Teenagers And Social Networking It Might Be Good For Them

By Nor Albina Alleseana bt Mohd Jaib

A revolutionary change in the communication allows us to actually live in a world

in time where communication is possible without having to exert so much effort. We live
in a world where social media is an important intermediary for interaction in politic,
economic or social purposes. In todays world, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram are
common websites for people to meet and make acquaintances. So, what does the
apparent revolutionary change mean to the society especially among the teenagers?
This essay will generally recap and support on the arguments in a cherry-picked article
relating to teenagers and social networking.
Clive Thompson, a freelance journalist Canadian of a website The Guardian
attempted to assume that social networking may actually have its positive effect to the
teenagers. In his article ( October 2013 ), he suggested that online world offers
opportunities for the teenagers to express themselves to become literate and creative.
He also mentioned about how social networking eventually revamp the academic
performances of teenagers especially in linguistic. Plus, Thompson did put a stress on
the role of social networks in the development of social contacts of the juvenile itself,
either with peers or family members. Another significant point expressed by this
Canadian is that this revolution is crucial for the current world of youths peculiarly in
terms of social lives and education.
Well, undoubtedly, social networks have altered the landscape of social
interaction among the youngsters. Expressing their personality trough the social
network is more preferable by the youngsters as they tend to have more confidence and
courage trough a virtual communicative form. This is because they can publish their
idea not only to their friends and family but also to the world. This medium can actually
act as a steroid or in other term as a booster to make them work harder and push
themselves further to achieve their life goals.

In the article, Thompson had portrayed his impressment towards the effect of
social networking to the academic performance of a teenager particularly in linguistic.
He said that teachers concluded that students essay blossomed in size and complexity
compared to older years. Students are starting to get good in writing essays by
performing an argument which is buttressed by evidence. They began to write essays in
a correct grammatical sentence without the usage of short forms. Well, this indicates
that teenagers have actually increased their ability to gather information, sample
different points and is able to write more fluently. I cannot deny the fact that teenagers
do experience self-learning process trough social networking. In order to deliberate their
ideas to the world, they have to be able to generate a matured idea and convert it into
words by having a vast general knowledge and constructing the right sentence to
ensure the understanding of the readers. Eventually, this leads to an improvement
towards the academic of the youths itself.
Clive Thompson also emphasizes on how social network helps in establishing
connection with friends, family and relatives. Apparently, with fast developing world and
increasing use of internet, global communication has getting much easier. The
complexity of communicating with people from another part of the world is no more, all
because of social media. Teenagers can always acknowledge how things going within
the family and friends. Whether it is a casual tweet or only a photo from those peoples
holiday, its a way of keeping in touch with them. The global character of social network
might also help teenagers to get in touch with the people they have lost contact for
years. Pus, social network can also help teenagers to learn to socialize with their peers.
They can learn more about virtual empathy, how to express empathy and respond
towards it. Teens may apply this element in their daily social life and practice better
communication skills in real life.
Digital uses are not only inventive and beneficial but they are also crucial in
terms of the teenagers social lives and education. In the first aspect, social networking
is a new social skill that is necessary for teenager to get involve in so that they can
blend well with the rest of Xs and Ys generation. Online socializing is the opposite of

isolation, it is all about connection. To be clearer, involvement of teens in social

networking eliminate the feeling of left out in them which might eradicate self-esteem. In
the aspect of education, precisely in tertiary education, most lecturers use social
network in part of their teaching process. They give information, share learning material
even sometimes a random online quiz trough social network. Therefore it is very
important for a teenager to social networking.
As a conclusion, new technologies always provoke generation panic which
usually has more to do with the adults than teenagers. Parents, peculiarly, are very
worried about dark side to online life. Well, undeniably, only overuse of the social
networks can negatively affect someone by health, discipline and also in study. In this
context, parents play an important role in ensuring moderation in teenagers usage of
networks. As a parent, the best thing they can probably do for teenagers is to provide
solid example of how to balance personal and digital lives. I believe that as time flies,
teenagers will start to reduce their attention on social networks as it is actually a natural
part of maturing. Therefore, people should look at the bright side of social networking
and put some consideration upon providing some liberation and trust to teenagers to get
involve in social networking.