Too Young for Technology?

Facebook recently reported that they remove 20,000 underage users from the site everyday. This made me think about the effects that social media usage is having on younger kids.

In class, we learned the characteristics of social media, including the ability to publish your own thoughts and have a greater reach. While these aspects of social media can be beneficial for adult users, I think they have the potential to be very harmful for younger users. For example, the ability to create and publish content online exposes children to an unknown population, taking away their privacy and potentially putting them in danger. In addition, the expansive reach of social media opens up kids to the judgment and ridicule of hundreds or even thousands of people instead of just the usual elementary or junior high classroom.

There are two fairly recent incidents that further support the fact that the use of social media is leading to negative effects on children. The first incident was the suicide of a junior high student after she was incessantly bullied, both at school and on Facebook. This is just one example of incidents that have been reported in the last several years about cyber bullying and the use of social media to spread rumors and harass classmates.

The second incident occurred when Justin Bieber's fans lashed out at singer, Esperanza Spalding, when she won the Grammy for Best New Artist over Justin. Their response was almost immediate, voicing their hatred for her on Twitter and Facebook and even changing the information on her Wikipedia page. This is not the first case in which Justin Bieber fans (mostly made up of adolescent girls) have attacked someone because of their involvement with Justin Bieber. Kim Kardashian and Selena Gomez both received death threats from tween girls after having their picture taken with him. The accessibility and lack of accountability in social media has fueled the viciousness of pubescent boys and girls.

I can only imagine the damage that can and will be done online by this generation who have experienced the pros and cons of social media from such a young age.