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Sociological Theory and Methodology Course Essay
Sociological, Theory, Methodology, Course, Essay
This topic falls under the functionalism sociological theory, structural functionalism. This is because the topic is broached in such a manner that seeks to question the effect of social media and the on the solidarity and stability of the society. This perspective views the society as some a complex system which is depended on its constitutive parts to work together and achieve solidarity and stability explain what this means and how it works. See your book for theory…
(Mulkay, 2014). One of the main factors under this perspective is that different social structures are supposed to shape the society. Therefore, children as part of the society should be shaped from home to be contributive members of the society and this can be achieved without destructive effects from social media use. Make sure to include function/dysfunction, and equilibrium–how do these apply to your topic?
Methodology of the Topic
This research took a qualitative study to which analyzes the research question. The researcher looked through twenty-one articles touching on different areas related to the topic. The areas include the background of social media use in by children, the effects of social media and whether addiction to social media impairs the developmental stages of children .as well as learning stages of children.
The researcher also looked into articles touching on the different usages of social media by different generations. The data from these articles was studied based on their relevance to the topic and analyzed. The rationale for choosing the various articles for study was their relationship to the question and whether they affirmed or disaffirmed answered the question.
No need to talk about what the ‘researcher’ ‘looks at’that is a given, that you will read, analyze, and synthesize scholarly articles in order to write this research paper.
Introduction
Over a period, social media has been a continuously growing phenomenon in our society. Today, almost all activities are influenced by social media. The effects of social media on a human being’s way of life remain a controversial topic. Some people believe that social media has been immensely beneficial to our way of life, while others hold the perception that social media has caused adverse effects on society briefly explain the benefits and detriments…(Desmottes, 2015).
Without any doubt, social media fuels globalization how are you using this term? by facilitating communication and interactions. Every individual can share sentiments, concerns, or ideas with a large number of people across the world. While a more natural connection is an obvious benefit, it is imperative to sit back and ponder analyze or investigate (your choice of word…) about how social media affects learning and developmental processes in children.
Children continuously grow from birth to adulthood. During all these stages of development, the children gather knowledge from their environment. The children consume experiences, which adversely affects their social, language, intellectual, emotional, and physical development.
Every child follows the same developmental stages and learning process. The learning process is classified according to the child’s developmental stage (Leung, 2014). It is prudent to note that social media has changed the learning process. How? Explain Children are being exposed to information which they cannot effectively synthesis you mean synthesize?
Although it is a good thing that children are exposed to more information, lack of parental control has adverse effects on learning. Today, children have underdeveloped social skills expand (Best et al. 2013). Further, continued exposure to social media results in speech problems. These are some of the adverse effects of social media on children’s developmental process. This is vague, expand.
As information is now readily available, children are exposed to false information. –Expand, and how does obesity relate to false information?? Today, a large number of obesity cases can be directly attributed to social media. Children at a lower development stage may be inclined to believe in untrue information expand(Sampasa-Kanyiga & Lewis, 2015).
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, with an increase in media advertisement of high-fat/sugar foods, the level of childhood obesity will continue increasing.–any stats to support this? The children today have a problem with their eating habits. In most cases, children are addicted to high-sugar foods (Swist et al. 2015).
Social media is recorded as the highest consumer of children’s free time. An average child spends approximately a third of their day on social media platforms. The other major time consumer is sleep. A combination of high-sugar foods and lack of physical exercise is synonymous with obesity adverts on social media platforms fuel consumption of such food.
There is a need to increase their ??involvement in physical activities (Hamm et al. 2015). Children should be encouraged to embrace dynamic behaviors such as…that supplement their addiction to media. Children are continuously exposed to internet advertisements advocating for unhealthy food. Adverts sp. on social media seek to satisfy hunger on an emotional angle rather than health needs. The child’s developmental process is, therefore, affected immensely. Vague…
It is also imperative to consider the effects of social media on social-emotional growth. The three fundamental types of learning are affected by social media (observational learning, classical, and operant conditioning). Children can learn from social media how to associate with certain events,–such as… this which may leads to the children to being conditioned by social media, unaware that the information might be false.
Additionally, the children observe behavior on social media and end up copying adverse reactions.–reactions to what?? Social media is turning out to be a n excellent forum for bullying (Swist et al. 2015). Through cyberbullying, children victims suffer emotional and social setbacks.
Further, social media can fuel children into indulging in risky behavior.–such as… It is not in contention that social media benefits children; however, it is imperative repetitive term- choose another term to carry out an intensive study on the use of social media in society. In particular, this discourse research shall seek to critically analyze the impacts of social media on children’s developmental stages and learning process.
How Young Social Media Use Starts— Awkwardly stated: maybe you want to say ‘at what age do children start using social media ?’Influence central ?? has reported that an average kid child in the United States gets their first smartphone at the age of ten years. Averagely, they also open up their first social media account at the age of eleven.
It is estimated that by the age of twelve, fifty percent of all the children use at least one social media platform. This then begs the question of how these children manage to log on to these platforms given that there is an age limit for these sites (Griffiths, 2000). Notably, these children lie about their age especially for sites such as Instagram, Tiktok, Snapchap and Facebook all of which have all set their age limit to be thirteen as dictated by the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.
Recently, Facebook launched a social media app for kids children (stop using the word kids- it’s slang…does not look professional in this type of work)that were dubbed “Messenger for Kids.”
The launch of this app reignited major debates –this is vague, what were the major points of the debate? on how young is too young for children to use mobile apps Common Sense reported in 2016, that up to fifty-six percent of both teens and tweens have their own social media accounts.
Most of the parents who were subjects of this study pointed out that they have been dependent on the Children’s Online Privacy Act to come up with stringent measure to ensure that the companies creating these platforms come up with more age limiting restrictions which their children cannot bypass (Desmottes, 2016).
It is prudent to note that while some of them considered twelve to be such a young age for children to be using social media, most of them postulated ?? or felt? that they were okay to sit down with their children and talk about the privacy concerns of Social media use (Akram & Kumar, 2017).
However, the menace still looms with children under the age of five becoming addicted to the internet. This implies that children’s developmental stages are impeded from such an early age.—this is vague! Which developmental stages are you talking about? Specify.
It is prudent to note that subject According to the report by Common Sense, most of the parents objecting to thirteen year olds using social media were not concerned with the detriment to the children’s developmental stages as well as the learning stages, they were concerned with the amount of time that was spent on the media platforms (Akram & Kumar, 2017).
This was an intriguing concern, as it could be aligned with our topic in respect to the impediment to the learning stages that is associated with the increased use of social media platforms. –how so? Explain!
Effects of Social Media in Young Children
The effect that social media has in young children with regards to the learning stages is immense. Despite the fact that it has its advantages, the impediments that it has on the development of the children as well as the learning stages override the advantages.
The effects range from affected communication and social skills to failure to have an identity as well as lack of self-esteem. –expand It should be noted that with regard to social media when talking about the effects on children, we shall tackle the effects of internet to young children.
Firstly, internet use can be very addictive to children and as such most children will spend most of their time on social media. This will mean that they will stop to have relationships or interactions with people around them. Studies according to common sense reveal that the engrossment to internet in people is so great that people become detached from real life (Best et al. 2015).
The report specify the name of the report further suggested that since the age below five years is when most children under the age of five develop communication skills from a continuous interaction with the people around them, the failure to have these interactions will impede their communication skills (Sampasa-Kanyinga & Lewis, 2015).
It is pertinent to note that the learning of interpersonal communication is achieved at a very young age, however, when and when children under the age of five years spend most of their time on social media then they fail to learn the verbal cues, and nonverbal cues as well as the social which are necessary for the the development of interpersonal communications.
Secondly, social media affects the self-esteem and self-confidence in young children. The adolescence ages are is the time when a person becomes aware of whom they are since the body experiences some changes during puberty. It is at this stage that they become aware of their identity.
Social media exposes children who have attained the puberty ages adolescents, which is ten for girls and twelve for boys, to cyber bullying as well as unrealistic expectations –expecta tions of what??(Lewis & Greenshow, 2016). A perfect exemplare is a girl whose body does not conform to models as well as other children of her own age, such a child will ?
To achieve such looks to no avail and they will consequently realize that they cannot achieve it. This will leave them with negative feelings about themselves thus affecting their self-esteem (Dorfberger et al. 2007). Notably, the constant trying to emulate people in the media will mean that they will not have time to discover themselves and accept who they are. This translates to an affected self-confidence.
The young age is the appropriate time when children learn skills such as researching –no they don’t learn to research, they learn to search! and critical thinking. Children develop critical thinking skills at the age of eight.
However, it has been suggested that as soon as children are able to speak in sentences, then they are ready to learn of engage in critical thinking skills (Lewis & Greenshow, 2016). Research vague..shows that constant interactions with people around children augment their skills to critically analyze situations.
Noting, therefore, that Excessive use of social media affects and impedes communication skills mean that and the development of critical thinking skills, therefore in children will be impeded (Lewis & Greenshow, 2016). Additionally, the internet provides most answers with just a click of the button, which means that children will be dependent on the internet for answers which they could have gotten through critical analysis of the questions.
Addiction to Social Media in Children
Social Media Addiction is termed to be considered to be a behavioral addiction. It is defined by an over concern on what is happening on social media. It is driven by an uncontrollable urge of a person to log on to a social media site. Additionally, it is also defined by the devotion of so much time as well as effort to social media in a manner that impairs other important areas of their livesfe (Schweddler & Trude, 2018).
Research has shown that children under the age of five when exposed to social media excessively to the point of addiction will have difficult time in adjusting to the social norms. –how so? It is prudent to note (how often do you have to use the same words in this research?
You’ve already said it too many times…)that with the social media platforms, likes ??for these children is enough to cause their bodies to release dopamine, which is a hormone that is released when the body wants to “reward” itself. Consistent “Reward system” will program their lives to such a system–system?
Explain which will mean that they will cease to engage in activities which they consider less rewarding, for example, social interaction and similarly engage in harmful activities which they think may be more rewarding such as cyber-bullying. Citation?
Effects of Addiction to Social Media to the Learning Process of Young Children
There are different learning stages in a child which are influenced by addiction. ?? are you describing the stages or trying to make a connection between the stages and addiction? This connection is not clear particularly if you are trying to apply it to the early stages of development. Firstly, there is the sensorimotor stage which begins from birth through to two years and it is during this stage that children become aware of the world through their senses as well as manipulation of objects.
There is not much effect at this stage of social media on the children. The next stage is the preoperational stage and the first effects of social media addiction are evidenced during this stage. It is during this stage that memory and imagination is augmented in the children (Duddai et al. 2015).
The children at this age specify the age…are able to understand things symbolically and also become cognizant of the ideas of the past and future. Social media addiction at this age will limit their perception of things to the things present in the social media platforms and hence deny their minds from developing their own thinking skills.
At the age of seven through to eleven years of age, the children are at the concrete operational stage. It is at this stage that where they become aware of the external events as well as the feelings of other people. With the upsurge in social media use, it is quite evident that cyber-bullying becomes an apparent behavior of children as they develop the confidence to shame other people over this platform, things they could not have done on their own (Raut & Patil, 2016).
Lastly, there is the formal operational stage that starts at the age of twelve through to the teenage years. This developmental stage offers the children the ability to be able to solve problems using critical analysis (O’Keffe & Clark-Pearson, 2011). Social media limits the ability of children to think critically by offering answers to their problems by just a click of the button. In light of this, therefore, an addiction will limit development at this stage.
Generation Z and Generation Y with regards to Social Media
Different generations use social media differently. While one generation tends to extensively use social media, another generation tends to limit their use of social media. In light of this, this part of the discourse shall seek to explain the difference between Generation Z and Generation Y use of social media.
Generation Y are also referred to as digital natives. This name can be attributed to their usage of social media. Research– whose research? Specify has shown that this is the largest of the generations and the fact that they have access to the social networks gives them an upper hand with regards to a voice that is impactful (Aksoy et al. 2013).
A millennial child is prone to oversharing, and the fact that they have access to technology that allows them the audience and liberty to share and makes them ardent users of the technology. It is prudent to note that this generation of users are the most outspoken on social media and are therefore used to push brands ?–unclear as stated(Coombes, 2009). The use of social media to this generation is motivated by the fact that they like something and not because they have been forced or pressured to.?
On the other hand, a study by Pew Research has revealed that only fourteen percent of adults in 1995 had access to the internet. There has been a consistent upsurge to eighty-seven percent by 2014. The use of social media by generation Z of includes the fact that seventy-two percent of generation Z ‘ers have access to all mobile wireless services including data and applications which can grant them the use of social media (Turner, 2015).
The time spent on social media by this generation is an average of three hours and thirty-eight minutes per day?. This amounts for nearly an excess of fifty minutes to the amount of time spent online by the average social media user (Hutter et al. 2013).
It is prudent to note that most of the time that they spent online is passive reading since most of them individuals spend more time refreshing their tweet feeds instead of reading them (Lichy & Kachour, 2017). In light of the topic, such passive reading affects the retention abilities of this generation and as such, their minds do not develop to be able to retain much of what they read.
Improvements of Electronics and the Increase in the use of Social Media
The current age is ages where tech veterans this does not make sense admit that technology of smartphones affect the development of children. In 2017, Parker (2017) posited that with the change in societal relationships that the society has at the moment as a result of the development in technologies may be affecting the growth of children in ways that we cannot fathom (Chassiakos et al. 2016).
The many developments include the availability of Wi-Fi networks which provide people with easy internet access to social media platforms. Notably also is the fact that there is an increasing number of smartphones across the world and they are cheap. It is not a surprise to find a three year old kid being gifted with an iPad tablet for their third birthday. Such instances have also contributed to the increase in the use of social media at an early age by children.
Conclusion
Through a series of arguments, this paper has been able to establish that despite the fact that social media is a technology that should be embraced, given the fact that it is an element of the society; social media impedes the development of the children and the learning stages of their growth.
You need to do some additional research regarding the responsibility of parents in avoiding the detrimental effects of social media addiction , and their own responsibility on monitoring their children’s involvement with social media.
This is augmented through social media addiction, obesity as a result of much time being spent online, lifestyle diseases resulting from poor diets as well as loss of communication skills as part of the effects of social media. –You need to expand on this part.With the continued advancements in technology, it will be prudent for measures to be taken to combat the menace of social media addiction early enough.
References
Akram, W., & Kumar, R. (2017). A Study on Positive and Negative Effects of Social Media on Society. International Journal of Computer Sciences and Engineering, 347-357.
Aksoy, L., Van Riel, A., Kandampully, J., Bolton, R. N., Parasuraman, A., Hoefnagels, A., … & Solnet, D. (2013). Understanding Generation Y and their use of social media: a review and research agenda. Journal of service management.
Best, P., Manktelowa, R., & Taylor, B. (2014). Online communication, social media, and adolescent wellbeing: A systematic narrative review. Children and Youth Services Review, 27-36.
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