Facebook is a very popular social networking website. It has got the ability of attracting billions of users. In fact, it has got the power of grabbing attention of all age groups. Particularly, you will find many teenagers around you spending most of their time on Facebook. It has got both pros and cons. Some of these are discussed as under:
Positive Effects
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One big positive part of the picture is that facebook helps growing teenagers to view things from others point of views too. They are able to communicate to a large audience having multiple visions.
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Adolescents are better able to understand their online friends.
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It is great source for those teens who are shy and hesitant to make friends and share their feelings. They are better able to learn the benefits of socializing.
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It has got various groups and forums which can help teens to learn many useful things.
Negative Effects
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Excessive overuse is the cause of various health problems like eyesight problems, lack of proper sleep leading to anxiety and depression.
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Teenagers are also prone to many psychological disorders like increased aggression, mania and antisocial behavior.
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Excessive use of facebook is quite distracting. Many teenagers are found to check and change their online status after every 15 minutes. It eventually gives rise to lower dedication in studies.
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Spending most of the time with online friends reduces communication with family members. It makes many teens least bothered about their surroundings and makes them more involved in their own world.
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Many teenagers start giving more importance to their facebook friends than their family members.
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With time, many adolescents reduce their verbal communication as well as social skills. They become more comfortable to make online friends than to make friends in the real world.
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Keeping sitting in the same posture for several hours reduce physical movement. That is the reason you will find many teens gaining excessive weight.
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Facebook is not a medium to share your very personal data as it may be visible to strangers too in case you are not able to set your privacy settings properly. Many teens grow up problems for them due to over sharing of their personal lives.
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Too much of interaction can raise conflicts. Adolescents are usually immature in this regard. That is why you will find them many times fighting over useless issues.
What is the Right Way?
The best thing is to choose a midway, which has larger chances of being fruitful. Teenagers should therefore be advised to use facebook positively. There is a big role of parents in this regard. They should develop strong communication with their kids. Kids should be given liberty to use facebook but should have a proper check too to ensure only positive use. Teenagers should also be guided about maintaining necessary privacy in their facebook settings. So, teens could make full benefit out of it by using it within certain limits.
Kady Babs is a freelancer writer and content builder of many education and technology related sites. Apart from writing she is doing preparation on Cisco Certification Exams with Test4Prep.
Kady – I can see clearly that your positive points are far lesser than the cons listed above 🙂
I am sure all these social networking tools are having a bad impact on teenagers and they should be banned by use by the younger population.
Social networks are addictive not just to the teenagers but all ages. Well, how many of us take the moment to look at the FB updates at work? Most of us will nod sighting an agreement. The power of Social media is beyond ignoring or overcoming and as the author has told, inspite the disadvantages it is safe to follow the mid path.
@Praveen: I think banning the teenagers from being a part of Social media would raise their curiosity levels to an extent where they could deceive their guardians to get an access to the social media sites. Thus, this task is quiet not a possible scenario in the internet dominating world.
@Praveen
I too was wondering on same thing, Facebook has more Cons than Pros. 😀
Facebook and other social networking sites are good when you have time to use them, and I think lot of teenagers are using it excessively… even after the restriction from their parents.
There were ideas and suggestions to use social media as educational tool, but I doubt that would work. Even the adults aren’t seem to be able to control themselves by spending too much time on social media, let alone teenagers.
I agree with your points. but the fact is all the teenagers cant live with out facebook. It is rocking among teenagers. but we should use it positively. facebook is a great social media and using it in positive way will help us a lot. thanks for sharing.
I think young people should not be exposed on the internet as often as needed. Social networking sites can help at times but being overly exposed with social media can also harm other facets of the transition from being “young” into becoming adult. Lesson should be learned from those young teenagers who expose skin through social media.
I am sure all these social networking tools are having a bad impact on teenagers and they should be banned by use by the younger population.
I don’t think it is just teenagers, a lot of older people can also become obsessed with Facebook and experience the negative effects. As with everything in life it is important to get a healthy balance and variety.
When I started using Facebook, I’m really attracted . I spent most of my free time on Facebook eveywhere. Now I have controled this habit. Thanks for the nice post.
Great post. The more parents get involved in helping their kids understand social media and the good/bad of engaging, the more responsible teens will become with their activities. Just like teaching teens about sex, drugs and alcohol, there need to be “talks” about social.
Cheers!
–Sean
Thanks Sean for your comment here.