Social Media: A Cyber DystopiaBy: Lauryn Ellis

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Although one of the greatest and fastest growing innovations of the past decade, the isolating effects of social media creates fabricated people behind millions

of monitors.Image by: kaboomppic

We see social media as a way to create, discover, share and connect

So with 2.3 billion active users

What could the problem be?

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Cyberbullying:

“The use of cellphones,

instant messaging, email,

chat rooms, or social

networking sites such as

Facebook and Twitter to

harass, threaten or

intimidate someone”

- Margaret Rouse, Whatis

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43% of children say they have beenbullied online

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1 IN 4 SAY IT HAPPENED MORE THAN

ONCE

With technology constantly advancing, and new social media platforms being created everyday

cyberbullying is at an all time high with 95% of teenagers saying they have witnessed it

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People become abraver more harsh version

of themselves while onlineand provoked by the media

81% of young people think bullying online is easier to get

away with than bullying in person

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To some people, once alone and

behind a screen, changing the identity

of who you are is simple

With instances like these, and over 83 million fake Facebook accounts

the term

“Catfishing”surfaced within

popular culture

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Catfish:“Someone who pretends to be someone they’re not using Facebook or other social media to create false identities, particularly to pursue deceptive online romances.”

- sbacker , Urban Dictionary

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Although an increasingly

popular trend,

catfishing remains an extreme form of cyber

bullying

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“85% said they think social media users present a carefully crafted image of themselves online that

may not be authentic”

- Cecilia Kang, The Washington Post

With 57% of teens claiming to have made new friends online and millions of fake and duped social media accounts spread out over a wide variety of platforms, its easy to see

the conflict that arrives

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Platforms such as Tinder, Facebook, Twitter and even gaming servers provide websites that encourage users to connect

with others and create a new persona

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Online dating sites are a

prime location for “catfishers”

to excel

and with nearly 50 million Americans

stating that they have tried a

dating website at least once,

the opportunities are endless

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1 in 10 online dating profiles are fake

71% of those being women

and 29% being men

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What you see on social media are heavily sanitized and filtered versions of reality.”

-Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, McGill University

Let’s not forget that social media is in

many respects anti-social.”

-Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, McGill University

Both cyberbullying and catfishing stem from similar motives:

- loneliness

- boredom

- low self-esteem

- anger

- jealousy

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As well as share various personality traits such as:

compulsive liar

history of abuse

desire to harm others

feel unloved or unwanted

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“Technology [can be seen] as a form of false hope; promising success and change, but causing pain and inconvenience when that goal is not reached.” - David Nye

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COURSE RELATED WORK

(1) WHITING, ANTIA, AND DAVID WILLIAMS. "QUALITATIVE MARKET RESEARCH: AN INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL." WHY PEOPLE USE SOCIAL MEDIA: A USES AND GRATIFICATIONS APPROACH: : VOL 16, NO 4. EMERALD GROUP PUBLISHING LIMITED, N.D. WEB. 19 OCT. 2016.

(2) LENHART, AMANDA. "TEENS, TECHNOLOGY AND FRIENDSHIPS." PEW RESEARCH CENTER INTERNET SCIENCE TECH RSS. N.P., 06 AUG. 2015. WEB. 19 OCT. 2016.

(3) KANG, CECILIA. "THIRD OF ALL TEENS WHO MEET STRANGERS ONLINE ARE MEETING THEM IN PERSON, TOO." WASHINGTON POST. THE WASHINGTON POST, 5 AUG. 2015. WEB. 19 OCT. 2016.

(4) KRASHINSKY, SUSAN. "FOUR WAYS CANADIANS ARE CONSUMING MEDIA DIFFERENTLY." THE GLOBE AND MAIL. THE GLOBE AND MAIL, 04 DEC. 2014. WEB. 19 OCT. 2016.

OTHER WEBSITES

(5) "CYBER-UTOPIANISM." WIKIPEDIA. WIKIMEDIA FOUNDATION, N.D. WEB. 20 OCT. 2016.

(6) JUNG, BRIAN. "THE NEGATIVE EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON SOCIETY AND INDIVIDUALS." SMALL BUSINESS. N.P., N.D. WEB. 20 OCT. 2016.

(7) EDITORIAL STAFF. "SHOCKING STATISTICS REVEAL JUST HOW COMMON 'CATFISHING' MIGHT BE." NEXTSHARK. N.P., 16 NOV. 2015. WEB. 19 OCT. 2016.

(8) HARDEN, SETH. "ONLINE DATING STATISTICS." STATISTIC BRAIN. N.P., 20 JULY 2016. WEB. 20 OCT. 2016.

(9) LACPRIA, KIM. "CATFISHING IS BIGGER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK, STUDY REVEALS TRICKS USED BY FRAUDSTERS." SOCIAL NEWS DAILY. N.P., 23 MAR. 2014. WEB. 19 OCT. 2016.

(10) WHITLEY, ROBERT. "HERE'S WHY SOCIAL MEDIA HARMS YOUR TEEN'S MENTAL HEALTH." THE HUFFINGTON POST. THE HUFFINGTON POST, 14 SEPT. 2016. WEB. 19 OCT. 2016.

(11) "VIDEO: CYBER BULLYING STATISTICS 2014." NOBULLYING BULLYING CYBERBULLYING RESOURCES. N.P., N.D. WEB. 20 OCT. 2016.

(12) ROUSE, MARGARET. "WHAT IS CYBERBULLYING? - DEFINITION FROM WHATIS.COM." WHATIS.COM. N.P., DEC. 2015. WEB. 19 OCT. 2016.

(13) "11 FACTS ABOUT CYBER BULLYING." DOSOMETHING.ORG. N.P., N.D. WEB. 20 OCT. 2016.

(14) SMITH, KIT. "96 AMAZING SOCIAL MEDIA STATISTICS AND FACTS FOR 2016." BRANDWATCH. N.P., 01 SEPT. 2016. WEB. 20 OCT. 2016.

(15) SBACKER. "CATFISH." URBAN DICTIONARY. N.P., 22 JULY 2010. WEB. 21 OCT. 2016.

(16) KHUNDMIRI, MUSTAFA. "1 IN 10 DATING PROFILES IS FAKE - PACEDM.COM." PACEDMCOM. N.P., 09 MAY 2013. WEB. 20 OCT. 2016.

(17) "CYBERBULLYING FACTS - CYBERBULLYING RESEARCH CENTER." CYBERBULLYING RESEARCH CENTER. N.P., N.D. WEB. 19 OCT. 2016.

WORK CITED

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