Social networking is Affecting our Society 1

Social Networking is Affecting our Society Joaquin Borromeo & Celena Flores College of DuPage Composition I Elizabeth Anderson 12/02/13

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Social Networkingis Affectingour Society Social networking has evolved from a simple text, to talking to your friend on your cell phone, to posting your whole life on a computer. Social networking has become a worldwide phenomenon that is affecting everyone in the world and in a negative way. Hearing the reasons as to why you should slow down on social networking or stop using it overall, can help you in the long run. I would like to explain to you why social networking is a concern for you, for reasons such as your privacy being affected, cyber-bullying, new medical problems arising, and time-wasting that all affect our society. Social networking sites have changed because they encourage people to be more public about their personal lives. What's more, the things they post remain available indefinitely meaning whatever you post will be on file forever. While a photo of friends doing shots at a party may seem harmless, the image may appear less attractive in front of an employer doing a background check. Social networking site users are vulnerable to security attacks such as hacking, identity theft, and viruses (ProConorg Headlines). Social networks do not scan messages for viruses leading to large-scale problems like the 2012 virus spread from Facebook's chat window (The Premier Online Debate Website). Also 68% of social networking users share their birth date publicly,

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63% share their high school name, 18% share their phone number, 12% share a pet's name(The Huffington Post); each of these pieces of information is frequently used for account security verification and can be used for identity theft. The information provided by social networking is available to predators as well as friends. Kids especially are vulnerable to the practice of cyber-bullying in which the perpetrators, anonymously or even posing as people that their victims trust, terrorize the individuals in front of their peers. The devastation of these online attacks can leave deep mental scars. In several well-publicized cases, victims have even been driven to suicide (The Premier Online Debate Website). Social networks are giving children the ability to bully without confrontation and without confrontation being part of the bullying, more kids feel better about bullying their peers. With a matter such as this, one that involves childrens emotions and future life decisions, we need to monitor how our children are using the media in order to keep them and other children safe. Cyberbullying has spread widely among youth, with 42% reporting that they have been victims, according to a 2010 CBS News report (The Premier Online Debate Website). Social networking sites facilitate cyber bullying (The Huffington Post) . 49.5% of students reported being the victims of bullying online and 33.7% reported committing bullying behavior online (The Premier Online Debate Website). 800,000 minors were harassed

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or cyber bullied on Facebook according to a June 2012 Consumer Reports survey (LoveToKnow). These facts are awful already and keep in mind that they are just the facts about the children who chose to participate, there are so many more out there still keeping silence about the matter. Middle school children who were victims of cyber bullying were almost twice as likely to attempt suicide (ProConorg Headlines). The fact that middle school children are twice as likely to attempt suicide is sad. No child this young should be thinking about hurting themselves in any way, at this age children should be having fun and learning about the world, wanting to live life to the fullest. So for our children and ourselves we need to cut back on our use of social networks. Internet addiction is characterized as excessive use of the Internet that interferes with daily functioning and that can lead to distress or harm. Adolescents who demonstrated Internet addiction scored higher for obsessive-compulsive behavior, depression, generalized and social anxiety, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, introversion, and other maladaptive behaviors (The Premier Online Debate Website). This research also revealed an interesting pattern of parental involvement. Those youth who were judged to have an Internet addiction rated their parents as lacking in love and nurturance, being over-invested, unresponsive, angry, and severe disciplinarians (The Premier Online Debate Website).There's no doubt that Facebook is one of the most

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powerful forms of media for communication today. Yet, there is a dark side to Facebook because this social network has caused several medical concerns. Some of these medical concerns include depression, anxiety, other psychiatric disorders, and a range of unhealthy behaviors (LoveToKnow). Perhaps the most study to date found that Facebook overuse among teens was significantly relates with narcissism

(LoveToKnow). Among young adults, Facebook overuse was also associated with Histrionic Personality Disorder, Antisocial Personality Disorder, Bipolar Disorder, and Sadistic, Passive-Aggressive, Borderline, Paranoid, and Somatoform Personality Disorders (LoveToKnow). Also media exposure, including television, movies, video games, and the Internet, was associated with violent behavior and isolation (LoveToKnow). The researchers concluded that children who are aggressive will have fewer friends and be more likely to be bullies (because they are more aggressive) or victims of bullying (because they are isolated) (LoveToKnow).Another study of adolescent girls found that the more they used texting, instant messaging and other social media to discuss their problems, particularly romantic difficulties, the more depressive symptoms they presented (LoveToKnow). People who use social networking sites are prone to social isolation . Social networking can exacerbate feelings of disconnection (especially for youth with disabilities), and put children at higher risk for

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depression, low self-esteem, and eating disorders (LoveToKnow). The act of scanning posts without commenting on them is known as passive consumption and is said to be related to loneliness (LoveToKnow), which is an interesting fact because I feel like everyone in the world must be lonely since I feel everyone scans posts without commenting a lot of the time. Social networking is leading people to so many health and personality issues and things life that dont affect only the person getting them, but the people they associate with in society as well. Another negative effect social networking has in society is how much time we spend or focus on social networking. t is said that 40% of 8 to 18 year olds spend at least 54 minutes a day on social network sites (The Premier Online Debate Website). When surveyed, 36% of the people listed social networking as the "biggest waste of time," above fantasy sports (25%), watching TV (23%), and shopping (9%) (ProConorg Headlines). One of the worst things social networking does to us, is take away our attention from other things constantly. When alerted to a new social networking site activity, like a new tweet or Facebook message, users take 20 to 25 minutes on average to return to the original task (The Huffington Post). In 30% of cases, subjects took two hours to fully return attention to the original task. Another reason for why social networking allows us to waste our time is because of the time consuming games that

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we have access to.42% of American Internet users play games like Farmville or Mafia Wars on social networking site (The Huffington Post). While many businesses use social networking sites to find and communicate with clients, the sites can also prove a great distraction to employees who may show more interest in what their friends are posting than in their work tasks (The Premier Online Debate Website). Social networking sites harm employees' productivity. 51% of people aged 25-34 accessed social network sites while at work (The Huffington Post). Two-thirds of US workers with Facebook accounts access the site during work hours (The Huffington Post). Even spending just 30 minutes a day on social networks while at work would cost a 50-person company 6,500 hours of productivity a year (The Huffington Post). 51% of American workers think work productivity suffers because of social media as of today (The Huffington Post). have now e"plained the reason why social networking is evolving and not in a way that is #enefiting society. $here are plenty of ways that you can help yourself and society. %or instance you can refrain from any use of social networking in general. &elete all your social network sites that you have made and wasted ridiculous amounts of time on. f that is too much for you then do these steps to protect yourself. %irst of all you should never share information that you want to keep private. Also use caution when adding photographs, especially

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those of your children. Another step is to approach these sites with a professional attitude, since you never know when your boss or other authority figure might come across your feeds. Furthermore, set your privacy and security settings as tightly as possible. In addition, only become friends with people who you actually know in real life. I hope that all of the research I have done and the input on the results I have found, has inspired you to stop using social networking or at least tone down your use of it, for the better of your life.

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References

1. Taylor, Dr. Jim. "The Bad, the Ugly, and the Good of Childrens Use of Social Media." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 May 2013. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. 2. Social Networking ProCon.org." ProConorg Headlines. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013 3. "Reasons Why Social Networking Is Bad." LoveToKnow. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013
4.

Is Social Media Bad for Society?" The Premier Online

Debate Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

5. "The Negative Effect of Social Media on Society and Individuals." Small Business. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

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