SOCIAL MEDIA - EFFECTS OF - ACTIVITY

The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families

1.       Gwenn Schurgin O'Keeffe, MD, 

2.       Kathleen Clarke-Pearson, MD, 

3.       Council on Communications and Media

Using social media web sites is among the most common activity of today's children and adolescents. Any web site that allows social interaction is considered a social media site, including social networking sites such as: Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter; gaming sites and virtual worlds such as Club Penguin, Second Life, and the Sims; video sites such as YouTube; and blogs. Such sites offer today's youth a portal for entertainment and communication and have grown exponentially in recent years. For this reason, it is important that parents become aware of the nature of social media sites, given that not all of them are healthy environments for children and adolescents. Families are urged to understand these sites and to encourage healthy use and parents are urged to monitor for potential problems with cyberbullying, “Facebook depression,” sexting, and exposure to inappropriate content.

AFTER READING THE ARTICLE, ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS

1.      In your experience would you agree with the authors’ statement in the first sentence? Explain your answer…

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2.      Give three examples of social media sites.

__________________________________________________________________________________

3.      What is your favourite social media site. Give reasons.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

4.      Why do the authors suggest that social media sites are so popular with adolesents? Do you agree or disagree? Give reasons.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

5.      Parents are advised to be aware of social media sites. Why? Do  you agree/disagree?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

6.      What specific problems are families urged to monitor for? What do you know of these problems?

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________