Su Jin Lee/111095/10b3
Mr. Johnson
Grammar and Composition
17 May 2011
Facebook and Teenagers: What Facebook is doing to KMLA students
Gossip girls talk about rumors, jocks discuss sports and music, and nerds dispute over philosophical and political issues outside of school. Where can these be possible? Smart phones, tablet PCs, Wi-Fi, and social networking service enables people interact with each other everywhere, almost instantly. Social Networking Service (SNS) is an online service that is used to make social networks, and its influence is immeasurable all over the world (Gadget). For example, Egyptians’ protest against their dictator, Mubarak, first spread by Facebook. Moreover, 1 in 16 kids under age 5 has a Facebook account, and Facebook is used by more than five hundred million people in the world, becoming the most dominant SNS site. Facebook operates seventy-five languages in the world, and more than seventy-five percent of its users are not Americans. Teenagers are prominent users of Facebook, who are the most responsive to technological changes and current trends, since fall of 2005, when they were qualified to join Facebook (Kirkpatrick, 16-17). Teenagers update their status and locations instantly by utilizing their Smart phones and tablet PCs, and others comment and ‘like’ what teenagers have updated on their profile. Teenagers’ quick responses and flow of information creates Facebook a colossal social community where they gather up to be acquainted with more people.
Teenagers’ Facebook phenomenon also exists in Korean Minjok Leadership Academy, where its students are probably the busiest teenagers in Korea. In fact, since KMLA society is such a small one, what happens in Facebook spreads into real life, making SNS’s effect even more immense. There are positive aspects of KMLA students’ Facebook use, such as rapid information exchange and broadening social relationship. However, some negative aspects influence KMLA students badly, interfering with their privacy and emotions. Despite its huge influence and convenience, there underlies some serious problems within Facebook in teenage society, such as KMLA, and there must be some significant measures taken to resolve these.
To begin with, teenage use of Facebook is exceptionally beneficial regarding expanding social relationship and intake of information. Widening personal connections to others is extremely important because teenagers never know what help they can possibly receive from friends on Facebook in the future (Capone). In KMLA, students try to make as many Facebook friends as possible who are seniors, or students in other high schools such as foreign language schools because those friends can be of great help in club activities, school festivals, and assignments. For instance, Min Q Kang, a 16th waver in KMLA, learned about how to write a paper in MLA format effectively from a video clip that was posted in Facebook by his friend from other school. Min Q mentioned that he believes that sometime in the future, all of his Facebook friends can be a huge help, and vice versa. To add, Facebook enables teenagers to make a voice in the society. Since Facebook makes information and posts available to numerous people, these posts can be considered important, effective, and be seen by many. For example, one of KMLA students, a 16th waver Young Jin Kwon, feels that her statements and status are widely acknowledged by people on Facebook, as shown by a great deal of comments and ‘likes.’ For instance, she wrote on her wall that she believes morning exercise on rainy days is too much for students to handle. Young Jin’s wall post became sensational, arousing many fellow students’ sympathy and agreement. Her wall post had more than twenty ‘likes,’ and countless comments.
Moreover, fast flow of information is what attracts teenagers to Facebook as well (Hunt, 116). In KMLA, students learn where the dorm parents are from Facebook because other students post about where the dorm parents are immediately after they see the dorm parents. This information is essential to students because they need to clean up the mess on their desks and put their laptops away before the dorm parents come near to students’ rooms. Additionally, Seo Hyun Im, a 15th waver, was confused about AP exam schedule that was coming up in short time, and she logged into Facebook and quickly figured out the exact agenda. Seo Hyun claimed that she was enthralled by what Facebook can do. Facebook can be significantly advantageous to teenagers by allowing them make more friends, have an influence on their community, and finally exchange information rapidly.
On the other hand, Facebook can be extremely detrimental to teenagers. First, it can trigger addiction because teenagers believe instant responses from their friends and posting pictures and videos are very fun. When teenagers are doing something else, they crave to log into Facebook and see what others said about their new pictures and posts. According to “Good Morning America,” Facebook has become an extreme obsession for some Californian girls, who turn anxious when they cannot check what is going on online (Orso). The situation is not better at all in KMLA as well. Several of 16th wavers consider themselves addicted to Facebook. Hee Eun Moon, a 16th waver, deactivated her Facebook account because she thought that using Facebook took up too much of her precious time during exam period. Also, Young Jin Kwon confessed that sometimes she loses track of time when she surfs Facebook, and when she looks at the time, she realizes that five hours had past. Addiction to Facebook is exceptionally disturbing to teenagers, particularly KMLA students, because it interferes with their daily schedule and forces them to stay overnight to complete the homework.
Furthermore, Facebook can invade teenagers’ privacy. Since teenagers are unable to think properly and make wise decisions, they are vulnerable to ‘predators,’ who are strangers seeking for teenagers to play with. When teenagers become immersed with fascinating conversations with strangers, strangers begin to find out about their personal lives, and teenagers naively respond to them (Matyszczyk). Demi Wright, fifteen-year-old girl in England has been missing since she left to meet a man she met on Facebook. Demi is believed to have chatted with the man for a long time, and she let him know many things about her privacy (Teenage Girl). In KMLA, Elina Choi, a 16th waver, had a fight with a boy she met on Facebook because he kept on trying to ask about her privacy, making her annoyed. In fact, several girls in KMLA had similar experiences. Facebook makes weak and unprotected teenagers exposed to strangers, who can pose threats to them. This matter has to be dealt carefully because it is straightly correlated with teenagers’ safety issue.
Besides, teenagers are negatively influenced by Facebook because it causes extreme bullying and hurt feelings among friends. Teenagers use harsh words online because they fail to realize how strong and hurtful they can be. Also, since Facebook is open to numerous people, more people join in bullying others, and the victims feel even more humiliated. A study done by Ybarra in 2007 indicated that ‘cyber-bullying’ was more harmful because it is known to more people, and its traces are not removed in most cases (de Zwart). In KMLA Facebook page, certain students are particularly bullied because students consider it easy to post some derogatory comments and believe what they have done is infinitesimal. However, the next day, in school, that victim is bullied even more seriously by a bigger number of people because of what happened in Facebook over the night. Since KMLA society is small that comprises of only about 500 students, bullying spreads even quicker to every single member of the society. Let alone extreme bullying to certain students, almost everyone is offended by what occurs in Facebook because people’s inconsiderate comments can hurt each others’ feelings. Some students have conflicts over misunderstandings that were caused in Facebook, bringing these problems to real lives and affecting others around them.
Facebook can be very advantageous when teenagers use it wisely, learning how to keep away from detrimental aspects (Parker-Pope). First, they must learn to control their Facebook use. Teenagers are busy individuals who need to focus on school work and extracurricular activities for college entrance. In spite of benefits that Facebook has, it disrupts teenagers and makes them indulge in surfing other’s walls and be obsessed with checking what others said and posted. To prevent addiction, it is crucial that parents are aware of how many hours their children use for Facebook. Beyond parental guidance, teenagers themselves need to set limits for themselves for how long they are allowed to use Facebook. For KMLA students, this is even more essential because they have loads of work to do without their parents’ supervision. Ho Yeun Jung, another 16th waver, has promised with himself to log into Facebook only once a week, on Saturday, for twenty minutes. On weekdays, he can concentrate on his studies and club activities without worrying about what is happening on Facebook. He states that this is extremely effective in learning how to self-discipline.
Furthermore, teenagers need to keep the distance from strangers they meet on Facebook. It is best not to ask for help or communicate too much with strangers (Rangen). Sometimes, if the names are entirely unfamiliar, rejecting friend requests is important. In fact, Junghyun Lee, a 16th waver, never accepts friend requests from names that seem strange to her because she does not wish to deal with problems caused in the future. Also, in KMLA, alerting friends about notable strangers can be helpful, too. That way, by being alert to strangers in advance, students can all prevent damages. Members in room 703 actually warn each other, and they could all reject friend request from an exceptionally annoying Cambodian who tried to flirt with Korean girls. In addition, teenager can use ‘De-Friend’ action or ‘Block User’ action to avoid friends who they are unfavorable of. This is the safest way because those people are completely kept out.
Last but not least, teenagers need to be aware of the fact that bullying on Facebook can be seriously damaging to the victims (Teenage Cyber). Although teenagers might not have been thinking that what they write on Facebook is not as serious as what is shown in reality, online manners are compulsory etiquettes people need to have (Parker-Pope). Especially in Facebook, teenagers need to be more mannerly because it is used to create favorable community and connections between friends. KMLA students need to keep this in mind because for them, Facebook is almost identical to real-life community because everyone’s friends are similar to those of other friends’. To add, KMLA community has to become more orderly since KMLA is believed to be the best high school in the country, and people expect a lot from the students. If all people see from KMLA students’ Facebook pages is derogatory comments on each other, the school’s reputation will be degraded. Facebook, along with its benefits, some significant problems are disrupting teenagers and KMLA students’ lives, and several innovative and influential procedures must to be taken to settle these, such as self-discipline, avoiding strangers, and keeping online manners.
Works Cited
Capone, April. “Because Facebook can be a lifesaver.” Time 2 May 2011: 31
de Zwart, Melissa. “Teenagers, legal risks and social networking sites” apo.org.au. 21 Mar. 2011. Australian Policy Online. 30 Mar. 2011
<http://www.apo.org.au/research/teenagers-legal-risks-and-social-networking-sites>
“Gadget Mania: How our digital devices are changing us” Reader’s Digest March 2011: 94-99
Hunt, Tara. The Power of Social Networking. New York: Three Rivers Press, 2009
Kim, Jane Mallie. “Network via Social Media.” U.S. News & World Report December 2010: 53
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Kiss, Jemima. “Most Teens Are MySpacers” guardian.co.uk. 17 May 2007. Guardian Online. 7 May 2011
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2007/may/17/digitalmedia.socialnetworking>
Matyszczyk, Chris. “Too Much Facebook Make Girls Depressed” news.cnet.com. 31 January 2009. Cnet News Online. 14 May 2011
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-17852_3-10153941-71.html>
Orso, Alberto and Suzan Clarke. “As Facebook Takes Over Their Lives, Some Teens are Pulling the Plug” abcnews.go.com. 28 December 2009. ABC News Online. 14 May 2011
<http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/Parenting/teens-addicted-facebook/story?id=9430680>
Parker-Pope, Tara. “Monitoring Teenage Phones and Facebook” well.blogs.nytimes.com. 2 July 2010. The New York Times Online. 9 May 2011
<http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/07/02/monitoring-teenage-phones-and-facebook/>
Qualin, John. “Social Network Cause and Effect.” U.S. News & World Report November 2010: 36-38
Rangen, Brent. “Facebook Puts Bullies and Harassment” searchenginewatch.com. 12 March 2011. Search Engine Watch. 25 April 2011
Shirky, Clay. “The Political Power of Social Media.” Foreign Affairs January/February 2011: 28-41
“Teenage Cyber-bullying and Facebook- Reducing the Risks” networkconference.netstudies.org. 26 April 2010. Online Conference on Networks and Communities. 15 May 2011
“Teenage Girl Missing after Going to Meet a Man She Had Fallen for on Facebook” dailymail.co.uk. 26 March 2010. Daily Mail Online. 13 May 2011
