The internet has a big power to influence what goes on in todays world, to connect one another in real time, and to mobilize the current generation with the help of recent technological advances that many people wouldn’t believe that would happen. But in today’s society, it has happened and the primary focus has been with the rise of social media. According to The Pew Research Center, “there has been an 356% increase of social media use in the United States alone since the rise of Facebook in 2006.” And including about “over 94% of social media use by people through the ages of 12-18 years of age.” Therefore is doubt that social media has been a godsent to young people who want to get in touch with others around the world who also share the same interests and want to know what is going on in their friends and families lives. Even with this upside there is still a downside because with these social media sites are greatly affecting today’s teenagers, in turn are making it a health concern for these teens to be on social media.
Communication is key to any thing you do whether you are talking to a friend or speaking to your doctor on your latest test results. Real communication skills are what teenagers are lacking today. These social practices that you have been taught throughout your life seem to be missing in today's generation since eye to eye contact and having conversations without looking down on your phone are very rare to see today. Dr. Catherine Steiner-Adair, a clinical psychologist says that “There’s no question kids are missing out on very critical social skills” and she goes on to say that it “puts everybody in a non verbal disabled context, since body language, facial expression and any vocal reactions are invisible.”
Social media sites have taken away the need to interact with others. Much of the next generation do interact socially but only at school and work, even then its very minimal and well monitored by the teachers or the boss. Thus parents should not allow their children to use social media sites at a young age. because later in life when they go to apply for a job the job interview wouldn't be over Facebook or Twitter, it would be in person and actually talk to real person. Which teens wouldn't know how to do because their missing that skill set. Employers have seen a pattern within the new working force in that many of the young people don’t have the necessary verbal and social skills to obtain a job but keep a job.
When you post something on Facebook or Twitter, people can view that post including your future boss. A study done by the New York Times showed that 70% of employers did hire someone based on what they found on their social media account. Photos were once taken and put away somewhere where no one could are now just easily posted on the internet for everyone to see. For example,you at a drunken house party or posting hateful speech. Sure, to you its considered fun but to a potential employer its may present irresponsible behavior on your part. There is the problem with relationships and how social media has changed the way two people in love talk to each other. Like I said earlier, social media is not a private place to post anything you want without someone seeing it. Same can be said about relationships. When teen couples fight, it seems they go straight to social media to make a post about how angry they are about how the girlfriend is mad because she thinks her boyfriend is ‘liking’ other girls pictures on Instagram, or the boyfriend wants to spend more time her friends than with him. In addition to all the drama happening to those two, we got their friends taking sides on who is right and who is wrong. Russell Clayton, a doctoral student at the University of Missouri, “Found that people who used Facebook a lot, had negative relationship outcomes.” No longer is couple fights dealt with face to face, but is dragged into a bigger conflict than it was in the first place. And could be bigger concern if they break up and post false things, racy photos or rude comments on their ex’s feed. In the end, could lead to Cyberbullying.
According to Doctor Gwenn Schurgin-O'Keeffe, MD and Kathleen Clark-Person, MD, authors of "The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. stated that “Social media has proven to cause many serious negative health effects; since many teenagers have been showing signs of ‘Facebook Depression’ this can be caused by cyberbullying and being stalked online.” And that “leads to teens suffering from a mental illnesses such as depression that can lead to many teens have suicidal thoughts or to commit suicide.”
According to the Webster Dictionary, cyberbullying is “the electronic posting of mean-spirited messages about a person (as a student) often done anonymously.” Cyber bullying has been in the news lately, and it is a good thing that more people are hearing how people, young people especially, are being bullied in their own home over social media sites. Back in the old days, bullying would be dealt with at school and the only way to get away from it was to go home. But not these days, since all it takes is a single click, you go beyond the playground and can view a conversation on someone’s Facebook wall, a photo on Instagram or maybe a video on Youtube in which can be shared within your house. Due to Facebook and Twitter, people no longer have the fear of being caught since there is no anonymity and no physical contact with their victim. “Over half of adolescents and teens have been bullied online, and about the same number have engaged in cyberbullying.” (Cyber Bullying Statistics,Bullyingstatistics.org) Cyberbullying can lead to feelings of anxiety, depression, and previously stated, suicide. And since the anything on the web never goes away, the pain of cyber bullying can still linger throughout the victim's life. Stalking on social media can also lead to Cyberbullying.
Cyberstalking is very much like stalking in real life. The only difference is that its done though social media. Sure, there is the innocent stalking though your old flames Facebook or Twitter feed to find out what they have been up to but there's the dark side of stalking that can land you in jail. What would cause stalking? Basically by putting up personal info online where anyone user can see it. Social media is a easy gateway to getting your name,age, email address, where you live and work, and any little detail that anybody who are malicious people can hurt you. But yet, many teens don’t see the dangers of revealing that kind of data online.
According to the United States Department of Justice, there are 90 million people with access to the internet. In turn,there is a estimated that there are ten thousands victims of cyberstalking. What adds to this problem is that there isn’t much info out there about cyber stalking or legislation that exists to prevent it. Leading to many people, mostly teens, to be unaware of what constitutes as cyberstalking. Which in turn leads many of these teens who know don’t realize that putting your contact info is dangerous since for most of them, there is no face to face meeting of any sorts with those they are talking too. Since according to Chris Hopkins, a special agent for the FBI said that “many Cyberstalkers like to prey on pre-teens and teens by posing as young people themselves in order to friend them on Facebook.” This would mean that the cyberstalker would have to get them to develop a relationship with the teen and after a certain time has passed, try setting up a personal meeting with them.
This can be prevented. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter provide the privacy tools to users to give them greater control over who can view their account and also limiting the amount of personal info teens put on their Facebook account.
Are you addicted to social media? Social dependency is also another mental health factor that is on the rise in teenagers and adolescents. Just like any addiction, people deny they have one but they do. It's the compelling urge to log on to Facebook or Twitter and just hopelessly spend hours on end reading people’s feed and looking at photos instead of dealing with your own life.
Sure,there is nothing wrong with wanting to take a break from doing homework or studying by hopping on Facebook but if that means that getting warped into social media studying for your test and doing your homework just got pushed to the bottom of your to-do list. In fact that “increases in social media use are associated with reduced grades; only 23% of people who didn’t use social media as much averaged C’s or worse, compared to 47% of the heavier users.” (Pew Research Center) The symptoms of social media addiction can often be seen by teens and children, when parents take away their phones or cutting off the Wi-Fi. Jamie Monday, a counselor at Crown Point High School says that “If the teen is dependent on social media as their way of communicating with peers, they will have a meltdown and sometime even experience depression-like symptoms.” Of course everyone is addicted to something, whether its drugs or alcohol. However, if you spend hours upon hours on social media and you're losing sleep over it, is a sure sign that you addict. There is a difference of staying up studying for a test and making sure you don’t miss a minute on your friend's Facebook feed of a party you missing out on. Social media addiction is a real thing, and is a real psychological problems.

Even though the revolution of technology has made every task we used to do before has been made easy and simple, and people tend to forget that its a double edge sword and social media is one of them. Social media sites like Facebook promised us that it would connect us all but it seems that all it does is disconnecting from who we are and taking our relationships for granted. Children and teenagers won’t know what it was like to actually have a conversion without looking at their phone every second or to be aware of who they are talking to. Social media has a dark side. That’s why teens are prioritizing social media over their academics woes and posting their personal info and incriminating posts or photos that can ruin their future. Social media is good in small doses, its definitely not something that teens should not be allowed to be on since they don’t have the abilities to decide what is beneficial or harmful to them.

Works Cited

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Hopkins, Chris. "Children on the Internet Are Prey for Cyberpredators." Cyberpredators. Ed. Stefan Kiesbye. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2012. At Issue. Rpt. from "Why Children Are Susceptible to Online Dangers." The Internet Got My Baby 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.

Hunisman, Julia. "The Signs and Symptoms of Social Media Addiction : Get Healthy." Nwitimes.com. 20 June 2015. Web. 3 Dec. 2015.

Lenhart, Amanda, Kristen Purcell, Aaron Smith, and Kathryn Zickuhr. "Social Media and
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O'Keeffe, Gwenn Schurgin, and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson. "The Impact of Social Media on
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