How social media has a bad effect on society

As we approach 2014social mediahas been very advantageous communicating tool for people of all ages to use. However behind closed doors social media is strangling the life out of the younger generation. Now of course I do not mean this literally, and in many ways sites like Facebook and Twitter promote to teenagers about making friends and widening their friend circles which is excellent-in theory.

This has in my opinion got out of hand and scientists have been able to come up new psychological evidence that shows that teenagers have increased aggression in their moods and lack of empathy which increases the possibility of schizophrenia anddepression. Most teenagers I talk to say that they can’t imagine a world withoutsocial mediaand an astounding 96% of people have at one point signed up to one of these sites. The newly discovered FoMo syndrome has come hand in hand with the social media craze, which is the Fear of Missing out.

This syndrome means that people are glued onto their social media sites constantly refreshing the pages because they are so afraid of missing out on something important or interesting. Arguably the biggest problem with Social Media is Cyberbullying. This is not your average schoolbullyingin the sense it can be controlled by people, onsocial networkingsites bullies don’t get told off by anyone or restricted by anyone and can continue as they see fit. Another difficulty with online bullying is that the attacker can hide behind their computer and are shadowed by this.

A lot of people would not have the courage to say things in person to one another but on Facebook people seem to be more outgoing and some completely have a change ofpersonalityand become a lot more confident. Ask. fm over the last year has been linked to 9 cyberbullying evoked suicides and has been the centre of many petitions about the site being taken down. On this site people can anonymously ask questions to the user for them to be answered and posted, which seems innocent and funny. Disgusting, vile teenagers have been abusing users on Ask. fm anonymously though and this is what has driven 9 people to take their own lives.

PersonallyI believethat this site should be taken down immediately and save users from the torment of faceless bullies. ‘ Sexting’ is another online craze at the moment throughout Social Networking. This is when two people engage in a sexually explicit conversation or send sexually explicit photos via Facebook or a new phenomenon Snapchat. Immature teens do not know the risks of this however and do not realise that as a result of their actions a message orphotocould fall into the wrong hands and could jeopardise the reputation or perhaps the future of the individual.

Stalkers and predators are known to be highly common on Social Networking sites as it is an easy way to search and track anybody in the world. To add to all these valid points comes possibly one of the most appreciated of all which is time; Social Networking for me and for millions of teenagers all over the world one of the biggest time wasters in modern day society. For example whilst revising for a test I will dedicate the night before to learn, whilst in absolute concentration though a ‘ PING’ will sound from my phone resting nest to me and I unavoidably check to see what it was.

Half an hour later I think to myself ‘ Oh My God, I’ve wasted the whole of prep. ’ Events like these happen daily. On the other hand along with all this negativity social media sites like Facebook, Instagram and twitter show that people are brought together and that these sites are there for old friends to reunite and catch-up via private message. In conclusion, Social Networking sites are meant for all kinds of social behaviour essentially but in my opinion it has definitely become out of hand and I can only see these problems getting worse and worse.