Contents
Introduction
Long age, sites for social networking would only be accessed through the web. With technological advancements, the networking sites are accessed by use of sites that are trending over internet such as Orkut, MySpace and Facebook. Almost everything these days has switched to the mobile devices, for instance shopping and travel reservations. Social networking also switched to the mobile devices. Teenagers are always scrolling their phones irregardless of the place and occasion. Social interaction apps are the main reason for teenagers who are always glued to their mobile phones. Social media is important in providing a convenient and easy alternative for not only communication but also provision and access of information. Social media is a digital portfolio that enables creation and sharing of content. Social media sites include Facebook, Snap-chat, Instagram, Whatsapp and Tumblr. YouTube is also a social site.Research over quite a long period of time on the most common sites for social networking reveal the real struggle to develop features that are aimed at not only providing a meaningful reason to the young budding generation by use of the social apps, but also ensure their security. They always strive to eliminate cyber bullying.
Modern day parents encourage moderate and proper use of the social apps by children since the internet will make them social and savvy people. Teens are always flocking social apps for various reasons. The prominent utilities and features embedded in the social apps include;
The Creation, Editing And Customization Of The User Profiles
Social apps have an interface that allows users to make a customized profile in their account, which is somehow true to the user identity. Users have an option of displaying pictures, filling in of personal details such as institution attended and birthdays. The profile customization is made so as to suit youngsters’ interests.Instant Conversation
It is the main aim of having a social app. It helps people to have chats with those they are within the same circle with just a button click. Social apps have a variety of texting features such as font style, GIFS, Emojis, Stickers, Multilingual typing and many others. There also are tangible features such as video and voice calling that holds the teenagers captives for hours on end.\
Newsfeed
Other than messaging, social apps contain a news space or panel which shows the compressed activities for other social media users. This enables people in a similar social circle to view pictures, events and location for the others. This creates a platform for interactions by enabling liking, sharing of posts and commenting on a post. Media and entertainment channels, companies and business communities are opening customized pages in the social media. This enables users to view news posts from the customized pages.Upload And Sharing
This feature has made social apps to dominate the existing social world. This is due to the upload of files such as images on cloud for safekeeping and sharing of videos and photos. Once an image or a video is uploaded, it remains in your account till you decide to pull it down. Every account contains its individual storage space. This also reduces chances for data deletion to almost a negligible percentage.Polls, Frequently Asked Questions And The Question And Answer Forum
Most social apps provide users an option to take part in a number of constructive activities other than clicking selfies, video and image sharing. There are polls, question and answer forums and FAQS that allow teenagers to post any question which is then answered by followers. Facebook is one such application. Users therefore take part in discussing actual information which lead to knowledge enhance and growth.Conclusion
Social apps allow teenagers to expand their friend circles, share cherished moments, videos and images, know about upcoming events, and give their opinions on various issues and absorption of information on almost everything that exists. Advertisements, Public pages, Promotional videos and Newsfeed have become an important part of any social app. This is increasing teenagers’ interest and purpose for using social media. This mostly will apply to the most oblivious teenagers. Teenagers use social media to participate in group conversations, talk to friends, be updated on current events and online content, meet and interact with new people, boredom or to fit in in a group of other teenagers.Social media establishes social connections that are important for a child’s psychological development. Social media helps teenagers in having good social skills, fight depression by ensuring the teen feels less isolated. Societal and cultural issues and ideas are learned by use of social media. Having ideas about another person’s culture ensure smooth and peaceful interactions. It is a platform where bonding with friends occurs as well as fun. A teenager’s creativity is developed after creating content and sharing on social platforms. Teenagers are also equipped to become better, active and responsible citizens. The real world skills that are developed help the teenagers to be independent adults when they grow up. Current affairs and world events become conversant to the teenagers as they interact with both the immediate environment and the other parts of the world.
A coin is always two sided. Despite the numerous merits from social media usage, there are several disadvantages. They include; spending of a lot of time online thereby shutting down the actual world they live in. Cyber bullying is also known as online bullying. Cyber bullying can lead to depression especially if a teenager is not confident enough to talk to an adult on what is going on online. One can have a damaged online reputation especially since during the teenage years, reckless pasting is a norm. Personal information shared online can easily fall in the hands of hackers who can use the information to cyber bully a teenager. Harassment from online strangers is usually common on social media. Teenagers will be easy targets for the online scammers. After cyber bullying, a teenager’s self-esteem is ruined and they can barely face people.
Adults should talk to teenagers on the benefits and demerits of using social media. Appropriate measures ought to be taken to ensure children are protected from the social media risks. Teenagers should be encouraged to take regular breaks from social media so as to connect with their surroundings.