The Risk of Technology and Social Networks

The technology risk for children and young adults, especially for Generation Z and Millennials is real. In this blog post, I will share with you some thoughts about the risk associated with exposure to social networks, media and technology.

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Background

It is a fact, the current generation of children and young adults were born with the goal of having more followers online than actual friends in real life. For younger children, this can have serious consequences, if it is not managed and control carefully.

In specific, creating a true sense of awareness of all the circumstances associated with this social phenomena is fundamental.

Every human being needs to experience a social connection. This is an essential part of our human development and a key ingredient to maintain health and happiness.

Thanks to social networks, the whole society in all parts of the world are connected often in real time. Looking at it from the surface, this should be great.

However, it seems that the increased use of social networks and technology coincides with a deterioration in mental health.

Potential Effects of Overexposure to Social Media

I have seen in the news that independent studies on the effects of social media have shown that in the second decade of the 2000s, more people have signs of depression than in the eighties.

In fact, adolescents, who belong to Generation Z and Millennials, are more likely to have trouble sleeping.

According to the World Health Organization, depression is the biggest cause of work incapacitation and affects 350 million people around the world. This, of course, may be due to many factors that have nothing to do with social networks and the use of technology.

However, there are preliminary investigations that relate this depression to the use of social networks.

The main influence that these networks have over Generation Z and Millennials is the social comparison. This is not new and it is something that has always been done.

Scrolling through our social media feeds feels like a harmless part of our daily lives. But is it actually as harmless at seems? According to social media expert Bailey Parnell, our growing and unchecked obsession with social media has unintended long term consequences on our mental health. Listen to what she had to say in this TED Talk:

The following book gives you some insights on the mindset of the Generation Z and today’s super connected generation:

Everyone has compared their life with that of their neighbor, often overemphasizing defects and shortcomings. Taking this a step further, the tendency is for people to compare themselves with the perfect photos of thousands of others, which makes the situation even harder to manage.

This is problematic since the majority of the people intentionally only upload or share online positive aspects of their lives.

Another reason why social networks can cause depression is that those who use them in excess do not feel that the time spent in them is wasted. This makes them feel empty.

Additionally, online socialization interferes with face-to-face encounters. We know for a fact that people are physically and psychologically affected without human contact.

There are studies that have shown that people go crazy without human interaction.

Consider installing a protection mechanism and reading more about how to protect your family agains the dangers of social network and media. Below are some resources for your consideration:

Or you can get it at Scepter Publishers here: Digital Families.

The Social Impact

It can be argued that some elements of social networks do provide or enhance the experience of human contact. Arguably this is the case with Skype, Tango, Facetime, and Whatsapp, to name a few.

However, this is an oversaturation of human contact. Without harnessing, controlling, or self-regulating their use, the hyper-stimulation caused by these networks cannot be good for human beings.

This prompts us to think about the effect of “the like” or “reward” in social media. The artificially generated needs for reward and connection are what make many people vulnerable to addiction and compulsive habits with regard to technology.

The effects produced by addiction to technology are common to those of compulsive gamblers: loss of sleep, problems in quitting or setting aside the phone, tablet, of the computer, as well as a tendency to lie about the time spend doing it.

And in the case of adolescents, it is more serious because they are more vulnerable. I have read those young people that hypertext is likely to suffer from behavioral problems.

These same people are twice as likely to try alcohol and possibly more likely to try drugs.

Also, overusing social media expose them to other dangerous areas, which could involve consideration to look into pornography and the idea of having sex partners.

This is due to the impact and influence of friends. Before the advent and popularity of social networks, having a friend with behavior problems did not affect everyone around us.

However, in today’s social network era, that is no longer the case. Therefore, this increases the social and peer pressure.

Conclusion

To help avoid the risk of technology for the Generation Z and Millennials, it is advisable to make young people aware of the danger of social networks and, above all, the unnoticed addiction to them.

In this blog post I have discussed the potential effects of overexposure to social media. I presented information about the social impact that this may have on children and young adults.

Let’s us encourage them to develop true friendships. How about if we encourage in person interactions with the goal that they develop true friendships.

Let’s make a concerted effort to work with our children and young adults to harness the power of technology and the social networks. In that way all of us can experience the benefits that they bring without compromising family unity.

For guidelines on the suggested screen time for your child, I invite you to check my blog post titled: “Screen Time for Children – What is Best?”. Another excellent reference is the web site “Hashtag Parenting”. This web site offers outstanding reference and resources to help parents address and help their children handle the challenges, as well as the dangers of social networks, media, and technology.

Do you have any concerns related to the use of social media? What techniques to you use? I will love to hear about your own personal experience in dealing with this issue.

Jorge