The Negative Impacts of Social Media Essay

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.

Many people see Social Media as the world’s greatest invention while others see it as the world’s worst invention. , but which one is it? Is Social Media really important or is it just there for people to use? People do not tend to see the danger hidden beneath the Posts, the blogs, and the pictures everyone shares. Families destroyed others reunited due to the effects of social media. Friends, Boyfriends, and Girlfriends all in a big war at some point fighting with one another about who saw who doing what, who posted what, if the another one liked or did something that they were not supposed to do. Social Media has positive and negative effects to our society.

To elaborate, technology has caused us to have a shorter attention span. The common ringing of a phone can distract someone from their work. In the video “What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains” by Epipheo, states we lose control of attention and we don’t enjoy consolidation.This proves that students’ attention can be lost because of a simple text message, or something they saw on social media earlier. Some may argue, it is average to check a social media website and text. However, constantly doing this can cause compulsive behavior.

Research “Facebook and texting made me do it: Media-induced task-switching while studying” by Larry D. Rosen and his co-workers showed that students who were trying to use media means while doing homework, had lower grades and academic achievements later on.

Multitasking can have a huge impact on student engagement in class. The students doing two or more things such as being on laptops and smartphones while the professor was lecturing cause them to do worst on test and cause the other students around them to also not do well on test either. Research suggests that we have a limited resources available to attend to, process,encode, and store information for later retrieval (Posner, 1982). Meaning that when we focus on a single task alone we

While analyzing the effects of social media, the negatives may outweigh the positives. The reason for this can be found right in front of our faces. Today’s society lacks the basic human social skills, and is unable to carry on a conversation without looking at their phones. Insecurity, addiction, and social skills all play an important role in the effects of social media.

There was a study done about students and multitasking. Larry Rosen sent investigators to students home. The investigators were there to observe the students homework behaviors for only fifteen minutes. The students’ age groups were middle school to college. The investigators took a record of what the students’ were doing every minute. Even though, the students were aware that someone was observing them, they still drifted away from their studies. The result of this study has raised quite a bit of concern for students academic well-being. College can be the worst when it comes to multitasking because of the improper use of technology during class. Another study using spyware, students during class for a little under half of the class are doing

Social media has become an essential in life for a teenager. It is a place where teens can connect to the internet and share experiences with their family and friends that no one really sees. In most situations, social media is a fun place to go to entertain oneself. However, the use of these sites can be risky to teens. Social media has put teenagers in situations that are both dangerous and harmful physically and mentally. This being said, social media can negatively affect a teenagers safety, psychological well-being, and their education.

There are 2.3 billion active social media users (Smith 1). Meaning the majority of people go on social media every day. Social media is almost a part of every teen’s life it’s how they stay connected and meet up with people. But social media is worse than what most people would think. It’s leading to worse things for teenagers since they won’t see the negatives coming. Especially not from social media since it’s a huge part of their life. Social media’s negatives outweigh the positives because it’s causing long-term consequences and impacts teen’s mental and emotional health.

Social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have become a major part of pre-teens and teenagers’ everyday life. With the amount of time, energy, and emotions young people put into social media, it has begun to show some negative effects on the health and well-being of youth. The possible positive effects that social media has is vastly overshadowed by the devastating negative effects it has on our youth.

In this case, the study proved that teens and young adults have become obsessed with social networking and has led to many questions if networking is good or bad (Conger, 2010). In 2009, the media expressed that social networking could cause harm to our bodies and brains by “shortening our attention spans” and “weakening our immune systems” (Conger, 2010). Whereas other studies that have been conducted prove the opposite and suggests that teens who spend more time on social networking sites are more likely to be “well-adjusted” and “psychologically” healthy (Healy, 2010). At this point, it’s time to investigate the pros and cons of children being on social networking sites and understand why parents are against social networking and why certain individuals feel that networking is beneficial.

Just as there are positive effects of social media, there are also negative effects as well. False connections are often made on SNS. Ninety percent of students have Facebook which is constructed to be socially shared with any user. It may seem obvious that users of social networking cannot stray far from reality from his or her online identity, although the users can depict what he or she wishes to display (Moreno et al. 452). There are many young teenagers on social networking websites posting true personal information, but there are also many young teenagers who false information. In fact, many young users of social networking, especially boys, give false information (Moreno et al. 251). Manipulation can occur in order for young users to join that network. Many times younger users have to lie about his or her age which is not always approved by his or her parents (Moreno et al. 253). A survey was done from children ranging from eight years old to twelve years old to provide the results that those who lied about their age did so within a four year range of their actual age. Thus, they knew they had to use false information, so they provided it with care (Moreno et al. 256). Because of the easiness to create an account falsely, it also makes it simpler to deceive one another. Deception is used to attack another user potentially causing upsetting consequences. The deception taking place online from networking is typically used to mislead others (Tsikerdekis and

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 Networking is a global platform for communication that presents many detriments to American teens. Teens nationwide use social media sites however, most do not understand the consequences of doing so. True dangers exist in the social media world through sites such as Twitter, Facebook, and MySpace. There are several reasons parents and families across the United States resent from using these sites. Social Networking is a platform that endangers individuals’ mental health through depression, addiction, and cyber-bullying.

With the development of advances in technology, communication through social networking has risen immensely. Communicating is not only less complicated, it is also relatively inexpensive. “Many teens in relationships view social media as a place where they can feel more connected with the daily events in there significant other’s life, share emotional connections, and let their significant other know they care” (Lenhart, Anderson, and Smith). However, the ease of access to social networking has allowed many adolescents to become overly involved. Networking has the potential to influence adolescents both emotionally and physically which in turn may lead to negative behaviors. An article from procon.org stated, “The use of social networking sites is correlated with personality and brain disorders, such as the inability to have in-person conversations, a need for instant gratification, ADHD, and self-centered personalities, as well as addictive behaviors” (ProCon.org). Essentially, social networking has rising negative influences on teens because of increased cyber bullying, lack of respect for personal privacy, and its addictive qualities.