‘’Awareness should be raised in the Netherlands for adolescents in order to avoid negative aspects of social media’’.
Introduction
In recent years, it is common that children spend more time on their phone, using social media than playing with peers outside in real life (Ahn, April 26, 2011). However, without knowing exactly what is happening in the development of an adolescent, it is arduous to teach them the correct way of using social media. For children, social media could be harmful if it is not used cautiously. Parents need to be more aware in understanding social media because it can bring potential problems to their children, such as Facebook depression, cyberbullying, sexting and exposure to inappropriate content (Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, March 28, 2011). For this reason, being aware as a parent is becoming imperative. In contrast to disadvantages, social media could generate new opportunities such as developing technical skills or new ways of (social) communication (Mizuko Ito, November, 2008). However, it can be important to educate parents as well as adolescents in order to avoid the negative aspects of social media.
Social media is evolving and it is almost impossible to ignore this development. Within peer groups at high schools, it can be difficult not to be involved with the hype. It changes the way of communication and sharing information (Laird, 2015). Most social media channels offer ‘communication and sharing’ through their websites. By doing this, your share is not yours anymore. By organizing a social media free day, it will be a statement and a trigger to obtain knowledge about the disadvantages for the children. Furthermore, social media can also create a ‘lack emotional connection’. It is easier to send a text message about your feelings, instead of saying it to someone’s face. Furthermore, it encourages people to be more ‘hurtful’. It is easier to say something on social media, which you cannot say face-to-face. This means ‘decreasing face-to-face communication (skills)’. Moreover, being accepted and having contact with peers is an essential aspect of an adolescents’ life. This triggers their intensity of using social media, such as Facebook. However, this intensity is an aspect of suffering from depression, also called ‘Facebook depression’. Another aspect is sexting, which does occur among adolescents. According to Berkshire District Attorney, “sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or images via cell phone, computer, or other digital devices’’ is a definition of sexting (Capeless, 2010). While social media can improve some competencies, such as technical skills or online communication, parents and their adolescents should be trained in using social media properly. This could be a crucial aspect in order to raise awareness and to avoid the negative aspects of these channels in the Netherlands. However, social media could arouse addiction sensitivity, which could bring several negative aspects with it. Additionally, an increase of competitional feeling could also have several aspects, which are negatively influential. This could be a marvellous way to influence the upcoming people as well as the future generation, which could be started by adjusting our attitude toward it.
Arguments
Parents awareness of using social media to teach their adolescent(s) is a crucial and influential element. A study in the Netherlands has shown that one in five adolescents between the age of 12 and 25 are addicted to social media (Rianne Kloosterman, November, 2015). Despite the fact that tremendous part of this group is claiming that they are not addicted to social media, in contrast, a substantial part of the group indicates that they are pleased of obtaining attention through social media (Rianne Kloosterman, November, 2015). Approximately 40 percent of this group indicates that they prefer having many contacts on social media, which provides them with a pleasant feeling (Rianne Kloosterman, November, 2015). Nearly, 60 percent of the target group obtains a good feeling when people like, place comments and share their post (Rianne Kloosterman, November, 2015). An adolescent that constantly craves for desiring feedback could be a warning sign of narcissism and lack of self-esteem. Especially the belief that there will always be someone else who is more capable of a competence, could make a social media addicted adolescent uncertain. An adolescent that is dependent on someone else’s comment or feedback on their post is a sign of concern, as well as being led by someone else’s status and capacity. A parent should make a concession in order to prevent the relationship and trust they have built together.
It is evident that using social networking sites erroneously will create noxious results. Besides the complaints described above, which social media could create if it is used inexact (e.g. Facebook depression, cyberbullying, sexting and exposure to inappropriate content), it also creates the feeling of having competition with others. For example, spending time frequently on Facebook could have a causal relationship with feelings of depression, because it performs conjointly with comparing a person themselves to others. On the other hand, if a person compares themselves to someone with lower status, it tends to make them feel admirable and better about themselves; however, comparing themselves to someone with higher status tends to make them feel imperfect and bad about themselves (Nesi, 2015). This comparison creates follow-up effects, such as low self-esteem as well as jealousy among them. Furthermore, the human is affected by the environment. A stimulating environment could be necessary to grow and develop well. Spending hours in front of a screen, instead of playing with peers, would prevent adolescents from obtaining emotional and social basic skills. Undoubtedly, it could be crucial that a parent and adolescent cooperate with each other and reach consensus in order to deal with social media properly. (reference)
Besides the negative aspects of using social media, research has also shown beneficial aspect for adolescents of using social media, such as enhancing technical skills, online communication, and even social connection. (Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, March 28, 2011). Subrahmanyam and Greenfield (Subrahmanyam, September 2008) observe that online interactions can be both positive and negative. Social media is the most common activity amongst adolescents. Members of social media websites are increasing, with over 1,870 million active users in 2017 all over the world, these channels are ruling the daily activity of youth. It is indispensable that using social media is becoming a routine activity and that these channels would also have a positive impact on people. To be able to participate in the current evolution, adolescents should develop themselves in order to be active in the community and being accepted by peer groups. This pressure is an essential element of perseverance, but on the other hand, it could also create ‘Facebook Depression’. Furthermore, being in contact with friends and family members worldwide is a useful opportunity to stay connected. This would provide them on keeping updating each other about their lives. Also expanding connections through finding new friends and unknown family members is a positive component (Holmes, 2014). In contrast, a social connection could be correlated to online communication, which could lead to a lack of emotional connection, as well as decreasing face-to-face communication skills. Although online communication could lead to a negative aspect. This could make it necessary to improve this competence, because of the evolvement of this type of communication. Additionally, communication through World Wide Web can help at constructing qualitative friendships, which could positively affect the well-being of an adolescent. (Patti M. Valkenburg, July 2007)
Conclusion
Although there appear some benefits of using social networking sites, there are more (potential) risks for adolescents using them as well. Online interactions could be both positive and negative. However, social networking sites usage is evolving, which makes it almost impossible to avoid these sites. Almost all adolescent is using several types of social media channels, such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Sometimes they are using these channels without being aware of the consequences. The consequences could range from social behaviour, privacy, (online) communication, and social development. Using these channels could be amusing for adolescents, but the main reason for using it is the opportunity of keeping easy in touch with others. Another reason could be the priority of being accepted in peer groups. Therefore, it is important to get the right balance in order to address the difficulties faced. Without being aware of the negative aspects of these channels, it could have harmful impacts on adolescents without knowing these aspects would appear. While online communication could reinforce communication with peers at the expense of communication in reality, that could be a sign of ominous. Furthermore, World Wide Web once hailed as the saviour of education can slowly lose its reputation to social media usage. Therefore, it can be a challenge for schools to eliminate the negative aspects of using social networking sites through cell phones in educational settings. To summarize, by organizing one social media free day at high schools in the Netherlands, it should raise awareness rurally about the negative aspects of social networking sites. Enacting a hype and culture, and to obtain knowledge within this subject could be crucial to influencing the future generations.