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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.

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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 One was being that MySpace, Xanga and most other social networking sites had become outdated with their lack of functionality and also because an abundant amount of my friends and family had an account, so it was clearly a no brainer to create one.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.

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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.

Social Medias Effects on Society OVER THE PAST DECADE, FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE HAVE BECOME INTERNET SUPERPOWERS AND ARE MOST LIKELY THE TWO MOST COMMONLY VISITED SITES FOR HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE STUDENTS. IT IS HARD TO IMAGINE A TIME WHEN WE DID NOT HAVE FACEBOOK OR GOOGLE IN THIS WORLD EVEN THOUGH THAT EXISTED JUST A SHORT TIME AGO. ARE THESE SOCIAL MEDIA TECHNOLOGIES BENEFICIAL OR NEGATIVE FOR US? SOMETHING LIKE GOOGLE IS DEFINITELY HELPFUL IN THAT WE ARE ABLE TO LOOK UP JUST ABOUT ANYTHING INSTANTLY. IN THE OLD DAYS IT WOULD TAKE SOMEONE A DECENT AMOUNT OF TIME TO LOOK SOMETHING UP USING A BOOK. WHILE GOOGLE IS THE MORE INFORMATIVE WEBSITE, FACEBOOK IS A GREAT WAY TO STAY IN TOUCH WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY BY SHARING PHOTOS, POSTING STATUSES, OR JUST USING IT AS A WAY TO MESSAGE EACH OTHER. FACEBOOK HAS BEEN BECOMING MORE AND MORE POPULAR. IT NOW HAS MILLIONS OF USERS OF ALL AGES. HOWEVER, THERE ARE DEFINITELY SEVERAL IMPORTANT NEGATIVES TO TAKE A LOOK AT WITH FACEBOOK AND GOOGLE..

CYBER BULLING HAPPENS ON WEBSITES SUCH AS FACEBOOK EVERY DAY IN THE U.S. WEATHER WE REALIZE IT OR NOT. IT IS EASY FOR CYBER BULLYING TO OCCUR ON FACEBOOK

BY EITHER SENDING A MESSAGE TO ANOTHER PERSON OR BY POSTING A COMMENT ON A PHOTO. IT CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE OF ANY AGE BUT IS MOST COMMON FOR HIGH SCHOOL AND COLLEGE GIRLS. IT IS SAD AND SOMEWHAT SCARY THAT BY GOING ON A WEBSITE YOU COULD BE CYBER BULLIED. PEOPLE WHO SAY THESE NASTY THINGS TO OTHER PEOPLE MOST LIKELY DO NOT REALIZE WHAT THEIR WORDS ARE REALLY DOING TO THE OTHER PERSON. CYBER BULLYING HAS LED TO SERIOUS DEPRESSION AND IN SOME EXTREME CASES HAS EVEN LEAD TO SUICIDE. CYBER BULLING CAN OCCUR THROUGH EMAIL, AN INSTANT MESSAGING WEBSITE, OR ON A WEBSITE SUCH AS FACEBOOK OR MYSPACE. IT IS AMAZING WHAT WRITING SOMETHING ON SOMEONE’S WALL OR ON A PICTURE OF SOMEONE CAN DO TO THEM. BEFORE WRITING SOMETHING NEGATIVE YOU SHOULD REALLY THINK ABOUT WHAT YOU ARE ABOUT TO SAY AND MAKE SURE THAT IT IS NOT SOMETHING THAT YOU WILL REGRET SAYING LATER ON. IT IS HARD TO REALIZE THAT CYBER BULLYING IS SOMETHING THAT HAPPENS EVERY DAY IN THIS WORLD AND WILL MOST LIKELY NEVER COME TO AN END. FOR SOME REASON, PEOPLE ALWAYS FEEL THE NEED TO SAY SOMETHING ABOUT OTHER PEOPLE AS A WAY OF FEELING BETTER ABOUT THEMSELVES OR SIMPLY TO GET ATTENTION. THE POPULAR KIDS IN A HIGH SCHOOL OR COLLEGE MAY MAKE FUN OF THE LESS POPULAR KIDS FOR THE WAY THEY DRESS, TALK OR ACT. IN A PERFECT WORLD, THEY WOULD MIND THEIR OWN BUSINESS AND NOT FEEL THE NEED TO SAY ANYTHING. THE INTERNET GIVES THEM A WAY TO SAY MEAN THINGS AND NOT HAVE TO DO IT IN PERSON AND TO THEIR FACE. THIS MAY MAKE IT EASIER FOR THE BULLY BUT IT HAS THE SAME IF NOT WORSE AFFECT ON THE INNOCENT PERSON WHO IS TAKING THIS ABUSE. WITHOUT FACEBOOK OR THE INTERNET AS A WHOLE, CYBER BULLYING WOULD NOT OCCUR. WOULD A WORLD WITH NO INTERNET AND NO CYBER BULLYING BE BETTER OFF?

Jennifer Clark 10/24/12 Buffalo, NY

A good question to ask yourself, which is mentioned by Nicholas Carr in “Is Google Making Us Stupid” , ‘What is the internet really doing to o u r b r a i n s ? ’ T h e w o r l d w a s a n e a s i e r, s o m e w h a t s i m p l e r p l a c e w i t h o u t t h e Internet, but on the other hand it made it much harder to look something u p o r c o m m u n i c a t e w i t h f r i e n d s o r f a m i l y. N i c h o l a s C a r r a l s o m e n t i o n s t h a t many people believe the Internet in general has actually lowered our i n t e l l i g e n c e l e v e l s o v e r t h e p a s t d e c a d e o r t w o . Ye s i t m a k e s t h i n g s n i c e and easy for us but at the same time we are becoming lazy and rely on the I n t e r n e t f o r j u s t a b o u t e v e r y t h i n g . Wo u l d w e b e a b l e t o l a s t a w e e k w i t h o u t the Internet? On one hand, we can do research that used to take hours or days in minutes now. Speeding up something like that is definitely beneficial to writers and to people of just about any profession. Although having to use a book is considered more complicated and time consuming, it would actually be beneficial to people if they had to do things the old fashion way by using books. People have actually been reading now more than people used to 20 years ago, but the reading we are doing now is of text messages and stuf f on Fac ebook that most likely isn’t ver y impor tant or know ledgeable. Also, w hat we are reading and w riting on Fac ebook is usually written in short hand. This fairly new style of writing has been ruining the w riting skills of younger generations. Fac ebook , Google, the Internet in general, and the modern world we live in may indeed be lowering our intelligence levels whether we want to admit it or not.

As you can see, the world in which we currently live in is a much dif ferent place than what it was 20 years ago. We live in a world where it is c onsidered extremely rare to not have a Fac ebook and w here some people c a n n o t g o t w o h o u r s w i t h o u t c h e c k i n g t h e i r Fa c e b o o k . F a c e b o o k a n d G o o g l e , two of the most popular websites on the Internet, definitely have their negatives to them. Americans are becoming more and more lazy and want to be able to do ever ything with the click of a buttons from their computer or even their phone. Cyber bullying only happens because ever yone has the Internet at the tip of his or her fingers. Before the Internet, cyber bullying d i d n ’ t o c c u r. W e s h o u l d t r y t o l i m i t o u r u s e o f t h e I n t e r n e t a n d u s e i t f o r good, not bad.

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 nonnetworking 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.

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,” re you going to the party on South (Carr). I often see teenagers typing up an Campus tonight?” “What time do you want essay and then just randomly checking Facebook every five to ten minutes. Since to meet at Slee Hall?” “Do you know if we have English homework?” These are some most of us have Facebook, our attention examples of what the average student talks spans are short. We were introduced to Facebook in February, 2004 and ever since about on Facebook. Today, we as human then, we have started a new trend where we beings cannot live a healthy social life without social media. Whether it is updating can do a lot of things with other people online and not having to go to them in a status on Facebook, or calling your best friend on your cell phone, we need and use person. With all the texts and messages, our social media every day. We all have access to patience also lessens and we no longer have patience to read long, lengthy books it, but we do not know that these social anymore. For most teenagers, our lives media technologies not only have revolve around Facebook. About 75 % of advantages, but also have disadvantages.

One example of this is Facebook. Facebook teenagers use Facebook and of that percent, can be very helpful to “enhance” your social 27% are on 24/7.

Another author that also agrees with Carr life through technology, but you need to be careful to not get distracted from talking to is James Bowman, the author of “Is Stupid Making Us Google?” In his article, he real people or from the distracting ads or actually admits that he too has a problem from giving out personal information. 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.

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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

I believe that Bowman is trying to say that we Statics show that 55% of the teenagers that go should know better. It is our choice to use these on Facebook give out personal information, advanced technologies and not use our brain to about them and give out photos to people they the fullest or to read a book to the end and either think they know, or do not know at all. expand our knowledge. “…they need more time Luckily, I never tend to do this. This is one of the away from the computer in order to acquire the reasons why I do not add or meet new people on skills of ‘deep reading’,” (Bowman). With this in Facebook – I need to meet them in person first. mind, I disagree with one of Bowman’s remarks, Some of my friends want to have a lot of friends “…the material passes from Web to homework on Facebook so that people think they are cool, paper without lodging in the minds of the which is why they add people they do not know. students,” (Bowman). I can understand why he As a counter argument, Facebook also helps us says that because most of the time, we students with our social lives. From Facebook, we can tell are lazy to look up the information, read it and or invite other people to events that we put it into our own words when we can just copy ourselves will also attend. We can help each and paste the information. Personally, I avoid other with our homework or we can remind each coping and pasting because it is not my own other of things we need to do or we can tell each work. In order for me to write a topic, I need to other current news. We can use Facebook as a do research and then write about what I just third reference, just in case it is too late to talk to researched, but in my own words. your friends in person or on the phone.

In my experience, I tend to use Facebook In the end, it is our choice to use Facebook every day. Whether it’s from playing the virtual to interact with other people. Even though game of Sims Social or discussing the chemistry Facebook makes our social lives healthier and homework with my friends, I am always doing easier to deal with, it can also take us away from something. I admit that I go on for pointless our social lives. We need to remember that there reasons and that is because I take Facebook for is no substitute in seeing your friend in person granted. With Facebook, I find that I can connect and talking to them. People need to be social in with my friends and family with ease. I usually person unless there is no point in being social at talk to more than two people at a time; I cannot all. A person can have a thousand friends on do this in real life. Facebook helps me make Facebook, but they can be very lonely in their friends in the real life because with Facebook, I real life. In this modern world, the internet is like can find other people who have the same an addictive drug – we obtain easy access to it interest as me. When I was introduced to and since it is there, we use it. As Socrates once Facebook back in 2009, I would read every little said, “Expect the worst of every new tool or thing my friends posted. Nowadays, if their machine”(Carr). 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.

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-toface 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.

Carr warned that people Facebook has made it much may never read books again; easier to find people in the that may be a bit of an search bar rather than a exaggeration. However phonebook with doubles of your friends’ names. Facebook Facebook users may need to be warned that we’ll never is similar to Google, in that it speak physically with makes us stupid. Carr believes another for a while. That that Google makes us stupid; may be pushing it for reality, in a way Facebook is but Carr definitely got his comparable. Carr wrote how point across into my book the articles we read online reading. have slowly killed our ability to read traditional books, or Social networking in 2012 is even long articles online. definitely different than what Facebook can relate to the it was a decade ago. In a stupidity in that it’s killed our decade from now, we should ability to socialize in public. It expect our children to have has sat us on our butts to sit in terrible communication skills, front of a screen, of any size, to terrible distraction disorders chat it up in an instant and addicted to holding their messenger. Like clockwork, phones five inches from their some people check Facebook faces, updating, messaging at almost any chance they get, and posting on Facebook, or and like clockwork Google has some other social media. permitted us to search any These critical skills of topic for our school projects. communication can ultimately Similarities like these may harm everyone. need to reflect the outcome.

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.

IMPROVING SOCIAL SKILLS 101

By Sara Cheang

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.

Mark Zuckerberg Known as one of the five cofounders of Facebook.

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.”

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?

Chances are you’re not friends with your boss on Facebook or plan on being friends with him/her anytime soon. But Lalchandani 1 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 • Remember that night media sites leaving them vulnerable to out at the bar with all any type of search by employers. This is of your buddies where due to the lack of information people have about the rights of employers to you decided to be in search Facebook in its entirety. Just every picture because you checked off all your settings chugging an alcoholic to completely private does not in fact at beverage? Most likely all make them private. Companies can you probably do not go in and out to see who is the utmost, even remember that well fit person for the job. Trying to night or where you outsmart them too? Chances are it were. Not to worry won’t work either. Many companies can the company you just now find you even if you put your last got a job with can name as your first or change names clearly remember of completely because of new face the night and how un- recognition technology. I now even see responsible you acted myself checking my own Facebook to in front of all those determine if there are any photos that people. could lead me into trouble. This awareness is slowly opening people’s eyes towards becoming smarter about what they post on the Internet.

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• 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

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• 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

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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 remeeting 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?

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.

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.

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 wellrounded 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.

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

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.

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 nonexistent 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.

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

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 email 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.

By: Alexandra Shilen “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

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.

By Sienna Gronowski

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

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 upto-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.

Social Media 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 students sit on sites such Portland, Oregon, the faculty as Facebook , Twitter and of the school decided to Tumblr without even conduct an experiment where realizing how much time the kids of the school were not they spend on these sites. allowed to use technology for I could simply go onto a week. After the experiment a the computer to look up teenager was interviewed and what homework he complained as to how he assignments my teachers became very anxious and kept have assigned and my wondering about how many attention gets diverted notifications he would have on and I end up on my Facebook after this week. He Facebook, reading said he couldn't focus on people’s

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

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

sites are very addictive and hard these students are on their to give up like a drug or the devil Facebook's. As stated on your shoulder, which makes it in iDisorder by Larry Rosen, very hard to study or concentrate Social media sites have been when that little devil is always proven to be as addicting as using a drug because of what it telling you to go on. People who use these sites get to the point does to your brain.

Facebook” and Qingya Wang As I sit down to where their thoughts solely states that "The average revolve around these sites and write an essay or to do some student spends around 100 they can’t live without it. homework, I always find minutes a day on Facebook myself taking “short breaks” to With all these which interferes with the popular media sites such as see pictures or statuses on time students have to study." Facebook. Then I end up on Facebook and Formspring, cyber Looking at the statistics it's YouTube, watching funny bulling has also become a serious safe to assume that social problem to many teenagers. videos until I'm at the point media sites have taken over where an hour or two has Formspring is a the lives of students. passed and I don't know where 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 the time flew. There were social media site where people Facebook and not notice that times when I would disable could ask you anonymous I spent at least 3 hours on it. my Facebook and shut off questions. The creator of It’s a very addictive site my phone so that I could Formspring most likely imagined that’s hard to give up. focus on studying. Even that it would be used for questions Ohio State University then I wasn't able to study about a person that interest you, but reveals that college students due to the constant anxiety I that wasn't the case. Teenagers who utilize Facebook spend felt from not being able to began using the site to make rude less time on studying and see who's texting me and and nasty statements to people they have lower grades than who's posting on my wall. I didn't like. There have been students who do not use am not the only one who numerous situations where popular social networking had to resort to such someone gets such unnecessary sites. (Kalpidou, Costin, & situations. Many of my comments that they make the Morris, 2011) Because of peers used similar tactics to decision to take their own life. new technology such as help them focus on When I was younger I had a smart phones and laptops, studying. Some even made Formspring and I would always get accessing these sites is as their parents take away their comments concerning my weight easy as snapping your phones and computers so and from a personal view I am the fingers. Instead of doing that there would be no one to say that it truly does affect homework or paying temptation to go check their one’s self-esteem. Cyber-Bullying attention in class, odds are Facebook. These media 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 underclassma n 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.

CyberBullying not only has an effect on a student's attendance and performance in school but also on their mental wellbeing. 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.