How Media Makes Generations Less Social

Throughout the last decades, social media has led to considerable impacts on how people interact and visualize other prospects in life. Various websites including Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook, have occasionally taken the world by a storm. At present, it is more comfortable to hold a conversation with the family members, family, and friends who live distant away compared to the past. As a result of the emergence of social media, many individuals have become more aware of the social issues in society and are more sensitized. The news about proceedings of daily activities is easily accessible online; hence the teenagers can get a glimpse about the latest celebrity gossip and the drama in the political arena. Besides, social media has a tremendous impact on communication and how people interact with their peers. It has enabled the youths to access new people and friends by just a click of the button. Many people do believe that internet friends are less valuable; however sophisticated websites like Skype have proved that it not always the case. Skype allows adventure for an instant messaging making long-distance relationship more intimate just like a real friendship. The Skype App, for instance, enable distant friends to see each other face to face and also spend some valuable time whenever they want to. As a result of these incidences, internet friendship should never be considered as a taboo or an inhabitant to human relations.

Primarily, as much as the developments have to lead to the rapid growth in communication, it has also impaired other vital perspectives including how the current crop of generations socializes with the peers in real life. Today many youths prefer to be in the online networks rather than visiting the friends the families in their physical locations. To this extent it undeniable that it has caused laziness and laxity among the youths. Many individuals currently use social media as a way of settling the scores or the differences they have with other parties. When not resolving the disputes, some utilize it for gambling. Essentially, these are individuals who need appropriate directions from the society on how they should go about life prospects. In doing so, they should be encouraged to never detach themselves from the societal, ethical code of conduct. Real life interactions promote openness and sincerity in dealings and hence should never be avoided. Therefore, it is true that as much as the revolutions impacted by social are valid it has also led to negativities which should be appropriately addressed; hence it is true that the media has made the current crop of a generation less social and even lazy. The problem has since infiltrated into almost every aspect of the youths daily lives, and in each aspect, it could cause havoc if the attitude doesn't change.

Effects of media on education. Social media has led to the eradication of values and a lot of the poor grades witnessed in colleges and other tertiary learning institutions. There is massive absenteeism from schools, and this has led to a drop in academic grades. The decline of the grades is attributed to truancy and failure to get enough sleep. All these problems have thus led to a considerable dip in education standards. Many of the youths who attained lower grades highlighted that they check on Facebook at least twice during any study period. It should be understood that when the teenagers open the Facebook App or any other social media platform, their concentrations are impaired or interfered with. The interference causes a drop in the retention rates and also limits accurate observations of what is essential in the study course. For instance, the process of updating status on Facebook consumes a lot of time, and that is not going to help in attaining better grades or concentration in class.

Incidences of cyber-bullying, cyber-bullying is on the high rise following the increasing number of rogue Facebook users. These users do post provocative messages on social media platforms to evoke an emotional response from other users (Kate, 2014). It is from these cyber-bullying incidences that have attributed to the youth becoming very vulnerable on the verbal attack causing grief. Trolling of late has taken a toll, and many teenagers have fallen a trap. It has become a background for any argument on Facebook in a bid to launch a supremacy battle among the vulnerable peers. When the trolling becomes unbearable grumbles emerge, the defeated lot deviates from viewing others status updates, profile picture updates, and posts from the so-called friends. Necessarily, that breaches the entire function and purpose of social media.

Primarily when the youths are attacked in social media, they don’t turn or buck off. For instance, in Australia, an individual who could not hold on to the persistent twitter trolls finally succumbed to death. The negative attitude towards her way of life forced her into systematic depression which ultimately led to his death. The incident thus illustrates how negative posts and pictures in social media platforms can impact negatively on the personal health of an individual. To comprehensively curb this malice, Facebook developed an approach by linking its App with the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. Additionally, they have a page for people from all walks of life to flag the posts from the users who are determined in committing suicide. It has proved to be an instant success since children or young teens use social media in addressing their feelings and emotions known to the public. These children usually deter from the direct engagement with the parents, the school councilors, and close friends. It has thus proved to be a safer option for some kids, as Facebook can notice a critical activity and appropriately respond to it. All in all, life is precious, and anything that seeks to shun survival must be inhibited and done away with since humanity is precious.

Impacts of cell phones on the deterioration of ethical values, as much as possible children should not be in a position of cell phone acquisition while studying or at a very tender age. The reason being, when they have cell phones at their disposal, it makes it very easier to check the status updates on Facebook or Twitter. Social media causes addiction among the users and this, in turn, affect these young generations; as a result, they will always develop the habit of constantly ‘checking the statuses.' When you take away the cell phones away from such individuals, they instantly become depressed because you have robbed them a companion (Kate, 2014). However, the positive impacts of the cell phones cannot be ignored, apart from the shortcomings it also has a lot of positives. Cell phones through social networking are used as entertainment, attention diverting, and time-killing sources. In most cases, the youths gain visual empathy by accessing social media contents. Developed empathy then can be translated into real-life scenarios. Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are essential tools for individuals who are introverts or excessively nervous. It allows them to connect with the people reasonably quickly and hence get a place where they can fit in society. Moreover, if they utilize it properly, it can prove to be an essential tool in aiding personal education and learning.

For the parents, it is always important to monitor the usage of the social network usage by their children; this help in reviewing the contents they can access from social media. From there, it is fundamental to advise them on the materials that are appropriate for them and advise them against what is not useful for them. Such strategies are instrumental in that it shapes the moral upbringing of the child and how they visualize handy issues within the ecological niche. Adequately, the parents should be involved in more listening to their children than lecturing them because at the end of the day you won’t control their operations forever. These kinds of situations are critical and therefore, should be carried with elaborate care.

Media on online gambling and other risky behavioral impacts, gambling exists in many forms that include online casinos or betting collectively in a group. In some cases, it also consists of online lotteries and online bingo. Besides some adolescents may engage in the internet to carry oout illegal activities that may include the selling of fake products or pornographic contents. If no so, they can undertake other social irresponsible behaviors like compensated dating. The judgments and the assessment of these behaviors can be explained using the Kohlberg model. The model describes the stages of moral development that is essential in the process of bringing up a child. He argued that moral judgment is a useful tool in illustrating the moral competence of an individual. The ethical competency, in essence, is vital in elaborating one of the 15 desirable youth development constructs as proposed by the colleagues. It is, therefore, understandable that moral behavior has a close association with internet sensation by an individual.

Youth's perspective on the social media sensation, regardless of this critical information, many youths have not believed that social media can have a negative influence on their lives. In essence, they view the allegations as petty malice. Many argue that the use of social media is harmless because it is entirely used as a platform for sharing pictures among friends and close confidants. Additionally, many youths think that they already have the exposure and the experiences needed in dealing with the advancement in technology. However, that contradicts the reality on the ground. Not every individual is correctly configured with the technology and thus needs proper assistance. With the current advancement in technology, it makes it possible for an individual to post a divisive or a rude comment on social media without getting caught in the act. It is, therefore, instrumental for the kids to employ some sense of maturity when posting in the social media because at present whatever content that is displayed in social media is carefully scrutinized and action is taken when an individual deviates from the norms. These inappropriate contents similarly can be accessed by the learning institutions, the parents, and also the police. When online, therefore, caution is instrumental since what goes on the internet stays there.

Some mechanisms have since been developed to prevent the antisocial usage of the internet. These programs are based on algorithm geared towards building positive youth constructs or modeling the positive youth characters (Kate, 2014). These strategies developed aims at enhancing the pre-social internet usage and prevent the scenarios of antisocial internet use. Specifically, these programs are aimed at creating the emphasis towards; promoting self-respect and self-esteem, developing respect for others, social and ethical responsibility, and lastly generating the ideas for promoting global responsibility. Besides, these strategies aim at improving self-control and maximizing time management. As discussed above the youth are very vulnerable people and need adequate coaching. They should be guided on the internet as a source that makes them or destroys them in entirety. That is the only way through which proper behavior will be created and sustained. Proper coaching helps in the cultivation of appropriate behavior used in the shaping of an individual character on the appropriate cause of living and adopting the correct values for survival.

Conclusively, it is undeniable that most individuals use the internet in the course of their daily life. However, cases of excessive use of the internet have been since reported. The concept of excessive use is directly influenced by addiction. When peer pressure sets in the youths become very vulnerable both in ideologies and in practice. It affects how they think critically about issues and the actions they take after that. The internet addicts exhibit bad behaviors and in most cases are hard to deal with or advice. They represent and highlight the rot that has been witnessed in society due to technological advancement. They don’t care about the rotten values but instead are focused on issues that lead to personal emotional satisfaction. In collages, for example, there are highlighted cases of fallen grades because the majority of the youths have devoted their time to gambling and also occasionally get access to the explicit content. All these scenarios interfere with the concentration capability and ability to participate actively in class. In such, coaching is advised, and the parents must be at the forefront of advocating this. The teaching of the positive values drastically changes the cynical narration and the unwanted attitude by the kids. The holistic education program is instrumental in creating positive youth constructs essential in promoting positive behavior and elaborately maximizing socialization with the peers.

References

• Kate, H. (2014). Generations: how social media is affecting our teens.ABS Local
• Retrieved; www.abc.net.au/local /stories/2014/07/23/405192.html
• Sofie, T. (2015). Does Social Media Encourage Antisocial Behavior? The Beckman Chronicles.
• Retrieved; https://beckmanchronicle.com/editorials/2015/11/08/does-social-media-ebcourahe-antisocial-behavour/
• Hing, K. (2011). Internet Addiction and Antisocial Behavior of Adolescents. Scientific Journal. 11:2187-2196
• Retrieved; https//www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3217592
• Blake, S. (2011).Do social networking sites create anti-social behavior. People’s World
• Retrieved; https://www.peoplesworld.org/article/do-social-network-sites-create-anti-social-behavour/