I have a Twitter and a Facebook account, and both I find myself using not as much as I used to. As a matter of fact I find myself using the internet a lot less of late; it just seems to have lost “that thing” that made it extraordinary at first. I just think the longer it’s around, or the more advanced it gets, the more it has a negative influence on society and individuals. To me, social media has created a new form of bullying, stereotyping, and racism. Along with the overuse of the internet, giving social media more authority, where it is able to expand in form. And last but not least, the way people have taken something that started out constructive, and mutated it into something that can be so negative. Some days when I sit and look at how the world is so reliant on media outlets and the opinions of others it disturbs me.
When Facebook was first formed, in 2004 it was just for students that attended Harvard University, then college students in the Boston area and then, it ultimately became available to college students nationwide. In 2006 it was made available for anyone over the age of thirteen with a valid email address. I joined Facebook around the beginning of 2007, my sophomore year of high school; and it was like a whole new world opened up for me. There I could add my friends and see everything they had to say, and they could say the same for me. I not only added people I knew personally, there were people I went to school with but didn’t know, or surrounding schools; people I went to elementary school or grammar school with, or people with an attractive profile picture, or shared mutual friends.
I loved Facebook the first couple of years; I visited the website recurrently, constantly updating my status and uploadin...
... middle of paper ...
...://www.dosomething.org/tipsandtools/11-facts-about-cyber-bullying#>.
"Are Social Networking Sites Good for Our Society?" Procon.org. N.p, 15 Oct. 2013. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .
Greenleaf, Jenn. "Social Addiction: Is Social Networking Negatively Influencing Relationships?" Social News Daily. Social News Daily, 20 Nov. 2012. Web. 08 Dec. 2013. .
Jung, David. "The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals." Chron.com. Houston Chronicle, n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .
"What Is Cyberbullying?" Stopbullying.gov. U.S. Department of Human Health & Services, n.d. Web. 8 Dec. 2013. .
It has been forty three years since the first email was delivered; since then, our ways of communication have changed. We are now living in a society in which almost everybody is provided with a piece of communicating technology to keep in touch with each other. Social networking service, a platform for people who want to share interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections over the Internet, has deeply affected our life in many ways. The debate as to whether the influences are positive or negative has been a controversial issue since 72 percent of all internet users are now active on social media (22 Social Media Facts and Statistics You Should Know in 2014). So, how does social media affect our lives? Speaking for myself, I think social networking is slowly damaging our everyday life by crawling into our personal life, turning into a deadly weapon, and becoming a dangerous addiction and distraction.
CyberBullying.com - CyberBullying. US. Cyberbullying Research Center, n.d. Web. The Web. The Web.
One’s amount of Facebook reflects how popular one wish to appear online more than how healthy one’s friendship truly is. Constant usage of Facebook allows user to potentially feel like they have a meaningful social life, when in reality, they are missing something. In Stephen Marche’s 2102 article, “Is Facebook making Us Lonely?” he notes that Facebook was introduced to the world in the midst of spreading and intensifying loneliness, an idea to which he greatly attributes Facebook’s appeal and success (Marche 26). Initially, social networking sites seem to be evidence of modern-day social interaction being easier and more convenient than ever.
“I didn't know what Facebook was, and now that I do know what it is, I have to say, it sounds like a huge waste of time –Betty White (“Betty White Quotes,” 2014, para. 1).” This quote can be interpreted to fit with several of the social media avenues that many people spend their time on. Day in and day out people post, tweet, share, and pin countless times throughout the world. These different forms of communication were first created for an easier way for people to connect with others. Yet now, so much time is spent on these social sites that it has warped the interactive part and is causing more damage than good. Many are growing a desire and are living for the amount of “likes” they can receive on a post or how many re-tweets they can generate. Instead of going to these outlets to participate in a partial portion of their social lives, people are filling that time with the technological aspect of communication. As White said, this can become an inordinate amount of wasted time and can ultimately grow into further damaging circumstances. These different social media channels can cause emotional harm through disparaging the relationship between friends, conjuring of a narcissistic personality, and the retrogradation of ones self-esteem.
In today’s society, we often ask if social media is a good or bad thing. There so many good things about social media but even more negative things. The pros and cons are endless to say, but the reasons on why social has good or bad reputation is due to the lack of control on the internet. Social media has so many positives. From connectivity to self /business promotion or to awareness to culture. The negatives from bullying to hackers and stalkers. They lack of communication that lead to violence. Social Networks are one of the most entertaining activities to humans with over billions of accounts around the world; however, sometimes it affects us in very negative ways.
Walton, Alice G. "Jealous Of Your Facebook Friends? Why Social Media Makes Us Bitter." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 22 Jan. 2013. Web. 29 Apr. 2014. .
environment where increased critical thinking and collaboration are possible. A study done by Annetta and Jackson shows that students who participate in social media as part of a class feel more connected to their peers that those students who do not participate in social media type education (Annetta, Jackson, 2011). Social media allows students to not only group themselves with peers who are similar, but also to enhance and link existing peer groups. In addition to enhancing established peer groups, social media can bridge the diversity that exists in classrooms by establishing a “neutral zone” in which students can interact with one another. For many
This research is unique because it will give light to the individuals who are against social networking that will not take to consideration that it has any positive outcomes at all and to those who believe that social networking has no downfalls and are too blinded by the social networking to even notice the affects it has on their own lives.
“Social media, a web-based and mobile technology, has turned communication into a social dialogue, and dominates the younger generation and their culture. As of 2010, Generation Y now outnumbers Baby Boomers, and 96% of Gen Y has joined a social network” (Qualman 1). Social media now accounts for the number one use of the Internet, and this percentage is rising bigger every day (Qualman). As a consequence, people are becoming more reliant on social media, which has a led to a number of advantageous as well as unfavorable effects. The world is more connected today than it has ever been in the past, and this is all because of growth in technology. What has yet to be determined though
Communication plays an important role and becomes an essential part in our daily lives. Today we have taken communication to new level as social media and social networking. They have had a tremendous impacts on the word, on our culture and in business as well. Social media websites are some of the most popular on the internet, such as Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, etc. They are the places where people can interact with others easily and expose themselves to strangers. Our generation and the younger ones have more opportunities to grow up with the new development of technology that will shape the way they live of communicating and sharing ideas. The social media causes some problems that lead to less social interaction and negatively affect students academic, but it also brings benefit to people that creates new social connections to bring people from all over the world to be closer.
Social media has nothing but negative effects on people’s minds. Social networking can become very addicting and people can get wrapped up in the drama and excitement of the cyber world. It would only improve our society today if social media never existed to our knowledge. Our society today feels so connected with social media that it interferes with our lives making every task even harder with the temptations.
Social networking is doing more harm than good in society, if traditional and personal interactions continue to be replaced with conversations through online networking sites, it won’t be long before they are perceived as the ‘norm’. Traditional methods of interaction will continue to be at risk if the effects of social media are not realised. Social networking sites were created as a means of making it easier for individuals to communicate in a timely and efficient manner, they were not created to take over face-to-face communications altogether. The constant use of online networking is doing more harm than good not only individually, similarly through the community
Did you remember to tell your cousin happy birthday on Facebook? Do you know how many people liked your latest picture on instagram? Or how many retweets did you get on your totally relatable and borderline inspirational tweet? As of January 2014, 74% of online adults use social networking sites (Rainie). Also more than 9 out of 10 American teenagers use social media(Blaszczak). Because of social networking we are becoming more connected than ever before. Important information can spread faster than wildfire, and we now have the ability to have friends and relationships all over the world. With the ability to communicate and interact with anyone at our fingertips what could go wrong? Well...lots of things.
The rapid growth of technology in our society has become more dominant than it was in the 17th and 18th century. Today, technology is used for almost everything in our day to day lives. But the most common usage of technology is for communication and industrialization. However, every good thing has its disadvantage if it is over used, and since technology has become very dominant, it is used by both young and older people but more predominant among the youth of the today. Even more, technology has brought about social networking such as Facebook, Twitter, my space, piazza.com, instagram, tango, and last but not the least texting. According to socialnetworking.procon.org, “47% of American adults used social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Classmates.com in 2011, up from 26% in 2008. [26] on social media sites like these, users may develop biographical profiles, communicate with friends and strangers, do research, and share thoughts, photos, music, links, and more” (procon.org. 1). Although these sites help many Americans to connect with their family and friends, have we really thought about how these sites are discouraging some students to spend less time with their books, how young adults are losing their marriages, the indecent behavior it is promoting, and how it has escalated texting and driving in our society? Obviously not!
With the way the world is now it should not be a surprise to anyone that social media has literally taken over the world in this day and age. From late 2008 to early 2009 the size of Facebook users doubled from 100 million to 200 million in eight months, and was already up to 400 million by early 2010. Twitter also raised its number of users in 2009 from 4.5 million to 20 million (Zandt). These numbers just show what Facebook and Twitter have accomplished. Other social media sites that are getting more and more popular are Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Pinterest, and many others social media websites that people use on a daily basis. With one in four people using social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, it is no wonder that all of these social media websites are considered to be important (Whiteman). With a few clicks of a button or taps on a screen, a person can be connected to family and friends in every corner of the world. Social media can even allow people to see what their favorite celebrities are doing with their lives. According to Honor Whiteman,”Social media defines an array of internet sites that enable people from all over the world to interact. This can be through discussion, photos, video and audio (Whiteman).” Social media is a beast in its own right that is used by a multitude of people all over the world everyday for things such as updating their Twitter status for personal use to updating a company 's Facebook page on a weekly basis. Yes, there is no doubt about it, social media has done its share of very good things, but there is also an entire list of the negative things about using these websites that can really make a person question if they should even be on them. Af...