The Negative Effects of Social Network Sites Essay Example
The Negative Effects of Social Network Sites Essay Example

The Negative Effects of Social Network Sites Essay Example

Available Only on StudyHippo
  • Pages: 11 (3017 words)
  • Published: February 13, 2017
  • Type: Analysis
View Entire Sample
Text preview

In present day, it is admitted that Social Network Sites (SNSs) bring convenience, efficiency, fast, speed and width for adolescents' interpersonal relationship development. It also brings many difficulties to overcome. Some adolescents that are addicted to SNSs suffer a lot of mental health problems caused by Network mental disorders and Internet addiction syndrome. It brings a lot of negative impact on adolescents' mental health and social development. This study that researches the negative impacts on adolescents' interpersonal psychotherapy will significantly help colleges and universities' moral educators to play the network edge, overcome the disadvantages and make use of the Internet to cultivate adolescents' sound personalities and good psychological qualities.

SNS is also known as social network service. A SNS is an online service platform, or site that focuses on facilitating the building o

...

f social networks or social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-life connections. SNSs such Facebook, Twitter works like this. Adolescents who become members of these SNSs communities, they will firstly get a personal profile which will show their personal information including the name, job, photo, relationship status, religion, hobbies and so on. "What differentiates SNS from previous media like a personal homepage is the display of one’s friend" (Boyd and Ellison, 2007). Except displaying a network of friends, other users can then click on their profiles and traverse ever broadening social networks.

The three features including profile, friend and traversing friend list show the most crucial characteristic of SNSs. Currently, when adolescents create profiles, they often set unique names for themselves. Today, adolescents make use of lots of ways online to communicate with

View entire sample
Join StudyHippo to see entire essay

people, such as Wall Post, Status Update, Activity Feed, Thumbs Up, and Profile. These are the features of SNSs, such as Facebook and Myplace. SNS are part of a suite of Web applications, also called social media, which utilize Web 2.0 principles.

"The term Web 2.0 defines websites that are designed to: (a) rely on the participation of mass groups of users rather than centrally controlled content providers, (b) aggregate and remix content from multiple sources, and (c) more intensely network users and content together" (O’Reilly, 2007). There are a large number of adolescents using social media. For example, "a national survey in 2009 finds that 73% of online teenagers use SNS, which is an increase from 55% 3 years earlier" (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith, and Zickuhr, 2010).

The rise of network technology had a profound impact on human communication. It produces a new type of interaction between people - network contacts. Network contacts refer to interaction on the network and certain social relationships during the communication process (John December, 1996). On this basis, the subject of network gradually formed network groups, virtual communities and even the entire network society. Therefore, the network communication is an extension of the main social action in cyberspace. The rapid popularization of the Internet caused the profound changes in lifestyle and social production which is shown as a person's second living space - the “social network" or '' network society'', that is, to build a global, open, all-round interconnected group. This is a social reality that corresponds to the "virtual society".

The arising of "Virtual society" makes a revolutionary change of the past interaction way of human

society occur. It not only expand the space of human interaction, but also profoundly changes the relationship between human beings and society and has brought a new era of "communication" to humans at the same time. That youth are connected to these global online communities is both a frightening prospect for parents and educators and an intriguing area for social science research. For example, educators and parents in the United States face difficult quandaries concerning students and SNS. Many scholars suggest that students learn in new ways using social media and that educators should embrace these new platforms (Ito et al., 2009).

Nevertheless, most school districts block access to SNS (Lemke et al., 2009), while parents remain fearful about safety and effects on their children’s social development. Teenage youth are a unique population of SNS users. They are among the first to have grown up entirely surrounded by communication technologies. Teenagers are also in a period of rapid development, growth, and maturation. Research about social media effects on youth promises to contribute significantly to the concerns of adults who mediate access to these online communities.

The psychology defines interpersonal relations as the psychological relationship between people. It is the performance of the psychological distance between people which reflects the psychological state of people which seek to meet personal needs.

The psychological factors of Interpersonal relationships include cognition, motivation, emotion, attitude and behavior (John et al., 2009). Therefore, an interpersonal relationship is a social relation based on psychological contact. Considering the factors which will impact interpersonal relationship, psychological barriers have greater and more direct impacts. It means that all adverse psychological factors affecting

the real interpersonal interaction of the youth are treated as the psychotherapy Obstacles of the interpersonal relationships. This essay studies some related journals and investigations and shows that young people who are over-indulged in SNSs Communication (online chat rooms, online dating, Internet marriage, etc.) are prone to get network syndrome which gives rise to a variety of psychological obstacles.

This mental illness is devouring the physical and mental health of the people surfing the Internet, and weakening their will. It makes them over depend on the SNSs, lack of perseverance and causes feelings of loss of themselves. It also makes them unlike dealing with people around and unwilling to participate in group activities and leads to academic problems. Over-indulge in the SNSs also induce reduced psychological happiness, loneliness and depression and a sense of increased interpersonal barriers in the real world communication. Therefore, this research of the negative impact of SNSs on interpersonal relationship and the solution suggestions plays an urgent practical significant role in building physical and mental health and establishing good relationships in the real world but not the network.

Then, the various effects caused by the Internet Communication on adolescents' realistic interpersonal psychological barriers are reviewed in the following context. However, every coin has two sides. Different points about these effects are discussed.

Firstly, it is believed by many scholars that SNSs can cause IAD (Internet Addiction Disorder).According to Li et al. (2004, p.76), Professor Qian (Department of Psychology, Peking University) reported in the Third Pan-Asia-Pacific Region Mental Health Seminar that a research about internet addiction in nearly 500 undergraduates in 12 universities in Beijing shows that 6.4 percent

of college students suffer from the internet addiction. Professor Qian did a sampling survey and found that these students spent most of their time on studying or chatting with friends, followed by sending and receiving e-mail, playing games, watching film, playing music and other entertainment. It is found that the time spent by tested students on network weekly has a positive correlation trend with its network addiction.

According to Li et al. (2004, p.74), there are around 200 million Internet users around the world. Among these users, 11.4 million of them were suffering from internet addiction in varying degrees. Internet addiction is also presented as indulging in the online romantic relationship. It will induce some negative effects on the real romantic relationship.

According to Sonja and Camiel (2011, p. 521), if the partner is an active user of the SNS, the wall postings on the partner’s profile and the postings left by the partner at friends’ profiles reveal a lot of information about the partner’s daily activities. There is anecdotal evidence that this information can induce jealousy—especially in long-distance relationships, when the partner makes new contacts at his or her distant location (Persch, 2007). Internet Love addiction can cause depression, biological clock disorder, retardation of thinking and even self- mutilation. An endless stream of new things on the Internet, the information rich and engaging, inclusive, colorful, fascinating network for college students in terms of easy to accept new things and a strong desire for knowledge, has great appeal. Prior research on Facebook use and romantic relationships has focused on the negative effects (Muise et al., 2009), but there is evidence that SNS use

can strengthen the relationships with friends and acquaintances (Ellison et al., 2007).

These studies found that SNS are especially useful for maintaining bridging capital, that is, weaker ties with acquaintances. However, there were also positive effects on bonding capital, strong ties with close friends. Therefore, we think that SNS use can also strengthen romantic relationships. SNS can be used to display signs of commitment, for example, when a new partner sets the relationship status to ‘in a relationship.’ Mod (2010) found that changing the relationship status is a major step in a relationship and can also alter dynamics in the offline relationship. Mod (2010) also found that people publicly display their affection on SNS and that partner’s value these public signs of affection these findings are based on interviews with 11 SNS users. However, Li et al. 'S survey data shows that 66.7% of tested students who spent 5-8 hours per day on SNSs thought that the SNSs have become a part of their own lives.

And they cannot do without it. 11% of tested students who spent 5-8 hours per day on SNSs said that they would suffer insomnia if they could not get access to the SNSs; 12 % of tested students spent more than 5-8 hours per day on SNSs; 22.2% of tested students who spent 5-8 hours per day on SNSs admitted that they would be in emptiness when they were not online; 5.6% of tested students who spent 5-8 hours per day on SNSs would feel irritable when they were not online (2004, p 75). These data show that once these college students get addicted to these SNSs,

they cannot abstain from them anymore. This kind of attraction can often make adolescents extremely fascinated with the SNSs which are prone to "Internet addiction disorder".

Secondly, one of the negative effects for SNSs on the adolescents' interpersonal relationship is that it can cause network autism. The relationship between human beings and the internet impacts a lot on adolescents' real interpersonal relationship, since more and more adolescents choose to communicate with people online. Adolescents mainly communication and contact with the outside world through the "human-Internet" system. It inevitably leads to the destruction and deprivation of the way people interacting in the community which is formed thousands of years ago.

Thus the psychological and emotional balance is undermined. And people just deal with the machine under the cover of a high-frequent communication which can not be changed and lead to inhospitality and aloneness. Over-indulging in SNSs can make adolescents indulge their feelings and communicate with others freely in the network world. The psychology of going after profits and avoiding disadvantages prompted adolescents to transplant their emotions in real world to the online world. According to Liu (2000), the network autism and the network addiction disorder is very similar. But the former one more demonstrates the interpersonal barriers while the other one focuses on the physiological and cognitive barriers. Introverted persons often fall network autism of which typical symptoms are addicted to the internet, detached from reality, a man of few words, depression, narrow society and indifferent interpersonal relationship.

They spent most of the time on the SNSs and no longer had any control of their own, showing the mental phenomena of escaping from

the reality. Increasingly, they spent more and more time on SNSs. Their relationships with classmates, friends and family meet challenges as well. Adolescents who are addicted to the SNSs might invest more time and energy in the SNSs, thereby reduce the face to face interpersonal communication with the real world. It is very likely to lead to the alienation of the human relations in the real world, so that emotional ties between them and family members, neighbors, classmates and friends become very weak. Some of them will even form the network psychological dependence, which greatly reduce the face-to-face interaction activities.

As a result, they have lost the interaction skills in the realistic society, and even escaped from the interaction consciously. It will result in the isolation of the real world and the indifference in emotions. Especially when the adolescents meet with setbacks in real life, they will be more inclined to get comfort from the relationship in SNSs. However, parents and schools can use SNSs do some network of psychological education, improve the network counseling. Psychological education and counseling of the University's network plays an important role for the popularity of the Mental Health awareness, enhance the overall quality of students training to improve the level of students' personality and psychological quality.

According to Robert and Tokunaga (2011), because of the hidden characteristics of the network, college students are more willing to speak truth and easier due to the timeliness of network exchanges of time and space, unlimited and universal character, group counseling, psychological mutual aid, the diversification of the popularity of psychological knowledge. Therefore, we can set up online counseling home, regular

updates on college students to maintain knowledge of mental health counseling by full-time counseling teachers to visit students and answer questions. From the practice of the domestic network of psychological counseling, college students exchanges and psychological barriers such as low self-esteem, social adjustment difficulties, low depression and a variety of interpersonal personality disorder such as social phobia, anxiety disorder, paranoid personality, fear psychosis, through the network counseling, of course, the university counseling center should also play its proper role, therefore, not only to attach importance to the University counseling Center mental Health on psychological Health maintenance and classroom education.

Attention should also be a network of psychological education, successful internet counseling. SNSs can bring many negative effects. However, parents and schools can use SNSs do some network of psychological education, improve the network counseling. Psychological education and counseling of the University's network plays an important role for the popularity of the Mental Health awareness, enhance the overall quality of students training to improve the level of students' personality and psychological quality. According to Robert and Tokunaga (2011), because of the hidden characteristics of the network, college students are more willing to speak truth and easier due to the timeliness of network exchanges of time and space, unlimited and universal character, group counseling, psychological mutual aid, the diversification of the popularity of psychological knowledge. Therefore, we can set up online counseling home, regular updates on college students to maintain knowledge of mental health counseling by full-time counseling teachers to visit students and answer questions.

From the practice of the domestic network of psychological counseling, college students exchanges and psychological barriers such as low self-esteem,

social adjustment difficulties, low depression and a variety of interpersonal personality disorder such as social phobia, anxiety disorder, paranoid personality, fear psychosis, through the network counseling, of course, the university counseling center should also play its proper role, therefore, not only to attach importance to the University counseling Center mental Health on psychological Health maintenance and classroom education. Attention should also be a network of psychological education, successful internet counseling. SNSs can bring many negative effects.

But at the same time, parents and schools can use SNSs do some network of psychological education, improve the network counseling. Psychological education and counseling of the University's network plays an important role for the popularity of the Mental Health awareness, enhance the overall quality of students training to improve the level of students' personality and psychological quality. According to Robert and. Tokunaga (2011, p.) Because of the hidden characteristics of the network, college students are more willing to speak truth and easier due to the timeliness of network exchanges of time and space, unlimited and universal character, group counseling, psychological mutual aid, the diversification of the popularity of psychological knowledge. Therefore, we can set up online counseling Home, regular updates on college students to maintain knowledge of mental health counseling by full-time counseling teachers to visit students and answer questions.

From the practice of the domestic network of psychological counseling, college students exchanges and psychological barriers such as low self-esteem, social adjustment difficulties, low depression and a variety of interpersonal personality disorder such as social phobia, anxiety disorder, paranoid personality, fear psychosis, through the network counseling, of course, the university counseling center should also play its

proper role, therefore, not only to attach importance to the University counseling Center mental Health on psychological Health maintenance and classroom education. Attention should also be a network of psychological education, successful internet counseling.SNSs might bring many negative effects. But at the same time, parents and schools can use SNSs to do some online psychological education and improve the online psychological counseling. Schools' online Psychological education and counseling play an important role on the popularity of the mental health awareness, enhancing the overall quality of adolescents and improving the level of students' personality and psychological quality.

According to Robert and Tokunaga (2011, p.427), because of the secretiveness of the network, adolescents are more willing to speak their minds. And due to the interaction online is timely, unlimited and universal in time and space, it is easier to do the group counseling, psychological mutual aid, the diversification of the popularity of psychological knowledge. Therefore, schools can set up online counseling homepage in SNSs, such as Facebook, Twitter, regularly update knowledge of maintaining mental health and arrange full-time counseling teachers to visit students' questions.

In brief, according to the degree of need met, people usually divided their emotions and feelings into two categories: positive and negative. The former is feelings such as relaxed, happy, satisfied, love, etc. The latter one is emotions such as sadness, anxiety, boredom, depression, despair, anger and shame, etc. The latter inferior emotions or negative emotions have a negative impact on students' physical and mental health and interpersonal relationships. Therefore, adolescents should learn to control their own emotions, and adjust their own negative emotions. They'd better to find a reasonable way

to express negative emotions, strengthen their self-cultivation, open their hearts and maintain peace and good mood so as to establish good interpersonal relationships online and offline. Schools and parents should take advantages of SNSs to strengthen their communication with adolescents and lead them to the rational utilization of the SNSs.

Get an explanation on any task
Get unstuck with the help of our AI assistant in seconds
New