There has been a haste evolution of social media, which cannot ignored. Social media is a great tool for communicating, especially among the peer groups. Additionally, the platform is being used to entice people to join and become part of the large online community. Indeed, the social media has undeniably revolutionized the way people used to communicate and share information. Businesses have taken advantage of the platform to advertise their products and services that target a certain demographic group who are mostly younger people. However, with all these benefits, the social media has its shortcoming, which mostly affects the young people, especially the adolescents.
Social media has created a podium where companies are advertising their goods and services. According to Souza, the social sites display quite some adverts that target a given demographic group based on gender, age, and marital status (49). The announcements highly influence the adolescents buying inclinations, which in turn encourage parents to purchase the items for their children in the online platform. The companies use the social media to gather information about the users of these platforms. Therefore, it becomes easy for them to post enticing adverts that target a certain group. However, some social media avenues are now prohibiting the advertisements on the sites that are mostly visited by children and adolescents to avoid exploiting them and their parents.
Despite social media being a great communication platform for people of the same peer group, family, and friends, it has had negative emotional effects on the children. Firstly, the social media has damaging implications for children who may be suffering from self-esteem issues or those who have low confidence. Such kids may tend to judge their success based on the number of friends or followers they have on the social media. Secondly, there are people who use hate speech on social media, which may negatively affect certain groups of people, especially girls and the minority groups in society (Souza 47). The use of undesirable language against such people diminishes their self-confidence, a situation that affects their emotions. Therefore, it is important for parents to educate and guide their children in the use of social media to safeguard their emotions.
The social media affects the parents financially in some ways. Firstly, parents have to buy gadgets that can access the internet for their kids. Most of these devices cost a substantial amount of money. Secondly, the parents are obligated to pay the internet to make sure that their children can easily access the social media. Thirdly, due to the advertisements that are all over the social media, both parents and the kids are influenced to buy the items that may affect a parent’s financial status (Choi et al. 533). Therefore, it is imperative for parents to regulate and control their children’s use of social media.
As presented by the discussion above, it is evident that social media has its positive effects on the children. However, other negative effects are coming along with its usage. The use of social media may have negative emotional effects on the children, especially those who have a low self-esteem. It has been noted that there are people who use hate speech on their social media platforms; hence, this may affect a child who belongs to the group that has been targeted by the animosity. Therefore, the discussion has shown that it is important for parents to regulate, guide, and protect their children from the negative effects that associated with the use of the social media.
Works Cited
Choi, Mina, and Catalina L. Toma. “Social Sharing Through Interpersonal Media: Patterns and Effects on Emotional Well-Being.” Computers in Human Behavior, vol. 36, 2014, pp 530-541.
Marian de Souza. Spirituality in Education in a Global Pluralised World. Routledge. 2016.
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