In the society today, social networking has substantially grown as one of the most influential and largest components of the web. The open-ended nature of social networks which people form with the aim of connecting and communicating with others has become a complex paradigm that has evolved into a social problem. Social networking is therefore based on a certain structure that has enabled people to express their individuality and through the internet, most people have been able to engage with people of similar interests. It is common to find almost all young people online with 90% of 16-29 years using the internet daily than any other age group as part of their social networks. However, the side effects of social networking are becoming more and more evident amongst the current waves of generations.
One side effect of social networking is peer group influence
Academic achievement has been found to be influenced by what interests a certain peer group as a result of the influence of others. Another side effect of social networking is the continued widespread of criminal behavior amongst people in the society. Social networking sets the grounds for cyberbullying meaning most of the online users of such platforms become victims who are inescapable of bullying. The last side effect of social networking is that social networking has diminished humans' basic ability to communicate face to face. Through networking, people have undoubtedly not been able to communicate and interact face to face and this has contributed to a lack of confidence in engaging the conversation between two people. Despite the three social problems caused by social networking numerous measures in the past and the present have been employed to address these social problems. Additionally, due to their inefficiencies, several future initiatives are essential to fully address these problems.
Social Networking
Social networking entails the expansion of social contacts by making connections through numerous individuals. It is the fundamental foundation for communicating and building a relationship amongst ourselves. Through communicating with others and building relationships with each other, it makes us human. In the society today, numerous social platforms such as social media have enabled people to contact anyone they have a connection to and subsequently leading to an ongoing expansion of social interactions. Since social groups have become a significant building block of the overall society, they have been constrained geographically. To evaluate the nature of the extent in which people form social networks a geographic restriction is therefore essential to form a scope of its impact on the society.
Almost all young people are online with 90% of 16-29 years using the internet daily than any other age group as part of their social network (Bond, Chykina, " Jones, 2017). Social networking sites have facilitated communication where the users have been able to update their own profile, post public messages and to comment on other people's posts through social networks instant messaging. People have become too busy in their search for their daily bread and these have made them t turn into social networking sites to facilitate the expansion of their social contacts. More than 600 million users of sites such as Facebook have resulted to the most social problems due to the users’ lack understanding of how such sites function and the way it has effects on how the society function (Kwon, Park, " Kim, 2014). Not only has social networking in online platforms diminish people’s skills but also it has side effects through the abuse and misuse of the social networking sites. This paper, therefore, seeks to discuss the impact social networking has to the society today and what has been done to address the problem.
Peer Influence
Members of the same peer group may influence each other in a variety of ways. According to Bond, Chykina, " Jones (2017), researchers have easily turned to social network analysis to examine peer group formation and the peer group influence. Academic achievement was therefore found to be influenced by what interests a certain peer group as a result of the influence of others. Since low achieving friends may make high achieving friends become susceptible to their performance in schools social networking has been the major cause of such effects on the academic performance. The side effects of social networking are becoming more and more evident amongst the current waves of generations. Social networking has become an integral part of the youth as they grow up and therefore it has defined the modern-day generation as it is an integral part of their lives. Additionally, most youth, therefore, have become reliant to social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Skype to chat, blog, video call and this has enabled them to become connected to one another making them spend more than usual hours on these sites (Bond et al., 2017). As such, the behavior of one student can influence the behavior of other students through popularity over the same friendship network. Peer effects can manifest itself in social networking sites.
When one has a greater number of low achieving contacts that are associated with a decrease in academic achievements, this may have a peer effect on most of his/her social networks. In such cases, the norms that the peer groups may induce onto their social networks serve as important conduits whereby resources are shared therefore impairing one’s academic motivation. According to Aksan, Kisac, Aydin " Demirbuken (2009), symbolic interaction is a process that is enlivened the reciprocal meaning and values through aiding the symbols that are found on the mind of a person. Since objects lack meaning on their own, the social actors define these meanings and therefore social networking has caused a major problem on the academic achievement of students because of symbolic interaction.
Widespread Criminal Behavior
Social networking has contributed to a widespread criminal behavior amongst people in the society. Social networking platforms have contributed to online criminal behavior whereby most users have a huge misconception that the public posts that are used for communicating purposes once deleted they become forever removed on people’s posts in the same platforms (Sultan, 2014). This misconception sets the grounds for cyberbullying meaning most of the online users of such platforms become victims who are inescapable of bullying. “Sociologists have been able to connect the crime to social subcultures to understand the unique individual motivations for engaging in illegal activities” (Engelen, Lander, " Essen, 2015). Because of social networking, individuals in the society become targets to abuse with no way of being able to defend themselves against such attacks. Through such crimes that are committed on online social networking platforms, a string of suicides and self-harm has engulfed most victims, and, in many instances, these have attracted the media attention. The mass of information that is bombarded on a daily basis on such platforms makes the social networking agents become targets to “bully- me accounts” as the option of anonymity has allowed the accounts to become a contributing factor to cyberbullying (Engelen, Lander, " Essen, 2015). The daily distressing reality of cyberbullying has masked the issue of social networking in such media platforms.
Ability to Communicate Face to Face
Social networking has diminished the humans’ basic ability to communicate face to face. Since in forming relationships, social networks have undoubtedly provided a platform for people to communicate and interact it has also contributed to a lack of confidence in engaging a conversation between two people. Kwon, Park " Kim (2014), suggests that the paradox of choice says that when you become overwhelmed with a certain aspect of human development you end up focusing on the most superficial difference that eventually sculpts a shallow individual. As such, relationships formed through social networks can have a mental effect on a person and this has been attributed to a lack of natural intimacy. Social networking sites have therefore warped the ability to form natural relationships and these have resulted in higher chances of infidelity and divorce.
Past, Present, and Future Initiatives to Address the Problem
In the past, effects of social networking on academic achievement have resulted in the efforts by the school management to burn the use of mobile phones in schools. Some of the fundamentals aspects of our social experience and identities that can be understood through symbolic interactionist lens imply that social constructs function based on what people believe to be true about people (Aksan, Kisac, Aydin, " Demiburken, 2009). As such, school management has tried to minimize the symbolic interaction through mobile phones with the aim of preventing poor academic achievement. Additionally, agencies were formed to deal with cyberbullying whereby people have immediately reported cases of cyberbullying to the local authorities to address the problem. Lastly, social networking sites have enabled face to face conversations through webcams to further strengthen the relationships as people network over their platforms.
In the present, effects of social networking on the academic achievement have been minimized by sabotaging the student’s commitment to education through the influence of peer groups. Students become randomly assigned to classrooms to focus on the potential effects that the classmates impose on each other. Additionally, cyberbullying has been addressed by enhanced features in the social networking sets which have enabled the users to block the criminals instantly and to delete their posts that may have a negative impact on the victim. The important thing in this problem is not to delay and therefore blocking the person at the instance of the crime has been deemed as the best way of dealing with this effect of social networking among people in the society (Engelen, Lander, " Essen, 2015). Finally, social networking sees have initiated campaigns that are aimed at organizing social activities to encourage interpersonal communication between people who have met during the process of social networking. These campaigns have focused on enabling the physical interaction of its users through fun activities thereby minimizing the lack of natural intimacy.
Conclusion
In conclusion, social networking has resulted in cyberbullying, poor academic achievement and it has diminished the humans’ basic ability to communicate face to face. Social networking is nevertheless commendable in communication forming relationships. However, in my opinion, these relationships are often unsafe and insecure since the introduction of the internet. Regardless of the provision of a wider communicating base by social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter, the reality is that the positives have been heavily outweighed by the positives that have made it become a social problem in society.
References
Aksan, N., Kisac, B., Aydin, M., " Demiburken, S. (2009). Symbolic Interaction Theory. Social Science Journal1(1), 902-904.
Bond, R., Chykina, V., " Jones, J. (2017). Social Network Effects on Academic Achievement. The Social Science Journal, 54(4), 438-449.
Engelen, P., Lander, M., " Essen, M. (2015). What Determines Crime Rates? An Empirical Test of Integrated Economic and Sociological Theories of Criminal Behavior. The Social Science Journal, 53(2), 1-16.
Kwon, S., Park, E., " Kim, k. (2014). What Drives Successful Social Networking Services? A Comparative Analysis of User Acceptance of Facebook and Twitter. Social Science Journal, 51(4), 534-544.
Sultan, A. (2014). Addiction to Mobile Text Messaging Applications is Nothing to "Lol" About. Social Science Journal, 51(1), 57-69.
