The dark side of social media argumentative essay example

Apparently, social media sites such as face book, twitter and YouTube define the social life of young person today. Contrary to common misconception, social media is not a thing of the developed country any more. It is becoming a global phenomenon as technology is gradually becoming commonplace even in the third world nations. Today, social media sites are accessible by mobile phones, and getting registered is hassle free. While social media have been identified as being top among the most powerful tools of global communication and expansion of personal networks of friends, they have various demerits. Such demerits define the dark side of social media. Many scholars have sought to address the dark side of social media through a multiplicity of approaches. Technology has had a big hand in the way that people communicate today, through the introduction of such media as Skype and twitter. These advance social media are getting way too much attention by people that they even forget having a real communication with the real people. Therefore, social media should have its limitations and people should be aware of this things happening and try to prevent the worse outcomes. People should be aware that social media have an ugly dark side and that instead of relying too much on such media; they should seek to interact with real friends and family.

Indecent Exposure

As a matter of fact, being a member of various social media makes an individual develop a perception that such media is a real community with real friends and even family. On the contrary, the things are just virtual communities that do not actually exist. Amerland notes that young people gradually get addicted to the social media and develop personal connections with the virtual community (34). This makes the young vulnerable minds trust the online community so much that they open up to the strangers about their personal emotions. Currently, it is common to see updates and posts of people lamenting about various personal problems. Moults and Gayle argue that the people hardly know that the online community does not actually care about the hurting of an individual (1). O the contrary, they say, the social media is full of predators that do not actually care about the personal problems of their internet ‘ friends’. Unlike social media friends, actual friends are willing to listen and even counsel the hurting person. This is one thing that people ought to know before putting too much trust in social media.
One of the biggest and most significant arguments put forward by Moults and Gayle is the reality that the internet and especially the social media sites are full of predators that are ready and maliciously planning to take unfair advantage of the vulnerable teenagers exposing their pictures indecently (1). Such predators include rapists and pedophiles. According to Moults and Gayle (1), such pedophiles are people that cannot be suspected to be having such tendencies if judged from the way they interact on social media. Cowan explains that in social media, such predators and people with malicious intent hide behind the nicknames that are commonly used on twitter and similar websites (1). The unsuspecting young girl may be deceived that the individual they are interacting with through such communications as chats and video calls is a malicious individual seeking to take advantage of the unsuspecting innocent young one.
As a matter of security and personal safety, people should apply certain limits to the extent to which they interact on social media. While people find the media exciting and somewhat thrilling, they should seek to appreciate the fact that online interactions with strangers cannot be trusted as can the face to face interactions. The person logging in to chat knows very little about the ‘ friend’ on the other side. This is essentially because people use nicknames and false profiles on social media to the extent that, in case anything happens, tracking down the culprit becomes quite a difficult affair. A good example to illustrate this is a real story given by Moults and Gayle (2) about a young girl that meets her friends from a local football team at a party. The young people make merry, drink and dance. In the end, the girl gets too drunk and passes out. The boys from the team brutally exploit the girl sexually and post pictures of her naked body on social media. Such things can be avoided if people limit the trust they have in social media.

Internet Addiction

Apparently, social media are the most addictive aspects of the internet. In point of fact, social media are exciting and exceptionally interesting to an extent that people spend 16 hours in a 24 hour day to browse and chat with online friends (Amerland 34). According to Amerland, young people get attracted by the pictures of naked people posted on the social media. YouTube is the most notorious example of the sites that are commonly known for nude video clips and pictures. Young people are exceptionally active as far as sexuality is concerned. For this reason, they will always get attracted by such indecent pictures. In a quest to see more and discover the sexual thrills on the internet, the young person may spend up to 20 hours on the internet. Such trends are destructive, according to Amerland (36) as they destroy real relationships among friends and family. As a matter of common knowledge, a person that spends more than half of their day on social media may not get time to talk to their real siblings, parents and friends. This hinders what psychologists refer to as social development (Lenhart 99). Social skills are essential as they help an individual grow emotionally.
According to Marquis (1), social media cannot be comparable to real relationships developed among real people such as classmates, since social media interactions are considered shallow. Such shallowness is explained as: when a person makes a post saying that they are sick. The best a twitter friend can do is to say ‘ sorry, and get well soon’. On the contrary, a real friend will take time to visit the sick individual, spend time with them, share encouraging messages and assist the sick the best they can. This is an example of social skills and development. on the assumption that people could grow up only knowing social media as the only platform for interaction, the human race could be extinct because social development could not be there. Similarly, care for others could as well not be there. On the contrary, people could only be mindful of themselves because the shallow relationships associated with social media do not nurture a sense of affiliation. Cowan says that as far as social development is concerned, social media is the worst platform as it is associated with more vices than virtues (1). Among the most common vices are such things as cyber bullying and fraud.

Social Imbalances

One thing that people seem to forget is the actuality that social media cannot and will not last forever. Because of such ignorance, they give prominence to social media in such a way that they do not take time to evaluate the dangers they expose themselves to, through such decisions. In addition to the above discussed dangers, social media poses such serious menaces as hacking of personal accounts and communication means. People have had hackers and other cybercriminals hack their email addresses extracting exceptionally useful information. People ought to strike a reasonable balance as it is only through interacting with real people that an individual will realize that they have more to lose than to gain through internet socializing. Scholars and other social scientists argue that morally speaking, social media is a corrupted zone. Looking at it from a historical perspective, social media began with cultural interactions and exchange and later degenerated into a single culture – a culture with no values at all. In point of fact, there is no culture that encourages nudity, especially where underage persons are concerned (Lenhart Amanda 117). Surprisingly, though, social media, which are very popular in current times, are trending nudity and pornography – signs of a perishing generation.
Judging social media from an ethical perspective, all care has been thrown to the wind. Why? People on the internet have nothing to lose as far as reputation is concerned; after all, they only use nicknames. Sadly, though, they have nothing to gain as well. This is an explanation as to why ethics has no room in social media. People use abusive language and address one another indecently. Incidences occur where a person’s comment sparks emotional reactions. Such reactions may end up causing a war of words, which in most cases is characterized by vulgar language. Moults and Gayle give the example of Jorja Fox, 19, a London based model and musical performer (2). The young artists posted her pictures on Face book. In the pictures, she was in underwear, which, according to her was no more offensive than a usual bikini. To her shock, the young artists received torrents of insults from girls and slut shaming from male friends on the social site. This horrified her. Even worse, the ‘ offended friends’ went ahead to defame her and spread rumors of her, claiming that she was a slut and that all her friends should de-friend her. Apparently, this was cause for depression. Such are the troubles victims of misinterpretation go through.
In conclusion, therefore, it is important that people be enlightened on the need to take caution before embarking on prioritizing social media in their lives. They ought to be encouraged to think really hard on their values and the need to safeguard such values. As a matter of common knowledge, values cannot be safeguarded on social media; on the contrary, they will be abused and corrupted by the unscrupulous individuals that are supposed to be ‘ friends’. From the foregoing, the dark side of social media is defined by such vices as cyber bullying, indecent exposure, sexual predators, and moral corruption. People should therefore weigh the options offered by real social ties and the internet social ties – a case in which, real social ties are much deeper and authentic. Even so, social media, being a good channel of communication, should still be used, but to a reasonable extent, where addiction or dependence is not given room.

Works Cited

Amerland, David . The Social Media Mind: How social media is changing business, politics and science and helps create a new world order. New York: New Line Publishing, 2012. Print.
Cowan, Bruce. ” Social media has its dark side .” Nugget. ca. , 26 Apr 2013. Web. 25 Jun 2013. http://www. nugget. ca/2013/04/26/social-media-has-its-dark-side
Lenhart, Amanda, et al. Social media & mobile internet use among teens and young adults. Washington, DC: Pew internet & American life project, 2010.
Marquis , Justin. ” The Advantages and Disadvantages of Student Social Media Use.” OnlineUniversities. com. 18 Oct 2012. Web. 25 Jun 2013. http://www. onlineuniversities. com/blog/2012/10/balancing-advantages-disadvantages-student-social-media-use/
Moults, Julie, and Gayle, Schoales. ” The dark side of social media.” Fabulous Magazine. Fabulous, 25 Feb 2013. Web. 25 Jun 2013. http://fabulousmag. co. uk/2013/02/25/the-dark-side-of-social-media/