There is a growing epidemic, catastrophe if you will, in our nation and in all 7 continents for that matter, infecting the adolescent disguised as a friend, and is expanding its horizon within a matter of seconds. It is

Facebook. While

Facebook offers many perks such as chatting, gaming and the ability to share pictures with friends and family, it also has many negative impacts on today’s generation and future generations to come. Many are lured to Facebook and have fallen short when they become victims to stalking, rape, cyber bullying, and addiction.

I still reminisce about the first day I created my Facebook account. It was for many reasons. One was being that MySpace, Xanga and most other social networking sites had become outdated with their lack of functionality and also because an abundant amount of my friends and family had an account, so it was clearly a no brainer to create one. “What’s the harm?” I thought to myself, without realizing that my life was about to change for the worse. For many days, I would come home in the hopes of receiving notifications on Facebook such as friend requests, comments on my profile or “Likes” on anything I posted. My face would light up instantly when I saw the number “1” on the small earth icon. I had become completely engrossed in Facebook and a result, my interest in academics waned and my grades suffered.

Not only me, but many others

were also under the same

boat, completely

mesmerized by Facebook

and its unlimited amount of

entertainment. Take for

example, a recent study

found that people,

particularly teens, who pay

more attention to Facebook

show massive, decline in

other more healthy and

beneficial activities. This was

proven by Dr. Larry Rosen, a

professor of psychology at

California State University

who studies psychological

behavior of teens concluded

that “Facebook can be

distracting and can

negatively impact learning.

Studies found that middle

school, high school, and

college students who

checked Facebook at least

once during a 15-minute

study period achieved lower

grades.”

I am not saying that I don’t use Facebook as much as I used to,

considering that I know the consequences, but that I set limits on

myself. Communication is the key goal of Facebook, to keep in

touch of friends and family who live thousands of miles away. That

does not seem to apply today anymore. Desperate teens or even

adults chat with any random unfamiliar individual to fill voids of

loneliness or need for attention. Many of these strangers do it with

ambiguous intentions, with the goal of stalking, committing rape or

in the worst case scenario, murder. I cannot even begin to explain

the ease of getting the life story of anyone on Facebook. With just

the click of a button, you can have access to highly personal

information. Also, due to high level insecurity in teens these days,

they have become compelled to post anything that makes them

seem like someone worth “chilling” with. Partying, drinking, and

drugs are just some of the activities these teens do to gain

popularity. In doing so, many often expose their addresses, with

the Facebook location app which can track anyone, making them

easy targets. Now today Facebook promotes stalking more than

ever. One example is the ‘Break Up” notifier which updates you on

the relationship statuses of friends or strangers. This app has led to

numerous counts of stalking and cyber stalking. “An ITT Technical

Institute student from Tennessee was charged with stalking and

harassment last week after he sent "racially charged" and sexual

messages via e-mail and Facebook to his instructors, according to

WMC-TV 5 in Memphis” Stated Brendan Collett, The editor of

“Scene and Heard.” This app received over 100,000 users in only 4

hours after being made, which portrays the desperation and

ignorance for lack of a better word of people today.

O V E R T H E P A S T D E C A D E , F A C E B O O K A N D G O O G L E

H A V E B E C O M E I N T E R N E T S U P E R P O W E R S A N D A R E M O S T L I K E L Y

T H E T W O M O S T C O M M O N L Y V I S I T E D S I T E S F O R H I G H S C H O O L

A N D C O L L E G E S T U D E N T S . I T I S H A R D T O I M A G I N E A T I M E W H E N

W E D I D N O T H A V E F A C E B O O K O R G O O G L E I N T H I S W O R L D E V E N

T H O U G H T H A T E X I S T E D J U S T A S H O R T T I M E A G O . A R E T H E S E

S O C I A L M E D I A T E C H N O L O G I E S B E N E F I C I A L O R N E G A T I V E F O R U S ?

S O M E T H I N G L I K E G O O G L E I S D E F I N I T E L Y H E L P F U L I N T H A T W E

A R E A B L E T O L O O K U P J U S T A B O U T A N Y T H I N G I N S T A N T L Y . I N T H E

O L D D A Y S I T W O U L D T A K E S O M E O N E A D E C E N T A M O U N T O F T I M E

T O L O O K S O M E T H I N G U P U S I N G A B O O K . W H I L E G O O G L E I S T H E

M O R E I N F O R M A T I V E W E B S I T E , F A C E B O O K I S A G R E A T W A Y T O

S T A Y I N T O U C H W I T H F R I E N D S A N D F A M I L Y B Y S H A R I N G P H O T O S ,

P O S T I N G S T A T U S E S , O R J U S T U S I N G I T A S A W A Y T O M E S S A G E

E A C H O T H E R . F A C E B O O K H A S B E E N B E C O M I N G M O R E A N D M O R E

P O P U L A R . I T N O W H A S M I L L I O N S O F U S E R S O F A L L A G E S .

H O W E V E R , T H E R E A R E D E F I N I T E L Y S E V E R A L I M P O R T A N T

N E G A T I V E S T O T A K E A L O O K A T W I T H F A C E B O O K A N D G O O G L E . .

C Y B E R B U L L I N G H A P P E N S O N W E B S I T E S S U C H A S

F A C E B O O K E V E R Y D A Y I N T H E U . S . W E A T H E R W E R E A L I Z E I T O R

N O T . I T I S E A S Y F O R C Y B E R B U L L Y I N G T O O C C U R O N F A C E B O O K

B Y E I T H E R S E N D I N G A M E S S A G E T O A N O T H E R P E R S O N O R B Y

P O S T I N G A C O M M E N T O N A P H O T O . I T C A N H A P P E N T O A N Y O N E

O F A N Y A G E B U T I S M O S T C O M M O N F O R H I G H S C H O O L A N D

C O L L E G E G I R L S . I T I S S A D A N D S O M E W H A T S C A R Y T H A T B Y

G O I N G O N A W E B S I T E Y O U C O U L D B E C Y B E R B U L L I E D . P E O P L E

W H O S A Y T H E S E N A S T Y T H I N G S T O O T H E R P E O P L E M O S T L I K E L Y

D O N O T R E A L I Z E W H A T T H E I R W O R D S A R E R E A L L Y D O I N G T O T H E

O T H E R P E R S O N . C Y B E R B U L L Y I N G H A S L E D T O S E R I O U S

D E P R E S S I O N A N D I N S O M E E X T R E M E C A S E S H A S E V E N L E A D T O

S U I C I D E . C Y B E R B U L L I N G C A N O C C U R T H R O U G H E M A I L , A N

I N S T A N T M E S S A G I N G W E B S I T E , O R O N A W E B S I T E S U C H A S

F A C E B O O K O R M Y S P A C E . I T I S A M A Z I N G W H A T W R I T I N G

S O M E T H I N G O N S O M E O N E ’ S W A L L O R O N A P I C T U R E O F S O M E O N E

C A N D O T O T H E M . B E F O R E W R I T I N G S O M E T H I N G N E G A T I V E Y O U

S H O U L D R E A L L Y T H I N K A B O U T W H A T Y O U A R E A B O U T T O S A Y

A N D M A K E S U R E T H A T I T I S N O T S O M E T H I N G T H A T Y O U W I L L

R E G R E T S A Y I N G L A T E R O N . I T I S H A R D T O R E A L I Z E T H A T C Y B E R

B U L L Y I N G I S S O M E T H I N G T H A T H A P P E N S E V E R Y D A Y I N T H I S

W O R L D A N D W I L L M O S T L I K E L Y N E V E R C O M E T O A N E N D . F O R

S O M E R E A S O N , P E O P L E A L W A Y S F E E L T H E N E E D T O S A Y

S O M E T H I N G A B O U T O T H E R P E O P L E A S A W A Y O F F E E L I N G B E T T E R

A B O U T T H E M S E L V E S O R S I M P L Y T O G E T A T T E N T I O N . T H E

P O P U L A R K I D S I N A H I G H S C H O O L O R C O L L E G E M A Y M A K E F U N

O F T H E L E S S P O P U L A R K I D S F O R T H E W A Y T H E Y D R E S S , T A L K O R

A C T . I N A P E R F E C T W O R L D , T H E Y W O U L D M I N D T H E I R O W N

B U S I N E S S A N D N O T F E E L T H E N E E D T O S A Y A N Y T H I N G . T H E

I N T E R N E T G I V E S T H E M A W A Y T O S A Y M E A N T H I N G S A N D N O T

H A V E T O D O I T I N P E R S O N A N D T O T H E I R F A C E . T H I S M A Y M A K E

I T E A S I E R F O R T H E B U L L Y B U T I T H A S T H E S A M E I F N O T W O R S E

A F F E C T O N T H E I N N O C E N T P E R S O N W H O I S T A K I N G T H I S A B U S E .

W I T H O U T F A C E B O O K O R T H E I N T E R N E T A S A W H O L E , C Y B E R

B U L L Y I N G W O U L D N O T O C C U R . W O U L D A W O R L D W I T H N O

I N T E R N E T A N D N O C Y B E R B U L L Y I N G B E B E T T E R O F F ?

Social Medias Effects on Society

Jennifer Clark

10/24/12

Buffalo, NY

A g o o d q u es t io n to a sk yo u r se l f , w h ic h i s m en t io n ed by N ic h o la s

C a r r i n “ I s G o o g le M a k in g Us S t u p id ” , ‘ W h a t i s t h e in te r n et r ea l l y d o in g to

o u r b r a in s? ’ T h e wo r ld wa s a n ea s ie r, so m ew h a t s im p le r p la c e w i t h o u t t h e

I n te r n et , b u t o n t h e o t h e r h a n d i t m a d e i t m u c h h a r d er to lo o k so m et h in g

u p o r c o m m u n ic a te w i t h f r i en d s o r f a m i l y . N i c h o la s C a r r a l so m en t io n s t h a t

m a ny p eo p le b e l ieve t h e I n te r n et in g en er a l h a s a c t u a l l y l ower ed o u r

in te l l ig enc e leve l s ove r t h e p a s t d ec a d e o r t wo . Yes i t m a kes t h in g s n i c e

a n d ea sy fo r u s b u t a t t h e sa m e t im e we a r e b ec o m in g la z y a n d r e l y o n t h e

I n te r n et fo r j u s t a b o u t eve r y t h in g . Wo u ld we b e a b le to la s t a week w i t h o u t

t h e I n te r n et ? On o n e h a n d , we c a n d o r esea r c h t h a t u sed to t a ke h o u r s o r

d ay s in m in u tes n ow. S p eed in g u p so m et h in g l i ke t h a t i s d e f in i te ly

b en e f i c ia l to w r i te r s a n d to p eo p le o f j u s t a b o u t a ny p ro fess io n . A l t h o u g h

h av in g to u se a b o o k i s c o n s id e r ed m o r e c o m p l i c a ted a n d t im e c o n su m in g ,

i t wo u ld a c t u a l l y b e b en ef i c ia l to p eo p le i f t h ey h a d to d o t h in g s t h e o ld

f a sh io n way by u s in g b o o k s . Peo p le h ave a c t u a l l y b een r ea d in g n ow m o r e

t h a n p eo p le u sed to 2 0 yea r s a g o , b u t t h e r ea d in g we a r e d o in g n ow i s o f

tex t m essa g es a n d s t u f f o n Fa c eb o o k t h a t m o s t l i ke l y i sn ’ t ve r y im p o r t a n t

o r k n ow led g ea b le . A l so , w h a t we a r e r ea d in g a n d w r i t in g o n Fa c eb o o k i s

u su a l l y w r i t ten in sh o r t h a n d . T h i s f a i r l y n ew s t y le o f w r i t in g h a s b een

r u in in g t h e w r i t in g sk i l l s o f yo u n g er g en er a t io n s . Fa c eb o o k , G o o g le , t h e

I n te r n et in g en er a l , a n d t h e m o d er n wo r ld we l i ve in m ay in d eed b e lower in g

o u r in te l l i g en ce leve l s w h et h er we wa n t to a d m i t i t o r n o t .

A s yo u c a n see , t h e wo r ld in w h ic h we c u r r en t l y l i ve in i s a m u c h

d i f fe ren t p la c e t h a n w h a t i t wa s 2 0 yea r s a g o . We l i ve in a wo r ld w h er e i t i s

c o n s id e r ed ex t r em ely r a r e to n o t h ave a Fa c eb o o k a n d w h er e so m e p eo p le

c a nno t g o t wo ho ur s w i t h ou t ch eck ing t he i r Fa ceb oo k . Fa ceb oo k a nd Goog le ,

t wo o f t h e m o st p o p u la r web s i tes o n t h e I n te r n et , d e f in i te ly h ave t h e i r

n eg a t i ves to t h em . A m er i c a n s a r e b ec o m in g m o r e a n d m o r e la z y a n d wa n t

to b e a b le to d o eve r y t h in g w i t h t h e c l i c k o f a b u t to n s f ro m t h e i r c o m p u te r

o r even t h e i r p h o n e . C y b er b u l l y in g o n l y h a p p en s b ec a u se eve r yo n e h a s t h e

I n te r n et a t t h e t ip o f h i s o r h e r f i n g e r s . B e fo r e t h e I n te r n et , c y b e r b u l l y in g

d id n ’ t o c c u r. We sh o u ld t r y to l im i t o u r u se o f t h e I n te r n et a n d u se i t fo r

g o o d , n o t b a d .

When I was a child, I would have no problem whatsoever calling up a friends to do a homework problem in math class that day or calling to see when we should hang out, but now, it would much more “proper” if you had Facebooked them. Gradually with this, we have become less and less physically social with others and more obsessed with Facebook to connect. I am afraid that this heavy reliance on social media as a way of being social is causing a reverse affect. We are becoming more anti-social by trying to be more social. Nevertheless, with Facebook around, even our communication skills are lacking! Maryanne

Wolf has said, “We are not only what we read, we are what we read” (Quoted

from Nicole Carr’s “Is Google making us Stupid?”). With the heavy independence on Facebook, sometimes we forget how our culture has used to talk. Slowly yet surely, our culture is degrading away from complexity to simplicity. Just as Nicolas Carr has written that, “Our ability to interoperate text, to make the rich mental connections that form when we read deeply and without distraction, remains largely disengaged.” From this, I can say that using Facebook, to the extent that it is our only way to communicate with others to do homework, has caused our social skills to fall drastically because our lack of dialog experience.

Not only can our social skills lack from Facebook, but our reading skills as well. Bowman has said that the main skill we have developed from Facebook is to “F-Shaped Pattern for Reading Web Content”. Meaning that before we read from line to line, soaking in every detail of the long text, now “Even a blog post of more than three or four paragraphs is too much to absorb. I skim it” (Nicolas Carr). There is no proof needed to show how that skill came to be, it is called our generation’s laziness. Facebook has made it that everything is short and snappy for others to read. The longer the paragraph, the more I struggled to read and stay interested. Short phrases such as “idk” vs “I do not really know”, was much more interesting to read the texting language than real, proper English. It is because our intention span has shortened for to selectively reading only concise and simple writing.

One might ask, “why has reading come to this?” Before, we could read long texts with no

problem and get the meaning out of it fast. Now, things have changed. Books seem less appealing to us; since “(n)o one has ever taught them that books can be read for pleasure or enlightment….” (James Bowman). This is direct not only teens in high school but to adults too, since Nicolas Carr, himself, recalls, “ (t)he deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.” Now who is to blame for this happening? No one but ourselves, of course; given that we unconsciously chose to be this way. However, this is not always the case either, Facebook being introduced into our everyday lives has caused some of us a wider spam of communication and for the timid to have a chance at life. These people are, for example, my sister, she is a really shy person who is an introvert. Originally she never fancied Facebook, but she still made an account to chat with those she would have never physically talked to since she was afraid they might judge her if she did.

Sitting in front of my laptop, scrolling down through my Facebook and thinking, “I should be doing my homework”, was my typical daily routine. I had spend almost five hours trying to finish one assignment but mostly it was because I was checking my news feed, liking photos, commenting or updating my status, like any other student would during the 21st century. We would set these tasks aside, thinking we would get back to it in 5 minutes but it leads to hours eventually sometimes giving up. Just like how I constantly checked up on Facebook, a Times journalist, Bonnie Rochman, cited Larry Rosen’s research on psychology of technology which proved that “checking Facebook just once during 15 minutes resulted in poorer grades.” He also phrased, “We (parents) have created a world for students where they cannot focus because we have given them all this really cool stuff that is distracting,” which was exactly why I couldn’t constantly stop browsing through Facebook even though I knew it was a bad habit but it wasn’t no one’s blame to be put on in the end but ours.

For, me it was more than addiction, it was growing up with the wrong habits which lead to my greatest awakening. Different from my parents, I was definitely brought up to a society where media took over many of our social life and even education. It was hard to stay on task if the assignment was not in our best interest. Therefore, we succeeded in the things we liked and failed to do so on our weakness because of our lack of attention span. Facebook caught our attention frequently because we would constantly click on it which made Facebook rank “the 4th largest U.S. web property in audience size with 157.2 million visitors,” according to Andrew Lipsman. Even though our constant use of Facebook made it even more popular, it didn’t benefit us at all. Instead, it came to bite us, especially with our school grades which made me reconsider if I was on the right path or just made myself fall flat.

Every time I clicked on Facebook it was a click down to my

grade, but was it really because I was just browsing through

Facebook? We Facebook users try not to admit that there is a “link

between our GPA and our networking habits,” according to Aryn

Karpinski study cited by Anita Hamilton. Karpinski’s descriptive

study proved that these two factors were correlated in that non-

networking users had a GPA of 3.5 to 4.0 where those who

constantly used Facebook and other social media sources had a

GPA of 3.0 to 3.5. In disagreement to Karpinski’s study, however,

John Kamin, a student from Hofstra University believes using

Facebook doesn’t make “someone more or less intelligent” but it’s

more of the “users’ distractibility and tendency to procrastinate”

that leads to our down fall. We just constantly couldn’t stop

looking back on the web than to our assignments which made us

eventually forget what we were thinking.

However, it wasn’t just when we were doing homework

assignments that we were distracted with using Facebook to keep

our status updated, it was even in lectures. According to Karpinski,

she was a TA, who noticed that her students were constantly using

Facebook and it was like they were “obsessed.” She stated,

“instead of paying attention to lectures”, they were using their

laptops to “message friends or post snarky status updates.”

Instead of being caught up with the topics on the lecture, we were

up to date with the constant drama that was going between our

friends. Definitely using technology for the wrong use definitely

hurt us in the end because we would had no clue what was going

on or never understood the topic.

Yeah but unlike Karpinski we can’t be antisocial because

we all are different and sometimes do need a break. We can be

pilled with school work and some of us are motivated but

sometimes we do need to relieve some of our stress and that

means sometimes scrolling down on Facebook just to get a little

laughter. Then how is it we are supposed to balance all these

paths in our lives from friends, school work, career and health? It’s

just simply about planning our life. According to K. Broderi we

L

have to “schedule time” where certain

hours are for studying and certain time

is for relaxing because we humans

cant constantly always be studying

because that will only harm us in

health. Even Rebecca R. Ruiz, cited a

work of Reynol Junco, a professor at

Lock Haven University, who says that

Facebook more likely helps “student to

be involved with extracurricular

activities.” It is just about using it the

right way and not staying off task.

Likewise, it would be easy to

blame our parents and society for

bringing us into a world where all

these new technologies came into

distraction and didn’t help us, yet it

was actually our fault. Our parents may

have a role because they are the ones

who provided us with these goodies

but we all know that in some way they

have tried to teach us from what is

right and wrong, however we were the

just those typical kids who never

listened. But I believe as we grow up we have to be mature with ourselves and know how to balance our social life and education

because at the end of the day those clicks to Facebook isn’t

going to get us a high paying job. Therefore I learned to leave

my social life aside when it came to education by de-activating

my Facebook during finals week or just removing it

from my favorites or apps on my phone so I won’t

be distracted which in the end gave me the results

I had worked for a long time.

“Are you going to the party on South

Campus tonight?” “What time do you want

to meet at Slee Hall?” “Do you know if we

have English homework?” These are some

examples of what the average student talks

about on Facebook. Today, we as human

beings cannot live a healthy social life

without social media. Whether it is updating

a status on Facebook, or calling your best

friend on your cell phone, we need and use

social media every day. We all have access to

it, but we do not know that these social

media technologies not only have

advantages, but also have disadvantages.

One example of this is Facebook. Facebook

can be very helpful to “enhance” your social

life through technology, but you need to be

careful to not get distracted from talking to

real people or from the distracting ads or

from giving out personal information.

Nicholas Carr, the author of the article, “Is

Google Making Us Stupid”, claims that social

media is making us lethargic and because of

this, we do not use our brain to the fullest.

Carr makes a suitable point when he states

that surfing the web causes us to have less

concentration compared to reading a book.

He also mentions that he also experiences

having less concentration. “I’m not thinking

the way I used to think. Immersing myself in

a book or a lengthy article used to be easy.

Now my concentration often starts to drift

after two or three pages. I get fidgety [and I]

begin [to look] for something else to do,”

(Carr). I often see teenagers typing up an

essay and then just randomly checking

Facebook every five to ten minutes. Since

most of us have Facebook, our attention

spans are short. We were introduced to

Facebook in February, 2004 and ever since

then, we have started a new trend where we

can do a lot of things with other people

online and not having to go to them in

person. With all the texts and messages, our

patience also lessens and we no longer have

patience to read long, lengthy books

anymore. For most teenagers, our lives

revolve around Facebook. About 75 % of

teenagers use Facebook and of that percent,

27% are on 24/7.

Another author that also agrees with Carr

is James Bowman, the author of “Is Stupid

Making Us Google?” In his article, he

actually admits that he too has a problem

with using the Internet. “I go online to avoid

reading in the traditional sense,” (Bowman).

Bowman refers our generation as “poor

cultural orphans” but he also states that we

should blame the generation before us

because it was that generation where people

started finding new advancements for social

media in the field of technology.

I believe that Bowman is trying to say that we

should know better. It is our choice to use these

advanced technologies and not use our brain to

the fullest or to read a book to the end and

expand our knowledge. “…they need more time

away from the computer in order to acquire the

skills of ‘deep reading’,” (Bowman). With this in

mind, I disagree with one of Bowman’s remarks,

“…the material passes from Web to homework

paper without lodging in the minds of the

students,” (Bowman). I can understand why he

says that because most of the time, we students

are lazy to look up the information, read it and

put it into our own words when we can just copy

and paste the information. Personally, I avoid

coping and pasting because it is not my own

work. In order for me to write a topic, I need to

do research and then write about what I just

researched, but in my own words.

In my experience, I tend to use Facebook

every day. Whether it’s from playing the virtual

game of Sims Social or discussing the chemistry

homework with my friends, I am always doing

something. I admit that I go on for pointless

reasons and that is because I take Facebook for

granted. With Facebook, I find that I can connect

with my friends and family with ease. I usually

talk to more than two people at a time; I cannot

do this in real life. Facebook helps me make

friends in the real life because with Facebook, I

can find other people who have the same

interest as me. When I was introduced to

Facebook back in 2009, I would read every little

thing my friends posted. Nowadays, if their

statuses are too long, I don’t read them. It was

here that I started to acquire laziness and skim

large texts. I agree with Carr when he also has

this difficulty. “My mind now expects to take in

information the way the Net distributes it: in a

swiftly moving stream of particles…Now I zip

along the surface like a guy on a Jet Ski,” (Carr).

I am so used to reading short sentences to

understand something, so when I see a large

text, I usually lose interest in it. Studies from MIT

and the University of Milan have shown that

Facebook helps us relax. Our heart rate goes

down and it decreases our stress levels. I find

that when I go on, even though I am so

exhausted from school, I am not tired to talk with

my friends for hours. Facebook can be

entertaining, but it can also be very bad to use.

Statics show that 55% of the teenagers that go

on Facebook give out personal information,

about them and give out photos to people they

either think they know, or do not know at all.

Luckily, I never tend to do this. This is one of the

reasons why I do not add or meet new people on

Facebook – I need to meet them in person first.

Some of my friends want to have a lot of friends

on Facebook so that people think they are cool,

which is why they add people they do not know.

As a counter argument, Facebook also helps us

with our social lives. From Facebook, we can tell

or invite other people to events that we

ourselves will also attend. We can help each

other with our homework or we can remind each

other of things we need to do or we can tell each

other current news. We can use Facebook as a

third reference, just in case it is too late to talk to

your friends in person or on the phone.

In the end, it is our choice to use Facebook

to interact with other people. Even though

Facebook makes our social lives healthier and

easier to deal with, it can also take us away from

our social lives. We need to remember that there

is no substitute in seeing your friend in person

and talking to them. People need to be social in

person unless there is no point in being social at

all. A person can have a thousand friends on

Facebook, but they can be very lonely in their

real life. In this modern world, the internet is like

an addictive drug – we obtain easy access to it

and since it is there, we use it. As Socrates once

said, “Expect the worst of every new tool or

machine”(Carr).

By Abigail Decontie

Have you ever been in the same room as someone, send

them a text, a Tweet, or a Facebook message and

instantly they respond? A quick spin of our thumbs and

away the message flies through the sky within seconds. The irony of

beginning a text when you could just as easily start a

conversation verbally in the same room; this reflects just

how independent our society is becoming. It is pathetic how distant we have become with people in the physical setting. A message on Facebook, or a post on their wall seems to be the theme for anyone who has

an active account with Facebook, rather than face-to-face talking. Phones, tablets,

notebooks, laptops; all technology of today has

granted us with full access to the Internet. Often times, we

get on our fancy equipment to end up socializing through

the good ol’ Facebook networking system.

Through a few polls and studies, it is clear that Facebook

has caused some dwindling down in the actual, live

conversations between humans. One author, Moira Burke from Carnegie Mellon University,

stated that not only has Facebook reduced the amount of verbal conversations people

have, but also “self esteem levels have stooped to a new low.” The new trend pops up

on the news feed and suddenly you’re not in the loop anymore. The most popular girl in school

posts a picture of her new “beach bod” and now you’ve got to hit the gym to keep the

boys interested. A commentator in a study on jealousy over

Facebook, states “jealousy leads to increased surveillance of a

partner’s page as well as complete strangers.” The

vicious competition people go through on the social web has

become ridiculous.

Half of the things people comment and say on

Facebook towards their peers would never be

said to their face. Some may say this is a good

thing, expressing honesty. However,

words in any form can hurt anyone’s feelings.

On the other hand, Facebook has many

positives. Positives such as being able to find

family whom you have not talked to in years, or

keeping in touch with your high school friends once you go on with life

in college. Personally, posting silly comments and being able to view my friends’ daily posts

and pictures of their dorm rooms and new friends has made my transition into college

much easier.

It allows me to not be too homesick while I begin

writing the average 42 pages of research a year. However,

the negatives almost outweigh them. Keeping up

the new trends, bullying around the cyberspace,

Facebook makes our society look rather feisty. Facebook in general has reduced the amount of time we actually converse with our friends,

yet added to the time we sit in our chairs following the

endless drama our keyboards entice.

Taking a quick second to see your best friend,

calling her up to see how your mother is doing,

apparently visual contact is more criminal than biting string cheese.

Surprisingly enough, many people have been avoiding the physical

contact because it simply is easier to just shoot a Facebook message or

Tweet at them.

Facebook has made it much easier to find people in the

search bar rather than a phonebook with doubles of

your friends’ names. Facebook is similar to Google, in that it

makes us stupid. Carr believes that Google makes us stupid;

in a way Facebook is comparable. Carr wrote how

the articles we read online have slowly killed our ability to read traditional books, or

even long articles online. Facebook can relate to the

stupidity in that it’s killed our ability to socialize in public. It has sat us on our butts to sit in front of a screen, of any size, to

chat it up in an instant messenger. Like clockwork,

some people check Facebook at almost any chance they get, and like clockwork Google has

permitted us to search any topic for our school projects. Similarities like these may

need to reflect the outcome.

Carr warned that people may never read books again;

that may be a bit of an exaggeration. However

Facebook users may need to be warned that we’ll never

speak physically with another for a while. That

may be pushing it for reality, but Carr definitely got his point across into my book

reading.

Social networking in 2012 is definitely different than what

it was a decade ago. In a decade from now, we should expect our children to have

terrible communication skills, terrible distraction disorders and addicted to holding their phones five inches from their faces, updating, messaging

and posting on Facebook, or some other social media.

These critical skills of communication can ultimately

harm everyone.

Applying for a job in the food service or elsewhere in the

public may show some difficulty for those who

constantly talk with their thumbs rather than their vocal

chords. In another view, Facebook has us addicted to clicking refresh and checking the newest news feed. Out in

public it’s rude when you want a conversation to rise up, but

the other person has eyes glued to their mini four inch screened phone. Scrolling up and down, all around the news feed to see

what everyone else is up to doesn’t seem too healthy, does it? A wake up call is in order

for those who have Facebook a click away, for those who

procrastinate constantly with, and for those who simply

choose to ignore the physical public. Constantly attached to our media devices definitely does not sound good for the

health of our future.

An article on CNN.com reflects a few social

constraints with Facebook. Some may say the addiction is

an all new. Paula Pile, a therapist from North

Carolina, says, "it's turned into a compulsion -- a

compulsion to dissociate from your real world and go live in the Facebook world.” When a

therapist concludes the Facebook has an impact on

young adults of today’s society, then we have a little problem. The “dissociation”

from the “real world” to “live in the Facebook world”

clearly reiterates the fact that many people would rather

look at life from a computer screen than through their own

eyes, out on the streets. Although these Facebook-ers truly show interest in what others are doing, they must

come back to reality and walk among the living - not the

blue and white font they scroll through daily.

Facebook has definitely taken a toll on many people’s communication skills and simply their social skills. Who would want to hang around a person glued to the blue screen of Facebook? Why can’t we show interest in what’s happening right under our feet?

Facebook Problems or Individual Problems

Karen Lin ENG 101

According to Census, there are approximately seven billion people in the

world and 300 million people in the United States. Approximately, 800 million people in

the world uses Facebook since it was first established in 2004. This means around 12% of

the world population are currently Facebook users. For many of us, having a Facebook

account was a must since it was so popular. At the same time it can be distracting and

addicting. Students are having trouble concentrating due to their excessive usage of

Facebook, which can lead to procrastinate as well as informal writing sometimes appear in

their writings. But are we supposed to put the blame on Facebook or on ourselves?

We make sure we added everyone we knew, even if we only met the person

for five minutes. "Social media quickly evolves to be a popularity contest", states from

TeenInk article. Competing with other Facebook users to see who has the most friends.

Liking every page, comment, and pictures. Logging on every minute we can get our hands

on. Reading notifications and waiting for new notifications. Because we are constantly

waiting for new newsfeed, we end up looking through other users' information or

constantly checking our newsfeed every other minute, preventing us from completing our

work.

When assignments are given out and the due date for each of the assignments

are set, some students would wait to complete it a day before the due date, others would

start on the day it was given. Either way, procrastination will occur depending on how

efficient one is working. A person could start the assignment on the given date and would

not finish it until the day before. Not because the assignment was extremely difficult or

long, but because he/she was not working efficient. Going on Facebook every now and

then will drag the amount of time to complete the work. It could have taken her/him to

complete the assignment within three hours, but because he/she was going on Facebook,

she/he could not finish it until the day before the assignment was due.

A common experience that teenagers experience, regarding procrastination

because of excessive usage of Facebook, is going straight home after school, take a piece

of bite from a sandwich, and logs onto Facebook. Three or perhaps four hours later we will

start our homework. One o'clock into the night, we still have not completed our

assignments. The problem here is that we decide to go on Facebook the first thing we

arrived home. Imagine if we all go home and started our assignments, what would our

society be like?

Students are having a difficult time concentrating. According to Huffington

Post a student says: " 'I’ll just check it once more before I start,' I say to myself on a daily

basis. I then open up a blank word document, add a header and heading and reward myself

once again by getting back on Facebook." Many of us acknowledge that Facebook can be

distracting but it is our responsibility to manage our time well. We cannot simply blame

Facebook for making us procrastinate, we can only blame ourselves for our own actions.

We should not blame our actions on our mentors or parents or educators, because they

could have told us many times to not go on Facebook while doing our homework, but it

was our decision not to listen to them.

On Facebook, some users enjoy abbreviating because it "saves" time. For

example, instead of writing "you" it would be "u" or "are" "r" and more. The writing style

on Facebook would be considered informal writing. At times users, would forget when

they can and cannot use this type of informal writing, especially students. This is a

problematic issue because teachers have found informal writing in student's paper. The

students would write 'your amazing' instead of 'you're amazing', or writing 'r' instead of

'are'.

Teachers and educators would tell students not to write informally, especially

in research papers; yet most students continue to do this. Bowman mentioned, " In other

words, the 'mentors' have not only betrayed their pupils, they have denounced the very idea

of mentorship in anything but the tools of deconstruction which allow them to set

themselves up as superior to--rather than the humble acolytes of -- the culture they study".

We cannot simply blame this problem on our educators but on ourselves. No matter how

many times these mentors have told us it is our decision to listen, it is our problems and our

responsibility to accept the consequences. In other word, we cannot blame Facebook for

the informality writing style in research papers but to point fingers at ourselves for not

taking responsibility.

Meanwhile, Facebook can be a hindrance while trying to complete assignments, causing users, such as students, to procrastinate. Thus leading students to forget when they are allowed to use informal writing and when not to use it. Once again, Facebook cannot take all the blame for these social issues, it is also the ourselves who are also to be blame. Not teachers, not educators, not mentors, nor parents but ourselves; the people that caused their own problems is to be blamed. In "Is Google Making Is Stupid?", Nicholas Carr’s perspective on Google is that it is making people stupid because we do not read long passages and we do not enjoy reading hard copy novels. But there are people who do enjoy reading long passages and would sit down and read a long book.

Networking sites cannot be the reason for our problems because we can choose to be distracted or to be influenced. It is not just Facebook that brings individual problems, it is also many other social networking such as Twitter, Tumblr, or text messaging. We definitely cannot keep pointing fingers at these social networking site because we control our own mind and our own thoughts, the social networking sites do not control that. We can tell ourselves to stop going on Facebook and set ourselves goals to complete tasks before going back on Facebook. Therefore, as individuals we understand that these social networking site can be addictive however it is our responsibility to try not to be distracted by these sites.

By Sara Cheang

IMPROVING SOCIAL SKILLS 101

After just hitting puberty, many preteens hit that awkward and

gawky phase. They cannot help it; it is inevitable. I was never a social

child. I usually kept to myself during class and only spoke out loud

when I was spoken to. It was extremely hard to communicate with the

other children. It was nerve-wrecking to approach my peers and the

fear just grew as I made the switch to junior high school. Lo and

behold, what came to my rescue? Facebook. In Sara William’s Study:

Facebook improves communication skills, it states that in a recent

study conducted by University of Minnesota’s Christine Greenhow,

students using social networking Websites are practicing 21st century

skills needed to be successful in today’s society. I had learned a lot of

the essence of communicating with others through online mediums.

Communication is still communication, whatever the medium is.

Despite the differences between online and face to face

communication, lessons learned from one sphere can often be applied

to another.

Although Facebook takes away from the human contact

of communicating face-to-face, in some ways it actually

improves communication. This particular social networking site

can be viewed as a double sword, hurting people who were able

to communicate more freely. However, you can get a lot more

across if you are shy and talking to a classmate than you would

probably feel comfortable with saying in person. I routinely

spend most of my nights on Facebook, but I do not perceive it to

be a bad habit. It helps me stay in touch with people I have not

seen or spoken to in a while. According to a 2005 Pew Research

Center, even the students in the lower class use social networks

such as Facebook and Myspace to build connections and form

relationships with people all over the world. These social

networks are the reason why students who struggle financially are

becoming just as technologically proficient as their peers. It is the

familiarity of the technology that this generation is becoming

more comfortable with technology in any field.

One of the main reasons why our generation is so

captivated and intrigued by Facebook is because of how the site

had seemed so exclusive. Social networking sites are attractive to

adolescents in part because it is limited only to them. Many

parents are met by this challenge of rebellion. When we hit our

awkward teenager stage in life, we just want to establish

independence from our parents and become an individual.

Facebook seemed to be a new kind of media that most parents

just did not take part in. Admit it. You must have felt pretty

sneaky and sly once you started Facebook because it was

something only the kids your age seemed to partake in. Nick

Carr’s “Is Google Making Us Stupid” applauds the Internet by

writing: “[T]he Net is becoming a universal medium, the conduit

for most of the information that flows through my eyes and ears

and into my mind. The advantages of having immediate access to

such an incredibly rich store of information are many, and

they’ve been widely described and duly applauded.”

Mark Zuckerberg

Known as one of the five co-founders of Facebook.

The Cambridge University’s studies show that

Facebook gave people more choice on how they conduct

relationships and was a way of storing biography and

enhancing social memory. Many people used it to track people

they liked or to find out what ex-partners were up to. As

disturbing as it may sound, we can guiltily admit to have given

into these behaviors before. As a result of the study, it could

change the way people associate at a fundamental level,

meaning former relationships and associations can be revived.

Let’s admit it; Facebook has become an essential tool for

young adults all over to create a sense of community with their

peers.

Many parents who are not tech savvy with the Internet

are scared that it is negatively affecting their children. Carr

claims that “as we come to rely on computers to mediate our

understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that

flattens into artificial intelligence.” Carr shares the same fear

as parents claiming that extensive time spent on the computer

diminishes one’s intelligence stating that,

“Over the past few years I’ve had an uncomfortable

sense that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my

brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the

memory. My mind isn’t going—so far as I can tell—but it’s

changing. I’m not thinking the way I used to think…

Immersing myself in a book or a lengthy article used to be

easy… Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or

three pages… I feel as if I’m always dragging my wayward

brain back to the text. The deep reading that used to come

naturally has become a struggle.”

Parents fear that their children will give into the lost

art of face to face communication but what they need to

understand is that Facebook allows for young adults to build

up to that. From my experience, after coming out of my shell

and communicating with newfound friends over Facebook, I

was able to communicate much better in person. Once you

have learned some techniques, you can start practicing your

new social skills in your daily life. The more frequently you

interact with others, the more your communication skills will

develop and the easier it will become to talk to others.

Social skills are an important part of ongoing daily

interactions. They always will be. They’re not something

learned one day and forgotten the next. Facebook is just one

small step in building up that life skill. Fortunately, it does not

take a long time or a lot of effort to develop these important

social skills, and in the end the rewards are certainly worth it.

Need Unemployment?

Lalchandani 1

• Remember that night out at the bar with all of your buddies where you decided to be in every picture chugging an alcoholic beverage? Most likely you probably do not even remember that night or where you were. Not to worry the company you just got a job with can clearly remember of the night and how un-responsible you acted in front of all those people.

Chances are you’re not friends with your boss on Facebook or plan on being friends with him/her anytime soon. But as more and more employers are checking social media sites, the more they are learning about the employees they are hiring. This means that the night you had with your buddies on Friday can possibly end up with you having no job on Monday or no job at all in the near future. Many times, people do not understand the power of social media sites leaving them vulnerable to any type of search by employers. This is due to the lack of information people have about the rights of employers to search Facebook in its entirety. Just because you checked off all your settings to completely private does not in fact at all make them private. Companies can go in and out to see who is the utmost, well fit person for the job. Trying to outsmart them too? Chances are it won’t work either. Many companies can now find you even if you put your last name as your first or change names completely because of new face recognition technology. I now even see myself checking my own Facebook to determine if there are any photos that could lead me into trouble. This awareness is slowly opening people’s eyes towards becoming smarter about what they post on the Internet.

Lalchandani 2

• As a greater part of the world starts using the Internet, the chance of a job employer checking an employee’s Facebook greatly increases. This process is becoming more standard now than ever due to rapid advancements in technology. Most people can be brainwashed by the Internet and the power it creates. Carr the author of “Is Google Making Us Stupid,” states that many times, people can use the Internet as a universal medium for information. This means that many rely on the Internet for simple tasks that used to be done the old fashioned way. In the future tasks such as driving a car, walking the dog, even cleaning the house may be done by robots because of tendencies as humans to become lazier as technology advances. As technology advances the everyday activities we as humans do may not become so everyday anymore.

I firmly believe that the employers are doing their employees favors by checking in on their Facebook accounts. This check allows for the more responsible employees to become hired or the irresponsible employees to get fired for posting things that should not be on the Internet in the first place. Most often people do not realize that once they get fired from a job for such a silly reason, it will be impossible to find another job that is willing to hire an employee who cannot control what they post on the Internet. Another concern that people should be aware about is the ability to never actually delete what they post no matter what site it may be. Just because you hit delete on the screen does not mean it actually goes away. Many times employers can look up the information via websites to determine everything about a person before hiring him. People are not even aware of this process and are left jobless because of it. For example, this woman on slide one who recently started working for a company that did not know she had added her boss on Facebook prior

Lalchandani 3

• This woman was trying to use Facebook to make fun of her boss not realizing the consequences following. Across the world this can happen to anyone at any time. Many times people do not realize who can see what they post and what it can do to them in the future. For this woman, her job was lost and most likely any job she is going to have in the future. The Internet in today’s world can be just as damaging as it is useful in many instances such as this. Sometimes part of the problem is not fixing it. Many times people abuse the real use of Facebook and other social media sites. People believe that just because they are only one out of eight hundred million users on Facebook that they cannot lose their job or something important to them. Who is to say that one day you will get randomly searched and possibly lose your job over a picture or post, the choice is yours, as well as the outcome.

Photo of the Author

Lalchandani 4

Remember when meeting someone for the first time in person

was a fun and somewhat scary, daunting task to do because you had

no idea who you were about to meet? Not many people in this

generation can even answer that question because of the growing

amount of social media that surrounds us. Social media, such as

Facebook, has in a way ruined the element of surprise. Facebook has

ruined the surprises of meeting roommates for the first time and re-

meeting a high school friend at a class reunion.

Facebook is the number one social media network to blame for

ruining the element of surprise when meeting someone new. Take for

instance, a new college freshman goes to orientation at their new

school and the orientation leaders are talking to them about

roommates and everything that goes along with dorming. One of the

first things you’re told to do when you get your roommate

assignment, is to look them up on Facebook and talk to them. So

instead of meeting your roommate the “old fashion way,” kids are

now able to look up their roommates online and practically get this

strangers whole life story from one page based on how much

information that person posts. Facebook allows you to instantly know

where your roommate is from, their birthday, their favorite things and

all about their family without even having to say a word to them. In

some ways, Facebook could be a bad thing in that you can judge a

person from their Facebook page and decide that you don’t like

them. When in reality you could love them, which would result in you

going into college with a bad attitude about your roommate.

On the backside, Facebook could also be a very good thing too

because you could realize from someone’s page that you could

become best friends because you have a lot in common and like

similar things. For example, my personal experience with social

media and meeting roommates was a little different because only

one of my roommates has a Facebook, the other doesn’t. I was able

to get to know my one roommate through Facebook and see what

she was like and connect with her months before move-in day. My

other roommate, who doesn’t have a Facebook, I had absolutely zero

contact with before move-in day. We didn’t know who the other

person was until we walked into our room and introduced ourselves

to each other. Both ways of meeting my roommates seemed to work

out in that we all get along, even though I’ve known one roommate

longer than the other. I don’t think I could say I prefer one method of

meeting a roommate over the other because one was a total surprise

meeting, the other, Facebook made not a surprise.

Another issue with Facebook is that it ruins the whole

point of high school class reunions. Before Facebook

was invented, if you didn’t want to stay in touch with

someone from highschool, then you didn’t have to. You

didn’t even ever need to see them again if you choose

not to, except for maybe at reunions. Now with

Facebook, you could follow one person from high school

that follows another person you never wanted to see

again, and then that persons things pop up on your

timeline and now somehow you’re involved in their lives

and know every aspect of what has happened with

them. The same can go with someone that you did want

to stay in touch with. Maybe you had a close friend from

high school that you friended on Facebook, instead of

just catching up with them and seeing how things are

going, you now know every little thing about them. You

know how many kids they have, their ages, who they’re

married too and their occupation. Whether you like it or

not, you feel like you’ve been involved with this person

for their whole life instead of just high school. I feel like

at high school reunions, seeing people for the first time

in many years should be a surprise, for example, “I

wonder who became the millionaire?,” “Who had 15

kids?,” “Who is still working at McDonalds?” Questions

like these are no longer needed leading up to a high

school reunion because Facebook reveals all of that. My

dad missed his 25thhigh school reunion just this past

month because he doesn’t have a Facebook and the

invitations were sent out through Facebook, so he never

knew anything about it. I feel that everyone shouldn’t be

so reliant on Facebook for important information like

that because then you’re leaving out some people and

that’s not fair. Facebook’s main purpose is to keep in

touch with long lost friends and acquaintances after

high school and college, so the website is doing its job,

in this instance, but it also ruins so much.

Facebook has its ups and downs; it can cause social issues among

people and can also bring people together more than anything has

ever been able too. James Bowman says in, Is Stupid Making Us

Google, “It is these poor cultural orphans, for whom ‘information

retrieval’ online is the only kind of reading they know.” He is very

accurate with this statement; online material is not only the only kind

of reading we like to do or will do, but online communication is all

kids know now-a-days. Social media networks have corrupted the

youth of this generation and even some adults in that no one wants

to have face to face conversations anymore. Most people would

prefer to just hide behind a computer screen or phone. It has

become too easy to get away with not having real conversations that

no one wants to go out of their way to actually talk to someone. As

social media becomes more and more popular every day, the more

children are losing communication skills and becoming more

“stupid.” Eventually verbal conversation will become rare and

everything will be made technological. Social media, especially

Facebook, is a great resource for meeting new friends and

connecting with old ones, if and only when it is used in moderation.

Since February 4, 2004, the day Facebook was released; it has been

causing issues with communication and other things among people.

Social Media; What’s The Problem?

Social media is all around us on computers and can even travel around with us on laptops and cell phones. With technology and all it consists of taking control of the current generation, there are an abundant amount of viewpoints dealing with our new ‘addiction’ to social media, such as Facebook. Many people are so addicted to Facebook that they sign on the second they sit down at their computers without even realizing they’re doing so. 901 million users, made up of people ranging in age from young children to senior citizens, make up Facebook’s population. Many of these people see this site as a tool with endless possibilities for the future. Agreeably, Facebook has greatly eased communication, allowing people from all over the world to stay connected and share thoughts and photos with the click of a button. Although Facebook is seen as a convenient resource, it does have many negative setbacks. Facebook is significantly damaging people’s communication abilities and affecting their critical thinking skills negatively when used too excessively.

Here in 2012, it’s safe to say that just about all of us have been exposed to social media in some way or another; whether it is Tweeting your friends, blogging at school, or staying connected with friends on the most commonly used site, Facebook.

Facebook has started to change the way we think. Whenever we log on to our accounts, for example, an infinite amount of information and opinions is right at our fingertips. Unfortunately, too many people have begun to believe everything they see on Facebook, whether it is true or

not. When people post on Facebook, incorrect grammar and types of slang words are used as well. These types of errors, which are not

politically correct, can appear in formal writing once habits are formed. During peer review sessions, I have read papers that do not completely spell out the words such as “you”, “going to”, and “would have”, based

on the casual writing they are used to writing on social media sites. Using this slang while writing is making people lazy in their important formal pieces and shows they are not looking over what they wrote.

Facebook also allows people to post anything they want, usually in short, abbreviated responses. People are beginning to rely solely on these short writings, and are becoming unable to develop real writing pieces to their maximum potential. Not only does social media affect our writing, but our reading is affected as well. A blogger, Bruce Friedman, said, “I now have almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print.” Facebook’s short and sweet articles have ruined our ability to focus and take in all the material we need in long articles and books. Nicholas Carr supports this idea by stating, “Now my concentration often starts to drift after two or three pages” in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” Our reading ability has been hindered by our comfort with reading short pieces and distractions all over websites. Pictures, videos, and flashing advertisements do not allow us to give complete attention and focus on what we are reading for more than a few minutes.

Carr also references how our thinking skills are affected negatively due to the Internet, “I’m not thinking the way I used to think.” Carr explains how relying on the Internet has altered the way we think, which can be harmful to our brains. Too much time and dependence on social media sites is impairing our critical thinking skills. Time spent reading books, when we are supposed to sharpen our

critical thinking skills, is replaced by useless time on Facebook. The over dependence on Facebook is creating a destructive outcome for our thinking process and critical thinking skills. The more we use social media to communicate, the more our focus is lost on basic interaction skills including body language, eye contact, and tone of voice. The ability to use these aids correctly is definitely crucial to face-to-face conversation. If our communication skills are damaged verbally, this can result in our writing being negatively affected. Expressing your thoughts and ideas through writing for others to understand is much more complicated than through talking to someone. Therefore, if we cannot communicate well verbally, we will barley ever be able to do so when writing. Throughout my education I have witnessed numerous people who are unable to demonstrate these critical skills when carrying out conversations and giving presentations. Some of my classmates who I am ‘friends’ with on Facebook can type their feelings or opinions all over the Internet, but when asked to say them in front of a class, they freeze up. I find this very shocking, especially because my classes in high school consisted of peers who have been going to school together for 6-12 years. People who have poor communication skills starting from a young age will be a step behind others throughout school, extra curricular activities, and in the work force. Communicating well is very crucial, seeing as it plays a role throughout various areas in life.

Facebook has changed the lives of many over the years. People have damaged their communication and critical thinking skills significantly. Our attention can no longer be focused when we need it to be and we are starting to think in a new way, which may not always be beneficial. Body language and tone of voice have been isolated throughout communication since so many people now connect through a screen, rather than in person. These basic, yet valuable skills are key to being well educated and a well-rounded person. Unfortunately, Facebook can negatively impact people’s lives if not balanced into our lives correctly. The current dependence on technology has created a necessity for Facebook. When balanced correctly, Facebook can be a helpful source to connect and share your lives with those close to you. The problems arise when people cannot function without using Facebook. When technology is taking over every aspect of life, the main way to prevent these negative affects is to create a functional life without the need for Facebook.

him an opportunity to meet Usher, sign a contract and

become a pop icon. Before YouTube, people would have

to do small gigs in clubs, bars and small festivals, like

what Lady Gaga had to do to become a pop star. Not

only has YouTube provided us with artists, but students

and teachers have been using YouTube as a form of

education

Besides using YouTube as a form of

entertainment, many students and teachers have used

YouTube as a source of education. Students can easily

look for many tutorial videos on study topics such as

physics, chemistry, trigonometry, calculus, and biology.

It has made teachers lives easier as well because they

can record a lecture and instead of giving the lesson

again, the teacher can just play the recording. An article

called, “YouTube Changes Higher Education: Will It

Also Change Corporate Learning” by Jeanneme has

stated that The University of California at Berkeley has

used YouTube as a way of uploading over 300 hours of

course lectures after hearing about MIT’s Open

Courseware, a program on the web that has many course

materials necessary for students. Even though YouTube

has been a helpful way for students, YouTube also has

its negative effect on people.

When you first go to YouTube’s website, there is a

recommendations page, spotlight and featured videos,

where it gives you videos similar to the ones you have

watched previously or videos that have been seen many

times. Sometimes these videos may contain

inappropriate content as well as the comments and since

YouTube does not have a filter, it can be difficult to

control what kids are watching, which is why parents

should be more careful on what kids watch on the

Internet. This brings up the idea that James Bowman was

talking about in his article “Is Stupid Making Us

Google?” in which it is really the mentors and teachers

fault for having such a stupid generation and parents

should be more responsible for what their kids watch.

Even though YouTube is not the only reason why

children are becoming stupid, it can contribute to what

Bowman was talking about. That is why should be

careful and pay more attention to what their kids are

doing or watching on the Internet.

While it is fun searching around YouTube,

finding funny, entertaining videos that can be very

distracting, and very interesting videos that can help you

in school, YouTube should be used wisely. Sometimes

not everything on YouTube is good or helpful, just like

many other websites on the Internet. Some videos are

just made to bring a person down or to emotionally hurt

another person and other videos are made to entertain

and distract our minds for a while. Even though

YouTube is a big social media that we cannot keep away

from, we should be responsible enough in how we use it

as well as parents being more careful with what their

children watch on YouTube, whether it is just for

entertainment or educational purposes.

Why try and read a long, boring book or article

when you have the internet? When searching the web,

you get short summaries of everything important that

has happened in the book. But reading the summaries

are not the only way of getting information. With the

access of YouTube you can watch what has happened

in the book. When Chad Harley, Steve Chen and

Jawad Karim founded YouTube in 2005, they never

knew that they were going to change the world.

YouTube has made everything much easier for

everyone. Everyone has tried to avoid traditional

reading by going on the internet to read instead like

James Bowman stated in his article “Is Stupid Making

Us Google?” but some of us do not like to read either

in the traditional or the modern way. When teachers

would ask us to read a book we either go to

SparkNotes, a website that contains many study

guides and book summaries, to search the summary or

use YouTube to see if there is an old movie based on

the book. YouTube has become a big of a

phenomenon just like Google, but it does have its

advantages and disadvantages.

During my senior year of high school we were

required to read “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret

Atwood, but we were too busy with other school work

to actually read the entire book. What my classmates

and I decided to do was watch the movie instead on

YouTube. Even though our teacher did warn us that

the movie was pretty bad, we understood the book

more after reading parts of the book and remembering

what happened in the movie. This can have a negative

effect on my classmates and I because it does affect

our reading, in such a way that we do end up being

too lazy to even read a chapter or a paragraph. This is

how I felt after watching the movie, which was what

Carr was trying to explain, that we have so much

access to the Internet that James Olds, a professor of

neuroscience, who is a director in the Krasnow

Institute for Advanced Study at George Mason

University, stated that our brains start to “reprogram

itself on the fly, altering the way it functions” and it

starts to “take on the qualities of those

technologies.”(Carr). Even though going on YouTube

helped me in school, it did have a negative impact on

me. But YouTube does not only have to be used for

schoolwork; it has helped many people launch their

career.

Many people have used the power of YouTube to

showcase their talent. Many of them have become

famous because of it. YouTube has made it easier for

people such as talented singers, dancers, actors and

artists to get instant fame. Let’s take Justin Bieber for

example. When his mother had uploaded videos of

Justin singing onto YouTube, a music manager named

Scooter Braun had seen his videos, which gave him

ONLINE GAMING BY: GRANT HARDER

Throughout our society today, there are multiple new

ways to communicate with one another. Either by phone, letter, or

even by text message. The numbers of ways to communicate with one

another seem to be increasing each day. Many of these ways involve

using some sort of electronic device. Everyday new technologies

come out that make it easier for us to communicate to one another

through social media, but is there a price to all this new technology?

Even though it may seem great to have this technology in the palms

of our hands, there are some negative impacts as well as positive

impacts that come with this new technology in social media.

One way of communication that I have often experienced is

the act of online gaming. Online gaming is when many people can play on

a gaming console through the Internet with one another, either on PS3 or

even XBOX. When people play games on these consoles, they have a

choice to communicate with many different people around the world.

Many people can get lost in online gaming for hours and only get up to go

to the bathroom or get something to eat. I used to be one of them myself.

Even though it may seem great, there are many issues that arise with

online gaming. When people start to play online, some people start to

become addicted and play constantly online no matter what time it may be.

According to Pamela Gomes, a writer on www.olganon.org, she believes

that many people use online gaming to become someone new and to

escape from reality inside the videogames that they play. Pamela Gomes

says that “These games offer a person a chance to be someone else and to

escape into a fantasy world; to hide from reality. The reality of their non-

existent social lives, or perhaps their failing marriage or the loss of a loved

one, or any other number of realities of life.” I believe Pamela is right

when assuming that many people use online gaming to fill a void for

something that they have lost and to get comfort. When many people are

using online gaming to escape from to another world, they are also

shirking many of their responsibilities. I believe that the more time people

spend online, the less they focus on homework, their job, or even going to

class. It is unhealthy for people to spend so much time playing online

games instead of doing their work and committing to their responsibilities.

When I used to play online games, I noticed that my grades in school

would diminish and other responsibilities such as “doing my chores”

would never get done. When this happened, I wasn’t only letting my

parents down, but more importantly, I was letting myself down.

There are many articles that I have read online that deal

with the good and bad views on technology. One article I read that dealt

with different views on new technology is called “Is Google Making Us

Stupid?” written by Nicholas Carr. Nicholas Carr says that the more he is

online and using new technology, the harder it is for him to sit down for an

extended period of time and read a novel. He says we often get easily

distracted when trying to read a novel or even just an article on the

computer. Personally, I agree with him. Over the past few years I have

realized that I would get distracted easily when trying to read a long

paragraph or novel. Even during school it would become more difficult for

me to read paragraphs from my textbook. Playing online games has the

same effect. The more I would play online games in my spare time, the

more difficult it became for me to concentrate on reading for extended

periods of time. Nicholas Carr also states that we are accustomed to “skim”

through paragraphs and essays and only read the key points instead of

reading thoroughly through them. When I’m on the computer or even

playing online, I rarely read everything that is on the screen in front of me.

Even though I should read the entire article or paragraphs, I am guilty

when admitting to skimming through articles and paragraphs.

Another article that relates to this social issue of online

gaming is, “Is Stupid Making Us Google?” written by James Bowman.

Throughout this article James Bowman cites Professor Bauerlein, a teacher

at Emory University. Professor Bauerlein states that he is “witnessing a

deformation of the very idea of intelligence in this generation.” When

reading this at first, I was irritated that he said our generation was stupid.

Even though there are many people who aren’t very bright, he didn’t take

in account for the many people who can work hard and concentrate.

Relating back to online gaming, even though many people may get caught

up with online games and new technology doesn’t mean everyone will.

Many people can still play online games and still be able to concentrate on

work that needs to be done. I believe that Professor Bauerlein generalizes

this new generation without giving it a chance to prove itself. Even though

there are many negative aspects towards online gaming, there are also

some positive aspects as well. Throughout my experiences of online

gaming, I have met many new people and made friends with some of them.

Even though you can’t see them face to face, you are still able to

communicate with them.

Throughout our society today, there are multiple new ways

to communicate with one another, either by phone, letter, or even by text

message. Nowadays, many people can even communicate through online

gaming. This new technology has revolutionized the world in perspective

in communicating. Online gaming has both positive and negative aspects

when playing. It just depends on how you can manage your time without

becoming addicted to it. Even in the future, online gaming will always

have negative impacts along with positive impacts when many people go

online and play.

Bang! A sound millions of children and teenagers hear every day. Not from reality, but from online gaming. Over the years, online gaming and virtual gaming have become more and more popular. Violent sounds and actions will influence the perception a child has on the world. Children who play violent video games will in turn become more violent towards others. There is a proven connection between violent video games and violent behavior in children. In recent years, video games have become a form of social media. This is because people can connect with anyone through games. It is very simple for a child in China to chat and play with an adult in the United States. The anonymous aspect of these games creates an even more violent atmosphere because the player feels there are no consequences for their actions. Video games such as “Call of Duty” and “Grand Theft Auto” are very violent and addicting. The game Grand Theft Auto has sold more than 35 million copies, with worldwide sales approaching two million dollars. In these games there is evidence of stabbing people, shooting people, smashing cars, doing drugs, robbing banks, and much more illegal activity that children may not even know is negatively effecting them. I recently read about a lawsuit filed in Alabama against the creators of “Grand Theft Auto” because some say that after months of playing the game a teenager killed there people, two of them police officers. The connection of these killings to the game is very obvious. These teenagers were influenced by the game. “Grand Theft Auto” is a game where there are endless opportunities to kill civilians and especially police officers. These violent acts are repeated over and over again, and it brainwashes children without them even knowing. Not only are the actions obscene, the language and the way people talk to each other is blatantly rude. Children subconsciously remember these things, and will use them in real life. In reality, this is not how people act or should ever act in the real world. There are many studies going on to determine the effects of violent games. In one study by The American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry claims that children “become immune or numb to the horror of violence, imitate the violence they see, and show more aggressive behavior with greater exposure to violence.”

How Online Gaming Affects Children By: Nicole Shepardson October 24th, 2012 Baldy 114 Buffalo, NY English 101

All this study is proving is the more children play violent games, the more violent they become. Also, the this study concluded that along with being violent, children will grow up being obese and less social. In Chicago, Pew Internet & American Life Project conducted a study that stated“97 percent of children have played video games.” This study is a mix of both boys and girls ages 12 to 17.This represents that almost all of children between this age ranges have played video games and were most likely subject to this violence. Another study conducted by Gentile, Lynch, and Linder& Walsh proves that children “tend to be more aggressive, are more prone to confrontation with their teachers, may engage in fights with their peers, and see a decline in school achievements” when engaging in violent games. Other than violence, there are plenty of negative effects video games have on the public. For example, children become unhealthy and overweight, read less, and spend more time playing games than focusing on schoolwork. This fact connects with the argument that using Google is making people more stupid. Nick Carr states in his article “Is Google Making Us Stupid” people have “almost totally lost the ability to read and absorb a longish article on the web or in print.” People do not even realize this because it comes as second nature to skip around when reading on the Internet. Just as Google is brainwashing the upcoming generations, video games are brainwashing children to believe that violence is the answer. In my experience, I have witnessed first hand the effects of violent video games. Throughout my life, I myself have played violent video games. The effects, as far as I can see, are little to none. That may be because I have not played enough of them, or I am not a very violent person. But the effects on my brother beg to differ. My brother is a video game expert. He can beat any level of any game. It takes him no time at all to figure out how to unlock a new level. The effects of video games have been mostly, if not all negative. My brother is now older, but when he was younger he was into WWE wrestling. He would do wrestling moves on his stuffed animals, and the nearby pillows, and every once and a while, his sister. His actions never affected me because they were always playful, and I could take him. But at some points, he never knew when to stop. He would pretend wrestle with anything. I would be watching television, or reading a book and my brother would always be running around smashing things. Because of his short attention span, my brother had to focus extra hard on his schoolwork in order to keep up with his grades. I believe my brother would have done better in school had he not played all those influential video games. Some positive effects of my brother playing so many video games are that it has increased his dexterity, he has a better knowledge of electronics, and he is a brilliant problem solver. I do not believe the children are to blame for this increase in violence amongst, but the parents, mentors, and advertising companies are to blame. James Bowman states in his “Is Stupid Making Us Google” article that we “need mentors not to go with the youth flow, but to stand staunchly against it, to represent something smarter and finer that the cacophony of social life.” In both situations the elder, wiser person needs to take control of these situations. Parents and mentors should limit the amount of time on the computer and playing video games. Advertising companies make games seem so cool and interesting that it makes it very hard for a child to resist playing. Putting a control on these will decrease the amount of violence and increase the amount of studying and learning information.

Social Media Technologies:

As Beneficial as They Seem? The dawn of new technology has given way to the birth of social media. Over the past ten years, as technology has continued to develop, social media has continued to expand and grow in popularity. Social media technologies have allowed everyone in society to become connected with each other as a whole. With just a few clicks, people can see what all their friends and loved ones are up to each day, whether it’s through status updates or pictures that have been uploaded on social media mediums such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Google, etc. At a first glance, this capability of being connected with everyone seems great without any drawbacks. However, there are negative aspects that do arise such as cyber bullying, overindulgence, and laziness involving schoolwork when using these social media technologies.

Although it’s nice to catch up with friends and loved ones with these social media technologies from time to time, sometimes the capability of being able to do so literally at any time, captivates some people to the point where they spend an extensive amount of the day just sitting in front of a computer or laptop when they could be spending their time doing something productive such as schoolwork. From personal experience, I have witnessed students spend the entire duration of a lecture checking their Facebook page or Twitter account instead of devoting their attention to the professor and the important material that is being covered. Ultimately, their grades will be negatively impacted because of their lack of priorities. Ever since smart phones have been developed, this sort of negligence has only escalated. All throughout high school, I’ve seen the majority of my peers constantly checking their phones while walking through the halls. Next time you’re in a crowded establishment such as the mall or school, stop and take a look around you; it’s more than likely you’ll see at least a dozen individuals on their smart phones checking their social networking sites if they’re not texting.

Another issue that arises is laziness involving school work, specifically dealing with the search engine, Google. In the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” written by Nick Carr, Carr states, “…as we come to rely on computers to mediate our understanding of the world, it is our own intelligence that flattens into artificial intelligence.” In other words, we as a society rely on computers, more specifically Google, to find answers and information more than we ought to. In high school, there were times where I would ask a friend if they did the homework for a certain class, and they told me that they didn’t understand any of the questions so they simply searched Google for the answers. Instead of going to the teacher or even a friend who is taking the same class for help, they just searched for the answer online without learning anything by working it out themselves. Such a large percentage of students do this to take the easy way to complete their homework. However, when the inevitable time comes to take a quiz or test, they haven’t actually learned any of the material so therefore they score poorly on the tests and quizzes, bringing their overall grades down. Sometimes this develops into a habit and if those students continue on to college, this negative tendency follows them and further inhibits them from achieving the grades they should be.

One of the more serious aspects that have come to be is cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is defined as the act of harassing someone online, ranging from sending or posting hostile messages or statuses, to posting or uploading very embarrassing pictures without consent. Usually cyber bullying is done anonymously, but there are individuals that have the audacity not to screen their identity. One of the main reasons that people partake in cyber bullying is that they feel safe and secure behind their computer screen. It’s more than likely the majority of people that cyber bully wouldn’t say any of the rude or hateful remarks if it were in person. People don’t realize that some of the comments they say have the possibility of seriously affecting the other person in a negative way. Some adolescents are more susceptible to instances and effects of cyber bullying than others. Adolescents who are socially well-adjusted and have healthy peer and family support systems are likely to have better decision making and coping skills. They are usually better equipped to ignore or effectively rebut cyber bullying and are less likely to escalate the situation through retaliation. However, vulnerable adolescents tend to have few coping skills, poor relationships, mental health problems, and family difficulties. Some adolescents engage in or become victims of cyber bullying because of acute episodic emotional distress, such as from a romantic break up (Feinberg, par. 11). There have been cases where cyber bullying has lead to severe dysfunction, externalized violence, and even suicide (Feinberg, par. 10). Research indicates that adolescents are not optimistic about being able to prevent cyber bullying. Victims of cyber bullying are significantly less likely to tell someone of the abuse than victims of traditional bullying, and when they do reach out, it is more often to friends than to adults. Teenagers can be reluctant to tell adults about the abuse because they are emotionally traumatized, think it is their fault, fear retribution by the bully, or worry that their online activities or cell phone use will be restricted (Feinberg, par. 12). Ted Feinberg states, “The most effective intervention strategy that is adopted by students is avoidance, such as blocking messages or changing their e-mail addresses.” If you have personally been cyber bullied you should definitely heed this advice, and or/if you know of someone that has experienced it, you should pass this advice on to them.

Since the development of new technology and the birth of social media, it has been steadily becoming easier and easier for the world to be connected with each other at literally any time of the day. Although this ability is very convenient and is revolutionizing today’s society, there are still negative aspects that arise nonetheless. Two of these issues are laziness involving schoolwork where students just search online for their answers, and excess usage of social media sites to the point where it interferes with their priorities. Another more serious issue that has come to be is cyber bullying that has unfortunately caused adolescents to be victims of severe dysfunction, externalized violence, and even suicide.

SOCIAL MEDIA A PROBLEM?

BY,

SCOTT “BOSSMAN” OKUN

In today’s society, social media is huge. One of the biggest social media sites in the

world is Facebook. There are over 500,000,000 active Facebook users, which is approximately 1

in every 13 people on earth. 48% of people between the ages of 18 to 34 check their Facebook

accounts as soon as they wake up. “Facebook” was the most searched term on google with

“Facebook login” and “Facebook.com” coming in at second and fifth place for most searched

terms. As one can see, Facebook is becoming a part of everyday life for most people across the

world. Facebook has its positives, like helping people connect with old friends, sharing their

pictures with friends, and helping to spread the word about a big event. All that being said, the

negatives of Facebook outweigh the positives.

The negatives of Facebook are quite astonishing. One very amusing fact is that 57% of

Facebook users talk to people more often online than in real life. That’s more then half of the

people that use Facebook, which is mind-blowing. This has been severely hurting peoples’

social skills since Facebook was invented. People now struggle to have face-to-face

conversations, and they are too lazy to go out and talk; now they just send each other Facebook

messages. All of this messaging takes away from social activities. A study by the Australian

Psychological Society shows that fewer kids are taking part in social activities, like school

clubs. Also, the study shows that kids are spending less and less time with friends and family.

Friends and family are a big part in anyone’s life. I don’t know what I would do without my

family and friends, so I personally find it ridiculous to spend less time with them because of a

reason like wanting to check out someone’s picture on Facebook.

With all the time people spend on Facebook talking to others, they do not have time to

attend to other obligations, such as schoolwork. People these days spend so much time on

Facebook that they have less time to do homework and study for tests. This has had a negative

effect on student’s grades. Psychologists from the Open University Netherlands looked at 219

students to see the effects of Facebook that has impacted their studies. The study showed that

the people who used Facebook performed a lot worse on test than the people who don’t use

Facebook. The people who use it did 20% worse then people who didn’t use it. Professor Paul

Kirshne said that “It is often said that young people today can multitask. But research indicates

that multi-tasking is not efficient at all”. This can be shown through this study, as the kids who

had Facebook easily got distracted by seeing their friends online and would try to multitask by

messaging them and studying at the same time. This was not a sufficient method and it showed

in the results. From my personal experience, I agree with these results. When I first created my

Facebook account, I found myself checking it constantly and caring less and less about my

studies. During my freshman year of high school, I saw a big dip in my grades and that’s when I

realized I needed to get with the program, and manage my time spent on Facebook. After I cut

down on my time spent on Facebook I realized that my grades went back up to where they

usually were prior to me creating a Facebook.

Facebook is also bad for your mental health. According to new studies by numerous psychologists, teenagers who use Facebook regularly are more prone to stomach aches, sleeping problems, anxiety and depression. Larry Rosen, a professor of psychology at California State University, states that “teens who use Facebook more often show more narcissistic tendencies, and those with a strong presence show more psychological disorders, including antisocial behaviors, mania and aggressive tendencies”. People think that by spending hours in front of a computer nothing can go bad, but really, they’re only hurting themselves. It is very bad for your health. Why would one want to do something that hurts them physically and mentally? Facebook is still relatively new. It’s only been around for 7 years and already studies like that are coming out. This can have a very negative effect in the future. With the amount of kids on Facebook increasing, more and more of them might turn out to get these mental disorders. This can lead to more of the adult population having these problems in the future. Everyone always says, “Kids are our future.” If that’s the case, the future isn’t looking too bright then.

Another problem that Facebook brings up is cyber bullying. Cyber bullying is a rising issue that is sweeping across the country. With all the social media out there it is very easy to cyber bully, especially on Facebook. It is very easy to comment something mean on someone’s status or picture or just to message them to say something completely mean and unnecessary. There is no one online that can stop someone from doing it. Over 50% of students said that at one point in their life they have been cyber bullied. 33% of teens say that they have received threats online. This is alarming. The worse part about it is that very few people report it. 52% of students say they do not tell their parents if they are being cyber bullied. That number is even higher for people reporting bullying cases that don’t involve them. All these bullying acts have lead to an increase in teen suicide across the nation. More and more teens continue to take their own lives, due to to bullying. The kids can’t avoid it anymore. If someone who is being cyber bullied wants to check their Facebook they might log onto an inbox full of hate messages and other hurtful comments. Cyber bullying is becoming one of the biggest problems in America and it has to stop.

With all this being said one has to think is it Facebook that’s the problem or is it us? Does Mark Zuckerberg (creator of Facebook) physically holds us down and forces us to stay in front of the computer screen for hours at time? Does your computer suck you into the site and wont let you leave until you spend at least three hours on Facebook? The answer to both the following questions are no. No one can make you stay in front of the computer. This all comes down to the kids who have Facebook. One can log off anytime they want to. They choose not to. One should be responsible and know when and when not to use Facebook. Nicholas Carr wrote and article called “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” I believe the answer to this question is no. I believe that it’s Facebook that is making us lazy, stupid and mean. While Facebook does have many positives, the negatives defiantly outweigh them. It is important to monitor your time on Facebook in order to avoid these negative effects that it might have.

About the Author

• Scott Matthew Okun was born July 21,

1994. He spent his early years in

Rockland county. He spent most of his

summers going to the beaches. (Not those

lake beaches). Also he excelled in art

class where he got to draw using crayons

(Cray-ons). He is a pretty good looking

kid(as seen in picture below). Some would

even say he could be a male

model. That’s all you need to

know.

“Didn’t you see it on Twitter?” This phrase has become very common among the average teenage conversations over the past few years. During this time span, Twitter has boomed in popularity. eBizMBA has named it the second most popular social networking website with an estimated 250 million monthly visitors. A vast majority of these users consists of high school and college students. Twitter has created a strong, yet negative, impact on these students’ academics. Twitter was created in late March of 2006 as a website, but its accessibility since then has vastly expanded. Today, six years later, you can get a Twitter app on any Smart Phone, iPad and iPod Touch. So now not only is it available on a computer, but on the go as well. Through personal experience, having a Twitter app on your phone makes you go on it a million times more since you have it right in the palm of your hand whenever you want. I can’t even tell you the amount of times I end up on Twitter on my phone without even really realizing what I’m doing. It’s almost as if it has become

By: Alexandra Shilen

a second nature to constantly check for the latest Twitter updates. I’m sure you can guess what this means for the academics of Twitter users. Twitter adds a

whole new level of distraction when it comes to trying to focus on an assignment because it’s so easily accessible. It’s very difficult to be online doing homework without having Twitter opened in a separate tab and checking what new things are posted. If it’s a written assignment, I can find myself constantly checking and refreshing the Twitter app on my phone. It is so hard to disregard such a large distraction when it is put in front of us, which makes it easy to get in the way of schoolwork. Not only does Twitter provide teenagers with a distraction in doing their work, but it has an impact on the value of their work as well. Long articles or writing pieces are getting harder and harder for students to focus on. Writer Nicholas Carr of the article “Is Google Making Us Stupid?” explains that “concentration starts to drift after two or three pages…the deep reading that used to come naturally has become a struggle.” This struggle to read articles comes with intimidation in students when they see a lengthy article. This has led to skimming becoming a prevalent method of reading among high school and college students of this generation. There is no doubt that Twitter is one of the factors involved in causing this degrade in students’ academic abilities. Think about it, Twitter is a social networking site that is meant to be a fast and efficient way of catching up with celebrities and keeping in touch with individuals. It’s a quick way of letting everybody know what you are doing, whom you’re with and where you are. Because it is based around efficiency, there is a 140-character limit on individual tweets. This limit forces users to use abbreviations as short cuts to fit in everything they want to say. Words are written with missing letters, like “ur” taking place

of “you’re” or “your”. Not only is the spelling incorrect, but the word loses its meaning because “you’re” and “your” mean two totally different things. Maybe this is why a lot of students have a hard time distinguishing between the two while they are brought into use in academics. These short cut tactics can also be reflected through the skimming methods that students frequently use when dealing with long articles. While you have a limited amount of what you write on Twitter for others to see that also means that the tweets you read are also limited in length. Essentially, Twitter users are reading an array of tweets that are only a sentence or two long, putting their brain into the habit of reading short and fast snippets. So when confronted with a long article, the first reaction is to use these short cut tactics and skim through it, because Twitter has taught users to read and write short pieces of information. This leads me to my next point. Twitter instantly connects an individual with millions of others including celebrities, political figures, authors…the list goes on. News stations and schools even have their own Twitter accounts where they post the latest news and let people know what’s happening. Even Stanford University School of Medicine has its own Twitter account. After all, it’s simple not only for them to get their updates across but also for their audiences, as well, to take in the information. Why read a resourceful article about something when you can more than likely find the same information in a shortened, more efficient version on Twitter? Twitter has taken over as a news and information source making it unnecessary to read articles from a newspaper or magazine. You can easily find out the information by simply clicking “follow” and then scrolling through your timeline. By browsing

Twitter for just two minutes I learned that umbilical cord blood is

no longer a medical waste, Walt Disney was a high school drop

out, and the release date of the iPhone 5. Twitter has made

finding out information virtually effortless, and therefore the top

choice in most teenagers because in this generation, effortless

and efficiency is the primary demand.

What can be concluded is that Twitter’s detrimental

effect on students and their academic performance is

conspicuous. It acts as a distraction and has distorted users’

reading strategies by teaching them short cuts. It has taken over

as an information source. Who knew that a social media

networking website created by a few ex-Google workers could

have such a large impact on the education of the young adults in

our society? What’s next? Will Twitter change the ways of

teenagers even more or will a new social media network take over

its job of doing so?

Nowadays with the Internet becoming more and more popular and social media users getting younger and younger, social issues have begun to arise and become a problem in today’s society. “The Net”, according to Nick Carr, “is becoming a universal medium” and it is clearly affecting society. One social media website that causes problems in society is Twitter. After its introduction in March of 2006, Twitter has become more popular with about 175 million active “tweeters” and about 400 million “tweets” per day. So with Twitter becoming more and more popular, the question arises: to tweet or not to tweet?

There are many mixed feelings about this popular social media site. Twitter has many pros and many cons, and with its recent popularity, these pros and cons have become more noticeable. There are people who often use

Twitter without even taking notice of such effects. Although there are people who do not notice them, most that do tend to focus on the negative effects Twitter has had on today’s youth. However, with all the focus put mostly on the negative effects, it is important not to overlook the positive ones.

One important factor that is overlooked is the ability to find out current and breaking news. With everyone as busy as they are, people find it more difficult to find the time needed to sit down and watch the news. Twitter can people read important news in minutes. With both local and major news channels, and even newspapers, creating Twitter accounts, users can follow the accounts specific to their lifestyle and interests. Although tweets are limited to 140 characters, it is easy to sum up an article and attach it

to the tweet. This makes it easier for users to read the articles they want to actually read the entire article.

Even though this seems to be a great convenience, for many an issue arises. Many of the important and breaking news end up in the “Trending Topics” section on Twitter. This is a section where users can read tweets about topics that many people are tweeting about. Although this seems like it could be useful, sometimes topics show up that are false. Most of the time these tweets tend to be about a celebrity that has passed. The most recent example is the topic “R.I.P. Bill Nye the Science Guy”. In August 2012, Bill Nye was rumored dead on Twitter causing thousands of tweets to be posted mourning his death. This happens more often than it should and on Twitter a death hoax is not an uncommon sight.

Along with news, Twitter can be used to raise awareness. This is also helped from the “Trending Topics” section, but more positively than the death hoaxes. Whether it’s a not so popular cause, like a mother trying to raise awareness for her son or daughter with cancer, or a more popular and well known cause like KONY 2012, Twitter is a great website to get a ton of people to notice and care about any specific cause. By doing this many users and nonusers can spread the word and help out with the specific cause. The ability to get a specific topic trending also helps the cause get noticed by the news and some talk shows, spreading the word even further. Although Twitter is a great way to spread information about important causes and news, it does have its cons that affect today’s society. On Twitter a tweet can only be 140 characters long. Even though this can be helpful in summing a news article

up or spreading information quickly, it has a negative effect on today’s youth. Since a tweets tends to be short, more and more people are using abbreviations for longer words and phrases. Some of the most popular abbreviations today include “lol”, “probs”, and “obvi”. Not only is this a problem in writing it has also has become a problem in face to face conversation. These abbreviations are being used in speech on a daily basis as a shortcut. Instead of “obviously” people have begun to say “obvi”. Instead of “totally” they say “totes”. And instead of “probably” they say “probs”. Not only does it make someone sound unintelligent but it affects their writing and spelling. I cannot say I have never used abbreviations but I do not use them as often as many of my peers. I have even noticed changes in my classes where my peers talk about how they don’t like to write papers or take notes down on paper because they can’t spell and that

they are completely reliant on spell check. This should not be as big as a problem as it is but the causes of short tweets can definitely be noticed. Another problem with Twitter is that anyone can read your tweets. Unless your account is locked, your tweets are open to the public. Users are not realizing this and as it becomes more and more difficult to get a job, it is even harder to get a job if your boss Google’s your name and finds drunk tweets and foul language on your account. This is not going to make him or her want to hire you, even if that is not how you act outside of Twitter. Bosses and even teachers can read your tweets and get an impression, and make a decision in seconds.

This problem can be easily solved by either making your account private, or monitoring and being careful about what you tweet and put up on the internet. But even though it is such an easy fix, people seem to be too lazy or just not care enough to fix it. With all these pros and cons, the question becomes more prominent: to tweet or not tweet? It really is up to you. Twitter can be helpful in many ways, especially when it comes to breaking news and important causes. It does however, have its cons. A “tweeter” must be careful what he or she says because they do not know who might be reading their tweets. If a person wants to tweet what they please then they must make their account private or simply pay the price. People also need to be careful what they believe on Twitter. I find that it is smart to do some research before spreading the news about the sudden passing of a celebrity. All in all Twitter definitely has it positive and negative effects. Personally, I believe the pros outweigh the cons, and that Twitter is a good

website to use if I want to stay up to date with current events or just to see what my friends are up to. But the decision is ultimately yours, and yours alone to make. So what do you choose? To tweet or not to tweet?

Twitter- the

“Social” Media By: Sam Faso

October 24, 2012

Baldy 114

Social media is gaining popularity at a rate at which may be surprising to most

people. Take a look around; the younger generation is immersed in Facebook, online gaming,

Instagram, Twitter and social media in general. While walking down a busy street or sitting in a

crowed mall, one can quickly pick up on the current generation’s obsession and attachment to

social networking and media sites. While they are online reading Twitter or checking their

Facebook newsfeed, often times we miss the actual real communication. Thus lacking many

social skills acquired by older generations. People are increasingly losing their incentive to

interact with their close acquaintances due to their increased involvement on the ironically

named “social” media Twitter.

According to Chirp, the official Twitter developer conference, approximately

300,000 new users join Twitter on a single given day. Twitter is considered to be one of the top

10 most visited websites on the Internet. It has a wide range of users varying in age, gender, and

ethnicity worldwide (24/7 Wall St. Morning Newsletter). People on their electronic devices all

throughout the day are frequent tweeters who contribute to these statistics. Instead of enjoying

the company and conversation of the people around them, these Twitter fanatics are tweeting

and reading the tweets of those they subscribe to.

It is true that “following” news stations, celebrities and even our good friends on

twitter could be both informative and interesting; however this may pose as a large distraction.

As a matter of fact, I just instinctively checked twitter myself. In the work environment, it is

difficult to stay focused when you have the constant distraction and numerous opportunities to

check up on people’s lives. The real problem is how easily you can access information. Instead

of having to call a friend and ask them how their day is, you know you can spend a couple

minutes on Facebook worth a thirty minute phone call. Nicholas Carr states “I get fidgety, lose

the thread, begin looking for something else to do” which is a common occurrence for a high

school student, college student or someone with a professional occupation when spending a long

time reading online (Is Google Making Us Stupid). When we become disjointed from our long

online readings, our mind wanders and many of us will naturally find ourselves checking our

Twitter accounts which could potentially lead to consequences that most people don’t even

consider. The most obvious consequences would be to not get the task at hand done in an

efficient manner or to have the task be neglected altogether. Although these may seem like the

worst aspects of Twitter, there are situations that could be much more serious.

In the most extreme cases involving Twitter and other forms of social media one

could endanger their academic and occupational success. It is so easy to type exactly what you

are thinking before realizing the consequences of your words. Unfortunately those words are

stuck on the internet indefinitely; what you say can’t be taken back. A high school girl could try

to socially interact with her friends by tweeting about the details about another girl having

sexual relations with the school’s varsity quarterback, a college student could tweet about

finding the answers to their homework online, and a nurse could tweet about the dissent for a

patient she thought was being irrational for coming to the emergency room with nothing more

than a common cold. In all three cases, the consequences of the wrong person discovering their

tweets would be disastrous to both their personal success and integrity. Most cellphones contain

cameras and with the click of a button, someone could take a picture of an incriminating tweet.

The girl being cyber bullied could report the tweet to the school’s counseling center which

would then result in the other girl getting suspended or expelled depending on how serious the

situation was. The college student would be in violation of the school’s policy of academic

dishonesty and would be expelled with no refund of tuition. The blabbering nurse would most

likely lose her job if her tweet was reported to her association due to the patient privacy laws. In

all cases, these tweeters would regretfully miss out on opportunities to be successful and could

potentially have an impact on the way they view themselves.

The examples above are relatively uncommon to the average Twitter user, but I

do feel it’s necessary to provide some extreme scenarios to prove the point at hand. This can

server as a warning to those who are not careful about how “social” they are and what they

allow access to anyone on the Internet. A more common problem many users can relate to is

becoming entangled in a twitter fight. Twitter fights often provide entertainment to those not

affiliated in any way. Although personally, I have never been involved in one, I’ve seen friends

get dragged into public disagreements that could be resolved much quicker and much more

maturely in person. “We have to teach our minds how to translate the symbolic characters we

see into the language we understand” (Carr). This quote conveys the dangers of

misinterpretation through online communication, since one cannot fully articulate the tone of

the other person’s words. Many relationship problems have increased since the introduction of

Twitter because of common misinterpretations. Instead of talking their problems out in person, a

partner is more likely to voice their opinion as a form of embarrassment rather than by means of

staying connected. Or take simple posts out of context from a friend of their partners and turn it

into an argument. Miscommunication or interpretation is rapidly increasing throughout social

networking.

Twitter is a universal form of expression, but do you truly believe Twitter is

improving social skills or just destroying the old fashion values instilled in our elder

generations? Interactions offline are far more valuable than trying to stay connected through the

Internet, which is filled with distractions and miscommunications. To improve your social

standings, my final advice to you is to limit your involvement with any form of “social” media

and instead call a friend to catch up in person.

Twitter, which started in 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone and a few others, is often called a micro-blogging website, free to set up an account and very easy to use. At first I was a little skeptical about using Twitter and actually found it quite boring, but the more I got into it and the more people I followed, the more my enthusiasm in the website really blossomed. The main point of Twitter is the 140-character “tweets” that people send out to followers. People can also post pictures, videos, links, etc. to be viewed by their followers or you can send direct messages to certain followers; not to be seen by others. It can be used to connect with people, celebrities and businesses. Trending “hashtags” can be viewed by any Twitter user to read tweets about the latest news stories or funny sayings. Twitter currently has more than 200 million accounts around the world and was launched in more than twenty different languages. “90 percent of teens have used social networking and 75 percent currently have a social networking profile,” as reported by Common Sense Media. Many people believe that Twitter has mostly negative impacts on society, but there are many positive impacts as well that are overlooked. In the past few months, the use of Twitter has increased significantly; not just with teens, but with everyone. Everywhere you go someone is using Twitter, whether it’s on a computer, tablet or mobile phone. I know I log on to my Twitter account more than twice per day to see what my friends back home are up to. Since there are so many Twitter users, communication is never lacking. Teens that go off to college can easily keep in touch with old friends from high school, or talk to new friends more. It is easier to maintain relationships with people when they are just a few clicks away, as opposed to many miles away. Older people benefit as well. Ebony Wheeldon said in, “A Social

By Sienna Gronowski

Society: The Positive Effects of Communicating through Social Networking Sites,” ‘Elderly people and those with physical disabilities who have an inability to leave their house are able to stay in touch with existing relations and friends, as well as get in touch with people who have similar issues.” Older people typically aren’t used to having all the information they need right at their fingertips, so I think it is a great for them to be using Twitter, as well as other social networking. They can reconnect with long-lost friends or grandchildren. Parents are using Twitter now-a-days for the same reasons. They are always reconnecting with old high school or college friends and long-distant relatives that they haven’t seen or talked to in a while.

Also, relationships can be easier to start using Twitter. People have friends that they don’t necessarily know personally, but can easily talk to on Twitter. Most are more likely to be outgoing on a social networking website, than in person. To most, talking behind a computer screen is much more comfortable that trying to avoid awkward silences that often come with new friendships. Although there is always the risk of people lying about who they are over the internet, people do need to be a little careful of whom they are chatting with. People can get comfortable talking to others over the internet, so meeting them in person can be less awkward and can lead to a better friendship in the future. It is also easier to avoid the dreaded small-talk over Twitter. There is no need to engage in small-talk when tweeting your friends. You can just say what needs to be said and you can go on your way.

News also travels faster on Twitter. It takes only a few seconds to Tweet something, making news almost instant. If you follow news stations, celebrities, the presidential debate, etc., the news is up-to-date at all times. The news stories from around the world are readily available all day, instead of waiting for the news to be on tv, or the newspaper to come out. Barack Obama has been using Twitter a lot

recently due to the 2012 presidential campaign, as well as, celebrities wanting to spread word about what is happening in their lives. The most important part though, at least to me, is the Missing Persons reports. Since the news travels so fast throughout the entire world with the use of Twitter, the awareness of the latest missing person is known in just a few seconds. Twitter gives the person a greater chance to be found since everyone knows about them quicker. Everyone in the community can know about the missing person and set up ways to try to find them.

Twitter can also help bring others to participate in community events, bringing the community closer together. For example, people may post stories about a charity event that took place in their town, and people may get inspired to do the same in their own town. New businesses can join Twitter and promote their services to the world. People will tweet their opinions about certain businesses and spread their opinions to all their followers. Then, depending on the opinion, followers may go to the business in high hopes of good service. Businesses can really benefit from the opinions people tweet. They can also receive feedback from a large group of customers from various areas. Also, businesses can spend less on marketing, thanks to Twitter. Using their Twitter account, they can spread word of the latest promotions and generally get the word of their business out into the public. There are constantly tweets popping up on my home screen that are promoted by businesses such as Starbucks or McDonald’s.

Overall, I think Twitter is more helpful, than harmful. Who could argue when the speed the information travels through Twitter so quickly, that people always know what is going on, and even missing children could be found faster? So many people and businesses greatly impact from the use of Twitter. Relationships can be started and maintained through Twitter as well. If you ever open your own business, need to get word out about something or just check in with friends and family, Twitter is the way to go.

statuses. I have spent endless

hours on Facebook or other

sites doing absolutely nothing.

Facebook ate away so much of

my time that I could have used

to be studying or doing

homework. These social media

sites are even making us

develop symptoms of

psychological disorders such

as narcissism and anxiety

issues as proved by Larry D.

Rosen in his book iDisorder. In

Rosen's book he states that by

conducting an anonymous

survey he found that 62 % of

teens specified that they check

their Facebook every 15

minutes or less. I would get

anxiety if I haven’t logged on

to my Facebook in a while,

wondering who posted on my

wall or sent me message. Also

in Lincoln High School in

Portland, Oregon, the faculty

of the school decided to

conduct an experiment where

the kids of the school were not

allowed to use technology for

a week. After the experiment a

teenager was interviewed and

he complained as to how he

became very anxious and kept

wondering about how many

notifications he would have on

Facebook after this week. He

said he couldn't focus on

Social Media

school work because of these

consuming thoughts. Not only

that but Nicholas Carr, the author

of the article “Is Google Making

Us Stupid,” writes about how all

of the pop up advertisements and

social media sites have reduced

our concentration, making it

difficult for our generation to

concentrate on lengths of work at

a time. I, for one, support this

argument based on personal

experiences where social media

sites have intervened with my

schoolwork.

If you were to

survey a college on their social

media site use, you would see that

a very low percentage don't have

their own site. Social media sites

have become a part of their

everyday lives. In the article "The

Effects of Social Media on

College Students" by Qingya

Wang, Wei Chen and Yu Liang

state that, “In 2007, the number

of students who used Facebook

was already enormous: 92 percent

of college students had an

account. By 2008, 99 percent of

students had an account on

Ever since the computer

was invented, people

have argued as to

whether social media

helps or hurts us. Social

media sites are one of the

main reasons why college

students have lower

grades than they reach

for. Rather than studying,

college

students sit on sites such

as Facebook , Twitter and

Tumblr without even

realizing how much time

they spend on these sites.

I could simply go onto

the computer to look up

what homework

assignments my teachers

have assigned and my

attention gets diverted

and I end up on my

Facebook, reading

people’s

Facebook” and Qingya Wang

states that "The average

student spends around 100

minutes a day on Facebook

which interferes with the

time students have to study."

Looking at the statistics it's

safe to assume that social

media sites have taken over

the lives of students.

At times I would notice the

way Facebook effects my

life there was many time

where I would be sitting on

at my desk going through

Facebook and not notice that

I spent at least 3 hours on it.

It’s a very addictive site

that’s hard to give up.

Ohio State University

reveals that college students

who utilize Facebook spend

less time on studying and

have lower grades than

students who do not use

popular social networking

sites. (Kalpidou, Costin, &

Morris, 2011) Because of

new technology such as

smart phones and laptops,

accessing these sites is as

easy as snapping your

fingers. Instead of doing

homework or paying

attention in class, odds are

these students are on their

Facebook's. As stated

in iDisorder by Larry Rosen,

Social media sites have been

proven to be as addicting as

using a drug because of what it

does to your brain.

As I sit down to

write an essay or to do some

homework, I always find

myself taking “short breaks” to

see pictures or statuses on

Facebook. Then I end up on

YouTube, watching funny

videos until I'm at the point

where an hour or two has

passed and I don't know where

the time flew. There were

times when I would disable

my Facebook and shut off

my phone so that I could

focus on studying. Even

then I wasn't able to study

due to the constant anxiety I

felt from not being able to

see who's texting me and

who's posting on my wall. I

am not the only one who

had to resort to such

situations. Many of my

peers used similar tactics to

help them focus on

studying. Some even made

their parents take away their

phones and computers so

that there would be no

temptation to go check their

Facebook. These media

sites are very addictive and hard

to give up like a drug or the devil

on your shoulder, which makes it

very hard to study or concentrate

when that little devil is always

telling you to go on. People who

use these sites get to the point

where their thoughts solely

revolve around these sites and

they can’t live without it.

With all these

popular media sites such as

Facebook and Formspring, cyber

bulling has also become a serious

problem to many teenagers.

Formspring is a

social media site where people

could ask you anonymous

questions. The creator of

Formspring most likely imagined

that it would be used for questions

about a person that interest you, but

that wasn't the case. Teenagers

began using the site to make rude

and nasty statements to people they

didn't like. There have been

numerous situations where

someone gets such unnecessary

comments that they make the

decision to take their own life.

When I was younger I had a

Formspring and I would always get

comments concerning my weight

and from a personal view I am the

one to say that it truly does affect

one’s self-esteem. Cyber-Bullying

doesn't just happen on Formspring;

I've witnessed countless fights on Facebook among my own peers. One of these fights got so out of control that a group of girls threatened to jump an underclassman if she ever showed her face in school again, causing the girl to transfer schools due to the fear of

getting hurt. This kind of stuff doesn't just happen in movies, it happens in our very own towns, the towns we've grown up in. Cyber-Bullying not only has an effect on a student's attendance and performance in school but also on their mental well-being. After

hearing all of these insolent comments kids begin to believe that what these bullies are saying is true and they fall into a depression or even worse, they choose to end their life. Social media can easily ruin a person's life.