Up@dawn 2.0

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

The Dangers/Effects of Social Media: Chlidren, Teens, and Young Adults


Brianna Jefferson #10 
Installment #1

Social Media

Noun 

Social media has been defined as websites and applications that enable users to create and share content or participate in social networking.

Image result for teens and social media
Many people believe that social media is causing us to become obsessive human beings either that being with our own lives or someone else's.  The wrath of social media affects everyone but has a huge impact on our younger community, just think about it some of them are apart of a generation strictly named after it (iGen).
Most kids now may not be receiving phones at such a young age but they are being given things, like tablets, ipads, and ipods. You can not go to the store anymore without seeing kids carrying around their own devices while looking at things on the internet. While I was at the nail salon the other day there was a little girl using her mom's phone to what seemed to be videos on facebook. She watched the videos about 4 or 5 times each while laughing as if it was the best thing she had ever seen.

Too much sharing? 

Image result for teens and social media
Teens who are also always on social media often always share too much. Many teens like to share their every waking moment on whatever social media site they deem as their favorite. When Twitter first started it was used to give your "followers" an update on what you are doing. Things like selfies on profile pictures and facebook pictures you upload can all be seen just by simply googling the name of the person. This leaves access for anyone to see what you are posting. All it takes is sixteen clicks. Check out this video showing just how easy it is:

Fame?

Teens and young adults today see many people gaining fame for social media. It is now no longer just something to impress their friends but it's for the whole world to see. TV used to be the thing that influenced the young and impressionable to want to be known. Now its as easy as having alot of followers and having "fans" just for posting pretty pictures, or funny little videos. Many young adults have actually achieved making some sort of fame from their social media. It happens unexpectedly to some people, but once something they post goes viral the audience is going to want more and they feed off of that feeling of acceptance. In a survey that involved sixth and eighth graders, 40% of them ranked fame as their first value for social media out of a list of seven, including things like image, community feeling, and self-acceptance. The numbers of children looking to be famous are at a staggering number. Carl Pickhardt, who is a psychologist says, "Fame-Seeking is not new." "What's new is you can actualize a part of that. You can post pictures and data about yourself. All of a sudden, you can imitate what it's like to be famous." There are also now media famous people who are quitting after gaining so many followers shocking them as they begin to delete everything. A teen Instagram star Essena O’Neill had more than half a million followers on Instagram, Youtube, and Tumblr before deleting them. 



Next Installment:

How Social Media is affecting the actual mental health younger generations


Sources:
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/04/18/social-media-tweens-fame/2091199/
https://www.greatschools.org/gk/articles/social-media-fame-seeker/
http://time.com/4096988/teen-instagram-star-essena-oneill-quitting-social-media/


 













1 comment:

  1. Fame and celebrity for their own sake, rather than being the by-product of noteworthy achievement, are liable to leave a person without any very clear sense of who she is, what she stands for, what life means. I wonder what changes of attitude and behavior towards social media and celebrity will be possible and necessary, to prevent this and subsequent generations from experiencing deep existential crises as they discover they don't know themselves at all?

    Maybe the Existentialists themselves could help? You might consider Sartre on "bad faith" and "authenticity" in this context...

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