Abstract
Online social networking has become extremely popular with youth and young adults. These self-expressive sites describes the lives and excitement of today’s youth. Social networking refers to activities that are carried out by specific online services that provide space and tools that allow the creativity of others to shine and express themselves. How are the youth effected if at all by social technology?
The effects of social networking sites on youth.
The effects of social networking on the youth of today is beyond many peoples imagination.
Teens today are known as the Facebook Generation or “digital natives”. During the past 20 years with the start of online bulletin boards and social media sites the youth of today know more about themselves, their surroundings, and world events more than ever. In 1994 one of the first social media sites was created named Geocities. In years past young people would come home from school, do their homework, play outside with neighbors, eat dinner with parents, and maybe talk to a friend on a corded phone in front of other family members and then get ready for bed and repeat the same events the next day. Today is a different story, you have study hall during day at school to do homework, you then race home, if you’re not allowed to carry a smartphone to school, to check your chosen social media site or sites, mainly Facebook and see if anyone has tagged you in a picture, sent you a private message, or to see what all your friends are posting.
During the reading of this paper, I will discuss the types of social networking sites, good and bad effects of social networking, how it effects development in children, and the health risk of social media sites.
Social networking is an important role in the lives of many young people.
References: Berk, L. E. (2010). Development Through The Lifespan: Emotional and Social Development in Late Adulthood. Fifth Edition. Boston, MA: Pearson Education, Inc