Is Social Network Bad for People?

Is social network bad for people?

Vu Thi Anh Thu

City University of Seattle

March 10, 2018

Abstract

      The concept of social network has long been no stranger to people in the modern society. This research aims to help people, especially teenagers gain a better understanding of the negative effects of these services. The analysis is based on the surveys of  reputable organizations around the world to help people get a better view of social network.  The challenge posed by the negative effects is no less. The research will help people know using social network is not good.

        The past decade has witnessed the popularity of technology, meaning more and more people of all ages gain access to social network. Social network is unique platform in which people communicate with each other as web-based services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, displays a list of service users who can share and connect in the same system such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter (Nicole B. Ellison & Danah m. Boyd, 2008). In recent year, the number of people using services from social network increase significantly and they spend an average of many hours every day sharing, liking, tweeting and updating on these services. For example, as of September 30, 2017, Facebook has confirmed that there are 2.07 billion monthly active users worldwide, meaning an average of 1.37 billion people use Facebook every day (Library, 2018).  It is not bad for people if everyone spends so much time on social network because disadvantages of this outweigh advantages.

Reasons why social network is bad

      It cannot be denied that social network has negative influence on people especially teenagers. First, scientists have proven that social networking services like Facebook, Instagram or Twitter impact on health of users. According to some reports, it was found that about 40% of the world population uses social network. They use an average of two hours per day to access Facebook for sharing, liking and updating. Also, for the Snapchat app, there are half a million views and photo sharing per minute (Brown, 2018). People usually use social network before their bedtime. This habit can cause inhibition of hormone melatonin production in the body by the action of the blue light emitted by the screen smart phones and laptops. This leads to insomnia and inadequate sleep, which can have a significant effect on sleeping (Brown, 2018).

          Moreover, social network keeps people away from real-life, creates distances in real-life relationships and makes people addicted if they use too much (Shabnoor Siddiqui & Tajinder Singh, 2016). In 2011, Daria Kuss and Mark Griffiths from the University of Nottingham Trent in England compiled 43 studies they had previously read about the impact of social network and found that social network addiction was a psychological health problem. The overuse of social networking services will diminish academic achievement and social participation. They tend to use social networks to compensate for the lack of real-life relationships (Brown, 2018).