Social Media has been ingrained into our society today that it is virtually impossible for people to take you seriously if you are not in any social media platform. Everyone is in social media-young, old rich, poor etc.
Everyone is always in a frenzy when it comes to socializing online. Even that corporate world has jumped into the bandwagon and companies are very active online, posting updates and answering queries.
There are many social networks to choose from; some of the popular ones include Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram. As the popularity of social media keeps on spreading all over the world, there have been mixed feelings about these networks and how they impact the YOUTH. So, how does social media affect youth?
To answer this question, we have to look at both the positive and negative of social media and the impact on the youth. Going with the interaction with people from other parts of the earth by just click of the button.
Through these interactions, youths can share ideas, acquire and also be exposed to many opportunities out there. Secondly, social media gives them the avenue and opportunity to make new friends. Apart from just socializing, social media have become frontiers for the corporate world to advertise their goods and services offered an array of opportunities for youths.
On the flip side, the internet is an unregulated world that has no form of morals or laws to abide to. Youths are exposed to gore images of murder victims, accidents, rape cases or even video footages of gun shootings, violence, verbal outburst, All these gore content are in the domain of youths and when consumed for a long time can lead to serious mental breakdowns. For instance, they will start having anxiety attacks and fear of the real world. Social media takes away empathy from its users. We have seen people getting into trouble, but instead of getting help from the people around, they are recorded and the footages posted on social media. The poster expects likes and comments, while the others have a field day judging, mocking and making fun of the person recorded.
As Albert Einstein once said ” I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. the world will have a generation of idiots.
The creators of these networks did not anticipate that their creations would be centers of crime and social decay. Going away with the social media may not be practical or advantageous to society.
However, some form of regulation should be put into place to ensure that people responsible for all lewd and violent stuff on the internet are brought to books, whereas the core responsibility lies with parents as they have to vigilant and educate their children to while surfing online.