Asof July 2015 the world population was 7.3 billion and 3.17 billion of thosepeople are users of social networks. Although social networks have manyadvantages such as allowing people to connect with friends and family, connectwith students from other educational systems, find out about what’s happeningaround the world and also bring new people together it also comes with manydisadvantages.
Here are some of them.Firstly,the increase of cyber bullying is caused from the growth of social networking.More than 1 in 3 young people have been cyber bullied but only 1 in 10 willactually tell someone. Cyber bullying can have a very negative impact on youngpeople. It can cause depression, anxiety and even suicide.
Also when hurtfulthings have been posted on social networks they may never disappear as theycould have been seen by many and reposted at any time bringing back the pain ofcyber bullying. If teens have been the victims of cyber bullying they may needto talk to a therapist or counselor to overcome the harmful effects of cyberbullying. Another problem with young people relating to social networking isthat they are becoming less independent. More and more young people arestarting to rely on technology and the Internet instead of learning thepractical knowledge and expertise of the everyday life. Secondly,Social Networking has a very big impact on young peoples lives for the future.
Therehave been many cases where teens have become so frightened they were unable to pickup the phone or answer their own front door and others are at risk ofdeveloping mental health issues later in life. In a report from NationalCitizen Service trust an extraordinary 6 out of 10 young people said that usingsocial media made them feel lonely and 1 in 20 said they don’t see theirfriends outside of school. This could cause a problem for young people in thefuture when they begin to look for jobs as one of the most important thingsthat employers are looking for are good social skills. Many young people saythey are already finding it hard to get jobs as their social skills havedropped and are just beginning to regain their confidence in meeting newpeople.SocialNetworking also has impacts on the economy and the pressures put on young people.
Even though young people sometimes use their gadgets to buy clothes online,music, games, the Internet and social media, none of this affects the economymuch. What does affect the economy though? In order for these young people toget online they have to have the money for a phone, a personal computer, dataplans, plus apps, Internet connection, and Wi-Fi connections which add up toquite a large bill. Also, young people who have invested in these gadgets andnew technology will soon be pressured into upgrading to the new model whentheirs becomes the old one, adding even more money onto the amount of moneyspent on these gadgets. Keeping this in mind about 3 in 4 (74%) teens aged12-17 say they access the Internet on phones, tablets, and other mobile devices,which will have a huge impact on the economy.Althoughsocial networking has a very big impact on young people it also has quite anaffect on adults. 37.4 million UK adults said they use Facebook regularly, 32.
1million UK adults use YouTube regularly and 15.5 million UK adults areregularly on twitter. Why do adults use social media? As social media has grownadults and elders have started to find an interest in new social networkingsites. The amount of elders using social media has nearly doubled in the lastyear. Even though adults and elders mainly used to use email to communicatewith friends, family and others they have started relying on social networkingplatforms which give them the ability to share pictures, links, videos, statusupdates and news online. Although this seems good for some people it does comewith some negative impacts on their lives. A Croatian study that took place in 2012 found that time spent onFacebook was related to depression, anxiety and loneliness among many elders. Socialmedia doesn’t just affect people emotionally but also physically.
The use ofsocial media while driving can be fatal even though almost every driver doesit. Texting while driving is said to be six times more dangerous than drivingintoxicated. Sending orreceiving a text message while driving takes a driver’s eye off of the road foran average of 4.6 seconds.
If someone was texting and driving at 55mphthat would be the same as driving the entire length of a football pitch,completely blind. If the4.6 seconds it takes to send a text message can be so dangerous, imagine howmuch more dangerous using social networks becomes. So why do youngpeople do it? Young people are more vulnerable to using their phones whiledriving as they have grown up in a society where it is okay to tweet somethingabout how heavy the traffic is or take a photo of the landscape around them ontheir long drive home. Unfortunately there are a reported 1.6 million crashesevery year due to use of phones while driving. Inconclusion social networks aren’t a bad thing to use once in a while but canhave some serious negative effects on society and people in society.
Over theyears social media has become more and more popular. Social media has itspositive outcomes but has its negatives as well. In the end it is yourchoice to either use social media in a positive way and benefit fromit in your social and academic life, or become a victim of social media’snegative impacts.
