Page 28 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper March/April 2018 Edition

28 The Dangers of Social Networking

The Dangers of Social The dangers of social jetting off to London to enjoy a dinner hosted by
a famous candle company. It gets to you after a
media that no one likes to while. You realise that you hair isn’t perfect and
Networking
admit your outfit is average and then you’re unhappy.
Social media was created to be a
Continued from Page 26 positive outlet. A platform for people to express
By Yousra Zaki themselves. It has now become an avenue of
The Workplace negativity. If any celebrity, athlete or political
If you have multiple machines at your We eat, we sleep, we check social media, we party sends out a tweet that the public doesn’t
disposal, one at work and one at home then do repeat ... without realising that it isn’t real — it’s agree with, they can be taken down with a
things like banking and social media all just for show viciously overwhelming injection of
interactions from your own home computer. It has become second nature for us to cyberbullying. If you don’t have thick skin, you
Doing this from work, unless specified in your pick up our phones and log on to our social can easily change who you are and what you
job description – this should be allowed very media profiles immediately after waking up. stand for, for fear of being criticised by your
cautiously I think, only introduces a whole new We mindlessly scroll through hundreds followers. I sometimes think twice about the
level of monitoring into the equation. All of posts. We comment, we react, we ‘like’ and photos I post online. I wonder if I’m too
corporations monitor their own networks, I we ‘share’. Many of us prefer not to think of the narcissistic ... posting yet another photo of
know I have been doing the monitoring for disadvantages of social media, because of how myself having a great time with my friends. I
years now. Also remember that corporate email dependent we are on it as a form of wonder if people critique me for enjoying my
accounts and corporate computers are not your entertainment — a way to kill boredom. life a bit too much.
own property, they belong to the corporation as
do all information on those computers and in For many of us, it is an unknown Privacy issues
those accounts. They can seize it or review it at addiction.
any given time without giving warning to the In an offline world, social communities tend to
Although we jokingly admit that we
employee first. Most of the time you will not follow and practise the norms of privacy. You
can’t get enough of Instagram or Facebook, we
even be aware that you are being reviewed. don’t have to share your birthday, address or
sometimes don’t realise how much we need to
Social Networking does not belong in the marital status with the people in your
look through our phones to fulfil the little hole
workplace. neighbourhood. They don’t need to know your
inside us. According to a recent survey by the
likes and your dislikes and what your breakfast
Royal Society for Public Health in the United
So let's review then; Kingdom, social media has been described as looked like. But when you’re online, if you
want to join a social networking site, you have
more addictive than cigarettes and alcohol.
- Never do, post or say anything on the Internet Just imagine you smoked as much as to disclose your personal information in order to
that you would not want repeated over and over you checked your feed. Are we truly aware of be accepted. Once you become an active
again and which you would not do in public. how many times a day we pick up our phones to member of the site, they delve into who you are
and what you like. They find out about your
look at other people’s perfectly curated online
- Everything that goes on the Internet stays on life? habits, your browsing history, where you like to
the Internet probably for ever as far as your go, what you like to eat and who you interact
concerned. It is an amazing platform with the most. You get unsolicited messages
from strangers and pokes from long lost
During the mid-2000s social media has
- Social Media should be restricted to the over acquaintances. In what real life world is poking
had a surge in popularity. It completely changed
18 crowd. This should not be some 'law' or the way we communicate and share information someone okay? It’s not. But it’s just online. You
anything, rather a conscious decision of us, as don’t really feel it.
with one another. Social media has overthrown
parents. You would protect your child from a
presidents. It has been the force for many
pedophile who lived down the street right? Dangers for the young and gullible
revolutions including ‘Occupy Wall Street’ and
Well, they live and hunt on the Internet too. Some young people have never known a
the Arab Spring to name a few. We can follow
world without social media. Around 91 per cent
the lives of people that we haven’t physically
- Don't get your kids a cell phone and if you of 16-24 year olds use the internet for social
seen in years. We can be proud of the success of
really have to then get them a BASIC cell networking. They use social media now more
our family members, or appreciate the humour
phone, not a sophisticated multi functional one, than ever before. They give away information
of our summer camp friend from 10 years ago.
so that they cannot go on the Internet outside of Social media is a revolutionary tool. But most without thinking or knowing the consequences.
the house. All cell phones can be tracked by They get sucked into a world of online games
of the time, we see what we don’t want to see.
GPS. and dangerous online trends. There have even
We see too much.
been cases where suicide games were trending
- Keep yourself safe. Protect your actual online, that children all encouraged each other
Effects on mental health
location and arrange to meet anyone for the first to participate in. It can be a dark and
time in a very public and well populated place. unpredictable place.
According to a recent survey of almost 1,500
Although most of us know all these
teens and young adults by the Royal Society for
- Never do your social networking from a things, we decide that we don’t want to give up
Public Health and the Young Health Movement
workplace computer. Never do ANY personal on social media after all. We don’t want to be
computing from a workplace computer. That (YHM) in the UK, Instagram is the most gripped by Fomo, “Fear of missing out”. We
damaging social media platform on mental
stuff isn't your and is heavily monitored. scroll through perfectly curated Instagram posts
health. The image-sharing platform causes high capturing people’s happy moments, and we ask
levels of anxiety and depression. Sometimes, all
- Social Media was not created for evil purposes ourselves why we aren’t as happy or fulfilled.
you do is see people, who may not even be your
but, like anything, it can be misused by a wide We just need to realise, that it isn’t real.
friends, on holiday or enjoying nights out. They
variety of low lifes and various other forms of It’s all just for show. []
can make you feel like you are missing out, or
riff-raff. Is the government monitoring you on
not doing enough with your life. These feelings
the Internet? In a general sense yes they are. But
promote a ‘compare and despair’ attitude, where
there are those out there watching you a lot
more closely than that. Be aware![] we look at what someone else has and wonder
why we can’t be the same. I have to force
myself not to look at Instagram or Facebook
For The Best From The World of the first thing in the morning, because it usually sets
Paranormal & Science of Parapsychology - the tone of my day. While I am getting out of
The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show - www.xzbn.net
bed to go to my day job, influencer Karen is