SOCIAL MEDIA

SOCIAL  MEDIA

     

CAPTIONS

1^st picture: “I broke up with John.”

2^nd picture: “Really? How did he take it?”

3^rd picture: “He doesn’t know it yet. Facebook has crashed.”

by Annita Tseroni, Greece.

The function of social networks (eg Facebook, Twitter, MSN, etc.) is a current issue that troubles many people and many contradictory views are expressed on whether they have a positive or negative effect on our lives.

    Social networks offer a lot of advantages. First of all, it is an easy way of communication for all people, and especially young people. Due to the scarce free time, young people often resort to the Internet, in order to communicate with their friends. Thus, they find an opportunity to express their feelings and their inner world easily, which, for some people, is difficult to do face to face. Also, young people who live in the provinces, outside the city, have fewer opportunities to meet and socialize with people of their age. For them communication through the social networks is a solution to the problem of isolation and loneliness.

    At the same time, through the media, people have easy access to all kinds of information. Moreover, searching for information through the Internet is more interesting than looking things up in a book or an encyclopedia, because there are also pictures, videos and sound. In addition, an important advantage of social networks is that they are a means of entertainment for young users. Young people prefer to spend their free time staying at home and exploring the internet and social networks, where they can listen to music or watch popular movies and TV series.

It is a fact that young people nowadays do not often watch the news, do not read newspapers and they are, therefore, not sufficiently informed about current events taking place in the world. This problem is, to some extent, dealt with through social networks. That is, as young people join various social networks, in order to be entertained and chat with others, they find the opportunity to learn about serious social issues affecting countries and people all over the world.

However, it is commonly accepted that social networks can also have a negative impact on young people’s life in different ways. First of all, some people end up being addicted on the use of such networks, spending many hours a day - more than they really should - connected on the Internet. As a result they not only waste a lot of precious time that could be spent on more creative activities but they also become passive receivers of all the messages that bombard them through the social networks and the media. There have been quite a few cases of young people falling victims of such fraudulent messages.

Moreover, students often tend to ignore their school lessons, as they prefer the "entertainment" through networks and, as a result, they fall behind their education. It has been recorded in various researches that young people do not use the media so much for educational purposes and, even when they do, they tend to copy information without checking the reliability of the sources and without consolidating the useful knowledge. The consequences of such attitude can only be negative to their education and general mental development.

It is also a fact that mainly young children and teenagers are deceived by adults who present themselves on social networks under a false identity, in order to trick children to serve their own interests. There have been large numbers of incidents worldwide involving the mistreatment of minors who were victims of elaborate frauds over the internet.

We should also note the danger of sensitive personal data being revealed or leaked through social networks. Often users are required, under the regulations set by the administrators of such networks and websites, to show to reveal online their personal information in order to log in. Moreover, young people tend to post personal or embarrassing photos, which might cause a problem for them in future life. So, anyone at any time can get access to personal information of a child and use them for unethical purposes.

Without a doubt, social networks have many advantages, but pose many dangers, as well. We shoul be well advised not to be dependent on them and not to allow them to act negatively on our lives. Let's just keep the advantages they have to offer us.