Effects of Social Media on Young Generation- myassignmenthelp

Question: Write about theEffects of Social Media on Young Generation. Answer: Social media is a product of advanced technology and it has a significant impact on our society. In today's modern era social media has become an important medium of sharing our emotions, thoughts and ideas. This research paper discusses the effects of social media on the young generation and this will help on coming up with mechanisms to make social media a positive communication tool in future. At present, there are various social media platforms some can even be linked together and they have helped people to connect with others easily, create virtual relationships, share real-time information and event advertise goods and services (Boulianne 350). Social media, however, has both pros and cons. Negative effects of social media such as time wasting, cyberbullying as well as destroying the credibility of businesses due to bad ratings. Social media usage is more rampant among the young generation and they are probably most affected by social media. Social media has so many negative effects on the young generation today. According to a survey done across the United States by the few Internet American Life Project more than half (55%) of all of online American youths ages, 12-17 use online social networking sites (Osama 94). Cyberbullying occurs almost every day across the various social media platforms. Cyberbullying is as worse as physical bullying and it affects young people when they are alone. Harmful and inappropriate images and content can be circulated easily across social media and it can be difficult to delete. Research shows that around 25% of young social media users have experienced cyberbullying or harassment, female youths being the most affected (Hamm, Michele P 775). Cyberbullying is highly associated with depression and this may lead to fatal effects such as suicide among the youths. Time wasting among the youths is another effect of social media. The various social media platforms have an addictive effect on young people and it is common to find youths glued to their phones, iPod's and laptops. Some students sacrifice their time intended for academic purposes just to be on social media. Other youths also use every opportunity they get to visit the various social media sites so as to get fast hand information of what is going on all over the world (Sherman 1027). This time could be used by the youth for self-improvement and invest it in productive activities for the individual and the society at large. Time is a resource that cannot be recovered and social media platforms encourage youths to waste a lot of their time on things that do not matter a lot in life. In the past these technologies were not so advanced and everyone enjoyed their lives instead of wasting time on the internet. The technology is changing rapidly, and more advancement can be seen in every ce ntury. Before the invention of social media youths used to spend most of their time by playing outdoor games which are physical in nature and helped in enhancing the health of young people. Another effect of the social media which effects the young generation of today's world is a change of behavior and culture. Social media has made a great impact on youth's lives as a change can be seen in their behavior as because of using a surplus amount of internet in their daily life. Many studies have been carried out on students usage of social media, its impact on their social behavior, education, academic performance (Chukwuere 9970). Learners start becoming dependent on social media for every information they need. Social media is becoming a need for everyone and each person is becoming addicted to the internet that even they are spending a lot of time on these technologies. With the improvement in technology, research has proven that social media plays a huge role in the economic growth, uniting of friends and allow the making of new friends. While its consequences include; terrorist attack, cyberbullying, and time wasting (Chukwuere 9967).Because of using a lot of internet cyber-crime is increasing such as many criminals do hacking due to which they can easily hack your bank accounts even your social application accounts. Social media use among the youths creates virtual relationships with people all over the world and this can provide an avenue for recruitment into terrorist organizations or any other malicious groups. Social media usage causes so many health problems. Anxiety and depression among the youths can be caused by social media and they have both immediate and longtime effects on an individual. Instagram for instance, it is the leading social media platform resulting in inadequacy among people with struggling with self-esteem or youths dealing with body image issues (Perloff 365). Most social media platforms are image-based and this sends so much information which the youths feel to be associated with. The fancy lifestyles displayed by celebrities in the social media make most youths feel they are lacking so much in their lives and they would fake their personality pretending to be living fancy. This makes the youth lose focus in following family traditions and even their personal principles that the society tried to instill in them. Youths tend to want to appear trendy in these social media sites and they sometimes go to the extent of sacrificing their privacy and personal principles (Be st 27-36) They sometimes share images and content that degrades their personality just to get likes and audiences from the social media "friends". Sustaining that fake image in the social media can easily make youths to forget their real identity and flow with their "self-created heaven" in social media. Social media also has some advantages for the young generation. The various social media platforms have has made it easy for young people to contact friends and relatives all over the world at the touch of a button (Valenzuela, Sebastin). It makes it easy for the youths to gain information and knowledge about their society and the world since it allows real-time transfer of information. Social media platforms also serve as a source of entertainment as long as it is not overused by the youths and become addicted to it (Vaterlaus 157). Some social media platforms such as LinkedIn have been used by organizations to share very useful information across their employees and this can be implemented for the other social media platforms. AS much as social media has numerous negative effects on the youths but it also has several benefits that cannot be overlooked. In conclusion, technologies are becoming advanced so fast that and many people are becoming dependent on it. Social media is a result of technological advancement and it has both positive and negative effects on the young generation. The current social media usage has so many negative effects such as time wasting and cyberbullying on young people. Despite the numerous negative effects social media has on youths, it can still be made a positive communication avenue. This will require educating the youths on how to use these platforms and develop mechanisms to reduce cyberbullying. Work Cited Best, Paul, Roger Manktelow, and Brian Taylor. "Online communication, social media and adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review." Children and Youth Services Review 41 (2014): 27-36. Boulianne, Shelley. "Social media use and participation: A meta-analysis of current research."Information, Communication Society18.5 (2015): 524-538. Chukwuere, Joshua Ebere and Precious Chibuike Chukwuere. "The Impact of Social Media on Social Lifestyle: A Case Study of University Female Students." Gender Behaviour, vol. 15, no. 4, Oct. 2017, pp. 9966-9981. Hamm, Michele P., et al. "Prevalence and effect of cyberbullying on children and young people: A scoping review of social media studies."JAMA pediatrics169.8 (2015): 770-777. OSAMA, MOHAMMAD. "Impact of Social Media on Teenagers: A Case Study." CLEAR International Journal of Research in Commerce Management, vol. 6, no. 3, Mar. 2015, pp. 93-95. Perloff, Richard M. "Social media effects on young womens body image concerns: Theoretical perspectives and an agenda for research." Sex Roles 71.11-12 (2014): 363-377. Sherman, Lauren E., et al. "The power of the like in adolescence: effects of peer influence on neural and behavioral responses to social media."Psychological science27.7 (2016): 1027-1035. Valenzuela, Sebastin. "Facebook, Twitter, and youth engagement: A quasi-experimental study of social media use and protest behavior using propensity score matching." (2014). Vaterlaus, J. Mitchell, et al. "# Gettinghealthy: The perceived influence of social media on young adult health behaviors."Computers in Human Behavior45 (2015): 151-157.