Social Media Influence

Social media is a tool that many would describe as useful, but the real question is to what extent. While social media platforms help individuals sell themselves for social networking, it negatively affects towards adolescents. In today’s society, seeing an eight year old with a smartphone is nothing out of the ordinary, an eight year old! Technology paints itself as a beautiful resource, but the saying is “two steps forward, one step back.” As social media popularity increases and the platforms become more accessible, the concern shifts towards what is exposed to children online and how this affects them. The age for owning a smartphone continues to get younger and younger. Owning a smartphone aids the problem. There are various social media

During this time children and young adults are easily influenced, due to their exposure to new people and ideas. Children and teens biggest influence comes from fellow peers and public figures. The individuals watched/followed by children influence the development of their character. One of the biggest social media platforms used today is YouTube. YouTube allows for individuals to post content regarding themselves to broad audiences. A recent issue brought into the spotlight revolved around YouTube star Logan Paul. Most of Logan’s viewers are children under the age of 14. His controversial video left the debate of what restrictions should be put into place by YouTube itself. If individuals such as Logan decide to make a living through the use of social media, then they should take into the account as to how their video influence the behavior of their viewers. In the video Logan made jokes regarding the situation, teaching children to be rude and disrespectful towards others and what they may be going through. Technology expert Richard Watson claims, “[w]e think [cell phones] are connecting us, but they are turning us into a society of rude, impatient, narrow minded, stressed out, aggressive, and isolated individuals” (Abramovitz 7). Teachers from Pocono Mountain East High School have noticed the rude way students talk and treat each other. If students are rude in person just imagine how rude they are to each other

It is “[b]ecause of social media, I feel like people have unintentionally lost the creation of self identity” (Krakowsky 1). On social media sites if an individual has a disagreement with another, both individuals take it to the point where they are making crude comments towards each other. While most would agree that this is true for all ages schools have detected an influx of cyberbullying amongst kids. “The Pew Research Center defines cyberbullying as ‘deliberately using digital media to communicate false, embarrassing, or hostile information about another person’” (Wilcox 52). Social media sites provide students with easy access to publicly harass a fellow student. Teens do not realise the impact of their comments towards others. Kids today “are not cognitively developed enough to recognize their behavior is hurtful to others” (Kiesbye 33). According to Wilcox, the issue with cyberbullying