“A place for friends” – that is the slogan of many different social network sites increasing their numbers of users every minute. Especially for young people the internet has become a part of their everyday routine, it has changed their form of community.
There are a variety of social and communication skills that people can have, and that the use of online social networks affects some of them differently. The big challenge of social competences lies in the visibility of the digital interaction for everyone. It is for this reason that the use of social networks has a detrimental effect on social skills of young people.Living so connected online means that children often invest much time, energy and emotional value in relationships that are not built on the things they typically are.
On the other hand, it is much easier to stay in touch, and. However, there have been several cases in the media of teenagers killing themselves after being bullied online.Obviously, bullying can be hurtful, but when young people begin to define themselves not by who they think they are or even their personal interactions with others such as dating, but by their place and perception in the social media sphere, then they lose the grounding and control that comes with having more tangible contact with the things that define you. Looking at youtube comments, it can be seen that people are incredibly willing to say mean or stupid things: the anonymity of the internet enables this in a way face to face interaction or even responsibility would deter.
A closer consideration of young peoples competences show that managing conflict becomes detached from the offline lives, and managing conflict online, where they might be investing energy, is harder, because this persona and the sphere it is created in is less real. Face to face communication, like asking a stranger for directions or even talking to friends about emotional issues, is probably far more stunted.Rather than directly confronting a friend with a quarrel, you might have a facebook chat, something that teenagers do not have the same emotive integrity and substance. Others argue that the barrier of interaction is probably lower in some circumstances.
But, chat or even skype are no full substitutes for a hug, a kiss, or many other emotional interactions that humans have built up for millennia.It follows that the frequency of a teenager being online has increased greatly during the past years. They had become more isolated to socializing online than regularly calling and meeting each other. At the same time such internet platforms might strengthen peoples weak ties they have with acquaintances when travelling in other countries.
However, contact is minimal and impersonal and therefore more superficial. Observing young people in restaurants, busses, planes or in the street shows them rather connected to a mobile phone typing messages or checking friends activities by looking at their news feed rather than talking to somebody. A case study amongst college student revealed that “1 in 7 say that social networking sites increase feelings isolation” as well as “Nearly 70% report reading posts from someone close to them that seemed like a cry for emotional help, and while most students would offer support in some way, fewer than half would make a personal visit”.Because the internet allows people to present themselves in a social media context in a way that they might not be able to in their real lives, children can become trapped in how important this online persona is.
Thereby they often do not concern that this may mean a hebetation of their social competences. Social networks are like escalators. They are designed to make life easier and much more convenient. However, they create problems and at the same time people get lazy because of finding easier ways to interact.
