S - Social Media

By: Mini Stephens on 12:56

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Talking about Social Media is quite a large topic. I mean there are good and bad points to this widely used form of communication so it's impossible to cover all the points, however I think speaking about the problems surrounding going online is an important topic to talk about.

When I was 11/12 social media was still up and coming, Bebo was still quite popular and it was only when I was becoming a teenager that Facebook took over. Skip to a few years later and twitter was all the range - I can remember creating a twitter account back in 2010 and barely using it for the first year. I was the generation where more and more social media sites were created and slowly became more popular. It's strange seeing all the kids now walking around with their iPhones when they can't be more than 10 years old - at that age I had my sisters old Sendo phone which only form of entertainment was the snake game where you had to gather the grey squares to make the snake longer - that use to keep me entertained for hours.

I think one of the main problems with social media now is the lack of in-person conversation - everyone's guilty of it - I know I definitely am. It's so difficult to stay off your phone even for 10 minutes, I'm ashamed to admit I spend way too much time staring down at my phone when I should be watching where I'm going or when me and my family are out for coffee; I have to constantly remind myself to leave my phone alone and actually make conversation with them or to take in my surroundings - because once I actually do it's so much better than scrolling through instagram or twitter which I can do at home. It's just such a difficult habit to get out of, being on your phone is addictive, however I don't think it could ever replace actual face to face conversation no matter what technology is developed there's nothing like spending time with friends and family and making actual memories with them.

Another issue is privacy, since social media has become more popular around 62% of teens have admitted to having been sent nasty messages via social media, with 37% reporting cyberbullying on a frequent basis. This has increased greatly over the past few years, because it's so easy to send anonymous messages and it's so much harder for the victims to avoid it. It's also much more difficult to report than physical bullying - because although it has the same impact on the person, in-person bullying can be reported to a teacher or parent and action can be taken to prevent it continuing but with cyberbullying it's so much more difficult to stop a person accessing their social media account and sending the messages. 52% of people have never reported the online abuse they've received - and 26% of the teens that did, felt like nothing was done about it. A lot of teens don't even know how to report someone if they are sending abuse - this is because social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter don't make the buttons obvious enough - yes it's easy enough it block someone but how do you actually fill out a form and officially report it? I don't think I even know the answer to that. So I did some research and Here is a website with all the links to report someone for most social media sites. If someone is bullying you, or have just sent you one or two nasty comments please report them. I know it's really difficult to do, but I promise, the first step is always the hardest, and sometimes writing it out to begin with is easier than speaking about it.

I know there are many more problems with social media, but these are just two of the main issues that I really felt needed covering, especially because these two issues are just getting worse as time goes on. This movie on cyberbullying really brings into perspective the dangers of social media and the impact it can have on a person. It covers the majority of the main issues related to cyber bullying and I think it's an important film to watch.

"What happens on social media, stays on google forever"

Until tomorrow,

Alice x