Affects of Social Media on Children, Teens and Family free essay sample

Joshua porter defines it as: â€Å"The Web is more a social creation than a technical one. I designed it for a social effectto help people work togetherand not as a technical toy. The ultimate goal of the Web is to support and improve our weblike existence in the world. We clump into families, associations, and companies. We develop trust across the miles and distrust around the corner. What we believe, endorse, agree with, and depend on is representable and, increasingly, represented on the Web†. 2] Porter, Joshua (2008). Designing for the Social Web. Berkley,  CA: New Riders. pp. 1–32. The social web is truly an online community where people come to interact with one another, grown and learn from them. Now, how the social web is sued is solely dependent on the person. The social web is just a tool we use to reach to others in our everyday life. Some may call the social web a â€Å"highschoolish† socialization platform. The social web can be very quick to turn on your, depending on how you are using it. The truth is that the social web is usually not a very healthy or good atmosphere for a family, teen or child. Again, this depends on how it is being used and where. Even on the â€Å"safe sites† people are open to things that they may not want to see or experience. You may ask what some of the safer sights may be, well, platforms like pinterest can to the eye seem totally harm less, but if a child see’s something that is not age appropriate, it has now become a place where your children should not be. Monitoring these different platforms is really where our jobs come in when we are talking about the effects on teens and children. Now a days, teens and children are easily manipulated by friends and peers and use the social web to express† there new found freedom and new found thoughts. Most of the time, platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Myspace tend to have things on them that are not age appropriate for the teen or child. They get exposed to all of these things because of how open these platforms are and the lack of restrictions on the sites themselves. Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand that the web is an open door, for all to use, but when children are involved, the sights should be held to a certain standard of what to allow and what to not allow as far as what images are being seen and used and the context that is being written. I do appreciate that the COPPA state that a child younger than 13 should not be allowed to use any social media website. This puts the responsibility back on the parents to be more careful and do there due diligence when it comes to what their children are doing online. It is important that parents have set rules and imitations on what their children are allowed to do on social media. Evaluating the sites and setting up personal privacy computer limitations is necessary when allowing your children to be part of the social media. A good way to do this is by setting up an account where both the parent and the child have open access and can be checked periodically for whatever reason necessary. Sometimes, it may not be your child that is the one going against your the â€Å"rules† but they may be the victims of online bullying, cyber stalking and even someone trying to start an inappropriate relationship with them. Some ways parents can help with making their children safer are: you must be your children’s friend on facebook, having the computer in an open area in the house, making sure your children only socialize with people that they know, and also sit down with their children and decide how much time should be spent on their social web choice. Also, making sure the children have other extracurricular activities outside of the home can take their mind off of the â€Å"social web† and can focus on more healthy ways of socializing with people and their friends. There are many risks when it comes to the use of social media with teens and children. Sexting is one the biggest issues now a days with teens. Sexting can be defined as â€Å"sending, receiving, or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs, or images via cell phone, computer, or other digital devices. † Berkshire District Attorney. Sexting. Pittsfield, MA: Commonwealth of Massachusetts; 2010. Many of these messages are sent via Facebook or Myspace and are rapidly forwarded to others on the internet to see. A recent survey has shown that more than 20% of teens have sent or posted nude or partially nude pictures of themselves. This act can be very detrimental for the teen’s life. They are usually publicly humiliated and feel terribly ashamed, with guilt and no self worth. Also, once these images are on the web, they are there forever and can be hacked and used as child pornography. Quite a few different reports suggest that about eighty-three percent of American youth use their phones for email, mobile internet and texting. One of the reports states that these American teens send and receive text messages 144 times a day. If the teens are not texting, they are usually on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. This is where they chat, share photos and share/post videos. The social web can also be a place where teens and children learn to be more creative and can also learn to communicate in a way that is needed and real. A lot of children and teens feel like they are more easily heard over social media platforms. They feel more comfortable explaining there feelings, emotions and whatever they may be going through in their life’s. They can also use the social web by using podcast, blogs, and videos. Parents need to also be careful on how they use the social web themselves. They need to set an example for their own children so that they can see how to use the social web in a good and healthy way. Parents and adults should not spend too much time on the social web, especially in front of their children. It really is true when people say you do what you grew up seeing. There are a lot of different platforms that parents can also use to â€Å"socialize† and communicate with others. A lot of the time it can be pretty safe for parents to use to social web platforms, but there are a lot of things that they need to be careful with to protect their family and their marriage. The social web is filled with different ways to reach out to people that you may have no business reaching out to. While using social platforms can be great to communicate with old friends and long distance family, it can create an open door for old relationships and feelings to come back and arise from the dead if they are not strong, deeply rooted and committed to their marriage. Finding an old friend or fling can have that â€Å"wow† factor. What this means is that when you see them all over again it reminds you of how great they used to be and how you miss them. Again, this is not every marriage, but it is something that happens often and we need to be aware of it. Four of five U. S. divorce attorneys say they have seen a rise in divorce cases with social networking involved, according to the American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers. The social web also can also be a platform for healthy relationships to begin. You can find old friends and flings and have a new opportunity of getting to know them again and potentially having the relationship that you wish you could have had years ago. Out of 50 couples married in the U. S. in 2011, at least one met through a social networking site, according to  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The Wedding Report. † Using the social web can connect people in amazing ways, we just have to be careful in how we use it. Like everything, too much of anything that’s seems good, can and is usually bad for you. We must use the social web with discretion. Our families need to make sure that we stay together and put boundaries on how the social media impacts us. The way we interact as a family is what sets the standards for our children and their children to come. We cannot allow the social web to come in between the much needed family time we need and must have, and also the very much needed personal time that we all need to our selves. The social media has replaced the personal interaction that families use to have, or the little interaction that was there with all of the other distractions in our lives. Some healthy ways to keep our families together are arranging some set weekly family time. Some activities could include family walks, weekly â€Å"eat out for dinner†, and exercising together. All in all, the social web can be a place where both good and bad can come from it. We can all say what type of impacts it has on each other, but what is important is how we choose to use the knowledge that we have, and begin to change how we allow the social media to control our children and the dynamics of our families. Let’s start using the old school way of communicating again, at least within our family and loved ones. There is nothing like having a face to face conversation with the person you love, it is truly the best way to communicate.