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1 SOCIAL MEDIA AND THE CURRENT TRENDS
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SO
CIA
L M
EDIA
A
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CURR
ENT
TRE
NDS
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Blogger youtuBeFaceBook twitter Myspace instagraM social Media google+Flickr haBBo tuMBlrMixi deviantartFriendster
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contents
contentsTrends NowadaysTimeThe popular kidsThe good and the uglyThe internet is like a drugAddiction is hard to kickWhat we've got to sayWhat about our parents?
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TRENDS
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What do you do online nowadays? The internet is now a large portion of our lives because we can do almost everything on it, from searching articles to making new friends and entertaining us. However, as social networks are on the rise, we must be wary about the dangers but as well appreciate it’s benefits and not abuse it.
55% of online teens have created a personal profile online, and 55% have used social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook.
Older teens, particularly girls, are more likely to use these sites. For girls, social networking sites are primarily places to reinforce pre-existing friendships; for boys, the networks also provide opportunities for flirting and making new friends.
A social networking site is an online place where a user can create a profile and build a personal network that connects him or her to other users. In the past five years, such sites have rocketed from a niche activity into a phenomenon that engages tens of millions of internet users. The growth in the popularity of these sites has generated concerns among some parents, school officials, and government leaders about the potential risks posed to young people when personal information is made available in such a public setting.
55% of online teens have created a personal profile online, and 55% have used social networking sites like MySpace or Facebook.
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66% of teens who have created a profile say that their profile is not visible to all internet users.There is a popular idea that every teenager is using social networks, and that they’re plastering personal information over their profiles for anyone and everyone to read.
These findings change that story – not every teenager is using a social networking website, and of those that do, more than half of them have in some way restricted access to their profile.”
Older girls ages 15-17 are more likely to have used social networking sites and created online profiles; 70% of older girls have used an online social network compared with 54% of older boys, and 70% of older girls have created an online profile, while only 57% of older boys have done so.
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Both boys and girls rely on social networks to keep close tabs on their friends, but older boys are much more likely to use them to meet new friends and flirt in the comfort of an online environment.
Older boys are really the ones taking advantage of the true ‘networking’ features offered by the sites.
72% of all social networking teens use the sites to make plans with friends; 49% use the sites to make new friends.
Older boys who use social net-working sites (ages 15-17) are more likely than girls of the same age to say that they use social networking sites to make new friends (60% vs. 46%). They are more than twice as likely as older girls to say they use the sites to flirt; 29% report this compared with just 13% of older girls.
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the indeFinite continued progress oF existence and events in the past, present, and Future regarded as a whole.
tiMe/tiM/-
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how Much
is too Much?
Young people now devote an average of seven hours and 38 minutes to daily media use, or about 53 hours a week -- more than a full-time job.This results in a lot of time wasted that could go to something productive, such as pick-ing up a new skill or instrument, or simply hanging out with friends instead of being holed up in the room. We are now spending more time using our phones to play video games, watch TV and listen to music than to actually talk on them.
“I think it is a really big problem for me because I set aside time for a break period and it seems to get extended because of Face-book. I’ll take a break and get absorbed into it, so my 15 minute break turns into an hour gone by and that is where it becomes a problem. Time flies on the Internet and it is not a cognitive process. I don’t think about it”
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the popular kids
who's hot and w
ho's not
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in 2011, a list of the top 10 social net-working sites was established, and we all know who's topped the charts....
1. Facebook
2. Twitter
3. LinkedIn
4. MySpace
800 million usersWorld website rank: 2
World website rank: 9
World website rank: 22
World website rank: 37
300 million users
120 million users
100 million users
5. DiggWorld website rank: 122Monthly U.S hits: 15.1 million
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and the less known.....
6. OrkutWorld website rank: 122100 million users
Popular in India and Brazil. Owned by Google.
8. BadooWorld website rank: 137133 million users
Popular in Europe.
10. NingWorld website rank: 159
7. Hi5World website rank: 135
80 million users
Popular in Latin America, Thailand and India
9. StumbleuponWorld website rank: 159
10.6 million users
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Facebook is the most dominant social net-work among teens, used by 85% of teen-agers who use social networks. Facebook allows users almost unlimited flexibility to create and customize their profile pages, and to share their ‘statuses’ or what they are doing at the moment or where they are. Although compulsory to register with your real name, many facebook users go under an alias. Facebook alo allows users to play social networking games, and users find it easily addictive.
Other than Facebook, people have been using other media platforms such as Twitter, which allows mini status updates frequently, also known as micro blogging. With the rise of smartphones, there are also apps such as instagram, a social networking photo sharing community, and allows users to ‘photo-blog’ and share these images with their friends.
Communicating with others is a key aspect of using social networks. Teens may post public messages or may use bulletins or private messages to communicate with those on their friends list. Most teens use sites such as Facebook to stay in touch with their current friends. However, 50% of teenagers also use the sites to make new friends. Teenagers use the sites to make social plans with their friends, and some-times to flirt.
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the good
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and the Bad
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“They provide a way to interact with others who share the same interests and to get constructive feedback on ongoing projects.”
Apart from the social benefits, social networking sites can be used to document school research, promote artistic talents and experiment with other forms of content creation. They provide a way to interact with others who share the same interests and to get constructive feedback on ongoing projects.
Besides that, the internet is also a place for people to share their inspirational stories for everyone to read. Sites such as reddit have sub-forums that allow users to share their personal experiences. The website has a strong culture of free speech and very few rules about the types of content that may be posted; it only prohibits posting of personal information. The reddit community is particu-larly supportive of each other. Reddit started the largest Secret Santa program in the world, which is still in operation to date. For the 2010 Holiday season, 92 countries were involved in the Secret Santa program. There were 17,543 participants, and $662,907.60 was collectively spent on gift purchases and shipping costs
THE GOOD
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Along with these benefits come some risks. Most social networking sites are open to all, especially MySpace, which means that your teen could be exposed to harassment, bullying or sexual advances.
Cyber-bullying and harassment are most often perpetrated by other teens and tend to happen most to older girls and to teens of either gender who have a strong online presence. It may take several forms:
publicizing private instant messages or text messages
posting threatening messages
posting photos that will cause embarrassment
spreading rumors
It’s rare for harassment to spill over into real-world conflicts, but it can still be a cause of emotional distress for teens.
A greater danger is that teens may become targets of pedophiles. The anonymity of some social networking sites makes it easy for unscrupulous people to target young teens and engage them in harmful conver-sations. It’s easy for predators to pose as teens and lure children into harmful real-world contact as well. Most social network-ing sites have privacy controls in place, but teens seldom use them. Active monitoring of profiles and behaviors catches some predators, but not all of them.
Another risk is identity theft, which can occur when teens share too much information about their name, date of birth and location.
AND THE UGLY
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https://twitter.coM/ http://en.wikipedia.org/ http://www.Flickr.coM/ http://www.s urveyMonkey.coM http://www.FaceBook.coM http://www.google.coM http://www.liveJournal.coM http://www.Blogger.coM http://www.tuMBlr.coM http://reddit.coM http://www.you-
tuBe.coM http://www.taoBao.coM http://www.9gag.
http://www.liveJournal.coM http://www.youtuBe.coM http://www.reddit.coM http://www.FaceBook.coM http://www.wix.coM
http://www.4chan.coM http://www.aMaZon.coM http://wwwyahoo.coM http://www.gMail.coM http://www.eBay.coM http://www.wordpress.coM http://www.vainadite.coM http://www.kaMio.Jp http://www.Friendster.
https://live-Journal.coM/ https://twitter.coM/ http://www.4chan.coM http://www.aMaZon.coM http://wwwya-hoo.coM http://www.gMail.coM http://www.eBay.coM http://www.
TheinTerneT
is like a drug
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“Substance abuse is something visible. Psychological addictions are caused by wanting to hang onto or enhance positive feelings and stimuli, like winning in gambling, playing computer games or projecting whatever personality you like in chat rooms”
Seven per cent of the respondents de-scribed themselves as “becoming addicted” to the net and other 26 per cent said they used it every day and considered it “an important part of their lives”.
The internet also gives you instant gratification. Meaning you don’t have to wait for something you want, you can just get it immediately. Take google for an example, previously without the internet, to search just for the meaning of a word could take you up to 15 minutes with a dictionary. Now, with google and many other online dictionaries, searching for a word has become a process that can be done in a second. It skips the frustration and time spent on the manual dictionary, and affects our decisions in the real world because of the expectation for our wishes to be fulfilled immediately. It affects our impulse control, which is important for academic achievement and success in adult life.
However, you cannot always find instant gratification in the real world. Some products do market this as their selling point, for example fast food and pain killers. Which comes back to the main point that teenagers might get easily hooked to the internet because of this instant gratification, and not having to wait to get what they want. They are also the easiest to target in terms of emotional support because they are still finding a place in society that fits them, and are easily susceptible to people offering them ideals and a place to fit in.
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addictionis
to kickHaRd
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If you spends hours huddled over a com-puter, there is a good chance you have something to worry about — internet addiction.
The first study of the impact of internet use found a third of respondents were “in the process of becoming psychologically ad-dicted” and teenagers, on average, spent 13 hours a week on-line.
It is cultural stereotyping to assume boys are able to look after themselves but we find no significant gender differences in the rate of psychological problems experiencedby adolescents.
Both groups are being inadequately super-vised, but boys are particularly neglected. They are being left to go it alone in manag-ing their emotions, leaving them increasingly vulnerable to abuse and psychological stress within the cyber world.
A research done showed an interesting result of how youths now spend more than six hours a day multi-tasking with a range of media, ranging from TV to internet use and instant messaging.
"some times i think people just say they are addicted to the internet to seem cool and get attention, but it is a ridiculous thing to be addicted to." - sarah, 17
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a
A: About 6 hours a day. School ended at around 2, and I’d be online till about 7, go out for tuition, come back at 9 and be online for about another 1-2 hours
A: I was mostly on blogging communities or on AIM, some instant messenger.Occasionally facebook and twitter.
A: When I realized that I felt awful when the internet was taken away. My parents had taken the cable for the modem away, so I couldn’t have any access at all.
It was like my life was being taken away. I also threw overly large and unnecessary tantrums and did not sleep just to be online. I actually cried and screamed at them for doing that.
Q:How long did you spend on the internet everyday?
Q:What did you do when you were online?
Q:How did you know you were addicted?
confessions
ofan
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internet
-holic
A: I stopped hanging out with my friends outside because I wanted to hang out with my online friends instead.
But because of time differences, I would have to wait at least 3-4 hours for them to be online so within that time I would be surfing other sites.
I also gave up going out and went home straight after school everyday. My grades also fell a lot till I was the 2nd last in class.
A: My parents had to take the whole computer away so I went cold turkey for about a year. After that I realized that I was addicted but relieved I managed to get out of it because my grades had been failing.
A: I am glad I managed to get out because if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be able be what I am now. I think I also managed to learn how to control my emotions better and be more self directed.
QWhat did you give up just to be on the internet?
QHow did you manage to get out of it?
QAny reflections on it now? After you have gotten out of it.
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whatwe’ve
ourselves
to sayfor
got
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Interviewee: Lim En MianAge: 18Currently a student
1)How much time do you spend on the internet in 1 day
5 hours
3)Do you think that you are spending enough time with your family?
Yes
5)Do you think you will get more things done if you stopped surfing the internet?
Yes obviously. But I still get things done now.
4)Why do you have enough/not enough time with your family?
Because I always see them everyday, and have long conversations with them everyday
6)Do you think the sites you visit on the inter-net have a positive or negative influence on your life?
Both. It keeps me in touch with the social norms so that I can understand people when they joke, if not I’ll feel left out. Sometimes I also want to take a break from doing work so I surf the internet.
7)Is there any hobby you would like to take upn your life?
Yes. Cooking.
2)How much time do you spend with your family in a day
1 hour
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Interviewee: Tan ChinhweeAge: 18Currently a student
1)How much time do you spend on the internet in 1 day
5 hours
3)Do you think that you are spending enough time with your family?
No
5)Do you think you will get more things done if you stopped surfing the internet?
yes
4)Why do you have enough/not enough time with your family?
Because of school and school work
6)Do you think the sites you visit on the inter-net have a positive or negative influence on your life?
It’s positive, but I waste my time on it.
7)Is there any hobby you would like to take upn your life?
Yes. painting
2)How much time do you spend with your family in a day
3 hours
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Interviewee: Tan YueliAge: 19Currently a student
1)How much time do you spend on the internet in 1 day
4 hours
3)Do you think that you are spending enough time with your family?
No
5)Do you think you will get more things done if you stopped surfing the internet?
Yes.
4)Why do you have enough/not enough time with your family?
My family works while I have school so there is not enough time.
6)Do you think the sites you visit on the inter-net have a positive or negative influence on your life?
Neutral. I don’t think about it after I stop surfing
7)Is there any hobby you would like to take upn your life?
Surfing for real. Like in the ocean.
2)How much time do you spend with your family in a day
3 hours
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wh
at
abo
ut
ou
r
parents?
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Do you spend enough time with your parents? Have you ever thought about spending more time with your parents? As much as the social media and internet is interesting, spending time with your parents is just as important.
Now as our lives get more and more complicated, we spend less and less time with our family, and more time with strangers or friends online. But no matter how much time spent online, meeting in flesh is never the same.
But no matter how much time spent online, meeting in flesh is never the same. In flesh, you can feel the emotions and body language of the other people but the mannerisms of people online and in real life is completely different.
If you don’t interact with people in real life, your communication and social skills will go downhill, as seen with many young people today who find it hard to fit to social norms because of their lack of exposure.
Perhaps in these days where texting instead of calling has become the norm, face-to-face interaction is not seen as important anymore. The rise of smart phones has eliminated the need to interact much, because even the simple act of calling for pizza or takeaway can be done onlinewithout any human interaction in between.
Life has become taken over by these automated systems that we lose the human warmth you get when greeted by a real life person instead of a machine.
In Singapore, it is hard to have quality family time when everyone is busy with their own work and school. As reflected in the interviews previously, we each have our own lives to lead, and everyone feels that they don’t have enough time with their family.
But if we could just detach ourselves from the world of social media, and use that time to be spent with our family. However, that is easier said than done.
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this survey was done on students aged 15-20 years old. they were questioned about their internet usage, and whether they deemed it important or not. the following shows their responses in form of a chart.
in a survey about internet usage
1) how long do you spend on the internet a day? ( excluding work purposes)
0.5 hrs- 1 hr
10%
0%
50%
30%
10%
1 hr- 3 hrs
3 hrs- 5 hrs
5 hrs- 8 hrs
10 hrs above
2) how much of that time spent is used on social media platforms? ( eg. facebook, twitter)
0.5hr - 1 hr
40%
10%
30%
20%
2 hrs- 3 hrs
2 hrs - 3 hrs
4 hrs and up
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5) do you think you have the risk of get-ting addicted to the internet?
yes
no
45%
70%
30%
4) do you think the time spent on these places is neccessary?
55%
3) what do you do on these social media sites?
playing games
updating status
reading others statuses
sharing music/videos/articles
28%
16%
40
16%
45%
yes
no
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6) do you think you spend enough time with your family?
7) how long a day do you spend with your family?
37.5%
62.5%
yes
no
0.5 hr - 1hr
2.5 hrs - 3hrs
3.5 hrs - 4hrs
4.5 hrs - 5hrs
5.5 hrs - 6hrs
6 hrs & above
1.5 hr - 2hrs 10%
20%
30%
0%
10%
10%
20%
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This survey has told us that although youths find the internet important in their lives, many of them also feel that family time is important as well. Many of them spend almost a 1/5 of their day on the internet and on social media. However, it is good that they are aware of the need to spend time with their family.
The most interesting response would be the question “ Do you think you have a risk of get-ting addicted to the internet”. an astonishing 75% said they had the potential to wherease only 25% said they wouldn’t. This shows how captivating the internet can be and how it sucks the time out of our daily lives if we go on with no time limit. It also reflects our self-control on ourselves and our lives. It is important to be able to restrict and control ourselves when neccessary. There will also be a loss of direction in our lives as we don’t know what to do anymore. We might also lose touch with real-ity as we are always in control on the web.
Also, many of them said that the time spent on these social media sites are neccssary. It may be neccssary to a certain extent, but we should also spend our time socializing in real life.
In this book, I conclude that kids should try to spend more time with family instead of running off to a virtual world. I hope the younger generation will be able to see my points, and take them seriously to be applied in their life.
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citationsTimothy. A, T. A. (2008, april 03). Facebook - a whole new world of wasting time. Retrieved from http://www.psycholo-gytoday.com/blog/dont-delay/200804/facebook-whole-new-world-wasting-time
DAILY MAIL REPORTER. (2011, may 19). Teens addicted to the internet more likely to be angry and depressed. Retrieved from http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti-cle-1388880/Teens-addicted-internet-likely-depressed-angry-use-drugs.html
Amanda Lenhart, A. L. (2009, april 10). Teens social media: an overview. Retrieved from http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic786630.files/Teens Social Media and Health - NYPH Dept Pew Internet.pdf
danah m. boyd. (2007, december 17). Social network sites: Definition, history, and scholarship. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1083-6101.2007.00393.x/full
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An insight on how youths see social media and how we can prevent it from taking over our lives, as well as interviews from real-life examples. This book allows us to understand what makes social media so attractive and time-consuming, and educates us on what are the right choices we should make while surfing the internet.
