Technology

As technology is developed, our life standard and communications change drastically. Teenagers especially Increasingly attach and depend on It as it’s the only way we know to do things. We do not write our parents letters but Instead send them an email or a text. That doesn’t necessarily means it’s a bad thing because technology especially the social networks get people connected to each other from around the world. Social network is a community on internet where people have their own profile to communicate with friends and family.

Nowadays, there are so many social outworks that teenagers are in depended on their Interests and social references, for examples, twitters, face book, Mainstream, or ” Interest. These are great ways for people to express themselves and find friends with common Interests. However, social networks also have negative impacts on teenagers as many of them take these as virtual hideouts where they can pretend to be someone else. These lead to crimes such as bullying, discrimination and private invasion. Backbone is widely known as a social network where each person has his or her own profile storing all the photos and comments of their friends.

The more popular the person Is, the more friends and subscribers that person has. There was a situation where a fan of a famous Vietnamese singer, named Ho Mongo Ha, pretended to be her on Backbone since all that fan needed to do was to post a lot of that Ho Mongo Has photos and comments as though it was the singer herself. The Backbone received hundreds thousands of subscribers because everyone thought that they were following Ho Mongo Ha. It seemed harmless at first because Backbone after all is only Internet based. However, Ho Mongo Has career and image were greatly damaged y a status posted on that Backbone profile.

The post was complaining about a disruption during her performance because of an updated news on a disaster In Central Vietnam. An outrage broke out on internet criticizing the singer for being heartless towards the victims for stupidly complaining on Backbone. After that, the fan that post that comment wrote a long status confronting that this Backbone was not the singer’s and that she was very apologetic for doing such deeds. However, people TLD believe In the singer as it seemed to be an act that she put up to get attentions. She had to withdraw from the showbiz for a year and lose all her reputations.

This example is just one in a billion of other negative sides Backbone and social networks possess. The network is unreal itself but the affect it has on people is severe. The fan did not mean any harm to write such comment as she was just expressing her opinion for not being able to see her idol, however, since she was not a celebrity, she didn’t know what to be said and what not. She didn’t know that a game she put up to get attentions from others has such a great cost to others. Unlike the above example where the fan TLD mean any harm, there are tuitions where people intentionally open Backbone and Twitter accounts to ridicule others.

These teenagers might want attentions, revenge or fun to Just talking bad about the ones they hate since they can’t condemn publicly. The asperity could range from posting ugly photos, pretending to be that person and stupid things to revealing secrets or posting sensitive photos of that person. There are countless situations social networks. This is a type of bullying without physical engagement however the severity is not less. It happened to my friend in middle school making her depressed for a long time cause of an introduction to a new type of social network back then called Form spring.

The users could ask each other questions anonymously and anyone could read them. It caused so many people to be victims of bullying and mocking as no one knew who the questioners were. Many teenagers Just did it out of boredom. My friends were one of the victims as she was being mocked for her appearances and being sworn at. Since our school was small, we found out who the questioners were. Turned out, they were our close friends and they were Just doing it for fun. My friend was complete devastated because one of the guy was her crush. She skipped school for two weeks until the whole class came and those guys publicly said sorry to her.

She got back school but her relationship with those guys is never the same again. Social network is like a knife with two sharp edges, if we use it the right way, we will gain more friends and relationships from it but if we are not careful it will take everything that matters to us away. Last example is about the teenagers who run after fake fame and money. Their Mainstream, Backbone or twitter might have thousands of subscribers and comments but not for the real thing. I used to follow a very beautiful Chinese girl on Mainstream because all her photos show how rich and awesome her life was.

She had different brand name bag every photos with Jewelry that common girls can only dream of. She would check-in at all the most expensive restaurants and resorts with photos of the places. Without knowing who she was, people Just followed all her styles and went to the places that she did. Every day, I and my friends would comment on her new photos imagining ourselves one day to be like her. However, after a while, some followers found out that her photos and comments are not real meaning she did not vive that life herself but instead took photos from online and made it hers.

All the bags that she took photos with were either borrowed or rent. Not only that, to support the life she wanted, she became a luxury call girl at the age of 17. There was an online article writing about this girl and all her accounts were then blocked. We didn’t know what happen to her after that however, we were all so shock as we would never believe that a teenager would chose that way of living herself. She created for herself a fake life to live while suffered the shame and physical damage as a call girl.

It’s fascinating to see how technology and internet has changed the way people live and communicate. We become connected to the whole world without the time- consuming efforts like last generation did. However, come together with all the benefits are the negative effects that social networks have on teenagers. It provides them the way to commit wrongdoings as they don’t have to take responsibility for what they did. Not only that but they are influenced by others on the same community while Joining it and believe that it is fine to do such things. The thoughts might be simple but the consequence can be severe.