As youth become teens or young adults it’s important for parents to monitor their children usage of social media. Parents should set boundaries and block sites that may be detrimental to their teen’s development. Parents should talk to their teens about social media similar to “the bird and the bees” or sex. Parents should be informed about the sites their child are visiting and should check the browser history for recently viewed sites. Strong relationships should be maintained between the school, teachers and parents, and notified each other when there are changes in the child behavior.

Parents need to have more involvement and be held accountable with their child’s education. Schools should offer weekly seminars, trainings and support services to parents. Teachers and parents should have direct contact information to be reached during the daytime. Similar to the child, parents should be graded and given report cards on their involvement with the school.

Direct or face-to-face contact is important because people can devote their entire day to using social media and develop “Facebook depression.” This depression can be developed when someone continues to compare him or herself to what or who they see online. When posting online, people will portray how they see themselves, which may not be accurate with reality.

Exercise is also important. Users can spend their entire day on social media without movement. This can cause a person to be overweight or obese.

Facebook has changed the way consumers’ consume information with their news feed. The news feed has developed algorithms to give users news based upon what they like. News feed algorithms were developed to remove unwanted news. The amount of people who like or share a post will determine the importance of the article. A negative about the news feed is users will only receive information base upon what they like with no opposing content, this may cause a false view of reality.

The first article “The impact of social media on Children, Adolescence, and Families” gave detailed information and stats about how a recent poll found that 22% of teens log onto their favorite social media site more than 10 times a day (I can see that happening) 75% of the teenagers own cell phones today (I feel sorry for the 25% that don’t, when I was a teen growing up it was rare to have a cell phone unless your mom let you hold hers. It’s the norm for teens to have a cell phone now.) 25% use them for social media, 54% for texting and 24% for instant messaging. This article showed the pros and cons of teens using social media sites but it did highlight one thing that was the detachment of the parents when it comes to these social media platforms. It is a good practice to know what your children are doing and what sites they are going on but in all actuality, just like they have monitoring programs, they also have stealth programs.

Parents can do their best but that’s not going to put an end to the “Dangers of Social Media” it is dangerous out here and some kids don’t belong posting on the Internet. If I had kids I would try my best to make sure I am in tune with whatever they have going on especially when it comes to social media because I know how it was in chat rooms in the 90’s, so I would try to curve any of those activities. I would also try to make sure my kid wasn’t getting bullied or bullying online. I’ve seen teens getting into trouble for “sexting” because they didn’t know better. I feel that one thing parents can do is stress the fact that whatever gets put on the Internet pretty much stays there and how that can affect them in the future. For all the bad, you have good uses as well, it can keep a teen in contact with friends and out of state family, and it’s also a networking tool that if used responsibly can be cool for everyone. I don’t think social media is negative, I don’t think a weapon is negative; It’s all in how you use it.

The next article was talking about how Facebook users are getting their getting their news now, I never really noticed but I will look now, I do know that some sites that I go on often appear on my timeline though but whatever this new method is, I see a few newspaper companies trying to get on board with the new wave!

The effects on media culture in our world today is so great to the extent of affecting everything in society. There are several positive factors this new evolution has done to us as people. One of the greatest benefits is the free flow and the sharing of information to one another. Geographical boundaries today are becoming less of an issues as far as the media is concern. People easily share and get information instantly around the globe without physically being present to that location. This has really made the world indeed a global village where people openly share ideas and cultures. In the reading “How Facebook Is Changing the way its users consume Journalism” vividly pointed out how social media like Facebook, is striving hard daily to improving the way and manner information or news streamed live to its consumers in a swift and timely manner. According to the article, “Most readers now come to it not through the print editions of newspapers and magazines or their home pages online, but through social media and search engines driven by an algorithm, a mathematical formula that predicts what users might want to read.” This new development in the media is changing the traditional way of journalism where information or the news has to go through several channels before it is aired.

With all these positive factors seen in the last few years, the effects on media culture is also adversely, affecting the thinking and behavior especially the youth. The youth especially in their teens easily get influenced with what social media like Facebook offers them. Several reports and statistics show how obesity is on a high risk especially on the part of youth who plants themselves in a static point without engaging in any other physical activities. The media culture seems promoting less physical activities. Furthermore, The American Academy of Pediatrics clinical report gives out the statistics on how social media affecting the youth of today. “Because of their limited capacity for self-regulation and susceptibility to peer pressure, children and adolescents are at some risk as they navigate and experiment with social media.”

Heavy usage of the social media today, in my candid opinion, is a blessing in disguise. Many studies have shown that, the performances of students taking online studies, performs much better than those physically taking instructions from instructors or professors in the classroom. My only worry is about how it’s wiping of physical social interactions for an online based one. I think it should be blended. The media culture is adversely influencing people especially the youth to be self-centered; they do whatever they feel like doing. This is really not a great idea for people who needs guidance by the experienced and the elderly.

Digital and Social Media has become the most common source of interactive activity in this generation. It is not only used by preadolescents and adolescents, it is used by many adults as well. The influence that digital and social media has given today’s youth and adults is tremendous yet harmful.

According to the first article The Clinical Report, 75% of teenagers own a Mobile Cellphones. I agree with this estimate because today’s youth would not know what to do on their own without a mobile device. For example: a professor asks a question about STDs, if they do not know it, the very first option that pops up in a youth’s mind would to look it up on google threw their mobile devices.

The Benefits of Digital and Social Media on an adolescent is that it helps enhance their socialization and communication abilities. Today’s adolescents have a hard time communicating with others but with social media sources such as Facebook,Twitter, LinkedIn or even Instant Messaging. It also helps enhance ways to learn. According to The Clinical Report, Today’s middle school and high school students are using social media to connect with each other to exchange ideas on homework, projects and future exams. I agree with this because not only due you enhance your chances to learn, you grow a connection with your clasthesesmates and eventually become good friends. It also helps an adult’s daily business activity become less stressful and more organized. Before, everything had to be hand-written on a calendar, now adults just simply can save it as an alert on their mobile devices. Finally, schools are now using blogs. This tool has helped improve writing, creative expression and language.

With many benefits of Social and Digital Media comes risks. The Risks of media amongst adolescents and adults are also high. An adolescent’s mind is very one-dimensional. If lead in the wrong direction, adolescents can make very serious mistakes. One risk on social media is Cyber-Bullying. Although Cyber-Bullying is rare with adolescents, they are still at risk. Another high risk of social media is Facebook Depression. This can occur when a Facebook user becomes severely consumed with Facebook that the user begins to show classic signs of depression which can lead to drug abuse, unsafe sex, erratic behavior even suicide. Finally, the worse risk of all in my opinion is Sexting. Sexting is basically sending or receiving explicit content or media from peers. According to The Clinical Report, 20% of teens have sent or posted explicit content of themselves. Sexting can cause emotional distress. It can almost become a serious as rape.

The way that these risks can be avoided is by educating parents about the threats of social media. Also, from to educate themselves about these risks so they do not make their own mistakes. Parents should keep a close supervision on their children’s use of social media that way they can not only educate them but also discipline their child.

The next article, How Facebook Is Changing the Way Its Users Consume Journalism by Ravi Somaiya talks about how Facebook is now becoming the new news source. According to this article, one-fifth of the world has an active Facebook account logging on at least monthly. Also, 30% of adults obtain their news threw Facebook. I agree with these estimates because this generation is now relying on Facebook for accurate and up-to-date news. Although, Google News, Yahoo News and Twitter are solid media news sources, Facebook has exponentially skyrocketed. Facebook is slowly becoming the new face of Journalism.

Digital and Social Media can have both a positive and negative impact on a person’s life. in order for people to not be falsely influenced, they must guide,be guided or self-guide themselves in the right direction. Media is strongly influencing the world and it is only a start to a digital phenomenon.

Media has affected us in many different ways. I believe the only way the youth or adolescence can be negatively influenced by the social media is by using their phone or different apps way too much. Unless they’re being productive with their device. It’s also a good thing to have a social life and chat with friends and keeping up with their friends. Not when the young teens use it to chat all day and post pictures on Instagram all day or even be posting their every move on snapchat or Facebook. But those social media outlets can also be used for great things and some teens and adolescents do put it to good and productive use. Such as networking and using facebook for example to reach out to some of their friends for a missed assignment or project they might have missed due to being absent. However, I believe numbers are more on the unproductive side of things, and that also has to do with what some parents may or may not allow. Parenting is a big concern within these issues and they can make a major difference in their kids lives. Even though kids will always be kids and later realize that their parents were right when they told them something about their dilemma. They can later make the change when they finally realize their parents were right.

Facebook has definitely improved their website from when it first began and the news on the television has just become boring and repetitive. When you login on facebook, it usually has news, or articles on what your interests are and also has news near where you live or very important news that needs to be known. I mean, it’s amazing the way technology has upgraded. Facebook is surely becoming the place where people may find news quick and easy and who doesn’t enjoy quick and easy.

       Social media allows for entrepreneurship at virtually any age, education, networking, and social activism. Social media breaks barriers of race, education, social class, and geographic location. New media allows people to connect with others from all over the world. Social media and new media continue to have positive effects on society. I would like to begin by dissecting the first article assigned, this was a journal entry from the American journal of pediatrics. I would like to point out that this entry of the American Academy of Pediatrics is a few weeks away from expiring, it is outdated. It was originally published online March 28, 2011; it also states “All clinical reports from the American Academy of Pediatrics automatically expire 5 years after publication unless reaffirmed, revised, or retired at or before that time.”

        The entry only focuses on teens, there is a heading that reads “teens and tweens” that is misleading, the entire article is covering teens, besides texting habits, since it is a pediatrics journal, adults are not included in this conversation. The first Article urges parents to monitor for potential problems with cyberbullying, “Facebook depression”, “sexting”, and exposure to inappropriate content. The entire article covers adolescence and parenting advice. It is a parent’s job to monitor their child’s activity, online or offline.

         Parents that are not technologically savvy, their adolescent child can be bullied in school, can be exposed to sex and inappropriate content through every other form of media besides the internet and social media. An adolescent can consume media such as prime time television, film, music, the ads in a newspaper, magazine, even a billboard can expose an adolescent to sex and inappropriate content. I believe in adapting to innovation, and moving  forward embracing new technologies. Someone who is lazy or has a victims mentality will stay stagnant and just complain about technology advancements and will not adapt. These people will be left behind. The article states Cyber bullying is just as common as real life bullying. It is a natural part of life, not everyone one you encounter is going to like you, and people will try to get in the way of your goals and will test you. A part of parenting is dealing with these issues, teaching their adolescent children preventive methods, and ways to interact with strangers, or people who are trying to do them harm. The information I did find in that article was the percentages a person in their teens or twenties uses their phone for text messaging and visiting social media sites. I have not changed my positive opinion of social media based on this article.

         Instant messengers, which are a form of social media, such as Aim, Yahoo messenger, and MSN windows live messenger, have had close to 500 million users combined with Aims launch in 1997 through 2009. A majority of the students in this class grew up in a world with social media already being very popular. It is difficult for a student in their 20’s to compare a time with social media to a time without social media, we have almost no recollection of a time without social media’s popularity. Social media exposes propaganda released by other conventional forms of media, before social media’s popularity and Internet such as, TV, radio, and press. Social media is more efficient and innovative because older forms of media allow very limited access between, consumers and media editors, publishers, writers.

         The article was about adolescents and parenting. The majority of the class which are in their twenties grew up surrounded by popular social media. I do not believe social media is negative, it reflects life, the difference is you can turn off social media. To avoid social media it is as easy as logging out of an application or a website, it is really that simple.

        The second article was a NYTimes article that was a little more up to date, published October 27, 2014. It was interesting to read and learn the methods social media sites, and informative websites use to attract users and keep them on their sites longer by offering articles and activities that may appeal the users of these sites.

Welcome to the course! Looking forward to meeting everyone soon!