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Nick Rabat
UNIV112
Children and Facebook: A Changing Social World
The vast majority of human beings on this planet either use or have heard of Facebook.
Facebook has become the most widely used and most rapidly expanding social networking
company on the globe within the last decade. Everyone is familiar and understands that
Facebook is an incredible social tool used for sharing your life with people you know or have
met online. This media tool was first designed for the sole purpose of connecting with the people
directly around you, but over time expanded to the global network we see today. With millions
of users, the Facebook Company is more than constantly adapting to its new users and their
interests. Currently, data has shown that the new users are getting younger and younger, as social
networking becomes more important among adolescents. The issue with Facebook today is that
for any child, all it takes to create an account is a simple confirmation button accepting that you
are 12 years or older. This makes it relatively simple for any adolescent to be connected. This
causes young networkers to become exposed to a good deal of the harassment, and other harmful
material online, especially in this day and age, where the social boundaries are consistently
losing significance. Dr. Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University,
demonstrated in his study that many of these children are experiencing emotional, mental, and
psychological damage due to the harmful online interactions and social pressure associated with
being a part of the network (Protalinski). Facebook is a tool for adults and older adolescents to
communicate, network, and share parts of their lives. This issue affects more than just the kids; it
affects parents, healthcare providers, and school systems as well. There needs to be a shift in the
operations of Facebook to accustom the waves of 11-14 year olds so that it becomes more “userfriendly” in order to avoid the psychological issues we are finding in youth today.
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No one can argue that Facebook is a bad thing or should be shut down because of how
it’s affecting young people. Facebook is a massively beneficial entity that has forever changed
the way we interact with each other. A vast amount of research has been done on Facebook to
study its effects on people of all ages. In Dr. Rosen’s study of 1000 urban adolescents and his
presentation titled “Poke Me: How Social Networks can both Help and Harm our Kids”, he
discussed some of the negative effects as well as the positive effects this social media site can
have on kids. He said that some negative effects of the overuse of Facebook would be beginnings
of showing narcissistic tendencies, and a greater proneness to depression, anxiety, and other
psychological disorders (Protalinski). Also, the same study showed that adolescents who checked
Facebook at least once every 15 minutes reported lower grades than those who didn’t
(Protalinski). However, when it comes to the amount of inappropriate material that children are
being exposed to, Dr. Rosen stated that it comes down to the responsibility of the parents to
remove inappropriate material or disconnect their kids from people who may share inappropriate
material (Protalinski). He also states that the parents should not be “paranoid” of their children’s
online experience, but should be “aware” of online trends (Protalinski). This is significant
because children cannot control, or have no interest in controlling what happens to them while
they are online. For this reason, it is crucial in prevention of negative effects that the parents take
necessary precautionary steps.
In Dr. Rosen’s study, he went on to explain possible positive benefits of being seriously
involved in Facebook. He states that children who are deep into the networking experience may
have an easier time showing “virtual empathy”, as well as allowing “introverted kids to safely
socialize behind the barrier of a laptop or smartphone”, and he found that it could be used as a
viable teaching tool for teachers (Protalinski). This shows that there are two significant sides to
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this argument, being that Facebook can both have positive and negative effects on young kids.
However, if the company could do something to weed out some of the negative effects, it would
be an overwhelmingly more positive experience for the new wave of users.
The positive and negative effects that the exposure to the social world of Facebook
shown in Dr. Rosen’s study can be shown to trigger behavioral changes in these kids as well as
just effects on their psyche. Specifically, one of the main behavior changing aspects of Facebook
has been shown to be cyberbullying. Cyberbullying is one of the largest concerns for early
adolescents because the amount of negative effects proven. M.A. Barnett conducted a study in
“The Journal of Genetic Psychology” on the behavioral changes caused by teasing and
cyberbullying online. In his study of 69 sixth through eighth grade students, he found significant
data regarding how children react when exposed to negative teases online. For example, how a
child viewed the action of the people teasing them clearly predicted how negatively they would
respond and in turn, correlated to a negative retaliation (Barnett). To be specific, Barnett states
that children who are more “unpopular” were much more likely to solicit an aggressively
negative response as opposed to their more “popular” counterparts (Barnett). Barnett believes
that those who put out defensive responses to teases that are ambiguous are most likely to
develop a “people are out to get me” mentality (Barnett). Now this research becomes significant
when considering this argument because when early adolescents are trying to enhance their
social lives by getting connected to Facebook, something like cyberbullying can negatively
affect the rest of their lives, and can lead to emotional and psychological trauma explained in the
Rosen study. In addition to this, these negative responses to “ambiguous teases” from a child’s
peers can lead to poor relationships with their peers. This can be detrimental because one of the
main purposes of kids getting connected to Facebook is to be able to connect and socialize with
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their classmates, and if there is cyberbullying taking place, that is going to defeat the purpose.
However, there are actions that can be taken when confronted with harassment online. The
children can get their teachers or parents involved in order to help resolve problems that they
cannot.
Now when we look at the negative effects Facebook is having on early adolescents, it is
important to consider how the online interactions of the kids affect other stakeholders involved.
To be specific, we should take a look at how children who are negatively affected, affect parents,
healthcare providers, and schools, as these are all outlets that will have to deal with this issue.
A study done by The American Academy of Pediatrics stated that “75% of all teens ages
12-17 now own cell phones, up 45% from 2004”, this allows adolescents further increased access
to Facebook and other social media applets (Strasburger). With increased access to social media
website there comes the increased risk of being exposed to inappropriate material. When children
are affected by this material online, the parents, in turn, are also affected. For this reason the
AAP stated that parents of these kids should be discouraging prolonged social media exposure
and should try to monitor what is going on in their social media world (Strasburger). This would
allow the parents to attempt to decrease the amount of inappropriate material their kids are
getting exposed to, and as a result, hopefully prevent and psychological damage stemming from
social media use.
When examining the potential health concerns regarding exposure to inappropriate
material and harassment online, it is important to consider how the healthcare providers tending
to these kids will be affected. To be specific, the more emotional, mental, and psychological
damage early adolescents subject themselves to, the more healthcare providers will have to
provide, which in turn will increase demand for mental health professionals. According to the
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AAP, healthcare provides should take steps to prepare for that to happen like, becoming more
educated on what is going on in social media and taking detailed social media histories of
children adversely affected (Strasburger). This would result in healthcare providers to be better
prepared and more knowledgeable when it comes to treating adolescents who may have been
affected by Facebook or other social media venues.
The third important stakeholder to consider when examining how early adolescents and
teens can be negatively affected by Facebook are schools. It is important for schools to manage
things like cyberbullying, what kinds of social media are available for kids to use in school, and
how they use Facebook and other social media in the classroom. Schools play a huge part in
prevention of harassment, bullying, and other inappropriate material from being seen by younger
students online. The AAP suggested that in order for schools to better protect their students
online, they should expand media education programs, educate the school boards on the risks of
negative social media exposure, and use the technology more in the classroom so it can have a
controlled positive effect on the kids (Strasburger).
Shifting away from the stakeholders in this argument, we look to the philosopher, Peter
Singer, the ethicist that believes in total utilitarianism. As someone who believes that everyone
should have loyalty to everyone, he would definitely support the idea that Facebook needs to
make some adjustments so that the interests of the younger users are taken into account just as
much as the interests of the older users (Singer). He would argue the idea that children are just as
equal as adults and would be disappointed in the fact that there is a schism between how adults
view and operate Facebook and how kids do the same. As previously stated, there is no
discretion between the adult network and the children’s network, and for this reason, children are
becoming adversely affected by their online interactions. He would argue that globally,
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Facebook would do the most good by shifting its operations to that in which the protection of the
psyche of children would be a main concern.
Based on all of the information and studies presented thus far, it is clear that some of the
main problems children are having with Facebook are cyberbullying, exposure to inappropriate
and adult material, and the emotional and psychological trauma associated with the two. When
solutions come to mind, it is understood that a shift needs to be made in order to satisfy the needs
of the new waves of early adolescent users of Facebook. What could be done is have a parental
option so parents can manage what can be shown on their news feed and who can share things to
their children’s timelines. Also, the company could enforce stricter regulations on the kinds of
pages that can be made available to the kids based on their age. As far as cyberbullying is
concerned, there is not much Facebook can do if nothing is reported to them. Although Facebook
should take steps to punish those guilty of bullying online if it is reported to them.
Opposition of this argument would argue that Facebook is fine the way it is and should
continue taking the steps it is currently taking with advancement of its own technology. They
would argue that the way Facebook handles and operates dealing with cyberbullying and other
inappropriate materials is okay the way it is. When it comes to the psyche of young users,
proponents of this side state that it isn’t Facebook’s responsibility to take care of their user’s
mental health. However, if the mental trauma was brought on by activity occurring on the
website, shouldn’t the website be at least partially responsible? That is why Facebook does need
to take action in order to protect the best interests of all of its users, children included.
In conclusion, the massive online social networking tool we know today as Facebook has
provided millions with the opportunity to share their lives with other people. However, new
waves of users, early adolescents, have been increasing steadily over the past decade. This is
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problematic because Facebook has not taken steps in order to insure the safe networking of their
11-14 year old users. As a result, children are becoming exposed to inappropriate material, and
all different kinds of harassment and bullying. From this negative exposure, kids are developing
mental, emotional, and social disorders at young ages. This also affects the schools, healthcare
providers, and the parents of these children. Looking at the ideas of Singer and other dignified
writers and professors, possible solutions for this problem were determined so that children who
are becoming acclimated to social media do not have to go through the trouble of harassment and
exposure to indiscrete material.
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Works Cited
Barnett, Mark A., Marcella B. Nichols, Tammy L. Sonnentag, and Taylor W. Wadian. "Factors
Associated with Early Adolescents’ Anticipated Emotional and Behavioral Responses to
Ambiguous Teases on Facebook." Science Direct. Elsevier B.V., 3 June 2013. Virginia
Commonwealth University. Web. 8 Dec. 2014
Protalinski, Emil. "Facebook Overuse Can Lead to Psychological Disorders in Youth." ZDnet.
CBS Interactive, 9 Aug. 2011. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.
<http://www.zdnet.com/article/facebook-overuse-can-lead-to-psychological-disorders-inyouth/>..
Singer, Peter. "The Drowning Child and the Expanding Circle." Focused Inquiry: Evolving
Ideas. 2014-15th ed. N.p.: Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014-15. 380-83. Print.
Strasburger, Victor C., and Marjorie J. Hogan. "Children, Adolescents, and the Media."
Pediatrics . American Academy of Pediatrics, 28 Oct. 2013. Web. 8 Dec. 2014.
<http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/132/5/958.full>.
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Rabat
Post Write Memo
My process for writing this essay was to first develop my ideas through research, and then
organize all of my thoughts and ideas into a pre-written outline of what I was going to address in
my essay. I came to my ideas by first choosing something that would be relevant and significant
to all of our lives and Facebook is something nearly every civilized human being knows about. I
drafted and revised my essay by having peers review it and analyze my thoughts so I could refine
my essay. The draft came from a pre written outline. The biggest strength of my essay is the
relatability of the subject and that it is interesting. I have a strong data set and good, academic
sources as well. The weakest parts of my essay are probably the opposition of my own argument.
I am the most proud of how I was able to take all of the ideas and organize them onto paper. If I
had more time to revise, I would have more peers review my paper to get more insight on how to
make it better. Aside from that, I’m not sure else what I would fix.