The Role Of Social Media On The Children Of The 21st Century

“You see, the discussion surrounding appropriation takes on so many more layers than most think-piece authors care to engage with-layers that desperately need to be brought to the discussion”(Jaikaran, Elizabeth). “Movements that advocate the equality between races, religions, and cultures are extremely prominent in our modern-day society”(Cohen, Amanda). Cultural appropriation in pop culture allows for cultures to be spread and ultimately accepted by a wide variety of people.  Once an audience sees someone they follow do something,  they will likely accept it and try the same things; people in the media pave the way for everyone else and can start a movement.  Putting cultures in separate groups and not allowing for certain styles to be used by others is the root of discrimination of cultures. The main influencers in pop culture have been knocking down these separations and preaching the idea of mixing cultural styles into every aspect of life.  Pop culture has some of the most influence on society and the example that it sets for people to follow is needed

Today’s young adults have a lack of communication with friends and family because of technology such as social media, video games or television. In our society, parlor walls can be seen as those commodities. The large flat screen tv’s or IPads are today’s enthusiast. “Social media in our country and the globalizing world has become the voice, eye, ear, heart, and memory of the individuals. It has aspects which strengthen, weaken and include communication between the individuals and also it provides convenience for time and place.” This, according to TNS Digital Life Research that carried out a study in 2011 and held 1.938.059.098 people that were online. Researchers were able to test how many people prefer to communicate through social media or rather be involved in some sort of social media instead of actually going out and interacting. These studies show and give a glimpse of how many people are more interested to spend time on social media instead of building new relationships. Bradbury’s society and our society and similar because of the lack of communication we have because of some aspects of technology that are similar, which are the parlor walls and social media, television and video games.

When technological advancement began so did the growth of social networking. Social networking became easier with the innovation of smartphones, by making social media more accessible than its initial phases. However, in social networking’s earliest stages social media sites were created with the purpose of helping people stay linked together despite the distance separating each other. During that time, the only means of using these networking sites were by having access to a computer. Without the easy accessibility to computers, people back then could carry on with everyday life tasks without social networking distracting us from the life around us. Despite social media not fully taking off until the booming of mobile devices, the earliest known form of social media is believed to have been created in 1995 by way of Classmates.com. Eventually being followed by networks such as Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest (Social Media). Unfortunately networking quickly changed in the 2010s when smartphones became more common and social media sites began to release their products as mobile applications or apps (Social Media). In this day and age in which some school-age children are gifted mobile devices almost everyone can get their hands on social media. It has become so easy to stay communicated by means of these social media apps that we are starting to forget how to interact among each other. We are moving away from face to face

The rapid growth of technology in our society has become more dominant than it was in the 17th and 18th century. Today, technology is used for almost everything in our day to day lives. But the most common usage of technology is for communication and industrialization. However, every good thing has its disadvantage if it is over used, and since technology has become very dominant, it is used by both young and older people but more predominant among the youth of the today. Even more, technology has brought about social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, my space, piazza.com, instagram, tango, and last but not the least texting. According to socialnetworking.procon.org, “47% of American adults used social networking sites like

Before technology advanced children would spend most of their time watching television. That was the main issue that parents faced with their young children. They complained about young children spending most of their time in front of a television screen rather than getting some exercise or hanging out friends. There was a time when nickelodeon had cancelled all of their Tv shows for an hour, so that children would get up and go play. Exercise is very important, especially in the US because we are battling obesity. Now that the children are getting older, maturing, and growing up faster, they believe that they should advance on from the basic television stage.

A community can be affected by a numerous influences both negative and positive. One such negative influence on a community which has the potential to cause a horrible outcome on society’s youth. This health issue is psychological in nature, uses technology known as cyberbullying and is aimed at destroying the self-esteem of an individual. The old style schoolhouse or neighborhood bully is now replaced by one who uses anonymity to attack a victim for any number of reasons from jealousy, irritation, hate or just for fun. Anonymity allows a bully to harass, threaten and intimidate someone they would not normally belittle in person (Will & Clayburn, 2010). A cyberbully can be the instigator allowing others to add their comments to further the attack. Attacks such as this can have harmful results and potentially cause the victim to become withdrawn, depressed and suicidal. Social media such as Facebook, Twitter and others along with text messages continue the barrage of slander and hate throughout the day and night making removal of such material from cyberspace virtually impossible.

Over the years more and more students have joined the Social Media phenomenon, making students the largest age group that use it. It is estimated that young people aged between 16 and 24 spend more than 27 hours a week on the internet (Anderson, 2015). Spending this amount of time on the internet exposes users to health issues such as anxiety, sleeping problems and depression. Students often find themselves in a pressurised state, as a result of the demand of immediate replies to posts and comments on Social Media accounts. While the need to follow trending topics and conversations lead to lack of sleep and later anxiety problems. The suggested average hours of sleep is 9hours per night to allow the body and brain time to function again,

Children have their eyes glued to their phones everywhere they go. On their phones, there is at least one of the following social media applications: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. “Follow me on Ig”, “Add me on Snap”, “Watch my story from last night, it was lit”, these are some of the conversations heard in a classroom. The youth of modern society has let social media take over their lives. Social media created a control on human interaction that causes distractions, the want of popularity, and obsession.

Over the years social media and internet, itself has taken a huge impact on everybody’s lives, especially the younger generations. It has been said to “take over” an individual’s life. Social media can have positive and negative impacts on people. The parents of the younger generation never had any kind of Facebook, Instagram, snapchat, twitter, etc. Now, by the time a child is 3 they already know how to use technology such as a phone or iPad. Technology itself has majorly changed this generation in so many ways.

Most teenagers are very familiar with the old adage, “Back in my day, we didn’t even have phones!” which many of the older generations like to point out. It is no secret that while the older generations struggle to understand why today’s youth are so obsessed with their technology, teenagers struggle to convince them that change is necessary in order to grow as a society and that technology is the key to development. While both perceptions hold truth, the obsession with technology is something that could be a cause for concern. Why are young adults so technology crazed? The answer comes in the form of the newest trend: social media. Originally created for better communication, social media platforms have since evolved into much more. Now, social media has become a breeding ground for distractions, negative perceptions, cyberbullying, and online predation.

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.

Millennials are a frequently talked about generation, and college students are at the epicenter. They are the called the “social mavens”(2.A) and “the founders of the social media movement” (2.A) who are constantly connected via online. Growing up as part of the new generation and seeing frequent changes in technology over the years, it has come to play a role in our daily lives. Being able to relate to such a topic, we wanted to look further into Millennials’ use of technology; specially relating to college-aged students and what social media platform(s) the group is most active on.

It isn’t a bad thing sharing a couple of pictures of our favorite moments, or those selfies that make us popular with friends; the ones that help us gain followers. Or using it for the right reason of communicating with family all over the world and meeting new friends abroad. But don’t you think that users such as teenagers in specific take advantage of what social media is actually for. At times parents are confused because they think that their child is using Facebook for the connection of their loved ones, or even group chats that are meant for positive feedback. Realistically we all know that isn’t the case. Because deep inside your child’s room you can find messages that were meant for sharing of their personal self. In this case sexting. Another ruining is the destruction of family relationships, where physically your child may be present, but mentally are not. And what about your teenage daughter that is old enough to maneuver herself when driving, so you think. Do you think she is focused on the road, or on that bright blue screen that teenagers like to call, “my baby”. At times we may feel that social media might be the right thing for us. Or that it might affect us in more positive ways rather than in negative ways, but although technology may be the best source for connecting distinct cultures and societies in ways that seemed impossible before, technology also fails miserably to an extent where messages that were meant for positive feedback have turned into

In the article there are many staggering facts about how often social media sites are used and what adolescents are using them for. The article estimates that 11-18-year olds spend up to 11 hours a day on the social media sites and exposed to media via electronics. It is estimated that approximately 73% of adolescents are on social networking sites whether they meet the age restriction or not. The young people’s parents are following the footsteps of them by starting to use the sits they see the adolescents on after the adolescents have started using it, this is a parallel to what was expected since these sites were originally adult oriented and created for an older audience. A majority of young people will wake up and check their social media profiles as well as check them again before going to bed at night.

Social media seems informal or careless to a lot of people outside the constraints of the millennial generation. Social media does not seem to be an appropriate avenue for something as important as employment, some may protest. Facebook, Twitter, and Snapchat are not part of the real world. However, if one is searching, she must know where to look. Millennials are rarely seen without a smartphone in hand, and it is assumed they are so engrossed in the screen that important details are surely to be missed. The world is spinning and the proverbial millennials never lift their eyes to gaze at the stars. What is not assumed is the extent to which millennials are networked and informed. Social media has allowed millennials to communicate with others in their cohort regardless of geographical distance or schedules. In addition to networking, learning about peers through social media encourages shared experiences and goals, while answers to almost any question are available through a few finger taps.