Is Facebook "Good" for You?

Is Facebook “Good” For You?
Ellie B
April 10, 2012

Think back to 2005, just a mere seven years ago. MySpace was climbing the charts with 26.7 million users (MacManus, 2006). YouTube was just launched and gained much popularity through MySpace. Mark Zuckerburg had just created Facebook the year before and has just opened usage to high school students (Acohido, 2009). Nobody living in 2005 could have ever predicted the skyrocketing usage of the internet in the years to come. MySpace has become pretty much obsolete when compared to Facebook’s whopping 845 million members (Protalinski, 2012). “Facebook” has become the most searched term on Google (onlineschools.org, 2012).
To become this famous, Facebook has to have many benefits to draw in its large population of users across the world. These benefits help the many negative consequences of social networks to be greatly overlooked. Although Facebook has many positive benefits and effects, the negative aspects generously outweigh them. Facebook offers many technological opportunities but also, can cause depression, increase narcissistic tendencies and insecurity in teens, elevate cyberbullying, and a decline in students’ grades.
Have you ever heard of “Facebook depression?” Now being considered as an actual diagnosis, Facebook depression is a social-psychological disorder found in teenagers with an obsession or addiction to Facebook. With so many members being in the teenage age group on Facebook, it’s no surprise that this disorder is being more commonly found now.

Figure 1. Facebook Membership by Ages
Being ignored by your friends in reality is not as bad as being ignored by peers on Facebook now. (Bates, 2011) To Gwenn O’Keefe, a pediatrician and lead author of new American Academy of Pediatrics social media guidelines, it’s no surprise that researchers are finding negative results from social networking in children and teenagers. “There are unique aspects of Facebook that can make it a particularly tough social landscape to navigate for kids already dealing with poor self-esteem.” (Tanner, 2011)
A research study conducted back in 2010 showed that teenagers use social media for an average of 7 hours, 38 minutes per day, or approximately 53 hours a week. (Gilford, 2012) For teenagers, this time is spent on many of their favorite websites like Facebook and Twitter, where kids have “in-your-face friends’ tallies, status updates, and photos of happy-looking people having great times.” (Tanner, 2011) These aspects cause kids to look at others’ lives with a sense of longing and a fear of missing out. When shy, friendless, or antisocial teenagers are willingly looking at these happy things, it’s no wonder that psychologists had to come up with a diagnosis for being surrounded by reminders of people with perceived, happier lives. Depression is not the only problem teens can encounter while being a Facebook user; narcissism and insecurity are also on the rise. With right-at-your-hands mobile applications for Facebook and Twitter, teenagers, and adults alike, can update statuses and post pictures to these websites at any place and any time they want. An associate professor of psychology, Jean M. Twenge, found from a study that technologically advanced teens, or Millennials, are the most narcissistic generation in history. She also states that electronics and social networks have only increased this generation’s selfish tendencies. (Hoover, 2007) So what is the reasoning for the Millennials’ generation of narcissists? Twenge blames it on the parents, teachers, and media trying to encourage kids and teenagers to build up their confidence and self-esteem. “Everyone is attractive or getting surgery to become so; competition and individual pursuits trump group or collective action; relationships are superficial and transient; kids are treated permissively at home and fed with self-inflating messages at school,” Twenge states, "We have to stop telling kids they 're special all the time.” (Hoover, 2007) Facebook not only attracts the narcissists of the world, but it also attracts the unconfident, low self-esteemed teenagers, too. “Students who placed lower on the self-esteem scale, as well as those rated high on the narcissism test, were correlated with a greater number of Facebook checks per day and more time spent on it, “ says researcher Soraya Mehdizadeh, who conducted this study on University students two years ago. (Blatchford, 2010) Facebook can also be the leading cause of low self-esteem in teens. Abby Abolt, a 16-year-old from Chicago, frequently uses Facebook and says that she understands how kids could feel down and depressed. “If you really didn’t have that many friends and weren’t really doing much with your life, and saw other peoples’ status updates and pictures and what they were doing with friends, I could see how that would make them upset.” (Tanner, 2011) As one can tell, Facebook can make kids into something they’re not: a narcissist, depressed, someone with low self-esteem. Unwillingly, Facebook also aids many cyberbullies throughout the web. Did you know that the term ‘cyberbullying’ did not exist even a decade ago? (Holladay, 2011) Cyberbullying happens when people use technology to harass, embarrass, or humiliate someone. Students now have so much access to technology that cyberbullying is becoming even more of an issue than bullying in school. “93% of children ages 8 to 18 have computers at home, 66% have cell phones, and 76% own another multimedia device, such as an iPod.” (Holladay, 2011) With all of this technology becoming more user friendly, teenagers always have access to Facebook and other social networks where cyberbullying happens every day.
There are numerous cases of suicides throughout the world, where cyberbullying is found to be the cause. 15-year-old Amanda Cunnings killed herself when she jumped in front of a bus. Days earlier, she had written a status on Facebook, describing her depression and desire to commit suicide. (Hoffman, 2012) 15-year-old Tom Mullaney killed himself in his home after being threatened with an attack at school over Facebook. (Bates, 2011) Phoebe Prince killed herself after being tortured and bullied by multiple classmates over Facebook. (Holladay, 2011) These deaths are happening everywhere, and it’s becoming hard for schools and authorities to stay out of the “Facebook drama,” even with our first amendment declaring our freedom of speech. “In March 2010, California 's Second Appellate District concluded that online threats against a student were not protected speech and allowed a civil lawsuit against the alleged perpetrators, their parents, and school officials to proceed.” (Holladay, 2011) Multitasking has become one of the Millennials’ essential skills. In the present day world, a person has to “juggle” many different responsibilities, assignments, and relationships. Add technology into there, and the typical Millennial will find a way to squeeze it in. When doing their homework, teenagers will have another window open with a website of their liking: be it Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, or Twitter. A University student, Daisy Jones, says, “I couldn 't resist going online. You do that, then someone 's photo catches your eye. Before you know it, a couple of minutes has (sic) turned into a couple of hours and you haven 't written a thing.”
However, others appeared to be in denial about the effect of their usage on their academic performance. (Clarke, 2009) Research now shows that this time students use “poking” friends, writing on walls, and uploading photos can lower grade point averages. Many of these students will protest and say that having Facebook in another window does not affect their grades at all. Studies show that people on Facebook only spent one to five hours studying a week while non-Facebookers spent 11 to 15 hours studying a week. (Rose, 2009) Facebook may be unknowingly causing a decline in grades and study habits among teens and young adults across the world.
Despite all these negative aspects of Facebook, there are some undeniable benefits that arise from the usage of Facebook. Life coach Tim Brownson found that loneliness is as much a risk to your health as high cholesterol and smoking. Having a large network of friends is also proven to increase your life expectancy, shown to decrease the likeliness of getting in an accident, and shown to decrease the likeliness to be diagnosed with almost every serious medical condition you can think of (2009). Do you remember that friend you went to school with, but you lost contact with over the years? Social networking sites also help people all over the world reconnect with lost friends and family. Although Facebook has these few benefits, the risk that teenagers, and adults alike, take by using these social networking sites is not worth it.
What else do you not know about teenagers and Facebook? There’s a chance you didn’t know that 29% of teens have posted mean info, embarrassing photos or spread rumors about someone. Also, you probably didn’t know that 29% have been stalked or contacted by a stranger or someone they don’t know (Thomas, n.d.). There are bad effects and consequences to using Facebook, but some are overlooked. Every day, members of social networking sites give out private information to people they don’t know.
The Facebook logo will be an iconic graphic, known through many generations. Facebook may not be safe or good for kids and teenagers, but it is a part of the Millennial generation. Despite the bad grades, cyberbullying, narcissism, insecurity, and depression, social networking sites, including Facebook, will be used throughout our entire lives. Looking back on your life though, do you want to be the one that encourages the use of technology that hampers our face-to-face communication? Do you want to help the rate of depression and cyberbullying increase? This isn’t an issue for the government to control. This is an issue of parents wanting their children to grow up in a world where people act like the internet wasn’t always around. They want them to grow up in a world of writing letters and having hobbies. Don’t let another generation waste the only time they have in the world on Facebook. References:
Online Schools. (2012). Are We Obsessed with Facebook?. Retrieved from http://www.onlineschools.org/blog/facebook-obsession/
Thomas, T. (n.d.). 30 Statistics about Teens and Social Networking. Retrieved from http://facebook-parental-controls-review.toptenreviews.com/30-statistics-about-teens-and-social-networking.html

References: Online Schools. (2012). Are We Obsessed with Facebook?. Retrieved from http://www.onlineschools.org/blog/facebook-obsession/ Thomas, T. (n.d.). 30 Statistics about Teens and Social Networking. Retrieved from http://facebook-parental-controls-review.toptenreviews.com/30-statistics-about-teens-and-social-networking.html