“Do you want to enhance your language skills? Why don’t you join the social networking world? There are lots of people from other countries,” Cora, a Woosong University student, said.
Cora’s daily routine includes logging onto social networking sites, like Facebook, every day. In the morning, she checks her messages as soon as she gets up. When she comes to school, she connects to her Facebook account and posts comments on her friends’ pages or visits other peoples’ blogs. Cora usually sits in front of her computer networking with her friends or updating her pictures and other information. She is a typical young person in Korean society.
She said, “When I use social network sites, I feel more comfortable communicating, and I’ve made a lot of friends on Facebook.” Social network sites give us a virtual community where we can make friends and chat with others.
In the “Pew Interview Project Data Memo,” Amanda Lenhart and Mary Madden reported that more than 90% of teenagers used social networking websites and also had online profiles, and around 75% of them said that they used the sites to get in touch with their friends.
However, in spite of the possible benefits such as improving self-esteem, the rise in popularity of social networking sites among young people has had negative effects on society because of the risk of health problems and the violation of personal privacy.
The first negative effect is that physical problems will happen among many young people using social networking sites. Connecting to websites for a long time while sitting leads to health problems like weight gain. For example, one Woosong University student I interviewed began using the social networking sites after entering university. Thus, he was sitting in front of the computer too much because it was possible to meet various friends at the same time. In addition, he didn’t need to spend time taking a bus or walking outside to meet his friends, so he became overweight. If he hadn't become overweight, it would not be a problem to society. The key here is that it is not only him, but many young people that have become overweight owing to the amount of time spent in front of the computer. Then it is possible for them to get various diseases, having harmful effects on many young people’s lives. A huge number of young people will go to the hospital in the future.
Nielsen: THE SOCIAL MEDIA REPORT Q3 2011
However, it could be argued that some social networking sites could help students improve their self-esteem. It is said that many students build up their self-confidence by showing their personal profiles. Most people agree that social networking site use has definite side effects on society. Although some people say that youth having their own social website is a positive experience, I would argue that the negative effects outweigh the positive.
Not only do social networking sites have health-related side effects, but they also expose lots of young peoples’ information, which means that some predators can use private personal information unlawfully. Violators steal personal information from social networking sites via individual public profiles and use that information for the purpose of their own business. For instance, when Arvin was a high school student, joining the networking sites, he had to fill out forms which included his address, phone number, email, and social security number. After that, some companies began to send him text messages or emails to advertise their products even though he didn’t permit them to use his personal information. He said, “I felt annoyed and scared. I just want more privacy than I’ve had before. It is an infringement of my privacy.” In this way, many companies have unwittingly allowed the abuse of people’s personal information on their website. In other words, only social networking could so readily expose young people to online criminals.
Joining and using social networking sites looks very convenient and useful, but it can cause many young people to get health problems. Moreover, thieves can abuse illegally-obtained personal information from sites which are not monitored by a security system.
Therefore, using social networking sites should be restricted by parents for young people, and websites should try to protect many young people from violators trying to steal their private information.
Guest contributors Tina Park and Jasmin Woo.
3 comments:
Social media platforms are there and it's always up to us on how we would use it and how much we'll let it on us. It wouldn't ruin us if we have balance just like what we do in the seo in Philippines. We use social media as part of our marketing schemes but still use other sites to promote our client's business.
Social media networking sites are very good for the human. From these we can connect with people and learn so much things. Today social media is become the most popular way of communication. So in my opinion social networking sites didn't have bad effect om human.
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I completely agree with you on point that negative effects outweigh the positive and this is the reason we should take care of our children alot so that they never fall in trap of these social networks and remain active in their real life and make habit of physical activity. Social media addiction can be harmful specially for children which are prone to this addictions.
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