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Social Media is Potentially Harmful to Minors
The advancement of technology brought various developments to the communication sector. Examples of the innovations include the emergence of websites and social media applications that allow sending of messages, pictures, audios, and videos. The internet has both positive and negative impacts on the society. According to research, the minor population who comprise the highest percentage in a population, are the frequent users of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, WhatsApp, Instagram, telegram, YouTube and LinkedIn. This paper will focus on the reasons why social media is partly harmful to the young generation.
Social media disrupts relationships as young people stay star at their electronic gadgets instead of socializing and relating with those around them. Most have turned into introverts, and this negatively affects their critical social skills that are necessary for comfortable coexistence with other human beings. According to a BBC report, social media hinder free bonding, and face to face communication leading to a distant relationship between those who were once close to each other. Some unhealthy relationships have caused unfaithfulness as partner’s cheat with their online acquaintances leading to fights and nasty breakups. Social media negatively affects traditions and rituals as people change and do not follow what their culture demands them to thus creating a gap between them and those who still treasure their culture and traditions.

Cyberbullying is another significant negative impact brought by social media. Many people especially young teens have been victims of online harassers. Nick McGillivray author of what are the effects of social media on youth? States that, “45.5% of student’s report victimization by online bullying while 33.7% admitted to online bullying. “This is possible as social media allows the creation of accounts, therefore, people take advantage of this to create fake accounts with a fake profile and stroll others while hiding their true identity. Cyberbullying is mostly carried out through spreading of a rumor(s) about an individual, threats and intimidating messages. This not only leads to psychological and emotional turmoil but also can lead to suicides or attempts to murder as discussed by McGillivray.
The use of social media can be addictive. McGillivray highlights the effects internet and social media addiction. The repercussions include low concentration and a waste of time. The education performance especially of the young teens that spend most of their time on social media platforms experiences low academic achievement. Research shows that those students who are heavy users of social media attain low grades compared to those who are not social media addicts (McGillivray). According to him, “frequent social media students attain a GPA of 3.06 whereas the non-users have an average GPA of 3.82.” This is true as they get distracted and fail to focus on things that matter most such as academic. Social media addiction also promotes laziness among the young adults. It also affects employees’ productivity as a high percentage of employees who are between the ages of twenty-five to thirty-four shift their concentration by logging to social media at work (McGillivray).
Another adverse impact of internet platforms is that various people use social media including criminals who take advantage of social media to carry out their criminal activities by following posts and get to know when their victims are not around for example if they post that they are on vacations, that’s when the criminals break into their homes thus they suffer valuable properties loss. Social media also allows the spread of propaganda and hate speech which is not right. The young teens are vulnerable as some get recruited to hate groups or terrorist groups as they can be easily lured by being promised wealth and lavish lifestyle. Others have paid costly due to their previous posts on issues related to racism, alcohol and drug abuse when job recruiters decide to check their social media accounts before employing them (McGillivray).
Personal integrity is negatively affected when explicit online content such as pornographic content or obscene materials from strangers or online acquaintances reach the younger generation. This explains why a country such as China discourages pornography associated websites. Most parents do not monitor what their kids do on social media platforms. The obscene contents expose the young population to hazardous materials as they get exposed to substances that might corrupt their characters. Some practice what they see their role models doing on social media platforms. These idols might post for instance inappropriate materials and those admiring them might think it is cool to do that and end up emulating them (McGillivray).
Social media is harmful to mental health as people post their pictures looking happy successful and satisfied. This can result in problems such as low self-esteem, depression, and anxiety as others admire the lives of those who show off and stress why they cannot be like them and afford what others have. This can be a motivation for someone to work hard and have a similar lifestyle, but to others, it can cause harm as they feel they are not worthy enough. On the other hand, those who are flaunting on social media might be stressed on how to maintain the classy lifestyle they claim to have led to depression if they fail to keep it (McGillivray).
Most teens have been victimized through social media platforms. They are duped in ways such as people posting their explicit or inappropriate pictures without their consent or will. They also get harassed sexually through comments. Sexual solicitation is also prevalent by unknown persons to the youngsters.it is possible for sexual predators to find their victims through social media as they stalk and assault their victims when they see them. This may affect an individual negatively as their reputation is ruined and some cannot be strong enough to absorb it and continue with life or to open up and talk about it. Sexy photos and comments online posted by the young population can lead to child pornography or criminal charges (McGillivray).
Social media also is harmful to the young population as they are vulnerable to death when their privacy is breached. This is possible through hacking of accounts. They can also suffer a financial loss when their financial accounts are hacked as the young people reveal too much information to strangers who pretend to be friendly but with hidden motives. Trusting strangers and disclosing sensitive information such as sharing location has led to the kidnapping and sexual abuse of the young generation especially the female gender. Most young people are ignorant and do not read the terms and conditions of social media platforms carefully. Therefore, they do not know that their information can be used by third parties such as advertisers. Thus they post and share their personal information freely which is not safe (McGillivray).
Dangerous stunts seen on social media might be life threating to the rising generation. These stunts videos can be found on YouTube which is easily accessible to anyone. Such tricks encourage dangerous behaviors among the young people. Example of a dangerous game is the choking game. This can lead to death as there have been various instances where young people have died while playing the dangerous game (McGillivray).
Sharing too much is at times unhealthy. Each has a set of behaviors which another person would want to emulate. The friends that we have under normal circumstances are millions. But sharing various ideas, issues, and encounter on Facebook, Snapchat among other sites is not advisable. The dissemination of such information may end up to people who are either not interested in our ordinary lives or have harmful intentions. That means, our relationship may end up becoming fatal or unhealthy.
More so, social media has various emotional implications as argued by psychological experts. The kids already suffering from low-esteem can easily judge themselves according to friends on Facebook, followers on Twitter and Snapchat among others (“Negative Effects of Social Media On Children and Teenagers,” n, p). Such children may be affected more because they tend to think that their success can be judged by the number of friends they have, which is wrong in the real sense.Lack of interpersonal skills is another impact that emanates from over-reliance on social media. Some of the children tend to spend most of their time online. Such children may end up ignoring the relevance of as well as appropriate behavior related to personal or face to face contact. Those children may end up being affected in life because they lack interpersonal skills required for success in real life situations.
The brain development is another aspect that is adversely affected by the social media. The way brain process information is profoundly impacted by the social media. Also, the social media can change the way users react to situations and recall essential events. According to the current research, many adolescents suffer from addiction to the internet. They usually undergo brain structural changes such as reduced grey matter. The multitasking nature associated with the web is also not healthy for the teens.
In conclusion, not only do social media harm the young generation but also impact them positively. Social media enhances connectivity as people from different parts of the world connect despite the distance between them making the world a small village. It is also an important platform for students and different experts or professionals engage and exchange ideas and information. People also get to know what is going on in different parts of the word and can support those in need when their plight is highlighted bringing us together as a community. Social media has maintained relationships with relatives or friends who are far from each other as it strengthens their ties to frequent social media communication. Therefore, if social media is used well, then it can never be harmful. Parents need to monitor and ensure surveillance of what their children do and who they are talking to online. Social media has made life easier to a great extent as companies can carry out online recruitment. Therefore, this is one way of how the young people get employed. Online shopping is now possible thanks to social media as it saves time as people purchase and make payments and their goods are delivered to their doorstep. The younger generation should be responsible users of social media and stay away from people and things that might threaten their peace of mind, health, goals, and reputation.
Work Cited
McGillivray, Nick. “What are the Effects of Social Media on Youth?” TurboFuture (2015). Day accessed 19 April 2018. <www.turbofuture.com/internet/effects-of-social media-on-our-youth>.
“10 Negative Effects of Social Media On Children and Teenagers”. Technocrazed.Com, 2018, http://www.technocrazed.com/top-10-negative-effects-of-social-media-on-children-and-teenagers. Accessed 29 Apr 2018.