What Are the Effects of Social Media on Youth?

• Enables cheating on school assignments.
• While grades did improve for light users, the grades of students who are heavy users of social media tend to suffer. One study shows that student users have an average GPA of 3.06 while non-users have an average GPA of 3.82.
• For every 93 minutes over the average 106 minutes spent on Facebook daily, college students’ grades dropped .12 points.
• Another study showed that students who went online while studying scored 20% lower on tests.
• Possible negative effects on college admission: 35% of admissions officers scan prospective students’ social media and report discovering information that affects their admissions decision.
• Social networking sites harm employees’ productivity. 51% of users aged 25-34 checked social media at work.
• Using social media can harm employment and prospects. Job recruiters check a prospective employee’s social media accounts, and things like profanity, poor spelling or grammar, racism, sexism, poor health, references to alcohol or drugs, and sexual and religious content can all count against you.

Lack of Privacy:

• People, especially the young, are often too open and public with personal information when online. Most don’t read privacy policies and may be unaware that their information may be used by third parties, like advertisers, insurance companies, and the IRS. 21% of teens believe it is safe and harmless to post personal information, including photos.
• Exposure to corporate and governmental intrusions. The US Justice Department intercepts thousands of pieces of information from email and social networking activity per year.
• The IRS trains agents to scan social media for information that can help them resolve taxpayer cases.
• Insurance companies use information gleaned from social media, as well. If you have “liked” a medical-related page or a post about a health condition, that information is sometimes used by insurance companies to determine eligibility and raise rates.
• Online advertising policies are an invasion of privacy. If you “like” a brand, you’re giving that company access to your personal information.

Users Vulnerable to Crime:

• Social networking sites allow hate groups to recruit and distribute propaganda online.
• Unauthorized sharing and copyright infringement threatens intellectual property and causes loss of income.
• Security attacks such as hacking, identity theft, phishing scams, and viruses are common online. 68% of users share their real birth date, 63% share the name of their high school, 18% share their phone number, 12% share a pet’s name: This information might be used in identity theft.
• Criminals use social media to commit crimes. Robbers know when you’re away from your home on vacation and stalkers get information about your whereabouts via social media.
• Sexual predators find, stalk, and assault victims through social media.

• Sexting (texting sexual content) can be a big problem. When teens post sexy photos or comments online, it can lead to criminal charges and child pornography. 88% of “private” sexual images posted to social media are stolen and publicly posted on porn sites without the subject’s knowledge.
• Security attacks such as hacking, identity theft, and viruses and exposure to phishing scams are common via social media.

Social Detriments:

• Cyber-bullying (the use of electronic communication to bully someone, usually by sending intimidating or threatening messages) is commonplace online, causes emotional trauma, and sometimes even leads to suicide. 49.5% of students reported victimization by bullying online and 33.7% admitted to online bullying. A 2012 study found that at least 800,000 minors had been harassed on Facebook. Middle school children who experienced cyberbullying were almost twice as likely to try to kill themselves.
• According to one report, 15% of adult users said that something that happened online caused a friendship to end. 12% of adult users said something that happened online caused a face-to-face argument, and for 3% of adults it turned into a physical confrontation.
• Extensive online engagement is correlated with personality and brain disorders like poor social skills, ADHD, narcissistic tendencies, a need for instant gratification, and addictive behaviors and other emotional distress like depression, anxiety, and loneliness.
• Less time for face-to-face interaction with loved ones. 47% of 18-34-year-old users reported using social media or texting during meals. 10% of people younger than 25 reported checking their phones and social media during sex.
• Children at higher risk for depression, low self-esteem, and eating disorders and more prone to feeling isolated and disconnected (especially youth with disabilities).

Misinformation:

• Enables the spread of false rumors and unreliable information: 49.1% of users have read false news on social media.
• Encourages amateur medical advice and self-diagnosis of health problems, which can be dangerous and life-threatening.

Advertising:

• Studies have shown that sites such as Facebook influence you, via advertisements, to spend more money.
• Advertisers gain all kinds of personal information about you via your social media, information they use to persuade you to buy their product.

A Waste of Time:

• When alerted to a new post or tweet, it takes about 20 to 25 minutes for the average user to return to their original task. 30% of the time it takes two hours for the user to return to their original task.