Social Media and Its Negative Impact on Our Youth Essay Example

Facebook hit a billion users after nine years in action, and Twitter increased its audience from 1.5 million to 10 million in the last four years.

Jam Kotenko’s report added that, the number of sexual assault cases related to both social media sites have reached incredible heights; in only four years since 2009, reports have increased from 139 to 614 – that’s a 341.7 percent increase. To further demonstrate how serious this particular statistic is, half of those cases involved victims under the age of 16. (Kotenko, 2018). Many people like to post pictures of their memorable events online on any number of social media sites.

A lot of people post their pictures to share their excitement about an upcoming trip or to memorialize expired passports before obtaining new ones. It may seem harmless to post these. Surely hackers, criminals and pedophiles who have equal access to these media sites are really not interested in your beautiful and well-intentioned pictures. They mean more harm than good.

Another downside of putting personal information online is the speed at which hackers capture millions of personal data for sale to third parties. A New York Times report of September 28, 2018 revealed how hackers stole private information of millions of unsuspecting Facebook users.

According to the report, Facebook finally admitted that, the attack on its computer network had exposed the personal information of nearly 50 million users. The breach, which was discovered this week, was the largest in the company’s 14-year history. The attackers exploited a feature in Facebook’s code to gain access to user accounts and potentially take control of them. (Mark & Sheera, 2018). Social media dependence is causing more

harm on the teenage population in our society.

Among the teenage and adolescent population, the overreliance on social media, the use of cell phones for texting, rather than talking becomes the preferred medium of communication and would equally want their friends to return their messages through it. These days, it is virtually impossible to board any public transportation, without spotting people hooked onto various social media platforms, and dearly to their communication devices. Even elementary school children conceal their mobile phones in their backpacks.

Not only does this pose a learning hindrance, in terms of school education, it also hinders their ability to learn how to communicate face-to-face. A report conducted by the Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project in 2011 found that 80% of teenage Internet users between 12 and 17 years of age utilize a social networking site, and that 93% of these users had a Facebook account (Brenner, 2012).

Social Media has become a diary of our lives and causing more harm than good to our very existence. Another major blow to social media is loss of privacy in our lives. People tend to overshare information, since it is the essence of social media.

Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, claims that the loss of privacy is a social norm that we have acquired recently and that it is only normal for everyone to know everything what others are doing. Private data like, city, gender and profile picture information were previously listed as private. However, these demographics are considered as public information and are now shared with everyone (iCare Consulting, 2011).

Our diaries which were once secured by lock and key are now easily available to

the world through location services and enabling them on our various platforms. Most consumers do not realize the inherent dangers of geolocation; Consumers may well be giving mobile apps access to their geolocation data without ever having given specific permission. Indeed, most mobile apps are not transparent about the fact that they collect geolocation data. As explained by FORBES NOW, geolocation data tells us intimate, revealing details about people's lives--their visits to drug treatment clinics, psychiatrists, prospective employers, and more.

Reviewing the dangers of geolocation and the harm it causes on social media, The Attorney General of California, Kamila Harris, alerted on USA Today, 'Broadcasting your location can sometimes expose you and your family to risk of theft or physical harm. . . For instance, you may be unknowingly revealing your location if your phone is 'geo-tagging' your photos. … Sharing a 'selfie' without disabling geo-tagging can be dangerous, especially for victims of stalking or domestic abuse.'' (Welch, 2014). Sharing personal information on social media can raise privacy fears.

Most social media users volunteer too much private information in their profiles, namely, age, gender, and email address. Although, some users try hard to hide certain parts of their profile, such as their gender, or supply fake data, such as their age, online criminals are able to steal their identity for nefarious activities. Further, most youth do not read websites’ privacy policies or may be uninformed that their information is at risk of disclosure to third parties like advertisers.

Though concerned about talking to people they don’t know online, teens appear to be less bothered about posting videos and pictures of themselves.

O’Keeffe, G.S., & Clarke-Pearson, state that, the adolescent

population is at higher risk of the negative consequences of social media due to teens ‘vulnerability to peer pressure and reduced ability for self-regulation (O’Keefe & Clark-Pearson, 2011).

Additionally, vulnerable populations, such as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, or intersex (LGBTQI) youth; adolescents with autism spectrum disorder; and adolescent females may be more at risk to the harms of social media exposure (Reid Chassiakos et al., 2016).

In today’s technologically driven society of social media, anybody with access to mobile phone can record without being seen. This practice of illegal media recording have pervaded our society and become a major blow to society’s use of social media. Within the teen and adolescent population, a new practice of recording indecent pictures and exposure is now labelled sexting. Houck et al defines this practice as, an electronic communication of nude, seminude, or provocative images, as well as erotic text messages. According to their research, this is a behavior used by approximately 18% to 28% of adolescents.

Research suggests teenagers who sext are more likely to partake in sexual activity (Houck et al., 2014). These images can be widely and quickly distributed via the Internet or cell phones without permission of the individual in the photo. In situations where the picture becomes extensively circulated, victims face embarrassment and disgrace, and suffer emotional distress. Perpetrators can face school suspensions and legal consequences, including felony child pornography charges (O’Keeffe &Clarke-Pearson, 2011).

Additionally, social media has become a quick medium for spreading gossip, harmful misinformation, and further abuse. Most of the time, there is no way to check the validity and accuracy of these gossips with a photos or videos. Employers have recently started checking

their employees and potential employees’ Facebook pages for opinions, habits and other subjects that could make them reconsider hiring or continue employment (Huffingtonpost, 2011). All these practices are simply the excesses or the adverse use of social media.

Just as there are countless risks and potential threats in using social media, there exists an equal number of potential benefits. Social media, relying on dating sites can provide opportunities for new relationships. Social media can be used for collective thinking (harnessing wisdom of the crowds) and also can be a very useful tool to support democracy and public awareness.

Among the teenage and adolescent population, social media provide a supportive environment to explore romance, friendship, and social status, while also providing an opportunity to share and discuss their taste in music, knowledge of television and movies, online videos/games, and other aspects of teen culture.

This population also use online searches to gain answers to many of their health concerns, dieting, or physical fitness information from the internet. Seventeen percent of teens who use the internet report they use it to gather information about health topics that are hard to discuss with others, such as drug use and sexual health (Lenhart, 2010).

Obesity resulting from long hours of screen time, social media addiction, loss of privacy, cyber-bullying and online sexting/pornography among teens and adolescents are all problems, which the society have to deal with. In every new technology, we just have to learn, how to live with it and make the best out of it.

Parents and caregivers need to educate themselves more about social media and the ways their teens may use it, as well as the common risks, to help

them understand and navigate the technologies. Adults can help teens think about online presence in moral and ethical ways, precisely to help teens in understanding the consequences for themselves and others of participation in the socially networked world.