Social Networking Is Bad for Teens

Imagine this: A utopian society that doesn’t have the dangers of cyber bullies or cyber bullying. No more headlines or news articles talking about the girl who killed herself because she was cyber bullied on a social networking site. In a society where you can relax and relinquish those thoughts at the back of your mind about what people think about you over that social networking site. Unfortunately, that’s fantasy, because teens are always using these sites, which can lead to a danger little by little every day.
For those teens that abundantly use social networking sites, you may think it gives you jubilance and entertainment, but social networking sites are much worse than you think. Social networking is terrible for teenagers because it is distracting, it often leads to miscommunications and misunderstandings, and it is dangerous. To begin with, social networking is terrible because it is distracting to teenagers. Some teens that have homework to do are sometimes hoarding the computer, social networking instead of doing their homework.
When their parents would tell them to do their homework, they’ll say they’ll get to it. Do you think they were actually listening while commenting on their friend’s picture on Facebook? They were probably not. This distracting “obsession” can also have an effect on their English grammar. Some English teachers are disappointed to see some students use the “chat language”, which is commonly used in social networking sites. This includes: lol, btw, brb, ttyl, l8r, etc. Social networking can also lead to the loss of focus in school.

According to News Today News, “[N]early half of the five hundred teachers surveyed believe that this [obsession] affects children’s ability to concentrate in class and follow the lessons. ” Students can be distracted during a lesson, thinking about that person they sent a friend request to, or if anyone commented on their newly uploaded picture. This “obsession” about social networking is distracting to teens, and is preventing them to from getting back on track in school. Not only is social networking terrible because it is distracting, but it can also cause miscommunications and misunderstandings.
Now imagine you have your birthday party coming up and you invite your new friend. The problem is that your new friend doesn’t know where your house is. Through Twitter, you give directions to your house. Your big day is here, and an hour later, your friend still didn’t show up. Eventually, you find out that she ended up somewhere else from the directions that were written in a kind of “chat language” that she couldn’t understand. The next thing you know is that you’re in a fight with your friend over a miscommunication through a social networking site.
Fights commonly occur between teens through a miscommunication or a misunderstanding from a social networking site. Another conflict that could result in a fight is if you post a comment or upload a picture on a social networking site, and your friend takes it for something else and finds it offending. Maybe you were just trying to be sardonic, but that’s not how your friend saw it. One of the most common results for this misunderstanding is a fight between the two. There are so many miscommunications and misunderstandings that happen every day because of social networking sites.
Besides social networking being terrible because of the many miscommunications and misunderstandings it causes, it can be terrible because it is very dangerous. The dangers of a social networking site can start with sending a friend request to someone that you don’t know. All you know is what’s written on their profile, but could all of that be true? Maybe they say they’re around your age and live near you, and you think they could be fun to hang out with. The reality is that they could be an ominous serial killer who’s three times your age, lives on the other side of the country, and is trying to track you down.
That person can do this if you put too much information on your profile and make it public for everyone to see. On a social networking site, anyone can find you, if it’s either a family member or a complete stranger. Another danger is the dangers of cyber bullying. Very easily, someone at your school can post a comment about something embarrassing that happened to you for everyone to see. Once you know that everyone knows about that embarrassing incident, you don’t want to show your face anywhere anymore, and you just can’t go on. This can lead to suicidal thoughts, which is the dangerous part.
Just because someone said something about you, it doesn’t mean that you should end everything right there. Still, many teens do try to end their life because of what people are saying about them through a social networking site, and they just can’t take in all of the bullying and cyber bullying from that. Social networking sites come in a package deal: either you get it with accepting all the dangers, or you don’t get it at all. Social networking is a big problem in our modern-day society, but there can be a solution to that. The problem is that many teens don’t try.
That’s why social networking is terrible for teenagers; it is a distraction that they can’t get away from, it can cause miscommunications and misunderstandings that can’t be fixed because some teens don’t know how to deal with their feelings, and it has so many dangers that teens don’t know how to react to. There could be many ways to end the negative side of social networking, but many people don’t try. To those who abundantly use social networking sites, now is the time to face the facts. Try to put an end to the distractions, the miscommunications and misunderstandings, and the dangers.