SOCIAL NETWORKS AND YOUTH

By:-Taher K D

Social Network

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A social networking is an online service, platform, that focuses on facilitating the building of

social relations among people who, for example, share interests, activities, backgrounds, or real-

life connections. Most social network services are web-based and provide means for users to

interact over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging.

Positive Impacts The main advantage of social networking site is that it helps in establishing

connection with people, friends and relatives. It helps in sharing one’s view,

share pictures and lots of other stuffs. It helps students in interacting with one

another and share ideas. The social networking websites can be accessed

from any part of the globe. This helps the students to establish communication

with their teachers and friends through which they can improve their

knowledge.

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Positive Impacts Through these sites the students can establish contact with

entrepreneurs, corporate people and can gain valuable information

from them. Targets a wide audience, making it a useful and

effective recruitment tool. Increase General Knowledge and

Awareness of Students. Saves Time and Cost by facilitating faster

communication.

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Negative Impacts One of the major disadvantages of using social networking websites are the

students get addicted to it. They spend hours in those social networking sites

which can obviously degrade the student’s academic performance. Opens up

the possibility for hackers to commit Fraud and launch Spam and virus attacks.

Some students may tend to use to these social networking sites till mid night

or even more which can obviously lead to Health related problems.

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Negative ImpactsSome students may spend time in Facebook through which they lack to spend

time with their family members. Some students may provide detailed

information like phone numbers, address which is very dangerous because

they can easily tracked down by strangers.

High exposure on behavior and mental health – Middle schoolers use more

media than any other age group (8 hrs. approx. per day) which results on to

Lower Achedemic Achievements, Lower attachment to school and health

related problems.6

Cyber Bullying The immediacy provided by social media is available to predators as well as

friends. Kids especially are vulnerable to the practice of cyber-bullying in

which the perpetrators, anonymously or even posing as people their victims

trust, terrorize individuals in front of their peers. The devastation of these

online attacks can leave deep mental scars. Cyber-bullying has spread widely

among youth, with 42% reporting that they have been victims.

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Time spent on social media Social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter are becoming more popular

with youth. In 2009, 15.8 percent of time spent on the Internet was on social

networking sites. By 2010, the percentage had risen to 22.7 percent. The

ability to access to social media sites through cell phones, iPads and other

mobile Internet devices has increased the amount of time youth spend on

these sites.

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Age limitations on social media

Age limitations on social media sites are inadequate : - Currently, Facebook

requires users to be at least 13 years old. However, a study by Boyd found that

31 percent of 10-year-olds, 44 percent of 11-year-olds, and 55 percent of 12-

year-olds reported using a social network site (Boyd, 2011). Social media sites

cannot verify a user’s age. If the user has a valid email address and indicates

that he or she is at least 13 years old, access is available. Other sites, such as

Twitter, have no age limit.

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Parental controlsParental controls, especially for younger adolescents, are a necessary evil.

Youth may feel that parental controls are an invasion of privacy, while parents

feel that they are protecting their children from dangers in an on-line world.

Sites such as Facebook and Myspace currently do not have any direct parental

controls. Parents can “friend” their children to watch what they are posting;

however, new privacy settings allow a young user to block people, including

parents, from seeing what is posted.

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Prevention from Social Media Threats

Install theft protection software on all of the computers you use to access social media

accounts.

Make sure never to click the box to save your password when you are on a public, work or

computer.

Use your real name whenever you sign up for social media accounts.

Avoid giving out personal information on social media sites, such as address, phone number or

your birth date. Change your privacy settings on all your social media accounts, so that you have

control of all the information that is posted.

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Prevention from Social Media Threats

Type in the name of the social media site, or use a bookmark, instead of clicking on email

links.

Create complicated passwords when you sign up for social media accounts.

Never give out your travel plans over social media sites.

Avoid using online applications on social media sites, or the Internet in general, that require

access to your personal or profile information.

Use extreme caution when opening links on social media

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Conclusion Parents need to work with their children on using safety precautions when on social media

sites. Youth need to be taught of the dangers of putting their personal information online.

Parents should also discuss with their children the impact of cyberbullying and the importance

of not engaging in this behavior. This can be done by portraying and visualizing such

documentaries, talk shows, dramas and T.V. programs which shows them the right and positive

view of things and motivate them towards the development of their world. These shows should

spread awareness among youth enabling them to recognize their enemies as well as defend

themselves against their traps.

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