Social Networking Sites; for short SNS and also known as the everyday social joy and entertainment of people. Teenagers spend about 3,5 hour a day on social media. (Anderson, 2015) In contrast to Gerben’s four days ago blogpost, I want to show you the other side of SNS. The growing use of social networking sites leads to negative consequences for adolescents and can even lead to depression, claims Leidenpsychologyblog.nl. Do the adolescents confirm that they are depressed because of this?
These ‘children’ make a transition from focussing on their parents to focussing on peers. Friendships play a very important role in this. The difference between 20 years ago and now is the shift from real life interaction to Social Networking Sites interaction. Almost 75% of teenagers uses SNS and over half of the teenagers uses it every day. It also means that social emotional development of these adolescents occurs online.
Adolescent online behaviour is hardly similar to offline behaviour, according to leidenpsychologyblog.nl. This means when a person is prosocial in SNS life, it is in real life either. The same applies to aggression, jealousy and other negative behaviours. The teenagers do not feel using social networking sites makes a difference in how they feel; for example the level of self-confidence or their mood. But for whom this do make a difference, they assert it is in a positive way. Being less shy and more confident is of frequent occurrence. Besides that the teens claim feeling more connected.
Brian Jung claims that SNS causes some other negative effects associated with the growing use of SNS. At first the consequences of cyber bullying. Especially children are vulnerable and the consequences can leave deep mental scars. Anonymity afforded online will ensure that people across their border. 42% of youth reported that they have been victims already. Besides that, the impact on productivity is considerable. The employees are sometimes more interested in what friends are doing and posting than their work. The impact on privacy is another point Jung is mentioning. The discovery of drunk party photos and stories by your (potential or future) employer will not lead to ideal situations.
We have to watch out for this problem. The adolescents are not realizing the effect of social networking sites on their lives. What will the future bring us? Do we have to protect this generation?
- http://smallbusiness.chron.com/negative-effect-social-media-society-individuals-27617.html
- http://www.leidenpsychologyblog.nl/articles/facebook-depression-the-influence-of-social-media-on-adolescents
- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/digital-media/11597743/Teenagers-spend-27-hours-a-week-online-how-internet-use-has-ballooned-in-the-last-decade.html
