Imprisoned by Social Media

The great Albert Einstein once said The day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots. Social Media is handicapping our youth of letting us as humans beings not think for ourselves. A man should be defined by his hard work and his success: not by his amount of followers and attention he gets. Whether we like it or not, Social Media, Internet, and all of technology are here to stay and growing every day. Social Media plays a big role in America and is brainwashing our youth in not giving us the right to think for ourselves. We need to stop making stupid people famous.

Social media is the future of communication, online channels dedicated to community-based and platforms that increase and enhance the sharing of information. This new form of Social Media is the transfer of photos, texts, video, audio, and any information you're willing to share among other internet users. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumbler, and LinkedIn have online communities' where you can share a lot of information, personal or non-personal. The outcome of having these Social Medias is the amount of your information being exposed, promoted, searched, created, and disputed. The last thing anyone would want is all our information in the wrong hands. All it takes is one post for a number of people to be little you and everything you stand for.

Social Media plays a big role everywhere around the World, mainly America. Social Media can open doors for some people making it easier for people to make contact and communicate with others. A lot of people are very shy and awkward when it comes to communication with other people the media eliminates it. Social Media is very good for our economy bringing opportunities to jobs and helping businesses grow by getting there name out there. It helps businesses able to buy supplies for whatever their needs are without wasting time and effort. Young adults are the foundation of Social Media. The founders of Facebook were all college roommates at Harvard University just wanted an easy way connect with other college students. Facebooks makes it easier to meet people, including making contact with old friends and catching up. This would help the older generation communicate with their old high school and college friends. Facebook and Twitter updates people what's going on in the world and what's trending. With all these positive outcomes that the older generations get, the youth get the short end of the stick.

Social Media tries their best to cover up the bad, ugly truth about what it does to your health. The media can play with our emotions brainwashing you telling you what right from wrong. It strangles us from what's important and eats away your time, because we all want attention. We lack the face to face communication with family, friends, and others. We lose that spark in people. Social Media kills all types of relationships including: family, friends, and couples. Because you post one thing, it's up for the whole world to see. The media fools people every day with gossips, rumors, and facts. Why are so attached? We the people like to instigate peoples business because we are curious. Our curiosity can messes with us emotionally with jealousy, lust, and hatred towards one another. The media is always in celebrities' business. They are always trying to make someone look bad, because the more rating the more money. Most of the stuff we hear is all a lie. We can't trust the Internet and media for nothing and on top of that there people every day that hack people. The person that we think we know could be someone else; it is deceitful.

Today, people idolize someone off there looks and money. People are very judgmental. Teenagers' and young adults' are at the age where they are most emotional. The Internet and Media does more harm than good to us. It causes natural disorders that can rub off on anyone that gets a negative vibe. All this websites can tear a person apart emotional, mentally, and physically. People like to cyberbully people and that is becoming a serious problem in America. Cyber bullying is when someone is tormented, threatened, harassed, embarrassed, humiliated, embarrassed or targeted by another person on the Internet and social media. People who have been cyber bullied have a high risk of depression and anxiety. Symptoms of cyber bullying are: loss of sleep and eating, increased feelings of sadness and loneliness, health complaints, and loss of interest in hobbies. Kids tend to miss and drop out of school, get poor grades, abuse drugs and alcohol, and have a low self-esteem. In worst cases; thoughts of hurting people, yourself, and suicidal thoughts. Use of social networks can cause personality and mental disorders in children, limited attention spans, face to face conversation, instant gratification, and Attention- Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).

Social Media tends to distracts you and eats away your time for the wrong reasons. It holds you back from achieving Malcom Gladwell's Outliers 10,000 hour rule. If you even want to be successful in anything you are going to have to put in10,000 hours. The Media keeps you from reach your goals and being successful. The media sucks you in and makes you lazy because your eyes are stuck on your phone or internet. Pupils' grades have dropped enormously. Statistics show that students that use social media grades drop from a 3.82 GPA to a 3.06 GPA. Students test score have also dropped 20% from the abuse of social media. Networks like Facebook and Twitter are a direct cause for lost productivity at the workplace. 36% of workers said social networking was the biggest waste of time such as watching TV, video games, and shopping. In a 2012 study families reported spending less quality time with each other rose from 8% in 2000 to 32% in 2011. Also, another 32% spent text or on social media sites instead of communicating with one another during family holidays and gatherings. You can say this generation just had bad timing. Like Malcom Gladwell's Outliers Matthew Effect. It explains that the date you were born on will have an effect on your whole life.

To every problem there is a solution. If you have a social media addiction first thing to do is acknowledge you have a problem, and it is better to get that out the way then being in denial. Give yourself a certain amount of time like 20 minutes a day. If you get stuck your 20 minutes can turn into 2 hours and on and on. Give up social media for a couple days see how that goes, then try weeks and see how it goes then. If none of this is working, unfriend or unfollow the people that give you nothing but a negative vibe. Unfriend or unfollow the people that you really don't know or have no interest for. Doing this will make your News Feed smaller and take up less time. When you're mad last thing you do is be on social media you will end up doing and saying something you are going to regret. Think before you post stuff, act like your family, work, school is watching you. People have lost sport scholarship and jobs because they posted something on the Internet that made the person look disgraceful to others. When you finished with the website or app sign out, it keeps you from getting little notifications that side-track you from doing whatever you were doing. It also makes you think twice like do I really need to waste my time and go through the hassle. If none of this works delete you're saved apps on phone and computer. If someone really needs to get a hold of you they will find a way to contact you. Find a hobby to do in your spare time, and find friends that will keep you busy. Love yourself, find ways to keep yourself motivated in order to reach your goals so you can be successful in your own eyes.

In October 2006, a 13 year old girl named Megan Meier was founded in her bedroom closet hung to death. Megan had an attention deficit disorder and problems with depression in addition with problems with her weight. Five weeks before she killed herself she met a 16 year-old named Josh Evens on Myspace. They start to hit it off she said that there is finally a boy who thought she was really pretty. Mid-October, Josh began to say cruel things to Megan saying he doesn't want to be friends, and the world would be better off without you. The cyberbullying escalated with other classmates and friends joining in on taunting. 20 minutes later she hanged herself in her closet. After her death, Megan's parents were informed that Josh was not a real person. Her old friend and neighbor made a fake account to mess with her and to get even. A federal jury indicted her on all four counts in 2008. Judge George Wu acquitted Drew in August 2009 and vacated the conviction. It's very sad that Megan went out like that, especially when the person wasn't even real.

The Nation Youth Violence Prevention Resource Center estimates that over 30 percent of American youth are either a bully or a victim of bullying. However bullying is no longer a problem in the hallways, playgrounds, cafeterias, and classroom. Instead, technology is the new bullying from cell phones, social media websites and other online websites. According to the (CDC) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, suicide is the third leading cause of death among young people with approximately 4,400 deaths every year just from social media. For every suicide there is a 100 suicide attempts. More than 14 percent of high school students have suicidal thoughts, and 7 percent have attempted suicide. Social Media can hurt more than just one person; it can hurt your loved ones, friends, and a community.

I believe if we ever want to be successful in this world staying away from social media would be the smartest thing to do. Our actions should speak for us not our media posts on the internet. You get the wrong kind of attention on social media. You can't believe everything that is posted on the Internet. You can't even believe people on the media cause behind that computer screen it can be someone else. We lose that genuine in people when people all around have their business out and about to the public. We need to worry me about ourselves, then what others are doing. I wrote this paper because social media has been nothing but trouble to me. Friendships and Relationships with girls have been ruined over it. I have been fights on social media, and been in a fist fight with an individual over something dumb. My ability to focus in school has taken a tremendous fail. My grades have fallen due to being distracted and are now trying to recover. Yeah I have met and have been known through social media from people. In the End I wish I was never introduced to Social Media.

In Conclusion, Social Media does more damage than good to our health. The Media is nothing but a brainwashing system trying to get all attention, and keep you distracted from what's important. We need to be a lot smarter than our phone. We give it the juice, the power to work, it shouldn't be working us. We are handicapping ourselves if we give into what the media says is right from wrong. As Albert Einstein said, The day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.

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