Social Media
The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families
Child Growth and Development ECE 3220 – 2GW
Tanya Demby
Central State University
Dr. Christina Seamster
January 31, 2022
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Social Media
Social media influences people today. Social media is a form of electronic communication which
helps people who are in need in different terms such as sharing information, researching,
communication, and entertainment. The rapid growth of social media usage has been observed
over the past few years. And since, many users are always updated; it can indeed influence their
lives in different ways especially the academic performance of the students. Moreover, there has
also been considerable media coverage of the growth of social media usage, its potential positive
outcomes, and concerns about the way that some individuals are engaging with it. In the
contemporary world, most people use social media for news, entertainment, to seek information
and to be updated every day. The use of social media has greatly changed how people interact with
other people. Today, most people only consider the benefits that the social media brought to the
people without thinking about the possible negative implications of using it. Youth today are very
inclined in using social media. Most of the students tend to believe that social media helps them a
lot in terms of learning, studying, researching, and finding information. Students can be easily
influenced. Due to their curiosity, they want to explore or try what is new and trending to be able to
fit into the society. They can easily adapt everything that they see around them. With the benefits
of social media, it plays a big part in the students’ everyday lives. In using this, it allows people to
be updated every day with regards to what is happening in their surroundings. Most of the students
use social media for academic purposes, for instance, to be able to interact or communicate with
their classmates and teachers with regards to the activities and tasks that have given to them. First,
social media fosters a false sense of online "connections" and superficial friendships leading to
emotional and psychological problems. The Second harm of social media is that it can become
easily addictive taking away family and personal time as well as diminish interpersonal skills,
leading to antisocial behavior. Lastly, social media has become a tool for criminals, predators
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and terrorists enabling them to commit illegal acts. And the third analysis will consist of showing
the link between the psychological problems caused by social media and criminal activities
committed.
In “Psychology Today 2012”, Auzeen Saedi a Ph.D said “the near anonymity of online
interactions made many impossible things in the real world, possible in the virtual one.” Social
media plays a vital role in transforming people’s lifestyle. Social media includes social
networking sites and blogs where people can easily connect with each other. Since the
emergence of these social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook as key tools for news,
journalists and their organizations have performed a high-wire act. These sites have become a
day-to-day routine for the people. Social media has been mainly defined to refer to “the many
relatively inexpensive and widely accessible electronic tools that facilitate anyone to publish and
access information, collaborate on a common effort, or build relationship”. Research shows that
90% of college students use social networks. Technology has shown a rapid development by
introducing small communication devices and we can use these small communication devices for
accessing social networks any time anywhere, as these gadgets include pocket computers,
laptops, iPads, and even simple mobile phones (which support internet) etc. For education social
media has been used as an innovative way. Students should be taught to use this tool in a better
way, in the educational classes’ media just being used for messaging or texting rather than they
should learn to figure out how to use these media for good (Wikipedia.com). Social media has
increased the quality and rate of collaboration for students. With the help of social media
students can easily communicate or share information quickly with each through various social
sites like Facebook, and Instagram etc. It is also important for students to do some practical work
instead of doing paperwork. They can also write blogs for teachers as well as for themselves to
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enhance their knowledge skills. Social networking sites also conduct online examination which
play an important role to enhance the students’ knowledge.
Engaging in various forms of social media is a routine activity that research has shown to
benefit children and adolescents by enhancing communication, social connection, and even
technical skills.1 Social media sites such as Facebook and MySpace offer multiple daily
opportunities for connecting with friends, classmates, and people with shared interests (O’Keefe,
2011). Although estimates of media usage vary, children under age 2 spend
approximately one hour per day on screen media, while children between two
and eight spend an average of two hours per day (V. J. Rideout, 2013)
https://www.apa.org/members/content/social-media-research
https://www.apa.org/pi/families/resources/newsletter/2019/05/media-use-childhood
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References:
1. Saedi, Auzeen, Ph.D., (2012) Psychology Today; Millennial Media; The media saturated
generation Y; “Catfish” and the Perils of Online Dating.
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/millennialmedia/201212/catfish-and-the-perils-onlinedating.
2. Aveseh Asough, SOCIAL MEDIA AND ETHICS - The Impact of Social Media on Journalism Ethics,
Center for International Media Ethics (CIME), December 2012.
3. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki.Social_media#References, January 31, 2022.
4. Waqas Tariq, Madiha Mehboob, M. Asfandyar Khan, FaseeUllah, The Impact of Social Media and
Social Networks on Education and Students of Pakistan, IJCSI International Journal of Computer
Science Issues, Vol. 9, Issue 4, No 3, July 2012
5. Gitanjali Kalia Chitkara University, Punjab, A Research Paper on Social media: An Innovative
Educational Tool, Issues and Ideas in Education Vol. 1 March 2013 pp. 43–50
6. Retrieved from www.edudemic.com/social-media-education/, January 30, 2022
7. Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, Kathleen Clarke-Pearson, Council on
Communications and Media; The Impact of Social Media on Children,
Adolescents, and Families. Pediatrics April 2011; 127 (4): 800–804.
10.1542/peds.2011-0054
8. Rideout, V.J. (2013). Zero to eight: Children’s media use in America 2013.
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