Social Media and How It Effects Interpersonal Relationships free essay sample

Social networking sites have increased their range of access by becoming known worldwide and and fall of popular social networks, their range of access, and how SNS’s became mainstream. (Boyd) Social media reduces the importance of interpersonal relationships by reducing the frequency of physical communications. Physical communications are an important part of modern culture because they help to develop social mannerisms and strengthen the ability to maintain social relationships. This generations youth have also begun to play a much larger part in their own learning experience. Today’s youth have grown up surrounded by advancing technology and that has changed the way they interact with each other and adults. They can have constant access to contact their friends via texting, and mobile phones as well in public ways like Facebook and Twitter. Youth have begun pressing into their interests by searching on Google and â€Å"lurking† in chat rooms. This has lead to a major increase in self-guided and peer-based learning (Ito). We will write a custom essay sample on Social Media and How It Effects Interpersonal Relationships or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page This major transition to a media enveloped society has greatly affected youth so exponentially because they are permitted to have ‘round the clock access and are provided with devices to access any information they desire with no difficulty. The main issue that children and teens face when using social networking sites is what is appropriate to make public on social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Many things such as addresses and pictures are made public to anyone searching for them. Most websites allow privacy settings and usually enact them automatically for minors. A person may accept a â€Å"friend request† from someone they have never met and this poses a major problem for the protection of the integrity of today’s youth. A common problem that social networking sites face are the creation of fake profiles that are used to harass someone or to elicit illegal sexual activity. Creating an online profile that is fake to emotionally harm someone violates the terms and conditions set up by the social networking website. The creation of a fake online profile to verbally harm someone is thought by some people to violate the First Amendment because it is permitted to have freedom of speech but not to intentionally harm someone (Conan). Most people when signing up for a social media platform or other similar web based operating systems, are required to agree to the terms and conditions put in place by the site’s directors. This contract that the user agrees to asks the user â€Å"have you read and agree to the terms and conditions† and by ticking the box you state that you have. The anwser to this question is commonly referred to as â€Å"the biggest lie ever told†. When signing the User Agreement one agrees to grant the site permission to analyze their personal information for purposes such as ad-tracking. Companies hold the terms in conditions they have set in place to be â€Å"sacred† and this is because it helps to keep them removed from lawsuits. By doing this, the contract states, â€Å"you automatically grant the Company†¦. irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license†¦. † (Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada). Conversely, if the user does not agree to the company’s terms and conditions then access will be denied to the user. What is put on the Internet is no longer intended to be private information. In today’s society impressing our peers no longer pertains to academic or athletic ability but by how many followers a person has on â€Å"Twitter†. This major switch from actual achievements to the ability to interest someone enough for them to click a button is incredibly drastic. The advances made in technology have made notable achievements less important by becoming a non-influential part of society. The advances that today’s youth have made in their ability to self-educate and their ability to rely on peer-based learning are mainly enacted because of the advancement in technology. The people that are making these esoteric discoveries are people that desire the need for uncommon knowledge. Young people are educating themselves in esoteric subjects that require the desire for inside knowledge. These people are delving into different specialized subjects that exceed common knowledge and personal knowledge exchange. This affects how the technologically enveloped teen interacts with his or her peers by creating an allusion to something typically unknown. The expansion of the teens knowledge is generally positive but, their knowledge has the capacity to remove them from the typical social norm and cause them to be viewed as outcasts. The common threat of heavy internet use is the fact that some users may become so heavily dependent that they will take on a form of isolationism and will completely cut off all physically personal relationships. These online relationships that spark can lead to marriage and dating, sites such as eHarmony. om and ChristianMingle. com, for example, make an interface that provides an easier way to do this. The phenomenon of lying on internet profiles to seem more appealing has caused a social upsurgance. However, lying on internet profiles was most common in men but women had almost similar results except in the weight category where a woman’s capacity to lie alm ost always exceeded a man’s (Boyd). The common practice of lying on the internet has made people suspicious of others and has increased the amount of security they place around their personal information. Safety is a major concern for social networking sites that wish to stay out of hot water. Safety should always be looked at as a positive thing but for that change to be made because there was an incident that required an increase in precautions is a negative thing. The amount of safety used on the Internet should not be increased just because something bad happened to force that change. The television show â€Å"Catfish† finds people that have relationships over social media sites and try to determine if they were actually the person they said the were. The majority of the time the person â€Å"catfishing† could be of a different ethnicity, age, height, weight , other physical charachteristics, and even gender. The dangers of people thinking that because they are protected behind a computer sceen they are emotionally invisible, not only that but not responsible for their actions is a question of our society’s morality. This example is exactly why social media should not replace physical interactions. The nuance between generations is not only noticeable in the actions performed by the younger generation but the predecessors as well. The undeniable fact that social media is now a global phenomen shows how greatly one web address can effect every single human being. Bibliography Blow, Charles M. A Profile of Online Profiles. 2008. http://blow. blogs. nytimes. com/2008/09/09/a-profile-of-online-profiles. Blog. April 2013 Boyd, Danah M. Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Nicole B. Ellison. Print. Conan, Neal. Is Creating a Fake Online Profile a Criminal Act. Kim Zetter, Andy Carvin. Radio Broadcast. Ito, Mizuko. â€Å"Geeking Out,† Living and Learning with New Media. igitalyouth. ischool. berkeley. edu/files/report/digitalyouth- WhitePaper. pdf Feb. 2009. Web April 2013. Ito, Mizuko. â€Å"Executive Summary,† Living and Learning with New Media. digitalyouth. ischool. berkeley. edu/files/report/digitalyouth-WhitePaper. pdf Feb. 2009. Web April 2013. Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. A Friend Of A Friend Knows You’re On Vacation. (http://blog. privcom. gc. ca), 2007. Web April 2013. Works Cited Boyd, Danah M. Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship. Nicole B. Ellison. Print. Conan, Neal. Is Creating a Fake Online Profile a Criminal Act. Kim Zetter, Andy Carvin. Radio Broadcast. Ito, Mizuko. â€Å"Geeking Out,† Living and Learning with New Media. digitalyouth. ischool. berkeley. edu/files/report/digitalyouth- WhitePaper. pdf Feb. 2009. Web April 2013. Ito, Mizuko. â€Å"Executive Summary,† Living and Learning with New Media. digitalyouth. ischool. berkeley. edu/files/report/digitalyouth- WhitePaper. pdf Feb. 2009. Web April 2013. Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada. A Friend Of A Friend Knows You’re On Vacation. (http://blog. privcom. gc. ca), 2007. Web April 2013.