Internet addiction is something pretty common and abundant among people nowadays. It feels like it’s almost impossible to live without the usage of internet. As internet may bring May pros to human beings, it also has it’s cons. Of course, the world of career itself seeks for the maximum facility of internet such as email and search engines such as Google. But as internet is becoming such a norm to us, we may or may not realize the impact it has got on the younger generation. There are many popular social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. Though there are many more, the one that definitely took the limelight was Facebook. Facebook is almost like the most essential thing in a teenager’s life right now. Although it may seem cool in their eyes, Facebook definitely has its toll on students.
To look from a student’s point of view, Facebook is a must have account to boost their social statuses, which is the top of all their wish lists. If you don’t have a Facebook account, you’re labeled as a loser or someone who is lifeless. Facebook truly is a place where a person can be someone they are not in reality. Although many of them are pretty in denial about this, they are keen to know it someday. At least a majority number of students who have Facebook rely on it to make them more popular. As to be said, only 100 of their 200 friends on Facebook are people whom they actually know or talk to. Random adding and friend making is most popular at sites like Facebook. It may seem a good thing at first, but there will be someday where they realize the one person they are fooling is nobody but themselves. Sometimes things may get out hand. For an instance, a student who prefers the living environment on Facebook may try to alter their selves into becoming the person when they are on it.This leads to nothing but double identity which can harm people psychologically. Besides, it’s always healthy to practice a lifestyle which is more realistic and practical.
The biggest worry probably every parents and educators are having on students are their low grades which a big percentage of it is caused by the usage of Facebook. Its almost cliché that all students basically spend their whole day using Facebook. Students are amused by its facilities and how they communicate with friends and people they are shy or insecure to talk to in real life. They are too fascinated that they close one eye about the fake world they’re living in through Facebook. The time spent on facebook literally eats up their time which can be used to do many other advantageous things such as studying. The lack of concentration on studies is mainly caused by the humongous amount of time and attention poured on Facebook. Students tend to get carried away and thus they have no time to finish up their assignment or even to revise. Most students have got to log into their Facebook accounts almost all the time. In the world of advanced technology, we are spoilt with the existence of smartphones. Smartphones may be pretty useful, especially among students in the sense of communication and presence of abundant Wi-Fi. With the availability of Wi-Fi in class rooms these days, it makes it more convenient for students to access Facebook especially during study hours. And this is exactly how students get lost of touch or left behind in their studies. These would definitely take a toll on their studies especially when it’s pretty hard to ignore the thought of logging into Facebook and checking out their notifications even during exams.
Many students are sadly even fooled by the false sense of privacy that is promised by the social networking sites like Facebook. They get over assurance by the false terms and conditions of privacy these sites promises that they get too confident to post embarrassing, humiliating, denigrating and hurtful content in both text, photos and videos. They fail to realize that nothing is private, especially in social networks. They are blinded by the satisfaction they get that they forget that the online world is merely transparent. Student have yet to find out the serious consequences that can be caused by their immature actions. Some students have be expelled from school and colleges. Students have been denied acceptance to intern programs, admissions to independent high schools, colleges, and jobs at summer schools. Some students and parents have been even arrested. All because of the content they’ve posted in their ‘private’ social network accounts. It may not entirely fall on the privacy of the site itself; it may also be the existence of hackers. In this way, hackers can easily have access into any private information about a person. Perhaps the most common reason that teen’s private information is exposed is because they are easily tricked into accepting friend requests from strangers.
Scams are everywhere in the world. They also exist in many ways targeting students in these social networks like Facebook. Students, though very knowledgeable about using technology, are often naïve and easily manipulated. They are the people with the highest ego and they love to carry themselves as powerful but it is a sad fact that they are the ones who are easily fooled. They want to believe what is said to them, especially when it appears that others believe. Scammers use this trick by creating many fake pages on social networks that talk about web sites to buy stuffs, products that don’t work, and cool pages that only result in drive-by spyware downloads.
Most importantly, the meaning of the word ‘friend’ is changing for students and this change puts them in risk in several ways. If we ask an average teen how many friends they have on Facebook, the answer would be 200 to 500 friends or even more. This only results in students being exposed to mere strangers. Risks take place when students apply traditional real-life values to the ‘friendships’ some of them develop online in sites like Facebook. Just because Facebook says that anyone 14 years or old can use Facebook, doesn’t mean that they should. It isn't an age-appropriate or developmentally healthy place for children and younger teens to hang out. Facebook is not working to protect children and the laws in our country are terribly inadequate to safeguard our children online, in general. Not enough is being done to protect and educate children and teens against the risks that come from using the Internet, and Facebook in particular.
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