Detrimental Effects of Social Media on Teenagers

970 Words2 Pages

The use of social media (which includes such media as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr) has become so popular among today’s youth, that it is becoming more than just a fragment of the youth’s world, it is becoming their world. According to a social network statistics report conducted on August 18, 2013, ninety-eight percent of teens are already using some form of social media. Teens are spending more and more time online, typically on a social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter. Instead of being limited to an online life at home, most teens now have smart phones that allow them to be on social media sites at any time of the day. They are constantly tweeting, updating statuses, and posting pictures via Instagram. While social media is used by most teenagers today and it introduces them to people they would never have met in the days before the internet, social media, overall, has a harmful effect on how teenagers interact socially face-to-face because of cyberbullying, false identities, and sexting.
Cyberbullying is intentionally using media in order to relay false, hostile, or embarrassing information about another person. Parents can often remember when bullying was only used in school, and once a child came home that child was protected. Now, because social media has become so popular among teens, bullying has progressed to online use also. Cyberbullying is one of the most common problems of the use of social media among teens and it can lead to potentially harmful behaviors. According to Amanda Lenhart of Pew Research Center, “(32%) of all teenagers who use the internet claim to have been targets of online activities – such as receiving threatening messages; having their private emails or text messages forwarde...

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...feel unaccepted by people offline. Once a teen becomes socially isolated, he or she may turn to different Internet sites that could potentially promote behaviors such as drinking, smoking, or cutting.

Works Cited

1. Lenhart A. Cyberbullying. Washington, DC: Pew Research Center; 2007.Available at: www.pewinternet.org/Reports/2007/Cyberbullying.aspx. Accessed November 9, 2013
2. Lee Rainie, Amanda Lenhart, and Aaron Smith, "The Tone of Life on Social Networking Sites," www.pewinternet.org . Feb. 9, 2012
3. Lehrer, Jonah. We,Robots. London: Oxford U.P., 1967. Print.
4. National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. Sex and Tech: Results of a Survey of Teens and Young Adults. Washington, DC: National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy; 2008. Available at: www.thenationalcampaign.org/SEXTECH/PDF/SexTech_Summary.pdf. Accessed November 9, 2013

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