Computer Science and Information Technology - Report Example

? Computer Science and Information Technology This paper looks into the digital media under the social networking sites and their contribution to social and ethical challenges within the specific group, youths in the society. It has become apparent that the social sites are popular with the youths and still the popularity is growing at an alarming rate. It was thus important to look at the impact of these social sites on this critical segment of the societal population, in looking at these possibilities, the paper give an in depth account of the demographics associated with the social sites. The different proportions of the ages engaged in the sites coupled with the geographical representation of the popular sites are also looked into. There is also a discussion of how the relation of the youths as a demographic group is affected by the social sites and in this case, the social aspects as well as the ethical and moral turpitude as influenced by the sites are considered. Further to this, the advantages and the disadvantages of the sites to the youths is discussed to give a better understanding on how these sites builds or breaks the social fiber in the society that goes in tandem with the ethical part of the society. The paper also give an explanation of the occurrence of how the society has made a perfect person that is played out in the sites with a conclusion that gives remedy and precautionary measures that should be considered to avert possible negative impacts imminent in the social sites. Introduction With the development of the digital media, the contemporary society enjoys much more features from the digital media than before, today, through the social networking sites, information can be retrieved in seconds; there are millions of information that is relayed second by seconds and all this information reaches those who are in the social networking sites. The digital media through the social networking sites have thus revolutionized many things in the contemporary society amongst them is information flow and socialization with different people from different areas around the world. It has opened new frontiers in the society on how people relates, associates, conceive the world, there is more openness because people can relate with those they could not have related with without the role played by the digital media. To some extent, digital media that is the social networking sites provides educative and explorative avenues through which users can grow intellectually. We have YouTube that has a plethora of videos captured and that can be down loaded for intellectual enrichment, these videos includes lectures and instructions that can be used by students and specialist to improve their intellectual acumen (Lenhart, 2007). This is not the only provision of the digital media, they can also be a platform for moral decay, and most of the sites are equally not morally upgrading and have been the contributing factor on the moral degradation in the society. It is thus important to sieve and know the digital sites that are good for consumption and those that are not lest you be a slave of those sites that adds no value to life. Research As indicated in the introductory part above, this paper seeks to research on the effect of digital media through social sites on youths. Today, many digital social sites are available for consumption by unlimited people around the world, the social sites provides a conduit through which information can flow, people can interact, and learn through one another. It also provides a platform through which new friendship could be made virtually by associating online with those people who are in the far-flung areas (Kiesbye, 2011). Ideally, it makes the world to be a small village through which we can easily get to learn several things that are going on around the world in a snapshot. Given this background, corroborated with the fact that about 900 million people visits the social networking sites every month recording about 7 billion visits, it is imperative to research the manner and the different ways through which the teenagers are using the digital social networking sites and the impact of their relation with the social sites (Kiesbye, 2011). In this research paper, information was sought from all possible social sites with the view of finding out the proportion of the youths or teenagers within the age of 18 and 29 who uses the social site all over the world. It also looked into the aspect of the level of consumption of the digital media in these social sites by the youths as well as the possible consequences of their proximity with the social media networks. Some of the social networking sites that the research looked into include; facebook, twitter, Instagram, pinterest, and blogs (Bradburne, 2007). There are several sites available online today for interactive sessions, some of them are also meant for entertainment, there has been animated debate on the effects of these social sites on the youths with a sharp division that they are not good for consumption by the youths as they are misleading. There are concerns that the sites are responsible for the deteriorating ethical conduct by the youths and that they are deprived of the precious time that they should use to do other constructive things academically or otherwise (Lenhart, 2007). There are also those who are concerned about the advantages of the social sites, the games and the entertainment sites as being good for IQ development of the teens, it was thus interesting to do research and find out how the social sites affects and influences the way teenagers relates. It is believed that teenagers are the most vulnerable group in this area and that without precautionary measures; they stand to lose a great deal if the sites can twist their perception of the world negatively (Bradburne, 2007). They are the worst hit in terms of the numbers and time taken in the social sites daily, it is known that the sites are addictive and in most occasions, one would be taking at least 5 hours in a day interacting with them. Findings Based on the finding of the research that was done on the consumption of the digital media by youths specifically on social networking sites, it became apparent that there are five fundamental issues that have to be keenly looked into; identity, authorship, credibility, ownership, privacy and participation. These are basic concerns that every person will be considering when using social networking sites, it is true that the identity of those in the social sites are not verifiable, it is highly possible that many people will pose as male, female or as a youth while the truth is that they are just facades (Espejo, 2012). They tend to disguise their physical appearance and knowing who is genuine and who is not is impossible, this issue has made the social sites to be highly discouraged and condemned to be full of treacherous individuals who are out to fool and exploit others unsuspectingly. The other issue is the authenticity of the information that is being shared in the sites, be it facebook, twitter, or some of the blogs, all of them are not subjected to any stringent moderation of verification, these provides a wide open ground for malicious insinuations and outrageous information to be circulated. It has become obvious that there is no editorial policies related to the social sites in the digital media and anyone can say and post anything without it being attributed to him/her. This is very dangerous particularly with the digital age where information circulation takes only a few hours to reach millions of people; there is possibility of some certain individuals using this privilege to pull down other people’s reputation, particularly celebrities. Through the research, it has thus been found that the information in the social media sites is not verifiable and can be misleading most of the times (Espejo, 2012). This gives the impression that most of the youths who takes much of their time in the social sites may be accumulating misleading information that may affect them psychologically and emotionally. Some of the findings that were also realized include those enumerated below; Demographic Composition of the Social Networking Sites As indicated above, there are many social networking sites available online, the users of these social sites can be demographically considered in terms of age and geographical category. In this research, it was found out that youths are much associated with the social sites than older adults. According to the information retrieved from research done by Pew, it was found that facebook is the leading popular sites in the US with about 67 % of adults using it, this was closely followed by Twitter that records a popularity of 16%, Instagram, Pinterest, and Tumblr takes their share to be 13%, 15%, and 6% respectively. Based on twitter users, it was found out that majority (27%) are aged between 18-29, most of the adults are not in twitter and considering the racial factor, Pew research reveals that most of the twitter fans are Black followed by the Hispanic and lastly by the Whites in a proportion of 26%, 19%, and 14% respectively. It was also found out that most of those who twit are urban dwellers since they comprise 20% of the total users. Those in the suburbs take 14% while the rural dwellers take up 12%. In facebook, it was found that it remains the most popular site for social interaction engaging about 67% of the adult users in the US (Espejo, 2008). In terms of age, it was found out that the those between the ages of 18 and 29 dominates the site at 86%, while 73% of those aged between 30-49 are also found in the site, for those of age 50-64, 57% are interested in the site while those of 65+ are represented by 35% (Espejo, 2008). Considering gender balance, it is found that females exceeds the number of male who are using facebook and the statistics stands at 72% vs 62% (Espejo, 2008). Instagram as indicated above also attracts about 13% of the adult users in US and this takes different proportions considering other factors like race, in this regard, most of the instagram users are African-Americans, followed by Hispanic and Whites and the statistics stands at 23%, 18%, and 11% respectively (Espejo, 2008). From the findings availed in this paper, it is true that the category that is most represented in the social sites are youths, it was also interesting then to know how they are affected through consuming the provisions of the digital media, the effects were looked into two spheres; the advantage and the disadvantages. Social and Ethical Issues related to the Social Networking Sites It is true that the advent of the social sites have had a radical change on the way teens spend most of their social lives, today, the social sites take much of the teen’s time since the narcissistic tendency has taken a toll on the youths. Youths rarely hangout as was the case in the past, they do not even take part in extra curriculum activities, most of their time is spent uploading Photoshop enhanced images of themselves and then watching the ‘likes’ and the comment of the virtual audience (Engdahl, 2007). The social sites have led to a virtual competition for coveted titles of the kings and the queens of the world, teens have become more concerned about what people says of them that it is degenerating to be an addiction of its on-social networking sites. From this research, it has also been realized that most of the youths today are not enjoying their time in get-together parties because most of them are busy clicking snaps, uploading them in the social sites to inform the virtual world of what is going on before starting to wait for the virtual comments and likes. The networking sites have thus created a culture in teens that is crowned with self-obsession and imaginary self-importance that comes from the comments and ‘likes’ given by those who actually do not care about what is going on, the social life part of the teens has been shaped negatively by this culture originating from the social sites (Engdahl, 2007). Again, the virtual world necessitated by the networking sites, people spend most of their time trying to upload their best-considered images in order to capture attention of the people who are following posts in the virtual world. At times, this does not work as expected, a friend’s picture might get more attention in the sites that no one gives any comment any other pictures; this brings negative impact on self-esteem especially on ladies (Smith, 2009). If their pictures are not ‘liked’ or no appreciative comments attached to them, the research has realized that they lose self-confidence in them and start to have low self-esteem in them. It can then be understood how far the social sites affects the social lives of the teens, they touch on the emotional and psychological status and one can be affected adversely if they do not have a strong will power. There is also a strong sense of personal space loss, in the social sites it is common to find that people are posting personal issues in a desperate attempt to find solution to their problem, what people are missing to know in this endeavor is the manner in which the virtual world takes the posts. Other than infringing on your own personal space of privacy, those who share their tribulation in the social sites are merely playing to the public gallery because nobody takes them seriously (Smith, 2009). Thus, the social sites should be carefully used to avoid illusion tendency that is fast catching with it amongst the teens as this research reports. Context and additional Explanations It is true that the social sites are taking a toll on the social lives of the teens and has also led to breach of the societal ethics through nudity post that are relayed to the sites. The problem with all these is that the society has created an imaginary perfect person that they want to see, and that should behave in a particular way, most of the youths are chasing this imaginary creation without any reservation. In the blogs, twits and facebook, teens want to satisfy the perceived needs of other people by doing things that they do not really approve in ordinary life but because of the need to satisfy the virtual audience, they fall a pray and engage in such acts that degrade their moral turpitude and put their morally to question (Branson, 2011). Many issues are being looked into by teens when storming the social sites, people wants attention from all spheres both physical and virtual, the social media that can only provide for the virtual one has received many likes than the physical one (Branson, 2011). Most teens would have psychological satisfaction when their images are liked and ‘good’ comments are posted against their pictures, it creates a feeling on universal reception to them and this becomes an addiction that is making the teens to comply by spending time to Photoshop and do editorial so that they can get the virtual fame that impact less. Conclusions Most of the human personalities are developed during teen’s lifetime; this is the critical time when most of the people take option on what they want to be in life. This is in how they think, reason, and relates with others, if this period is not carefully watched and regulated, there is a possibility of negative values being instilled in one and it might be very difficult to correct them after they are fully imbibed. Social sites are provision of the digital media, they contain educative, entertaining, and some other interactive media that one can utilize to change their lives positively, in the same breadth, they can also affect one negatively by influencing their characters, depriving them of time to engage in other constructive activities leading to loss of useful time, and addiction. Therefore, it is important to use the social sites in a responsible way such that they do not have undue influence over one’s character and moral values, parent are thus advised to guide their children through this challenging period in their children’s life so that they be responsible users of the social sites. In some other instances, digital media has been accused of accelerating some of the medical conditions like obesity because of the sedentary lives that those addicted in it lives. There should also be restrictions and censorship on the servers of some sites depending on one’s age, this will reduce early introduction of children into the sites that makes them be possessed before they reach some age in which they can be responsible. Otherwise, the content of the social sites provides one with the opportunity to explore the world virtually if responsibly used; it can be educative and entertaining at the same time. Reference Bradburne, A. (2007). Practical Rails social networking sites. Berkeley, CA: Apress ;. Branson, T. (2011). Social Networking Sites. Washington, D.C.: Facts on File. Engdahl, S. (2007). Online social networking. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press. Espejo, R. (2008). Should social networking web sites be banned?. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. Espejo, R. (2012). Social networking. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press. Kiesbye, S. (2011). Are social networking sites harmful?. Detroit: Greenhaven Press. Lenhart, A. (2007). Social networking websites and teens an overview. Washington, D.C.: Pew/Internet. Smith, D. (2009). Social networking for genealogists. Baltimore: Genealogical Pub. Co.. Read More