Negative Effect of the Internet on Teenagers

Negative Effect of the Internet on Teenagers

Introduction

Technology has changed every aspect of our lives, including our behaviors. Teenagers are worst hit, with the majority of this age group spending considerable time on social platforms or playing computer games. Such behaviors in teenagers affect them negatively and can even come to haunt them in future. This essay discusses the harmful effects of technology on the teenage population.

Impacts of Technology on Teenagers

In today’s world, many people prefer to live in cities instead of towns or even rural areas. Kids are spending most of their time playing with their computers while others spend time on the internet using smartphones. Teenagers accessing the internet is the most recent change experienced in the last two decades (Soh at al., 225-236). The ease of people to access the internet is perhaps one of the greatest inventions which have impacted many people in society. The use of the internet, for instance, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have some negative impact on children and society at large. Young people don’t care about their privacy since they post their personal information without the idea that it might impact their lives in the future (Benjamin et al., 308-312). Thus, most parents are concerned about what their teenage children do online and how their life can be affected by the internet. Hence, it is essential to discuss the negative impact of internet to teenagers.

The internet hurts teenager since they can get addicted, and hence, they waste most of their time while in social media. Primarily, according to statistic, it is estimated that more than 210 million people suffer from the internet and social media addictions. Mainly, in this current generation, teens cannot live in a world without the internet. Teens are more tech-savvy as compared to adults, and they also embrace not only new trends but also technologies (Soh at al., 225-236). Even though the internet is considered as the best way to get connected and stay informed, one can get obsessed, resulting in addiction and thus a person real life can start to take back seat to the online time. Since teenagers are weak when it comes to making personal decisions, they spend too much time on social media, and hence they forget to do their essential duties in life.

When teenagers get access to the internet, they can be affected psychologically. Mainly, according to a survey conducted, it concluded that kids who spend more than five hours a day on their phones are twice likely to show depressive symptoms. Primarily, the internet, just like drugs or even certain behaviors, has some side effect on the development of a kid (Soh at al., 225-236). Teenagers addicted to internet experience behavioral problems and emotional control. Although mood swings are typical for many humans, changes in attitudes indicate an underlying mental issue.

The unreasonable and uncontrolled internet use has been liked with problems which have signed similarly to that of addictions. Mainly, teenager’s pathological internet use is linked to relationship problems, aggressive behaviors, and health problems. Therefore, it is the responsibilities of parents to remain vigilant about their kid’s online behavior. Mainly, if a condition emerges whereby there are concerns about underage children involving problematic internet-use behavior, their parent should seek professional help immediately (Benjamin et al., 308-312). Primarily, these behaviors associated with teens overusing the internet can be manifested of some underlying problems which ate insidiously. According to medical experts, children who use the internet are at risk of developing depression. There is a necessity of preventing our teenage population from depression using early intervention.

Teenagers using the internet have a privacy problem. With many scandals about our data being sold to third parties for money, people are becoming more concerned about their online privacy. Teenagers, however, are more concerned about their online image, and they are even more concerned about their digital trails if they leave social media (Benjamin et al., 308-312). Kid assessing the internet without the guidance of their parent makes them vulnerable. Primarily, most of them lack the idea that mobile device and social media platforms are not safe for them. Essentially, it is only a few percentages of teens who are intimately aware of the vulnerabilities which they are exposing themselves in social media. Therefore, for kids to be safe using the internet, they need the guidance of their parents.

Teenager wastes a lot of time on the internet. According to statistics, more than 240 million American check Facebook daily. Those who get addicted lack time to concentrate on their studies and do not meet their daily duties. Moreover, with access to virtual casinos and interactive games, teenagers lose an excessive amount of money. More so, these activities disrupt job-related activities or significant relationships (Yang et al., 1250-1258). Online games have destroyed children activities and socialism, with many teenagers preferring to stay indoors and play such games instead of going outside to play physical sports, such as football.

The internet plays a decisive role in access to research for education, but this is a small advantage in a pool of harmful effects of the internet to young people. The internet opens up children to commercialism, violence, isolation, predators and pornographic materials (Tian et al., 429-429). According to statistic conducted, 25 % underage student get access to unwanted sexual material online. When they get addicted to such content, such kids cannot concentrate well on their education, destroying their future.

Internet access makes teenagers vulnerable to cyberbullying. When kids are Victims of cyberbullying, they end up with lasting emotional, concentration, and behavioral issues. Such issues make the teenager have problems when getting along with others (Tian et al., 429-429). Such kid’s experiences trust issues and most of them prefer to use drugs or alcohol at an earlier age. Those who undergo impacts of cyberbullying have a higher chance of developing dangerous stigmas and hence experiences toxic shame from their peers. Some of the adverse effects of cyberbullying are a lifetime of low self-esteem, chronic fatigue, and poor performance in school or even at work. More so, cases of depression are also prevalent whereby most victims feel being hopelessness and worthlessness in their life.

The long-term effect of cyberbullying to teenagers can become a life-threatening problem. For instances, according to statistic, victims of cyberbullying have suicidal thoughts. Moreover, there are many suicides committed that have been influenced by cyberbullying. With such tragic events to have happened in society, it raises attention on the issue, and their prevention mechanism is becoming the only priority (Mishra et al., 394-405). Therefore, parents have a duty of monitoring their children what they are exposed to the internet and social media platforms.

Conclusion

Advancement in technology has made internet access possible to all. With teenagers accessing social media and other online platforms without their parent’s guidance, their development is hampered. Their privacy is also significantly impacted. Other risks associated with an online presence for teenagers include cyberbullying, depression and unrealistic expectation would impact the future generation. Therefore, parents must monitor what their children are accessing on the internet to ensure that privacy is kept as a priority. Moreover, the government of the United States has a significant role to play inputting regulation that aims at preventing underage kids from accessing social media platforms.

Bibliography

Benjamin, Nikolina, et al. “Relationship between internet use and depression: focus on physiological mood oscillations, social networking and online addictive behavior.” Computers in Human Behavior 43, 2015, pp. 308-312.

Mishra, Anubhav, et al. “Adolescent’s eWOM intentions: An investigation into the roles of peers, the Internet and gender.” Journal of Business Research 86, 2018, pp. 394-405.

Soh, Patrick Chin-Hooi, et al. “Parents vs peers’ influence on teenagers’ Internet addiction and risky online activities.” Telematics and Informatics 35(1), 2018, pp. 225-236.

Tian, Lili, Yuru Yan, and E. Scott Huebner. “Effects of cyberbullying and cybervictimization on early adolescents’ mental health: Differential mediating roles of perceived peer relationship stress.” Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking 21(7), 2018, pp. 429-436.

Yang, Yuchen, et al. “A survey on security and privacy issues in Internet-of-Things.” IEEE Internet of Things Journal 4(5), 2017, pp. 1250-1258.