Michaela McDonald Instructor: Malcolm Campbell English 1102 4/30/143/25/14 Changing Society One Like At a Time Society is constantly

changing due to a variety of factors, which is inevitable. The question is whether it has changed for the better, or the worst? In all honesty, either side could be argued. How rapidly society is changing is something that no one had really expected though. The people who seem to be most affected by this is the youth, roughly ages ranging from 8-25. This is due to the fact that they are growing up with technology, and not only being introduced to it. Meaning, when my parents were growing up, technology and social media was definitely not a thing, and probably not even a thing they thought possible. When I grew up though, I somewhat grew up with technology. When I was a kid, my mother and father both had cell phones, and then some time around middle school, it became acceptable for children to begin getting cell phones (typically only for emergencies though). The kids ranging from 15 and below though, grew up when technology, practically from birth, when it was really becoming a thing. It has become a necessity for kids to have cell phones once they are in middle school. Not only are they receiving phones but they are receiving access to a whole new world, and an unmonitored one at that. Kids are becoming exposed to different sides of society at a much younger age. Social media websites are one of the biggest factors in this. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snap chat, and YouTube to name a few, have been influencing the way that children live their lives. I remember when I was younger, I would do
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my homework while my parents were watching the six oclock news. As soon as it turned seven oclock, my parents would turn the TV off though, because The Insider would come on, and they did not want me seeing all of the trash on those shows. Todays youth, specifically the kids under the age of 18, are being directly exposed to these things due to the fact that they are following the celebrities and they see all of the trash on their social media websites. Social media web sites are in the course of changing todays youth mentally, physically, and socially. Have you ever seen a teenager walking around the mall, and you suddenly become worried that they might actually run into something because they are so consumed with what is on their phone? Or how abouthave you ever gotten the opportunity to sitat in a class room, and watched how all of the girls sit with their purses in such a way that they can easily see their phones? I mean God forbid they wait until the class is over to check if they have reached 100 likes on Instagram yet. Compared to future generations there is a difference in todays youth. The millennial generation is considered todays youth, being born from the early 1980s until the early 2000s according to Laura Noren from The Society Pages website. With todays youth there is a constant need to be connected to ones technology, and social media. This need for connection can cause many problems mentally for kids today. Mental health for tweens has not previously been an issue, but in recent years there has been a much greater look into it. Tweens is a general term grouping the ages between 10 and 13. A study done in 2011 by The American Academy of Pediatrics states that According to a recent poll, 22 percent of teenagers log on to their favorite social media site more than 10 times a day, and more than half of adolescents log on to a social media site more than once a day. Social media has become a popularity contest for some. It is not only about sharing your experiences and thoughts, but uploading things for the purpose of showing off or getting likes.
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Self-esteem issues, and peer pressure have been just a few of the outcomes due to the increasing use of technology. There is also the factor of cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is using electronics and technology to bully another individual. This causes problems for todays youth, especially those still in school. Technology can essentially give a person a place to hide, but there is also a good chance you will see the people you interact with in person. . This can create a sense of being invincible therefore allowing them to say what they want. The problem is, this is a false sense of security. The American Academy of Pediatrics states cyberbullying can cause profound psychosocial outcomes including depression, anxiety, severe isolation, and, tragically, suicide. Depression is an issue which seems to be surfacing much more in recent years. Cyberbullying has become such a large issue, and can create long lasting effects of a child. A thought which has been recently debated is the idea of social media depression. I am sure most of us remember the feeling of fitting in and being liked was a big deal when we were younger. Social media has provided a way to emphasize and visualize who has the most friends, or followers for that matter, and to see who is receiving the most attention. For the people who are on the lower side of this spectrum, this can be a big knock at their selfesteem. Scrolling through someones feed can negatively affect your self-esteem. Constantly wishing that you were as good looking as someone else. Wishing you did as many cool things as someone else. Wishing you hads as many friends as someone else. Constantly wishing that you were someone else. Social media affects ones self-happiness pushes the feeling of being left out. I stumbled upon an example oOne Sunday while sitting in church. Tthe minister began speaking about how he felt like such a great dad this past week. Recently we had gotten a snowstorm in the Charlotte, North Carolina area which left about a foot of snow on the ground. Trying to have fun with his children, the minister took his kids out to play and make a snowman. Now, this

snowman was about four feet tall with all of the dressings and the whole family everyone was very pleased with it. That is, until the father logged on to Facebook. Scrolling through his news feed, his four foot snowman began to feel much smaller after seeing others, 6 and 8 feet snowman, and even a few igloos! This was even a knock to the ministers self-esteem, being an adult. Kids today go through a rollercoaster of emotions just by logging onto their social media web sites for a few minutes. It has been noted that childhood obesity is raising quite rapidly. The way that children live these days is very different compared to the way people who are in their 30s and 40s lived as children. Instead of playing capture the flag, tag, and kick the can, they are playing Wwords with Ffriends and Fflappy Bbird. According to Aisha Qidwae from the Journal Sentinel, technology leads to less physical activity which can lead to health issues. According to a study done by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 2003 2009 the metabolic equivalents of task will be at an all-time low in the year 2020. In the year 2009 the average MET was 160 hours per week, which is expected to drop to 123 MET hours per week. (Committee on Physical Activity and Physical Education in the School Environment Food and Nutrition Board) Elizabeth Quinn states, MET is an individuals Metabolic Equivalent of Task. The MET is used to measure the estimated amount of oxygen a person will use while completing a task. This study means that our time being lazy and laying around is going to drastically increase which will greatly affect our health and obesity rate. Since social media and technology is an essential part of the lives of our youth, they are going to once again be mostly affected by this. A little boy named Joey is a healthy 7 year old boy. He plays hockey, and soccer, but he also is an avid video gamer. He loves to play the Wii, but unfortunately not the Wii Fit. He spends so much time playing on the Wii per day that his parents have decided to limit the amount

of time he can play on the Wii per day his allowed gaming time on the Wii per day. Still, he finds ways to sneak on there, be it, by telling the babysitter he is allowed to, or waking up in the middle of the night to go play some games. This is becoming a problem for numerous kids, where they become so hooked to their games, that they never want to stop. If Joey keeps up his habits, he will be suffering from a lot more than just a time-out. Children are spending more time in front of a screen per day than any other activity besides sleeping, says an articlewhich is stated in the article The Impact of Food Advertising on Childhood Obesity written by the American Psychological Association. The article proceeds to state that Research has found strong associations between increases in advertising for nonnutritious foods and rates of childhood obesity. Being on social media websites, ads pop up all the time. They pop up at the beginning of Youtube videos, on the sides of the Facebook pages, and all over the internet. Not only is theirre paid advertisement, but there are simply just other people posting things which serves as advertisement. For example, a friend of mine posted about the new Cookie-Dough Oreos on twitter. My roommate saw this tweet, and the next day when we were at the store, she bought a box of them. This is essentially free advertising for companys, and also creating a sense of peer pressure. Having ads directed at the technology users has affected societys health, and especially the youth. The millennial generation has come up with a whole new language of their own. Obviously they still communicate, but the way in which they communicate is completely different from the way in which the parents of this generation would communicate. They speak through instant messaging, likes, and comments. They speak in short acronyms and use vulgar language as terms of endearment. Hillary Stout from The New York Times observes from smart phones to MP3 players to computers Americans ranging from 8 to 18 spend an average of 7.5

hours on their electronic devices. Thinking about this statistic, children of this age are in school for about 6-7 hours a day. Granted, I am sure that students are on their phones throughout the day, but assuming they get 10 hours of sleep a night, there is only 7 hours left in the day outside of sleep and school! The lifestyle that todays youth is living is different from previous generations, and can get dangerous if it does not change. The language that is used in social media is starting to integrate into societys everyday language. Is this putting a strain on the youths ability to have intellectual conversations? Its possible. The millennial generation has come up with a language all of its own. In place of actual words, are short acronyms which are sometimes even pronounced as if an actual word. For instance, when sending a text message, or commenting on a post on social media, if you think something is funny you can use the acronym LOL. This acronym is short for laughing out loud. So this has been something that has integrated into society and has become a typical phrase. This has become so widely used, that people now say lawl, actually pronouncing the acronym, making it into its own word. An article called Is Texting Killing the English Language, by John Whorter featured in TIME, points out the fact that not only is LOL an acronym for laughing out loud, but it is also used simply as a space filler. People nowadays will use LOL as a response when they have nothing to say, or for no reason at all. The way in which people speak, and write is changing due to social media and technology becoming such a prominent aspect in life. The idea that the English language is changing, and in some eyes for the worst, is actually quite scary. Even relationships are socially being conducted differently due to technology. One of my close friends Mariah* met a boy named Trey*. At first they just spoke as friends, but shortly after talking they realized that their feelings werent that of a friendship. They began a strong

emotional connection to one another, which they would argue was love. The only problem was that they had never met in real life. She met trey through an online chat room, and they began to talk outside of the chat room, and later began to use Skype, an online video chat program. Mariah and Trey had a relationship different than most, which was clear. But could I argue that theirs was any less valuable? Personally, no. More than one- third of U.S. marriages begin with online dating says an article on NYnewsDaily.com, go ing onto say that5.96 percent of online married couples had broken up, compared to 7.67 percent of offline married couples. Having a computer screen in front of you can provide a sense of comfort for some people. In a sense it allows you to let your guard down, while leaving your screen up. This can create a very open atmosphere in the relationship which is what my friend Mariah has with Trey. On the flip side though, having an online relationship can put a strain on the relationship itself. Although there is a sense of security, there is also a sense of curiosity. Questions such as: What does this person do outside in their everyday life? Am I the only one that they are talking to? Are we ever going to get a chance to be together? Questions such as these can cause tension in the relationship. It really is dependent on the personalities, and how long your relationship will be online for. Social media websites are impacting society, and will continue to do so for an utterly long time. In some aspects social media and technology can be beneficial. They create new relationships, and connect old ones. They provide outlets for stress, creativity, really anything you need. On the other hand though, they could possibly be the driving factor behind why the millennial generation is such a controversial group. Social media has allowed for over exposure, and introduced a variety of different mental, physical, and emotional problems. Some can only begin to wonder how it is going to influence the generations to come. Will it benefit our world and produce more geniuses? Or, will technology and social media dumb down our society, which

some say it already has? There is really no stopping the advancements in technology, or the way that it is affecting society. I guess it is up to you, whether you see the world through your own eyes, or like it through someone elses.

Works Cited Committee on Physical Activity and Physical Education in the School Environment Food and Nutrition Board. Washington: National Academy of Science, 2013. Web. "The Impact of Food Advertising on Childhood Obesity." Apa.org. American Psychological Association, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. "MET - The Standard Metabolic Equivalent." About.com Sports Medicine. About.com., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. "Metabolic Equivalent." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Mar. 2014. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. O'Keefe, Gwenn, and Kathleen Clarke-Pearson. "The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families." The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. "One-third of Married Couples in U.S. Meet Online: Study." NY Daily News. NYDailyNews.com., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. "Online Connections: Middle School Mental Health and the Effects of Social Media." Middle School Social Media. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. Smith, Aaron. "Social Networks and Depression." Chicagotribune.com. Chicago Tribune, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. Stout, Hilary. "Antisocial Networking?" The New York Times. The New York Times, 01 May 2010. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. Taylor, Dr. Jim. "The Bad, the Ugly, and the Good of Children's Use of Social Media." The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, 28 May 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014.