In "What Adolescents Miss Growing Up in Cyberspace," Brent Staples argues that children that have easy access to internet connection have a difficult time maturing. He believes that because they have easy access to socializing through the internet, they lose important connections with adults. Staples uses the example of a boyfriend who doesn't meet his girlfriend's father in person, instead he meets him/sends him an email online. Not only does the internet provide ways to socialize online, it also provides online shopping, instant messages, and etc.which isolates young adults from having to interact with other people. Staples argues that although these young adults may be connected with a lot of people online, they could still experience loneliness.
In 1996 a total of 12 people died trying to reach the summit of Mt.Everest. Making it the second deadliest year on Mt. Everest. Into Thin Air is a book about Jon Krakauer, who is writing an article in an adventure magazine called Outside about Mt Everest in 1996. This book takes him through one of his most dangerous adventures yet. On this dangerous adventure he tells us the struggles he endured, and the unstable living conditions.
In the essay “What adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow Up in Cyberspace” by Brent Staples, the key point in the essay was that teenagers lose the joy of growing up without internet. Teens are missing the little things in life that make the biggest impact. Lets not forget about the good things that internet can do for us like: pay bills, meet new people, or even sharing pictures on social media which you can do from the comfort of your own home. These kinds of interactions can become highly addictive, but it keeps everyone connected. Brent Staples brings in real life experiences into his article that cannot be compared with from by the internet.
Keith Hampton who is the Author of “Social Media As A Community,” states “ Those who use social media had more close confidants.” This means that the internet helps close friendships develop, causing less people to feel isolated. This is important to teens because friends help them find and define themselves as individuals. Carr states “Suppose i’m interested in the guidance computer on Apollo Spacecraft in the 1960’s. My local library has no books on that specific subject-just 18 books on the Apollo missions in general.
In Melissa Healy’s article, “Teenage Social Media Butterflies May Not Be Such a Bad Idea” Healy argues that kids who is submerged in their social media may not be such a bad thing. Melissa supports this argument by explaining the new study that states 13 and 14 year olds use the same style of conversation that they have with online friendships and offline friendships. She also explains how the associate director of the Children’s Digital Media Center in Los Angeles, Subrahmanyam finds out children and young adults constructively use the internet for work.
In the article, “Teenage Social Media Butterflies May Not Be Such a Bad Idea,” the author, Melissa Healy, claims that social media is rather beneficial than harmful to teenagers. According to researches that were included in the article, using social media is an activity that helps teenagers in many ways, and parents should worry about their kids using it. Youngsters who use social media are the healthiest psychologically and may be more well-adjusted as well. Also, using social media assists children in their development of emotional bonds, their own identities, and social skills. Additionally, the effect of social media is dependent on the user, so whether social media is a good or bad thing depends on how each children use it.
“Teens Start ‘Offline October’ To Urge Peers Off Social Media And Live Real Lives,” a Colorado Public Radio article by Jo Ann Allen, describes the campaign put into motion to put teen’s addiction to technology to a halt in modern society, while pressing the importance of human engagement. The author explains the stem motive of this campaign, by explaining it through a story in which the campaign “was started by students in suburban Denver after two of their peers took their own lives in the same week earlier this year”. The author also states the organization is trying to “ask teenagers on social media to stop posting stories and start living them; to stop worrying about followers and be with real-life friends”. This is the main focus of the whole campaign, to live life. On the other side of the pond, they have some other thoughts about teens and their usage of phones.
The general argument made by Emily Rose Cavendish in her article, “Social Media for Teenagers: Threat or Asset?”is that many worried parents view social media as a distraction where their children are being pulled into another world, that might as well brainwash them. What many parents don’t know is that many teens have gained knowledge and skills from using their devices. More specifically, Cavendish argues that teen texters are obtaining confidence and creativity to help with both mental and physical health. She writes that, “as they form ideas, and create and publish their own content to the world.” In this passage, Cavendish is suggesting that when the teens use social media they have new fresh ideas that they can apply their life with,
In the article “Social Media: The Screen, the Brain, and Human Nature” written by Justin Vinh argues that social media creates an atmosphere of loneliness and depression linked to social media use. He believes that this deteriorates the mental health of teenagers, who, as a result, have become isolated. Although some might say that social media connects people more, however, Vinh claims that technology has caused us to become more disconnected. Justin makes a great point when he states, “social media welcomes its users to compare themselves to their peers, and it compels them to try to outdo their opponents” (Vinh 4). The statement he makes is valid because social media became competitive.
In “What Adolescents Miss When We Let Them Grow up in Cyberspace, Brent Staples argues that as teenagers are using the internet for more of their social interaction, they miss out on real world experiences that help transition teenagers to adults. Staples provides examples from his own personal experience and studies that support his thesis. I agree with Staple's claim to an extent that teenagers are losing crucial social skills from interacting over a screen rather than actual face to face interaction. An important part of human interaction is reading emotions.
As previously stated, social media helps kids stay connected with friends and family from different parts of the world because “Online communication is particularly cost-effective and easy to use, allowing adolescents the opportunity to initiate, build, and maintain relationships with family, peers, and even strangers across varying distances” (Anthony, LeCory, and Williams, 494). Even though online communication is keeping people connected, the use of technology at a young age has an impact on adolescents’ personal development. The friendships, children have on social media might not be as meaningful as they seem. The article, Trends in Adolescent Development Impacting Practice: How Can We Catch Up, states that “[…], youth are unlikely to virtually “disconnect” from their peers when they are alone, instead choosing relief from momentary feelings of loneliness or unhappiness over a period of renewal and self-reflection” (Anthony, LeCory, and Williams, 493), this indicates that adolescents do not know how to deal with their emotions.
Information and communication technology has seen lot of changes and advancements since the year 2000, key among them being the development of social media as a social influencer. It has become prominent parts of life for many young people today. We are all aware that social media has had a tremendous impact on our culture, in business, on the world-at-large and social media websites are some of the most popular haunts on the internet. Most people engage with social media without stopping to think what the effects are on our lives, whether positive or negative. Are we as society becoming more concerned with Facebook “friends” than we are with the people we interact with face-to-face in our daily lives?
According to Canneil University’s (Steven Strogatz, 2005), “Social media sites can make it more difficult for us to distinguish between the meaningful relationships we foster in the real world, and the numerous casual relationships formed through social media”. When the young people prioritise these less than meaningful relationships, the more important connections like parents-children and sisters-brothers relationship will weaken because the less they communicate with each other, the higher the risk for the meaningful relationship to be damaged. They also score low in schools because of the distractions like video games, watching videos, and chatting with known and unknown person in social media sites. People never realise that all of these kind of distractions are actually the distractions that they created themselves. Young people may cause their future to be beaten by their own current attitude because ‘how’ they think now is ‘how’ they are going to be in the
Imagine that 20 years ago the only way to stay in touch with a person was to mail a letter. In a modern world with the invention of social media, people can converse with someone using the internet and get a response within seconds. Although in the course of time all generations have started to take advantage of the novations that social media has brought about, teenagers and young adults are the most active users of these networks. According to numerous research studies in the area of online social networks, it has been shown that such sites are impacting the lives of the youth significantly. Understandably, there are a lot of different opinions about its positive and negative influence.
People also stay connected and interact with one another, with their peers, people of similar interests, and even their family members. This helps strengthen their relationship even if they are busy with their daily routines. In addition, social media sites have become a platform for youth with similar interest or common discipline to get together, building connections and opportunities for their respective careers. Youth claims that social media not only makes their lives easier and efficient, it has become their lifestyle. While social media has seems to bring people together and help one another stay connected, it has created social isolation in regards to BBC News report.
