Impact of Social Media on the Youth -

09 Jun

09Jun

Many parents worry about how exposure to technology might affect toddlers developmentally. We know our preschoolers are picking up new social and cognitive skills at a stunning pace, and we don’t want hours spent glued to an iPad to impede that. But adolescence is an equally important period of rapid development, and too few of us are paying attention to how our teenagers’ use of technology—much more intense and intimate than a 3-year-old playing with dad’s iPhone—is affecting them. In fact, experts worry that the social media and text messages that have become so integral to teenage life are promoting anxiety and lowering self-esteem.

Young people report that there might be good reason to worry. A survey conducted by the Royal Society for Public Health asked 14-24 year olds in the UK how social media platforms impacted their health and wellbeing. The survey results found that Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram all led to increased feelings of depression, anxiety, poor body image and loneliness.

Here are some statistics that were done on social media.

The average time spent by the people per day on the social network is 1.72 hours
For the teenagers, the numbers are much higher which is up to 27 hours per week

Social media has become a very important part of life for many young generations in today’s world. There are many young people who keep on engaging themselves with social media without even caring to think about what would be the impact of Social Media on youth. The effects can sometimes be positive and sometimes be negative but mostly they are negative if it is not integrated with a business or professional goal.

It is a huge concern for most of the people in today’s world as what is more important?

Is the concern with “Facebook” friends more important than those with whom we are interacting face to face in our daily lives? What can be the long-term impact of social media on youth today?

There are a lot of positive aspects but there are many dangers as well that come with the use of the sites like Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google +, Gaming sites, Instagram and blogs. If we want to make some right and true choices then we must dig inside and research the topic thoroughly.

Here are five ways which one can say that technology is having a positive influence on youth.

It keeps connected to their friends when they are not able to see each other always when they want to
Social media keeps you updates about the important things that are going across the globe currently or maybe in your locality. It is a great benefit to know about everything just by the simple click of your finger.
The youths have the perfect place to express themselves in such a way in which they won’t be allowed to do in public. This is something which makes the youth feel better about them and they hold some position in society.
It helps you in developing social skills and the best part is that a number of friendships can begin from the social website. Youths generally like make new friends and know about others as much as they can. All of this is possible with the social media platform
One more interesting impact of social media on youth is that it feels fun to interact with peers rather than talking to them face to face

Now, we tell you five ways that we all have seen technology is having a negative influence on the young generation.

Negative Impact of Social Media on Youth

People of today’s generation give so much importance to social media nowadays that it has become their priority. They love being in the social media sites and forget about all the things that should come first for them like family, sports and schools
In the platforms of social media, we can only see the virtual side of the person. This means we can only see the side which they want they want to show us. Many people try to portray themselves to others which they are not at all
Young people have this habit of bullying their peers which is ok to some extent. But when it comes to cyberbullying, it affects a lot to the other peer as this can be on the newsfeed of any person and can go viral easily. Sometimes such things can lead to depression as well as suicidal thoughts
There are some young people who are very easy to get influenced. They may feel the need to change their appearance physically and compare themselves to every next person they see in the social media
There is a very strong temptation in social media. It can become an addiction for the youth and begin to side-track them

Let us now deep dive into some other positive & negative sides of social media-

Here are the positive sides of social media

Positive Impact of Social Media on Youth in different Sectors

Educational Aspects

Social media enables the teacher to collaborate easily and then communicate with the students and others
The students have free as well as easy access to the resources that are online and gain all the information
The grades are improved and the percentage of absentees are reduced
According to a survey, it has been found out that about 59% of the schools have admitted that their students take help of the social media for educational purposes. Along with it 50% them use social media in order to discuss the assignments of the school

Political Aspects

The participation of the voters has increased. The users of the platform of Facebook have admitted that they get the inspiration to vote in an election when they see online their friends have voted too. A survey reported that those who visited Facebook more than two times in a single day were more likely to attend a political meeting or rally- 43% more people said that they are sure to vote.
Social media gives birth to the idea of change in politics. Social networking gives the social movement cheap as well as a quick method for distributing the information and make the people come together

News/ Awareness

Around 30% of the people of America get their news from online. The information in the social networking sites spreads much faster than any other forms of media.
More than 50% of people in the world nowadays get the breaking news from a social media platform
The social networking sites provide the benefits academic research to the people along with the online access. This helps the people to get access to the resources that were unavailable before
The people who use the platforms of social media get empowered and informed to change their communities and themselves.

Social Aspects

With the help of social media, people can communicate with friends and this enhanced communication online strengthens the relationship between them. Survey says around 52% of the teens that remain online say social media have helped them with their friendships and around 88% of the people say that staying online has helped them stay in touch with the friends they don’t see regularly
As said earlier, young people always have this tendency to make new friends. Around 57% of the teens that remain online say that they make new friends on social media

Jobs for the Youth

Social media is one of the best ways for marketing products, connecting with people and find business opportunities
It helps the employers to get the employees and those who are in search of new jobs. Around 87% of the job recruiters have found their employers through LinkedIn, around 30% through Facebook and 15% through Twitter
The social media sites are the reasons for creating thousands of job opportunities for the people and they have brought new avenues of income

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