IN the modern era of technologies nowadays, social network sites are well-known all around the world. The top 10 social network is Facebook, followed by Twitter, myspace, V Kontakte, Linked In, conduit.com, Apple Inc, hi5, CNN Interactive and Orkut. In Malaysia alone, Facebook the most popular social networking site in the world — has 7.3 million users and the number is still growing. Using social networks is quite convenient. However, when the social networking phenomenon began, it also created some issues and problems among teens.
Before we go further into this topic, what is a social network? A social network is a social structure made up of individuals that are tied together by friendship, kinship, common interest, sexual relationship, knowledge or prestige. Why do teens use social networks? Generally, teens use social network to communicate and stay in touch with their friends or make new friends. Teens also use social network to make social plans with friends and maybe to flirt. Teenagers love to express themselves. With the advantages of social networking, they can express themselves worldwide.
Commonly, most social networks offer each user a personal basic profile. They are required to fill in their main data, for example, their user ID, real name, email, password and birthday. When they successfully establish their profile, they will be able to start updating their profile and join the applications offered by the network. Teens like to post latest updates on everything they do in social networks. The issue that concerns the society is, do social networks provide benefits or disadvantages? By using social networks, teens can express their feelings, promote artistic talents, experiment with other forms of content creation and to document school research. On the other hand, teens may also be involved in harassment, bullying or sexual advances through social networking. Cyber-bullying and harrassment are commonly occuring among teens in several forms. For example, posting threatening messages, posting unencouraged photos, publicising private instant messages, text messages or emails and spreading rumours. Although these kind of harassment won’t cause much real world conflicts, but teens would be affected by emotional distress. In addition, serious attention should be taken on some anonymous and unscrupulous people, who target young teens and involve them in harmful conversations. They will pose as teens and lure children into damaging real-world contact. Identity theft too can occur when teens share too much of information about themselves. Though major social network sites have privacy controls in place teens are easily tricked because they are naiive.
How do you prevent these risks from happening? First and foremost, each individual are encouraged to use an alias. You mustn’t give personal information to people you don’t know. Do you know that even a last name and a town are just enough to locate any person? Besides that, do not assume that people are who they claim to be. Furthermore, end any communications immediately if it makes you feel uncomfortable. Most teens like to handle harassment or cyber-bullying by anonymous people on their own. Sometimes, if one deals with this on their own, it will probably bring about worse consequences. In conclusion, we can’t judge whether social networking is suitable or not for teens as we all have our own way of looking at it. But I am certain that staying too long in front of your computer or mobile phone will harm you health, physically. Therefore, we should not be too committed and spend too much time social networking. I myself will not deny that time flies when we are having fun, but always remember our priority and responsibility.
http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/Niexter_Teensnetworkingproblems/Article/
Before we go further into this topic, what is a social network? A social network is a social structure made up of individuals that are tied together by friendship, kinship, common interest, sexual relationship, knowledge or prestige. Why do teens use social networks? Generally, teens use social network to communicate and stay in touch with their friends or make new friends. Teens also use social network to make social plans with friends and maybe to flirt. Teenagers love to express themselves. With the advantages of social networking, they can express themselves worldwide.
Commonly, most social networks offer each user a personal basic profile. They are required to fill in their main data, for example, their user ID, real name, email, password and birthday. When they successfully establish their profile, they will be able to start updating their profile and join the applications offered by the network. Teens like to post latest updates on everything they do in social networks. The issue that concerns the society is, do social networks provide benefits or disadvantages? By using social networks, teens can express their feelings, promote artistic talents, experiment with other forms of content creation and to document school research. On the other hand, teens may also be involved in harassment, bullying or sexual advances through social networking. Cyber-bullying and harrassment are commonly occuring among teens in several forms. For example, posting threatening messages, posting unencouraged photos, publicising private instant messages, text messages or emails and spreading rumours. Although these kind of harassment won’t cause much real world conflicts, but teens would be affected by emotional distress. In addition, serious attention should be taken on some anonymous and unscrupulous people, who target young teens and involve them in harmful conversations. They will pose as teens and lure children into damaging real-world contact. Identity theft too can occur when teens share too much of information about themselves. Though major social network sites have privacy controls in place teens are easily tricked because they are naiive.
How do you prevent these risks from happening? First and foremost, each individual are encouraged to use an alias. You mustn’t give personal information to people you don’t know. Do you know that even a last name and a town are just enough to locate any person? Besides that, do not assume that people are who they claim to be. Furthermore, end any communications immediately if it makes you feel uncomfortable. Most teens like to handle harassment or cyber-bullying by anonymous people on their own. Sometimes, if one deals with this on their own, it will probably bring about worse consequences. In conclusion, we can’t judge whether social networking is suitable or not for teens as we all have our own way of looking at it. But I am certain that staying too long in front of your computer or mobile phone will harm you health, physically. Therefore, we should not be too committed and spend too much time social networking. I myself will not deny that time flies when we are having fun, but always remember our priority and responsibility.
http://www.nst.com.my/nst/articles/Niexter_Teensnetworkingproblems/Article/
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