Identity theft and fraud are two bothersome concerns that have come out of social networking sites. There is potential for exposure to cyber crime including online predators. There is also a chance of people’s profiles being hacked for their e-mail addresses, name, location, age, and much other personal information that users give out so others can use them in performing illegal activities. There are also people who pretend to be somebody else and convince you that they are in for a business deal, ask to meet up with you, but the truth is they are there to rob you out of your money. When people lie about who they are, they may use deceiving pictures.
Cases of online harassment and stalking have also been a concern which falls into cyber bullying / harassment where younger people are vulnerable to. People who may have issues with you or for whatever reason can just search on your name and continuously stalk or harass you. In order to address this, users are allowed to report or block users that go out of bound. A few examples of some of the websites being used are Facebook, Myspace,...
With the ever increasing influence of social media in our daily lives, we are seeing more individuals suffer from the negative effects of being constantly exposed to images of "ideal" body types. In Beauty and Thinness Messages in Children’s Media Analysis it is stated that “Research suggests that young children have body image concerns, such as a desire for thinness and avoidance to obesity.” The analysis continues with saying that “Few studies have investigated how children’s body preferences and stereotypes are influenced by media aimed at children. Results indicated that messages emphasizing the importance of physical appearance and portraying body stereotypes are present in many children 's videos but relatively few books (Herbozo S, Tantleff-Dunn S, Gokee-Larose J, Thompson JK, 2004).” The reshaping of beauty standards are fueled by unrealistic expectations through media, as there has been a huge difference in the way people promote themselves through social media in the last few years. This can have major effects on people as it influences negative body image which, coincidentally, can lead people to develop things such as eating disorders. With that being said, social media, through the use of alter egos, gives
Social media first started in 1979, with post to newsgroups and bulletin boards. Next came the chat room, which Compuserve introduced in 1980. Social networking may only be thirty-six years old but it this short time it has redefined our society. Most people within society may view the impact of social media to positive, but there are others, such as myself, which would argue social media is doing more harm than good because it is robbing us of our privacy, weakens our verbal communication skills with others and can become an addiction.
The general argument made by Natalie Jacewicz in her article "Social media bad for the minds of young people, right? Maybe not." is that "social media may help improve mental health by boosting self-esteem". More specifically Jacewicz argues that we should embrace social media because it "provides a source of emotional support". I disagree with Jacewicz argument and say that young American women and men my age should limit the amount of time they spend on social media because too much it is bad for their health, both physically and psychologically. Let me explain the divisions of how in details below.
“What is interesting is the power and the impact of social media... So we must try to use social media in a good way.”(Yousafzai) Many believe that the negative use of social media is one of the major problems not only in America but in the world. When social media is overused or not properly used, problems can occur for a person no matter the age or socioeconomic class. One of today’s major issues is teenagers and their use of social media.
Social networking sites give their users an easy way to share information about themselves. However, many users are quickly finding that the information they intend to share with their friends can all too easily find its way into the hands of the authorities, strangers, the press, and the public at large. For example, job recruiters are looking to these sites as well as performing more traditional background checks on potential employees. Performing a search using these sites may result in retrieving a substantial amount of personally identifiable information about a person. (epic.org, 2010)
Most people believe that social messaging is more of a benefit than a consequence, but using social media can actually be harmful. Social media is something most kids, teens, and even some adults are using all the time. It has become a part of our generation’s lives. Having people on their phones all day long is not only disappointing, but also damaging. Instead of talking to someone face-to-face and hanging out, people prefer just texting or going on a social network. For some people understanding a life without social media is near impossible. Using social media can have some adverse effects such as: it causes cyberbullying, it can compromise education, and it could have an effect on social skills.
The effects of social media seems miniscule compared to the real effects that they really intel. He believes that there is a strong correlation between social media usage and the degradation in the quality of performance from students in schools across the United States of America, from the grades of freshman through senior year in high school. It shortens our attention spans, diminishes our vision uses—in terms of far sided, near sided, and peripheral vision—and it’s such a major part of our culture that the majority of us fail to recognize that the very thing that society continuously does is setting them up for failure in the most excruciating ways.
Nowadays, it is not only common to have social media accounts such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, but expected. Many people know the numerous benefits of signing-up for these accounts: keeping in touch with friends, being able to organize information and photographs, keeping track of dates or news, and many more. However, new research suggests that the use of these social media networks, specifically Twitter, can cause great unhappiness in relationships (“Twitter use…”). It appears that the social media page can act as a third member of the relationship. The use of these networks can take up so much time of one or both of the partners, that it is like having another person in the relationship. Unfortunately, this loss of time as well as the other negative affects social media has on relationships, can lead to communication issues and arguments.
Being involved socially online can open many doors to hackers and scammers. Posting too much information online can be a way for scammers to steal information.
With the level of exposure that teens are facing today by joining the social networking trend, they often forget the dangers of social networking such as stalkers and pedophiles, who may use the sites as a major tool of the trade. Said dangers can befriend naïve teens and lure them into dangerous situations. For example, Raymond Wang had a friend being stalked by an unknown person through one of the social networking sites. This stalker acquired private information about her via Facebook, and it got to the point where the stalker was sending her threatening or perverted letters to her actual mailbox detailing what he would do to her. “This has really affected her a lot because now she’s scared other stalkers might do the same and she doesn't want that to happen or have anything happen to her.” (Wang 19) Even though users are given the option to make one’s profile private, there is still the looming threat that stalkers are able to gather enough information about the person’s whereabouts. Another similar incident happened to Regina Chau, a member of a social networking site catered to the raver lifestyle, Plurlife. When she first joined with her offline friends she liked everything about the SNS, but “[where] most of the people you accept to your friends list would probably be strangers.” (Chau 18) she had befriended a person she did not know offline and one these “friends” got a little too friendly with her; “he would keep asking over and over if I wanted to meet up with him at the next event. I found this a little creepy and did not message him back after that.
...ter phishing and hacking dangers. Online predators can now have access to profiles and photos to choose from. Fake profiles are often made to engage in fraudulent connections. Many measures have been out in place by these social networks to protect the users with privacy settings. New updates are never in lack to insure the users privacy but the user must engage and enable them. These risk are at the discretion of the users responsibility.
Social media is so popular that according to a recent article published by forbes.com, “72% of American adults are currently using social media sites; that figure has gone up 800% in just 8 years”(Olenski). Social networking was originally created to simply reconnect people with old high school pals, but in recent years it has evolved into a completely different operation. When social media first originated it was also intended for adult usage, which has in recent years expanded into the usage of all ages. Social media can create a negative affect on lives because it has been proven to be a dangerous addiction, for it takes away interpersonal relationships that are essential in life, and it has been proven to prevent people from being productive in life.
Using social media not only may lead to violent behavior but also has caused both emotional and social changes. Social media, especially Facebook, has resulted in students becoming heavily addicted to social media, and while many individuals would argue that drugs and/or alcohol are more addictive than social media or that social media addiction is not a huge problem, the fact is that social media is addictive and potentially problematic (Ann, 2011). Students that utilize social media on a regular basis may lose their ability to engage in meaningful face-to-face communication (Albury & Crawford, 2012). Even if the world is currently turning to technology, students must be able to converse in the real-life setting. Most social media websites have become highly famous for cyberbullying, and this has become an unfortunate trend in society. Students may write hurtful messages about their fellow students, which may scare the bullied students for extended periods (Albury & Crawford, 2012). Another issue with social media is that it has become impossible to know whether the students will utilize this medium in a constructive way.
Social media has impacted everyone that has used it some point in his or her life. Since the world is increasing in technology advances, so is social media which can be good and bad. Technology has made a huge difference in the world and definitely how people are doing things now. Yes, the Internet can be good for the majority of things we use it for such as finding research, keeping in touch with family or friends who are far away, and saving time and money. Others like to take advantage of social media and use it in a way that can hurt people; it may not hurt them physically, but it can hurt them emotionally. Examples of how some people use the Internet in a bad way include cyberbullying, identity theft, or cyberstalking. Social media has impacted the Millennial generation for sure.
Today technology has created new styles of communication on the internet for us all. This technology has made great impact on everyday life in today’s society. Cyber communications have become hugely popular in the last decade, especially those websites that help people to find new or old friends, keep in touch with families, and even help people to find potential dates! The numbers of people using cyber social networking are growing in millions every year. Cyber social networks have helped people link to each other with common interests, and expand personal ideas and support worldwide. But people are getting too friendly with this technology. Dangers are slowly appearing, and there still have a lot of hidden threats. Cyber social networks are threats to our personal social lives, lead into new addictions, and compromise the security of privacy issues.