How Media Has Impacted the Socialization Process in Teenagers

Introduction

The word “media” started occurring and used in the world in the 1920, which is the period close to the second world and this was the time television, radio and video were born. But, before this people sent messages by hand or we can call it a letter (Hendricks, 2013). But after this, people started to send messages or communicate with the high speed, simple and effortless way when the first social media have been pushed out in the year 1997 which call as Six Degree which is the leader affect the coming or develop of following social media. Besides, the use of the internet exploded in the year 2000 by the global population and it caused the development and birth of a lot of social media after this and rapidly increased the use of social media among people, especially teenagers.

The example of social media that appeared after the internet had been used by people widely is My Space which is the first social media surge in the world and the most popular use by the public in the year 2003. But My Space has been replaced by Facebook, Twitter and others social media which is the giant force appearing in social media after the year 2004 (Keith,2018). The development of social media has never stopped until today and social media nowadays not only brings benefits and convenience but also brings a lot of disadvantages to our lives, especially to teenagers.

Facebook

Starting from the day Facebook was launched on February 4, 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg until today, it is still a big and effective media that is used by the majority of people. The number of Facebook users is almost 2.23 billion each month and the number of users still increases every year with a higher percentage which is almost 11% each year because Facebook can be a very useful tool to those who use it wisely to receive messages or information (Zepholia Inc., 2018). However, in the period 2014 until 2018 there are a lot of changes and improvements in Facebook and also significant change in user’s way to use it and affects Facebook’s original purpose to share information and stay connected with others (Micheal, 2013).

In recent years, the negative impact of Facebook to teenagers is more and more serious and growing rapidly and it also becomes an issue that is cared for by society. This is because in recent years, teenagers are likely to use Facebook as a platform to do cyber bullying or spread misinformation that may mislead the public or in simple words we call it as abuse of social platforms. Besides that, some teenagers also work to hack others' Facebook accounts and sell them to the dark web to earn extra pocket money. This action is illegal and will bring the teenager to jail and affect the teenager’s reputation (Anthony, 2018). Besides that, Facebook indirectly affects teenagers' mental health such as self-abasement because teenagers will compare themselves with others after seeing their friend post and feel why they unavailable do the something their friend can (Douglas, 2014).

The inappropriate actions that may be done by teenagers while using Facebook:

1. Use unethical words to comment other’s posts.
2. Hack others Facebook accounts and use it for unethical purposes.
3. Disseminating and share false information.

Characteristic of Facebook that affect teenager’s socialization process:

1. Can know a lot of information and news without going out.
2. Post all the individual’s personality and emotion on Facebook.
3. Chat with others online and without knowing how to communicate face to face.
4. Act as a tool to stalk people.
5. Sharing information that is untrue.

So, this is all the negative impact that Facebook has on teenagers and it will train teenagers weak in real communication because everything is happening on the small rectangle screen (Sabrina, 2018).

Instagram

Instagram is a social media platform that focuses on photo and video sharing. IG was created by Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger in the year 2010. After IG has been launched it has unexpectedly gained a lot of users rapidly and the number of users is still increasing every year with a large amount until 800milion users in the year 2017 and this situation may be because of continuous innovation by IG team (Geoff, 2014). So, IG is considered as one of the famous platforms used by teenagers in 2018 to share their picture or story of their daily life but as time goes on it is slowly bringing negative impact into teenagers such as, teenagers become insecure with their appearance because they will feel why others can take and post a good quality picture in IG but they can’t, so teenagers will consider the problem is because of their imperfect body shape and appearance (ScienceDirect, 2017). Besides, teenagers nowadays have a big desire to become famous people and gain giant followers in IG, so they will post inappropriate or unethical photos to catch attention from the public.

The inappropriate actions that may be done by teenagers while using Instagram:

1. Excessive editing of pictures until the gap of the real appearance with social media.
2. Flaunt wealth by photo.
3. Post explicit pictures of themselves or others to get attention.
4. Take hidden cams of video or pictures of others and post them, sometimes just to tease or make fun of the public.

Characteristic of Instagram that affects teenager’s socialization process:

1. Determine or know a person just by photo.
2. As a platform to promote goods, services or places by using pictures.
3. A place to share every moment or story of their life.
4. Establish a photo habit at any place and for food before eating.
5. Become a good and effective platform to open online shops to easily earn teenager money.

So, this is all the negative impact brought by Instagram to teenagers but still a lot of teenagers use it and voice their opinion and lifestyle with photos and sometimes the photo’s edit makes teenagers can become the real themselves.

Twitter

Twitter is an online social media and news platform created by Jack Dorsey, Noah Glass, Biz Stone and Evan Williams in 2006. By the way, Twitter is a little different from other social media because the person who has not registered also can read the post but can’t give any comment and it has a word limit for each tweet which is 280 words (Amanda, 2018). Even though Twitter is not really used by the majority of the people like Facebook but the amount of users are still many. Even though 60% of users close their Twitter account within one month after use, the growth of its users is still high, about millions every year and most of the users are teenagers (Lahle, 2018). So, as a social media that has been used by most teenagers, sure it has left a negative impact for teenagers such as getting false or bad news sometimes and also getting negative news that may affect teenager’s emotions (Chang Sup Park, 2015). Besides, it also affects teenager sleeping time because teenagers use the time to sweep the phone to see status and news. Twitter also has chosen as a platform for teenagers to cyberbullying.

The inappropriate actions that may be done by teenagers while using Twitter:

1. Share information or news that has not been confirmed.
2. Voice out all their minds without thinking of the consequence.
3. Attack other dignity or reputation with their post.

Characteristic of Twitter that affects teenager’s socialization process:

1. Used to vent emotion and all their opinions online.
2. Getting to know and communicate with friends from other countries.
3. Catch up with the hot topic.
4. Fill their mind with more news. In conclusion, social media have become an indispensable platform especially for teenagers in the era now to share information, news, message, opinion and also their life.

So, it is undeniable that social media give a lot of benefit and also make our life become simple, but teenagers need to use it wisely and in the right way to avoid individual’s reputation affect and illegal action so that it won’t become a tool to hurt other and for unethical use until it brings a lot of negative impact and raise concern by all unit.