The Impact of Social Media on Children and Adolescents in the Society Essay Example

others lack the basic understanding of the new forms of socializing online which are integral to the lives of their children. They do not have the technical abilities to keep the pace with their children in the changing internet landscape (Florence, 2014)). Nevertheless, there are those who use the technology well with their children and are capable and comfortable with the online issues and programs their children are using.

Social media can be a positive influence on children and adolescents when parents and other adults are involved when the children gain access to the media although it is had to pick from bad the best when it comes to media. There are a lot of negative ideas about the media and how interacting and viewing it might harm the child. However, children can also benefit from it depending on the kind and quality of the media and the age of the child in use (Brian Stelter, 2012).

How Social Media Impact Communication

Healthy Environment

Social media allow young people to accomplish many of the important tasks like making new friends, staying connected with the family, exchanging ideas and sharing the picture. Children can broaden their ideas from the creation of videos, blogs, and podcasts and gaming sites. Also, children and adolescents can expand their online connections through shared interests to include others from different diverse backgrounds (Florence, 2014).

Through social media, the teenagers find through accessing online information about their health concerns. Resources about health are also available to youths in a variety of topics of their interest such as about stress reduction, sexually transmitted infections and signs of depression. According to Serena Gordon (2011), social media is a way

of children and adolescents to access good information. For those children with chronic illnesses, they can find others in the social media with the same condition and get the support that they could not have gotten elsewhere.

According to Angela Barnes and Christine Laird (2012), social media provides an avenue for children to stay connected with peers they met through church, school, sports teams and so on. It also helps shy adolescents to have a more non-threatening way of interaction with peers because they do not interact face to face. Social media provides an opportunity for the teenagers to connect with those with similar interest. They can share their interests in games, music, arts and even blogs.

Problems Associate with Communication

Cyberbullying and online harassment are part of the adverse effects of social media. Cyberbullying is a careful use of media to communicate false, pass hostile information or embarrassment about another person. Cyberbullying being a problem can cause the victims to experience depression and anxiety and has also been the cause of many youths to commit suicide (Angela Barnes and Christine Laird, 2012). Online harassment is often used interchangeably with cyber bullying though from the current research, and online harassment is not that common as offline harassment.

Facebook depression is a depression that develops when children and adolescents spent a considerable amount of time on social media site like Facebook and started to develop classic symptoms of depression (American Academy of Pediatrics (2011). In adolescents, depression is much triggered by the intensity of the online world. Teenagers who suffer from Facebook depression get the risk of social isolation that sometimes makes them turn to internet and blogs sites which

are risky for help that at the end promotes unsafe sexual practices, aggressive, substance abuse or even self-destructive behaviors. The adolescents when spent too much time on Facebook, they start to show the signs of depression (Serena Gordon, 2011) like experiencing mood swings, changing sleep and eating habits or they become socially isolated.

Sexting is another problem associated with communication in social media. It is defined as the sending, receiving or forwarding of sexually explicit images, messages, and photographs through computer cell phones or other digital devices. According to (American Academy of Pediatrics (2011), youths who engage themselves in sexting have been charged with felony child pornography charges. Children involved with sexting also are suspended from school and experience emotional distress that I accompanied with mental health problems for the victims.

Defective social relationship: when children spend a lot of time on social media, they tend to spend limited time with their family and actual friends. It, therefore, weakens their bond with the family. Even after hang out or get together, adolescents spend more of the time on clicking snaps and updating the virtual world rather than enjoying the event (Misna Sameer (2011). They tend to miss out on real life interaction with relatives that eventually results in distorted social skills and limited life social network resulting in social isolation. According to Florence, (2014),), adolescents with less close friendships have lower levels of self-esteem. When people have frequent social contact, they become healthier and happier both mentally and physically.

Impacts of Social Media on Education

Social media enhance learning opportunities for students. Students use the social media to connect with each other on group projects and homework. For example,

(American Academy of Pediatrics (2011) social media programs allows students to meet outside of class to exchange and Collaborate ideas concerning the assignment. Furthermore, there are other schools that use blogs as their teaching aids that at the end reinforce children’s skills in creativity, English and written expression.

When a child is socially active in the media, they are unable to concentrate well while at school (In Jordan and & In Romer, 2014). Social media has made children and adolescents to lose the private space. Things that were considered private in the generation before is now made public. It has changed the behavior of children especially the adolescents. The status updates, tweets, and wall posts yell about every activity and move they make, and this violates the sanctity of the personal space (Misna Sameer (2011). Also, children have been tempted to fake their age to get into the social media especially those with strict age limits. Like the Facebook. Furthermore, the adolescents are influenced by the great advertising they see on the media. It strongly affects their buying habits.

Social media has created a culture in children and adolescents that compromise with their learning activities while in school. When children spent a lot of time on computers and digital gadgets outside the school, when they come back to school, they tend not to concentrate or socialize properly in school because they spend a lot of their time on the social media especially games ((In Jordan and & In Romer, 2014). The culture the children have created while at home is entirely different with that at school. According to Brian Stelter (2012), there is a lack of motivation

in the majority of the children in school because there is a lack of awareness about the use of the media by their parents. When they attend school, they experience other controls that they have not used to it.

Impact of Social Media on Time

Most of the adolescents and children spend much of their time on the social media. When children are alerted to a new post on their device, they tend to take more time in concentrating on it before they return to their original task. When they are on the hangout, they use social media for fun. They make photos and upload them immediately to attract the attention of their fun, and they begin to flood with likes and comments (Florence, 2014). Children especially the adolescents take it as fun when they interact with the social media like Facebook, WhatsApp, and LinkedIn. When more time is spending on getting the perfect picture, they get to be happy when it gets more attention. However, when all gets to vanity, they tend to lose their self-esteem due to lack of online popularity.

Video gaming is also used by children and adolescents to interact with each other and for entertainment, and is one of the places where they spend a lot of time on. Other children play games online for relaxation purposes and to relieve boredom. However, when children spend much of their time on games, it affects their social relations and their performance in school ((In Jordan and & In Romer, 2014). The Internet provides children and adolescence a platform for them to impact their communities and the world at large. The Internet offers a variety of

ways to children to go about making positive changes, for example, getting involvement in political events.

When children and adolescents spent a lot of time on social media, they get used to it and eventually get addicted. When they get addicted, less time is used to work on their personal effects. Addiction on social media and digital gaming affects children’s social interaction and their performance in school because they are unable to concentrate on what they are being taught in class ((In Jordan and & In Romer, 2014).

Conclusion

From the above argument, many social media sites put on display multiple advertisements such as behavior ads and banner ads that target people basing on their web browsing habits and specific factors such as gender, age, and education that influence children and adolescents view on what is normal and buying tendencies. It offers many chances for entertainment, social interaction, and information gathering. Nevertheless, many positive impacts are experienced from time spent on the media. However, cyberbullying, sexual salutation, exposure of identity threats and online harassment are negative effects that parents should not ignore in for their children.

It is important for parents to be aware of some of the behavioral ads that their children get into use because they are common on these social media sites. Children and adolescents are to be educated about online sites and how to manage and avoid its negative influence. A primary concern for parents should be that social media affects the social skills of their children. The internet enables children to make new friends that are far away from them. Contrary to it, social media makes children spend less time in their social activities

and time spends with their family and friends. Therefore, educators should assist parents in child internet use through advising parents to talk with their adolescents about online use and its effects. Also, they can discuss with parents the importance of supervising their children’s online activities.

References

1. American Academy of Pediatrics (2011). Clinical Report—The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. Pediatrics 127;800;
2. Angela Barnes and Christine Laird.(2012) The Effects of Social Media on Children
3. Brian Stelter (2012). Youths Are Watching, but Less Often on TV
4. Florence Undiyaundeye (2014). Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents and Families. Global Journal of interdisciplinary Social Sciences. Global Institute For Research and Education
5. In Jordan, A. B., & In Romer, D. (2014). Media and the well-being of children and adolescents.
6. Misna Sameer (2011). Impact of Social Networking Sites On Youth. All Things Social
7. Serena Gordon (2011). Social media has Good and Bad Effects on Kids: Experts