Tedesha Noble

English IV

Mrs. Battle

Spring 2017

The Downfall Of Our Life

According to yahoo, 4500 teens commit suicide each year, forty-two percent of these

cases are because of cyberbullying. Social media plays an important role in everyone's life

whether we notice it or not. In fact, a national survey of 1,520 adults conducted March 7-April

4, 2016, finds that Facebook continues to be Americas most popular social networking platform

by a substantial margin: Nearly eight-in-ten online Americans (79%) now use Facebook

(Greenwood, et al). As can be seen facebook is prefered over twitter and instagram. Many

problems in school between teens are because of something that happened on facebook.Social

media is taking over our lives. Social media sites like Facebook and Instagram can lead to

negativity, cause an unrealistic or distorted view of reality, decrease ones productivity, and

increase ones vulnerability personal

protection.

Cyber bullying can take on many

forms.There are many different ways

you can cyber bully someone, instant

messaging or text messaging

harassment, stealing passwords, web

sites, and picture. (www.safeteens.orgs) It can be direct or indirect(www.safeteens.orgs) In fact,

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cyber bullying Can be more dangerous than traditional bullying.(www.safeteens.orgs) This is

due to the instant sharing nature of the internet. With one click, pictures and harmful words can

go viral.(www.safeteens.orgs) Additionally, Cyberbullies can be more cruel because they are not

attacking the victim face to face.(www.safeteens.orgs)This allows the bully to hide behind a

screen and not see the impact of what they are doing. It is also important to note that Men are

more likely to confront people on social media and women act more like stalkers constantly

spying on someone. (Price, Michael).

A specific type of cyber bullying common today is sexual bullying. It is true that

Research shows that sexual bullying starts in elementary school, usually in the form of verbal

insults, typically by boys and directed towards girls. (Messitt,Maggie) Now that social media is

a part of life, sexual bullying mostly takes place there.(Messitt,Maggie) Teengers do not know

about the power they are abusing when they use social media to shame because they are not

aware that it is damaging teens on a deep level.(Messitt,Maggie) In fact, sexual bullying is now

big on social media, especially slut shaming which is bullying a girl if she has casual sex or is

even thought to. As an illustration, Amanda Todd was a 15 year old girl who was bullied into

sending an inappropriate picture to an older man online in 2012. He sent this picture to everyone

she knew and she started getting cyberbullied. As result, she switched schools, tried to get away

from the harassment, but it followed her. She was already struggling with depression and even

cutting herself. Due to the harassment she received on line, Amanda ended up killing herself as

a result of this bullying on October 10th 2012 Amandas story is an example of a picture that
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she did not know was taken. The bullies created a facebook page to bully her with and it lead to

texts, emails, shaming at school and eventually leading to her suicide (Messitt,Maggie)

.Cyberbullying is sinking further below the surface as teens harness new technology and more

creative methods. These stealthier attacks leave targets mentally and emotionally taxed, carrying

around a terrible secret, out of adult view. (Messitt,Maggie) To help prevent cyber bullying

from continuing, sites like Twitter now has a sub tweet option that is more private and can use

code language to report cases of bullying. Amandas is just one example of an extreme case of

cyber bullying that happens everyday online (Messitt).

Social media sites are not private like many teens believe they are. Teens are

accessible to each other at any second of the day through cell phone, instant messenger, and

asocial network websites (Ray, williams).Teens will often share more information than needed to

one of their friends online and not knowing who is on the other side of the computer

(S.Srinivasan). Social media networks, like facebook, ask for private information and teens just

give it thinking it is beneficial. However, others can easily hack into systems and get

information like your address and phone number (S.Srinivasan). Another source of privacy

violations on facebook Involves third party applications(S.Srinivasan). These are often the

quizzes and surveys one can take on Facebook. Once one clicks on the link he or she is taken to

another site that can then access your Facebook account.

Another privacy is that one tweet, post, picture can be shared over a million times. Posts

on social media will find their way to a very large audience quickly, so any information that

could expose one's privacy should be guarded (S.Srinivasan). Once you send a picture it is out

there forever you can't get rid of it (Messitt,Maggie) A lot of the photos circulating are taken
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without the persons permission or even knowledge and are being used to shame or bully

(Messitt,Maggie). Practically every computer has a camera and the ability to screen-grab, and

services such as blogtv,tinychat, facetime,hangouts, and skype allow kids to interact live with

friends-and strangers (Messitt,Maggie). Many high school students say they have felt

threatened, embarrassed, or uncomfortable, with a photo of them taken by a cell phone

(Messitt,Maggie). One in five students are participating in sexting or sending nude photos or

receiving nude photos (Messitt,Maggie). They now have apps where one can post stuff

anonymously and even get a app to get a fake number and change their voice (Messitt,Maggie).

Additionally, a new threat is emerging on social networks, it is location tracking. One can track

where someone is just by a post they made (S.Srinivasan). Today's youth are often living lives

out loud and in full view of an online audience (Jess, Weiner).

Most of the time, social media causes one to be unhappy with their image. In fact,

Heavy facebook users show signs of being more gregarious, but they are also more likely to be

anxious, hostile or depressed (Ray, williams) People who just browse facebook for a couple of

minutes have greater body dissatisfaction than those who just look up the weather or other news

(Jess, Weiner) Social media often makes girls feel the need to be perfect and most of the time it

starts with them wanting to be smaller, this is where most eating disorders come in (Jess,

Weiner)Even if social media itself doesn't cause low self esteem all the elements of it does (Jess,

Weiner) In other words, People live their lives based on likes and feedback about whatever they

are doing (Jess, Weiner) Its true that teens will do anything for popularity on social media

(S.Srinivasan) One has to teach their child that nobody is perfect no matter how it looks from

their perspective (Jess, Weiner)Parents need to help their daughters see their body is amazing
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(Jess, Weiner)If one's daughter has a tendency towards perfection, a recent study has revealed

that the impact of social media on women could include an increase in negative or obsessive

thoughts about appearance (Jess, Weiner). It is clear that young women are more negatively

impacted through even the casual use of social media when it comes to their body image.

People who are addicted to social media find it is very time consuming.(John ,Boitnott).

The average american spends one quarter of their work day browsing social media.(John

,Boitnott). Notably, 18 percent of users cant go beyond a few hours without checking facebook

and 61 percent of users check their newsfeed at least once a day. (John ,Boitnott). Further, 61%

accessed their site during working hours for an average of 15 minutes per day which declined

productivity by 1 percent. (Ray, williams). For business owners this could be a real problem if

one thousand of your employees spend just 1 hour online it could cost your business 35 million

each year.(John ,Boitnott) Likewise, the More time young people spend of facebook , the most

likely they are to have lower grades and weaker study habits.(Ray, williams).Numerous brain

studies have shown that social interaction and the stimulation of emotions are at the core of

effective learning, decision- making and long term memory.(Ray, williams). Face to face

interpersonal skills are poor for people who spend a lot of time on social media.(Ray, williams)

Therefore, people who overuse social media are not gaining the positive brain effects of social

interaction.

No one knew the young people today would text back and forth as much as they do. In fact, this

is not better for their parents who would rather finish an email than fix their kids something to

eat. .(Ray, williams) There are now rehabilitation centers and programs for people struggling

with social media addictions.(John ,Boitnott). There is no doubt that people are spending less
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time focused on specific tasks in place of checking social media. Social media is impacting the

way people communicate with each other. It is true that people text as [they] eat dinner with

[their] families, people text and drive, people text while [their]kids are on the playground.

Children say that they try to make eye contact with their parents and are frustrated because their

parents are looking down at their phone when they come out of school or after school activities.

In other words, parents and children are not connecting with each other, they are connecting with

their social media. At one time, young men talked about how they used to watch sunday sports

with their dads and during the station break or plays they would chat. Now their families are too

busy checking emails during games. (Price, Michael) People feel a phone call reveals too much

and they can't control what's going on, unlike social media which allows one to filter what will

be said before he or she hits send (Price, Michael) Often, in their real lives people are lonely

and distant from one another, but pretend to be close on social media. (Price, Michael)

Additionally, most teens would rather text than actually sit face to face and have a conversation

with someone. (Price, Michael) People are losing touch of their physical surroundings. As an

illustration, people walk with their eyes down looking at their phones instead of making eye

contact with others (Price, Michael). Spending time looking down at ones phone causes one to

forget some good things about life and miss out on the present, such as enjoying a beautiful day

outdoors. (Price, Michael) People need to teach their kids how to be alone without devices.

(Price, Michael)There is nothing like turning the tv off and putting the phones down and just

having a conversation with your daughter.(Jess, Weiner) When things get awkward rather than

just staying there and trying to find something to do, people just get on facebook instead. This is

a skill the next generation is , not getting. (Price, Michael)

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All in all social media is not all bad there are some positives. a survey done by the

nonprofit organization, Common Sense Media shows that, more than 1,000 13- to 17-year-olds

[were asked] about how they view their digital lives, 28% said social networking made them feel

more outgoing versus 5% who said it made them feel less so; and 29% said it made them feel

less shy versus the 3% who said it made them feel more introverted. In other words, social

media might help those with social anxieties to better connect with others rather than face to

face. According to david craig a school counselor at community high school social media gives

people a platform to which others can respond, where they can feel heard.As an illustration,

teen girls used Twitter to openly discuss sexism in the world. This provided them a safe outlet to

connect with others to share their experiences of sexism. (Wallace) Given these instances of

positive social media interactions, one cannot ignore the harmful and destructive impact on

people's lives through cyber bullying, slut shaming, negative body image, and/or just creating a

constant distraction from the real world around them. One should be aware of their social media

fingerprint in that what you do and say online can not only hurt others but can come back and

hurt you.
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Works Cited

Boitnott, John. "Social Media Addiction: The Productivity Killer." Inc.com. Www.inc.com, 11

May 2016. Web. 13 May 2016.

<http://www.inc.com/john-boitnott/social-media-addiction-the-productivity-killer.html>.

Craig, David. "David Craig." Personal interview. 17 Mar. 2017.

Messitt, Maggie. "Teaching Tolerance - Diversity, Equity and Justice." Teaching Tolerance -

Diversity, Equity and Justice. Www.eddiegest.com, Mar.-Apr. 2014. Web. 13 May 2016.

<http://www.tolerance.org/>.

Price, Michael. "Alone in the Crowd." Http://www.apa.org. America Psychology Association, 6

June 2011. Web. 13 May 2016.

<http://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/06/social-networking.aspx>.

"Safe Teens." SafeTeens. Cyberbullying Research Center, n.d. Web. 13 May 2016.

<http://www.safeteens.org/relationships/cyberbullying/>.

Srinivasan, S. "Lack of Privacy Awareness in Social Networks ." Lack of Privacy Awareness in

Social Networks. Www.isiaca.org, 7 Apr. 2012. Web. 13 May 2016.

<http://www.isaca.org/Journal/archives/2012/Volume-6/Pages/Lack-of-Privacy-Awareness

-in-Social-Networks.aspx>.

Wallas, Kelly. "The Upside of Selfies." CNN. Cable News Network, 07 Oct. 2014. Web. 21 Mar.

2017.
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Weiner, Jess. "Impact of Social Media on Teenagers Dove Self-Esteem." Doveselfesteem.

Dove Self Esteem, 27 June 2014. Web. 13 May 2016.

<http://selfesteem.dove.us/Articles/Written/social-media-and-body-image.aspx>.

Williams, Ray. "Social Media: Does It Help or Hinder Productivity?" Psychology Today. Wall

Street Journal, 5 Nov. 2009. Web. 13 May 2016.

<https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/wired-success/200911/social-media-does-it-help-

or-hinder-productivity>.