Effects of Social Media on Youth - Assignment Example

Effects of Social Media on Youth Introduction Since the development of social media, there have been many studies on its effects on people in various age groups. Researchers have been particularly interested in the effects of social media on the youth, who are its biggest users. The impacts of social media are wide and varied, and currently there is no greater pastime for most people than being on social media platforms chatting with friends checking on latest news. In spite of all it positive impacts, the negative effects of social media deserve more research to understand exactly how it influences young people. In this paper, the writer will examine the various effects of social media on the youth and what they mean to the future of not just young people, but also social media itself. The aim of this paper is to explain, using exemplification to support arguments and assertions. “Thesis Statement”: Social media is the biggest influence on youth, no other activity or pastime affects young people in the way social media does. Discussion According to a study sponsored by the International Telecommunication Union, social media has become the most used medium for interaction among young people. However, the study also showed that its popularity has also contributed to decline of morals among the youth and an increase in the amount of vices among young people. The use of social media has directly and indirectly contributed to an increase in the viewing of pornographic content among young people and a tendency to practice what they see online. Based on various researches, incidences of students and children viewing pornographic material in school and at home have increased two-fold since 2005 when social media started taking over interpersonal communications online. Prior to that, there were other social media platforms such as AOL’s messengers that sought to exploit young people’s eagerness to interact with each other more privately than before. Social media provided the perfect avenue for them to do this. The increase in usage of pornographic content is primarily a consequence of two factors. The first one is that the youth are spending more time alone than ever before. Parents and minders have become busier, with many parents placing careers ahead of family time and raising their children. As a result, by the time they are five, children in some countries know how to use mobile phones and the social media applications that come with them. By the time they are teenagers, these children are so used to social media and since their parents are not around to check what they are doing, they can view whatever they want. Another factor is that with the current rapid rate of development and increasing competitiveness in academics and sports, young people are turning to social media to escape the pressures that come with schoolwork, relationships and other societal demands. Apart from indecent acts that they view on social media, young people are showing an increasing tendency to participate in bullying, and are also becoming victims themselves. Young people are taking to social media to air their frustrations and escape the aforementioned pressures by bullying others. The rates of cyber bulling have increased 3.5 times in the last four years in the United States and other developed countries, according to research. Worse still, apart from the perpetrators, cyber bullying has led to the deaths of many youths who cannot deal with abuse, mockery and ridicule. Young people are very vulnerable, always doing everything they can to protect their egos and self-esteem. However, when their egos are hurt and they are left vulnerable, they start feeling alone and betrayed. Psychologists state that teenagers have the most fragile mental states of all age groups, and can easily develop suicidal thoughts if they are subjected to continuous abuse and bullying. Governments and social media owners have tried to institute measures to control bullying on social media, but the results so far show that their efforts are nor bearing much fruit. It is difficult to arrest and prosecute those who either practice or encourage bullying because of many factors. Firstly, geographical distances make it challenging to arrest and prosecute bullies. For example, the efforts required to arrest and prosecute a bully in Australia who uses false names to abuse other uses would be too much to justify the actions. Secondly, once suspended or deactivated from social media accounts, bullies have learned to change their names and re-register in social media platforms and nobody will notice that they are back online. These challenges make bullying on social media almost impossible to control. The effects of social media are not all negative though. Social media has been used by the youth to convey and send important messages to establishments and to other young people. With their growing numbers, governments, politicians and corporations have learned to tap into the youth market on social media by creating accounts to engage them directly and understand their habits and feelings about products and services. For example, corporations such as Microsoft and Apple use social media to explain their strategies to the youth on social media and influence them to buy their products. The consequences of these actions has been that we now have the most aware and conscious young generation in the past century. Young people use social media to engage stakeholders in various fields and to express their opinions by demanding to be heard. They create popular topics that governments, politicians and businesses must address in order to satisfy their needs. For example, trending topics on twitter are one way for people to understand what is going on in a particular area and who is pushing debate on specific topics. For instance, in one night there can be three different trending topics on twitter about electoral malpractices, economic conditions, and inefficiency of governments. These topics can trend for so long that, ultimately, the responsible entities will have to come out and address the concerns of the youth. Since they have the largest numbers on social media, the youth exploit this to drive debate on issues affecting them at any time. Read More