Sunday, 1 December 2013

Task 1


Negative Impact of Social Media on Teens


I believe Social media is becoming more than just a part of their world, it’s becoming their world. Teens are spending more and more time online, usually on a social media platform like Facebook or Twitter, and their online life is not just staying on their computer at home. Most teens now have smart phones where they are on social media networks all throughout the day. They are constantly texting, tweeting, and posting pictures via Snap chat and Instagram. Today teens don’t know how to disconnect. Social media has allowed them to take their life online and instead of saying goodbye to friends at school and waiting to see them the next day, they just go home and jump on their favourite social media network and interact with them for the rest of the day. With the rise of smart phones, such as the popular iPhone, teens don’t even have to wait to get home. They can now interact through social media on their way home with the help of their smart phone. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snap chat, and all the other popular social media platforms are right there on their phones. One reason this “always connected” activity is harmful is because of the alarming trend of cyberbullying. 

Facebook and twitter programs often show characters using drugs and alcohol and engaging in violent behaviours. At a developmental stage when teens seek greater freedom and independence, the glorification of drugs, alcohol, risky sexual and violent behaviours in the media make it challenging for teens to make responsible behavioural choices. Still, media cannot solely be blamed for teens' consumption of drugs and alcohol, or involvement in sexual activities; ultimately it's up to parents to teach their teens about the negative consequences associated with risky behaviours, and the false images often perpetuated in the media for financial gain. Palo Alto Medical Foundation suggests that teens learn to use their critical thinking skills -- and parents can help them in this area -- by distinguishing fantasy from reality, and analysing the agendas and target audiences of various advertisements.

Is Facebook bad for your child's health? Teenagers are more likely to smoke and drink if they see pictures of friends partying on the site



Using Facebook could make teenagers more likely to drink and smoke, a new report suggests. Teenagers who see friends smoking and drinking alcohol in photographs posted on Facebook are more likely to smoke and drink themselves, according to the report. this shows the negative representation of teenagers on facebook as when teenagers are going on facebook and seeing their friends posts pictures of them doing bad stuff this motivates them to also do the same and this shows that facebook is the cause of all this as people only do these stuff in order to look popular on social networking sites. ‘Our study shows that adolescents can be influenced by their friends’ online pictures to smoke or drink alcohol,’ said Dr Thomas Valente, professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern California and the study’s principal investigator. ‘The evidence suggests that friends’ online behaviours are a viable source of peer influence,’ said Dr Grace Huang, the study’s first and corresponding author. ‘This is important to know, given that 95 per cent of 12 to 17-year-olds in the United States access the Internet every day, and 80 per cent of those youth use online social networking sites to communicate.’


The research also looked at what teens were posting online - and photo photos of themselves and other personal information was the most popular
Teens told researchers there were too many adults on Facebook and too much sharing of teenage angst and inane details like what a friend ate for dinner.
'The key is that there are fewer adults, fewer parents and just simply less complexity and less drama,' said Amanda Lenhart of the Pew Research Center, one of the study's authors. 
'They still have their Facebook profiles, but they spend less time on them and move to places like Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr.' In the latest poll, 94per cent of teens who are social media users have a profile on Facebook — flat from the previous year. Seeing this statistic it also shows that 91% of teenagers posts photos of themselves on social networking sites which is most common as the main purpose of those sites are to share photos with friends and family however some teenagers may misuse that and post pictures that reinforce the positive stereotpye that this shows. furthermore as you can see 71% of teenagers in 2012 say the location of where they live which could be dangerous in many ways as they may have people on those sites that can track them down.

Data: Twitter has overtaken Facebook as the social media network that is most important to teens, according to Piper Jaffray's semi-annual teen market research report


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