seem as appealing anymore. There is Skype where we can video chat. Also, Facebook where we can chat or blog about irrelevant things such as what we are eating at the moment. I have seen some people even text each other when sitting side by side. Technology is an addiction, one many have trouble overcoming. I 've had trouble with social media for a few years due to drama, since you 're not talking to the person 's face to face you seem to have a newfound courage to be mean or even two-faced. I then went without my phone for a year and felt as though I could finally breathe and take in whatever was around me.

From stone carvings, to smoke signals, to letters, to books, to carrier pigeons, to telegraphs, to telephones, to fax machines. Communication has always been morphing to drastically more efficient ways of reaching out to other humans. Always looking for a more efficient ways to spread information, there are newspapers, magazines, almanacs, radios, televisions, and in the past few decades, the internet. According to History.com, in 1965, the first connection between two computers was made, and many advances occurred until the web we know today was birthed in 1991 by a swiss man named Tim Berners-Lee. This is when the world wide web, that WWW that appears on almost every URL, began to take shape, and where people could access an array of information. The internet seems to be the culmination of all these social media communication inventions. There are online radio stations, online magazines, online newspapers, Television services, telephone services, and many different new forms of information transfer are being implemented. The internet seems to be capable of absorbing all the functions and purposes of the social media that came before it and still has room for more. Online video games and different variations of websites can create and provide people with social groups that give structure and support.