Blog Task 8 : Argumentative Essay (Social Media Should be Banned for Under 18yo Users to Curb misuse and to protect them) Agree or Disagree?

 

Source : http://everypost.me/blog/how-do-you-choose-the-right-social-media-platforms-for-your-business/

It is an obvious fact that most teenagers are now using social media and it is nearly impossible to prevent them from using it. Social media has  become a lifestyle for this group of people because it gives them a way to connect with friends. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat are the few examples of popular social media that adolescents use for their own purpose. Posting a beautiful picture of a food on Instagram, updating their opinions about a certain topic on Facebook and shooting a short video on Snapchat are examples of what teenagers and children are hooked on social media. Teenagers are able to socialize with their friends even when they are far away from each other and can easily satisfy their social needs through social media. Some may say that social media is a negative source of social needs while there are others who disagree. Governments all over the world are now contemplating to forbid children and teenagers to social media. Social media has weighed more advantages than disadvantages to society especially for those that are below 18 years old. The benefits of social media needs to be considered before the government decides to ban underage users from logging in to social media as this leaves a huge impact on them individually.

In the current world right now, social media is the most principal  thing in our life and it is an obvious daily need/use for everyone. Without social media, we will not know what is going to happen in the world, as example to the relevance of artist, singer or even the current news that is ongoing in our era today. For most teenagers, they develop most of their skills during the development years right before reaching adulthood. By banning social media, it does not do any justice in getting them to unfold their skills or talent as this is the age where they show signs of interest. Sometimes social media can allow you to gain some knowledge and learn extra things hence this helps them to improve their critical thinking skills especially in terms of .generating a new idea. News is very important as it keeps us updated all the time. For instance, Facebook was full about news of flight MH370 disappearing out of the blue and people all over Malaysia was devastated when they saw it on social media. On top of that, parents do need to understand how their children are interacting on social networking sites, and also be sure their children know what to do. Last but not least, Twitter and Facebook are the main apps that keeps the children updated. Parents should also keep track on them this is because they might follow irrelevant things.

Moreover, most people by the age of 18 are actually considered as adults who have a lot more responsibilities than what most people think. In fact, at the age of 18, teenagers are allowed to make a will, carry an organ donor card and even vote in both the local and general election. Much less, at that particular age, the attitude and personality of teenagers are being molded to what they will become in the future and taking the responsibility of doing good would only ease the process. Truth is, social media is proven to empower teenagers to make a social change and do social good for the community. Although there aren’t any absolute charts or graphs but such a statement is apparent in various cases that undoubtedly have consenting proof. A great example would be the case of a nine-year old Scottish student, Martha Payne and her own personal blog entitled “Never Seconds” that criticize on her school’s lunch program which took the attention of the international committee by storm. As a result, a charity organization called “Friends of Never Seconds” was formed in order to tackle the issue of children malnutrition and changes were also made to improve her school’s lunch program. Basically, the use of social media shouldn’t be seen in the light of negativity or be weighted as a serious matter. Instead, it should be embraced as tool of humankind for its advantages that could not only be beneficial towards the community but also invoke the sense of social responsibility and goodness in the hearts of teenagers.

Social media can do justice in terms of education for students like us. This can be proven when many applications on smartphones and websites are invented that help cater to many of our education needs. Applications such as Moodle provide students convenience to access lecture notes and other course information which also includes plagiarism check. Facebook pages are made to connect students with lecturers and the usage of Twitter would also come in handy to contact with experts all over the world. With that being said, social media does play a big role in the education world and therefore helps with classroom learning just as another communication tool. Through experience, our lecturers, they themselves are using Facebook as a main platform to connect with us, from keeping up to date with lecture classes to updating us with breaking news. Mainly since we are Mass Communication students, it would be in the right mind for our lecturers to make use of social media platforms to help us learn. Clearly on the downside, it is costly learning through social media. The requirement of gadgets and regular maintenance need to be looked at but losing money on one end would gain on the other. For instance, education through social media helps with cutting down cost of papers, energy and so on. Knowing that students are so attached to their gadgets in the 21st century, it would be selfish if social media isn’t being used for our own education needs.

Some people might think that social media will make a bad influence into children’s mindset. However, from other people’s point of view children would need more freedom of expression on social networking platform. Besides that, if people use social media in the correct manner, it would be useful even for teenagers. Kids and teenagers can use social media to explore their imagination and help them to express creative thinking and writing skills. For example, some youngsters would like to create a personal blog with aesthetically pleasing designs to attract others’ eye and help themselves to improve their vocabulary and writing skills. Social media allows children to share their thoughts and opinions to a wider audience. There are a lot of ways that children can post their original works on social media such as Facebook, Instagram or YouTube. On YouTube, Jinny Boy, DanKhoo Production and Ling Big Yong are the few great examples on social media that people can look up to as they convey realistic and relatable materials of Malaysian culture to the public. On the other hand, some people update their blog regularly to share their daily activities, emotions and mood on the social media. All the social networks allow users to post artwork without any limits on the quality and the ownership of the original works. Everyone has the right to post their own creative designs for others to view and share. It will get either a positive or negative feedback from others to improve themselves in the artworks. Basically, social media is a very helpful tool that can be used to discover and share ingenious works without any limited posting period. 

There is a saying that goes “Social media is not a subset of the internet. Social media is the internet” (Sean Case, 2015). In a nutshell, social media as a matter of fact plays a very major part in everybody’s life to interact and build relationship with others from all over the world. By disagreeing with the statement, social networking should not be banned for users below 18 years old even though minority of the younger generation might have misused it because there are many other benefits that social media brings to them. If anything, it should be taught along with the dangers and risks that comes along with it. Many ways or methods can be done to control the youths’ misuse of social media and prevent them from carrying out various wrongdoings on social media. There are restriction laws and regulation online that can be done to resolve these issues. It is an inessential act to ban social media as parents can train their children to use social media safely for appropriate reasons like entertainment or communication wise. Coming to the positive side of social media, it can be used to document memories in life, learn about and explore new things, advertise oneself and form friendships. To sum up this topic, the fact that social media actually brings more advantage than harm proves that banning usage of social networking is really not necessary.

Roles :
Researcher & Writer : Jane Cho, Umar Abdullah Ashar, Syed Mukmin, Connie Chua, Apple Ting, Fatyn Afiqah, Neveen Ashiblie
Editor: Neveen Ashiblie

Reference List

1. Bbcactive.com, (2015) How social media is changing education [online]. Available from: http://www.bbcactive.com/BBCActiveIdeasandResources/Howsocialmediaischangingeducation.aspx [Accessed 14 November 2015].
2. Case, S. (2015) Quotebank: Digital [online]. Available from: http://www.warc.com/Pages/NewsAndOpinion/Quotebank.aspx?Category=Digital [Accessed 14 November 2015]. 
3. Socialnetworking.procon.org, (2015) Social Networking ProCon.org [online]. Available from: http://socialnetworking.procon.org/ [Accessed 14 November 2015].