What Does Social Media Mean to Youth?
“iPhone 6s with icons of social media on screen. Smartphone life style smartphone. Starting social media app.- Credit to https://www.lyncconf.com/” by nodstrum is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Along with the origin of mass communication media, the youth group is more dependent on and uses the media to a greater extent, so interactive communication on social platforms has become an important part of their interpersonal communication. Youth have unparalleled access to digital information across a variety of platforms, including smartphones, tablets, desktops, laptops, and gaming consoles, making the media landscape wider and more diversified than ever. A crucial element of this ecosystem is social media (Nesi, 2020). Young people’s values are easily influenced, and the largest proportion of Internet users are young people, most of whom are at the beginning of their social life, with less social experience and less mature judgment. The mixed information and unfiltered and uncontrolled speech in different social media can appear directly on the screens of young people. When these groups are constantly exposed to these mixed messages, they are unable to see things in a rational and educated way, which may even affect their mental health in the future. Every era has its own products, and the natural and popular product of the information age we are in is information. But information needs to be spread, so social has become an important tool. Young people need to grow up in line with the trend of the times. is to be at the forefront of mastering more information. Social media is an important source. But more than that, they need to have useful information, and they need young people themselves to distinguish right from wrong. Participating in social media can also give teenagers deeper advantages that affect how they see themselves, their surroundings, and the world. These advantages include fostering one’s individual identity and special social abilities; enhancing individual and group creativity; and growing ideas from the creation of blogs, podcasts, videos, and gaming websites (O’Keeffe & Clarke-Pearson, 2011).
The damage that can occur in social media.
In online communication, the communication scenarios people are in are virtual, and Internet users are speaking anonymously, so the norms and constraints that should be observed in real life lose their binding force in online communication, and users on the Internet do not have to take responsibility for their own behavior, and the risk tends to be zero. Internet users’ awareness of responsibility and the law is then greatly reduced, and they can easily break through the moral bottom line and express their opinions emotionally. When they receive the stimulus of a certain event, many users are in an irrational state. They will be eager to crusade and attack the person concerned, expressing their own views and positions and showing their dissatisfaction and anger, and when the number of concurring people grows to a certain level, cyber violence will be generated. This analysis unequivocally shows that teenage violence—whether bullying, gang violence, or self-directed violence—occurs more frequently online. However, significant flaws in the current trials prevent us from recommending any specific future therapies (Patton et al., 2014). Because the youthfulness of Internet users and the herd mentality can make them irrational, their age determines their level of thought and depth of understanding. The herd mentality makes most Internet users lose their rational judgment, and most of them adopt the attitude of blind obedience to the comments on the Internet. In this way, a snowball effect will soon be formed, and the voices of certain opinion leaders will become the mainstream opinion and form a powerful public opinion force when the occurrence of online violence is inevitable. Additionally, the idea of “repeated” injury associated with offline bullying has to be rethought in the context of the digital world. The networked structure of online places makes it possible for this stuff to be readily retained and shared with others, even while sharing an image or video that is harmful to another person may be perceived as a one-time act (Hasse, Cortesi, Lombana Bermudez & Gasser, 2019).
Children are confronted with the adverse environment of social media.
Modern society has developed rapidly in terms of network technology, and social applications have penetrated everyone’s lives. But social networks bring us convenience. At the same time, there are also a lot of gray areas. The imitation ability of children in their childhood is not expected, and most of them will imitate when they are exposed to violent and pornographic images.
On a platform like YouTube, when kids are exposed to the first such video, the algorithm immediately recommends them a second and a third. They will then be exposed to a lot of these spooky, scary, brain-washing elements in a short period of time. The Internet is developing extremely fast today. Before the birth of the Internet, newspapers, books, press, radio, TV, and movies were the old media, where information was controlled top-down by gatekeepers and the information was fixed in time and space. With the advent of the Internet, information can be viewed freely without being limited by time, space, or the arrangement of the medium. Algorithms determine the content we receive for us, and information starts to come from the users themselves, thus becoming personalized. So, the result is that once children are exposed to such videos, the consequences can be unimaginable. The list of potential risks associated with children’s and teenagers’ use of the Internet is extensive and includes exposure to inappropriate content that promotes exclusion and hatred; coarse language; sexuality; and/or violence; exposure to inappropriate advertisements; and exposure to viral and interactive content that blurs the line between editorial and commercial content (Cohen Zilka, 2017).
How to prevent and stop the spread.
“Cyber Bullys” by Adam Clarke is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
Nowadays, there are more and more new media platforms, and the speed of development is changing rapidly, so the corresponding laws and regulations should follow the same pattern. Therefore, government authorities, new media-related management departments should accelerate the promotion of new media-related legislation in social platforms, govern the bad habits of the network through legal means, establish and improve the safety norms and supervision of network use, so that people can better fulfill their obligations while enjoying freedom of speech, and enable new media users to maximize the use of new media for various activities under the supervision of the law. The Singapore Ministry of Education (2018) has created a national curriculum for Asia. The framework aims to teach youth particular knowledge, values, skills, and attitudes about cyberbullying (and other safety-related Internet issues), such as awareness of the various forms cyberbullying can take, an understanding of social and cultural sensitivities, and social skills like perspective taking and conflict resolution (Hasse, Cortesi, Lombana Bermudez & Gasser, 2019). Parents should also provide the right guidance. For example, social media can be more than just a negative influence. Parents can guide their children on how to use social media as a learning tool or as a way to enhance their relationship. High-quality companionship allows teens to know what to do with the Internet and improves their e-literacy when using social media. It may be useful for parents and other caregivers to first obtain a better grasp of technological tools and platforms, as well as their children’s online activity on such tools and platforms, to combat cyberbullying. This knowledge may help them gain a better grasp of the frequency with which their kids seek out social interaction online, the motivations behind such behaviors, and the kinds of things to look out for while keeping an eye on Internet use (Hasse, Cortesi, Lombana Bermudez & Gasser, 2019).
Reference List
Cohen Zilka, G. (2017). Awareness of eSafety and Potential Online Dangers among Children and Teenagers. Journal Of Information Technology Education: Research, 16(1), 319-338. doi: 10.28945/3864
Hasse, A., Cortesi, S., Lombana Bermudez, A., & Gasser, U. (2019). Youth and Cyberbullying: Another Look. https://dash.harvard.edu/handle/1/41672537
Nesi, J. (2020). The Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health. North Carolina Medical Journal, 81(2), 116-121. doi: 10.18043/ncm.81.2.116
O’Keeffe, G., & Clarke-Pearson, K. (2011). The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. Pediatrics, 127(4), 800-804. doi: 10.1542/peds.2011-0054
Patton, D., Hong, J., Ranney, M., Patel, S., Kelley, C., Eschmann, R., & Washington, T. (2014). Social media as a vector for youth violence: A review of the literature. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2014.02.043
TEDx Talks. (Director). (2018, July 13). The nightmare videos of childrens’ YouTube — and what’s wrong with the internet today. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9EKV2nSU8w
TEDx Talks. (Director). (2019, May 9). Violence in the Age of Social Media. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyaYMOCt_Ug