Impact of media

Impact of media on adolescents

1. IMPACT OF MEDIA/INTERNET/MOBILE ON ADOLESCENTS Dr SAJEENA S ICSSR Post Doctoral Research Fellow School of Pedagogical Sciences MG University

2. Children and adolescents spent a considerable portion of their time watching television, movies, playing videogames and on the internet. Media has proved to be a very useful tool in the fields of education, arts, science, sports, and culture. Over the past few decades, there has been a surge in the use of media by the younger generations and concern has been raised about the impact of media on children because of research reports of long term harmful effects. Media use is a double edged sword with both merits and demerits and it is therefore imperative for parents to understand the effect of media exposure on children in order to understand and handle problems resulting from this exposure better.

3. It is becoming increasingly clear that social networks have become part of people’s lives. Many adolescent people are using their laptops, tablet computers and smart phones to check Tweets and status updates from their friends and family. Due to the advancement in technology, people are pressured to accept different lifestyles. Social networking sites can assist young people to become more socially capable. Social media is a web-based form of data communication. Social media platforms allow users to have conversations, share information and create web content. Social media has different forms, together with blogs, micro-blogs, wikis, social networking sites, photo-sharing sites, instant messaging, video-sharing sites, podcasts, widgets, virtual worlds, and more.

4. The increased exposure to the media has profound effects on the development and functioning of children and adolescents today. Media has been found to have a negative impact on the physical, psychological and social development of children. In particular, the effect of media in the areas of violence and aggression; obesity, nutrition, and eating disorders; substance use and early sexual initiation have to be taken into special consideration.

5. Children cannot discriminate between reality and fantasy. They lack adult reasoning abilities and may perceive TV shows as being realistic and shape their behaviours accordingly. Media violence cannot be considered a lone cause of violence in the youth of today. But the use of violence to achieve goals and to settle conflicts is learned behaviour. Adolescents who are exposed to violence or are victims of violence in their homes or communities are more likely to use violence themselves.

6. This goes to show that witnessing of violence is an important determinant of violent behaviour and media violence represents the witnessing of violence in a very explicit and graphic fashion . Media and substance abuse studies have examined the relationship between TV advertising of alcohol and drinking knowledge, beliefs and intention to later drinking in children. The results showed that children with more exposure to advertisements of alcohol held more favourable beliefs about drinking and more frequently intended to drink as adults.

7. Media and obesity : Children today tend to spend their leisure time on the television, computer or video games rather than playing or indulging in other physical activities. There is a significant association between playing electronic video games and obesity with a twofold increased risk of obesity for every hour spent playing electronic games daily. The mechanism of effect of media exposure on obesity may also operate through the extensive advertising messages for unhealthy foods targeted at children.

8. Media and other behavioural problems : The time spent on the television and other forms of entertainment media significantly reduce a child’s time for activities necessary for the healthy development like playing, reading, storytelling and spending time with peers and family. Studies have demonstrated a deleterious effect of watching more than one to two hours of television per day on academic performance.

9. Excess television viewing causes poor peer relationships and thereby increases the risk of social isolation, anxiety disorder and agoraphobia. Studies have shown that TV viewing may play an exacerbating, if not causal, role in the development of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and that excessive TV viewing in adolescence is a risk factor for development of depression in young adulthood.

10. Internet Around the world more than eighty percent of our youths are spending a large amount of time on internet. For the simple reason that the internet was introduced at a very young age into their lives, the new generation of children and adolescents became the first groups to use internet on a large scale and among the first to begin experiencing problems associated with excessive internet use. Engaging in various forms of social media is a routine activity that has shown to benefit children and adolescents by enhancing communication, social connection and even technical skills. The Internet is a research site for testing theories of technology diffusion and media effects capable of integrating modes of communication and terms of content.

11. Due to their limited capacity for self-regulation and susceptibility to peer pressure, children and adolescents are at some risks as they navigate and experiment with social media. There are frequent online expressions of offline behaviours such as bullying, clique-forming and sexual experimentation that have introduced problems such as cyberbullying, privacy issues and sexting. Other problems associated with social media awareness include internet addiction and concurrent sleep deprivation .

12. Today, for adolescents, the internet is acting as a new social environment where their issues are being explored. A transformation is being noted in how they communicate, establish and maintain relationships and find social support. Using social media becomes a risk to adolescents more often than adults realize. These risks fall into the following categories; peer to peer, inappropriate content, lack of understanding of online–privacy issues and outside influence of third party advertising groups under the following:

13. Cyberbullying and online harassment : This is a process of using digital media to communicate false, embarrassing or hostile information about another person. It is the most common online risk for all teens and is a peer-to-peer risk. Online harassment is often used inter changeably with the term “cyberbullying”. Cyberbullying is quite common and can cause profound psychological outcomes including depression, anxiety, severe isolation and tragically suicide.

14. Sexting : It is a sending, recording or forwarding sexually explicit messages, photographs or images via cell phones, computer or other digital devices. Most times, these images are distributed through cell phones or the internet. In many circumstances however, the sexting incident is not shared beyond a small peer group or a couple.

15. Facebook Depression : Excessive chatting on face book have proposed a new phenomenon called “Facebook depression” defined as depression that develops when pre-teens and teens spend a great deal of time on social media sites such as face book and then begin to exhibit classic symptoms of depression. Acceptance by and contact with peers is an important element of adolescents’ life. The intensity of the online world is thought to be a factor that may trigger depression in some adolescents. As with offline depression, preadolescents and adolescents who suffer from face book depression are at risk for social isolation and sometimes turn to risky internet sites and blogs for “help” that may promote substance abuse, unsafe sexual practices or oppressive or self-destructive behaviours.

16. Defective social relationship : Spending countless hours on the internet, children spend very limited time with family and actual friends. This weakens the family bond and limit interaction with actual people. These children miss out on real life interaction with different relatives which results in distorted social skills and limited real-life social network leading to social isolation. The adolescents who do not have close friendships consistently have lower levels of self-esteem and psychological symptoms of maladjustment. When people have more social contact, they are happier and healthier both physically and mentally.

17. Distorted Senescence of reality : Surveys showed that half of teens, ages 13 – 18 often communicate through internet with someone they have not met in person. Many social media sites display multiple advertisements such as banner ads, behaviour ads that target people on the basis of their web-browsing behaviour and demographic-based ads that target people on the basis of a specific factor such as age, gender, education, marital status etc. This influences not only the tendencies of preadolescents and adolescents but also their views of what is normal. It is pertinent for parents to be aware of the behavioural ads because they are common on social media sites and operate by gathering information on the person using a site.

18. Internet Addiction DSM-5 has included Internet addiction as a disorder and it is a world-wide issue now. It can be broadly defined as a non-chemical, behavioural addiction which involves human machine interaction. Internet addiction poses risks to youth’s mental health, and may likely produce negative consequences in everyday life. Internet Addiction Disorder referring to a condition where people who compulsively and excessively use the internet, achieve a high from such use and continue to use the internet despite of a serious negative consequences. In essence, the internet controls the life causing severe disruptions.

19. Symptoms of adolescence internet addiction Excessive time: Adolescents devote increasing amounts of time to the internet. This involves all forms of internet activity. Withdrawal from friends, activities: As the teen spends more and more time online and not in the physical company of others, the pattern emerges that he or she withdraws from friends and normal activities. Lies: When asked about time spent online, adolescents try to give elaborate and fabricated dissertations to divert parental attention from the fact that they are spending too much time online. Fatigue and other physical symptoms: Can see dark circles under eyes, blood shot eyes, looks and acts sleep deprived. They seem tired all the time due to the fact that they stay up late or get up early so that they can be on the internet Denial: They won’t accept the fact that they are spending time for internet, instead they say that the time is for study. Poor grades: As a result of increased time spent on internet, decreased attention paid to activities and responsibilities lead to poor performance. Emotional outbursts: When asked about the time spent online, adolescents may erupt in an emotional outburst, be angry or irritable whenever they are not online.

20. The main risk to preadolescents and adolescents online today is risks from each other, risks of improper use of technology, lack of privacy, sharing too much information, or posting false information about themselves or others. These types of behaviour put their privacy at risk. When Internet users visit various Web sites, they can leave behind evidence of which sites they have visited. This collective, on-going record of one's Web activity is called the “digital footprint.” One of the biggest threats to young people on social media sites is to their digital footprint and future reputations. Preadolescents and adolescents who lack an awareness of privacy issues often post inappropriate messages, pictures, and videos without understanding that “what goes online stays online.”

21. Treatment for internet addiction Professional counselling often proves effective in moderating internet addiction. Such counselling may utilize various approaches, modelled after treatment for other additive behaviours. Psychological intervention may involve changing the environment in which the adolescents normally interact with the computer. It may involve altering the associations the teens have with the internet, or decreasing the reinforcement that receives from the internet use. Identification of triggers involved in internet addiction is another important area where psychological counselling is important. Training in social skills development and communications is also recommended as they are become more addicted to the internet so socially withdrawn and lack the ability to communicate easily with others on face to face basis.

22. Mobile Phone Proponents of cell phone use strongly feel that cell phones are inappropriate tools for learning as they are actually harmful. Commonly cited negative effects of cell phone use in education include, chatting and texting when students should be studying. Public use of cell phones transforms our roles from social participants to observer or user. In other words, it is not just the student using a cell phone who is affected but also the one who is studying closer to the user thereby constituting a disturbance to proximate others. Students who are preoccupied with their mobile phones tend to experience psychological disturbances, depression, lower self-esteem and interpersonal anxiety when they study without their cell phones.

23. The  academic performances of students   can get impacted very badly. Students get easily distracted and carried away by instant chats, memes, watching Facebook and downloading apps. This can invariably have its own set of consequences when it comes to achieving robust performances in academics. There are students who download educational apps too to help them cope up with their studies in a better manner.

24. Indulge in Pornography As mobile phone devices come to you with an open-ended email access system, there are students who indulge in various forms of misconduct too. Teenagers download porn videos or scintillating audio clippings too. These can easily be circulated via FB messenger, WhatsApp and Snap Chat. Other students get easy access to sex sites and porn stuff. Again, this can leave a detrimental impact on the healthy well-being of society.

25. Anti-Social Activities As mobile phones and data devices have come to each and every household, one can easily say that terrorism is on the rise. Anti-social militants just change multiple SIM cards to unveil their area of operations. As students get easy access to money, they indulge themselves in terrorist activities as well. Data hackers too stalk innocent victims or can steal confidential banking details of innocent people. Cyber-crime and anti-social activities are definitely on the rise, with easy access to cell phones or mobile tablets.

26. Class-Hours Getting Disrupted In schools or colleges, it can be found that students secretly carrying their cell phones or mobile tablets. These keep buzzing. Else teacher’s phone keep ringing. This can disrupt the class hours. Teachers or College professors are unable to continue with their classes when phones keep ringing continuously. As for students, they keep looking at each other and distract themselves from what is happening in the class. Even the brighter students end up losing out their grades when this happens.

27. Series of Health Problems Most of the smart-phones emit radiation as against user-friendly LED screens. This can have a series of health hazards apart from eye-infections alone. Quite a lot of us put the hands-free while listening to news clippings, watching videos or listening to music. For students and grown-up adults, this can impact the delicate tendons, situated near the ear-drum. Quite a lot of teenagers buy invisible hearing-aids to combat this particular issue. Radiation impact can also lead to blockage of heart, coronary disorders etc. Cancers can also be caused when you are exposed to radiation over-time.

28. Recommendation Discuss with parents the importance of supervising online activities via active participation and communication as opposed to remote monitoring with a “net-nanny” programme to monitor the internet in the absence of parents. Discuss with families the need for a family online-use plan that involves regular family meetings to discuss online topics and checks of privacy settings and online profiles for inappropriate posts. The emphasis should be on citizenship and healthy behaviour and not punitive action unless truly warranted. Advice parents to talk to their children and adolescents about their online use and the specific issues that today’s online kids face  

29. Advice parents to work on their own participation gap in their homes by becoming better educated about the many technologies youngsters are using. Educators are expected to increase their knowledge of digital technology so that they can have a more educated frame of reference for the tools their parents/clients and families are using. Families can be provided with information on challenging issues that kids face online and reputable online resources like public education site, healthy children.org and social media. There is need for schools to incorporate topics in guidance and counselling department that are related with influence of media on student behaviour. This will help students to embrace both positive and negative impacts of media in their day to day life.

30. The Government, Non-Governmental organizations and other educational institutions should work closely with Ministry of education to support programmes in media related channels to enlighten schools and the general public on risks and benefits associated with media use. Parents should be in the forefront in monitoring media access by their children, discussing media effects and reinforcing positive messages among their children. More so, parents should act as role models to their children. Teachers should closely monitor media use by students in schools to ensure they access rightful information. Students should be self-disciplined in accessing media content