“Internet”, as a world information system that forms cyberspace, a special reality, gives rise to cyber culture with its concepts, values, ways of thinking and language and is one of the main components of the information society. Ambiguity of the influence of social networks on adolescents causes interest in studying this problem.
According to news agency Newspoll, 84% of teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17 use social networks and almost half of children aged 10-13 stay in social networks, young people spend up to seven hours a day in them. In fact, hundreds of thousands of young people today do not represent their lives without daily visits to social networks, draw information from news feeds, Internet sites, communicate through the comments of live journals.
Network freedom is a factor, especially attracting young people, an opportunity to express their opinion (anonymously or publicly) to a multi-million audience. Cases of Internet PR are circling the head young, talented and ambitious.
The ability not to reveal oneself makes teenagers absolutely protected and allows to insult and talk with impunity with impunity. But this behavior is just a way to escape from teenage stresses, troubles with parents and teachers.
In the network, teens are looking for new friends and new subcultures, trying to gain a sense of belonging to a particular group. In the search for a person who is close in spirit, young people enter into a relationship, they get the opportunity to communicate with an almost limitless number of people and interest groups, with all sorts of personalities, learn many stories, have the opportunity to exchange opinions and discuss issues of interest to them.
The reason for writing the report and conducting a sociological survey was an article published in the daily newspaper “Utro.ru” under the heading “Scientists Declared the Dangers of Social Networks”.
A group of scientists led by Professor Paul Kishner of the Netherlands conducted a study whose purpose was to find out the impact of social networks on student performance. In total, 219 students took part in the experiment.
The results were quite predictable. Students who, at the time of preparing for the exams, completely refused Internet communication, showed a 20% better result than the rest. The average rating on a four-point scale among social network lovers was 3.06, and those who on the eve of the session broke up with the Internet, showed a result of 3.82 points.
If Facebook and other social networks work in the background, and a person is engaged in more important work, he has to be distracted and switch his attention, which leads to a large number of errors in the work performed. A similar result did not come as a surprise to the researchers.
The question of the performance of their users interested in the largest social network – Facebook. Three quarters of respondents answered that Internet communication does not affect their progress in studies in any way. Nevertheless, 25% admitted that communication on the Net affects their academic performance, to put it mildly, not in the best way.
Social networks are an important and relevant issue for today. Recently, this type of site has been most widely used. The results of numerous studies indicate that over half of all Internet users have already been reached by social networks.
Initially, the computer network in the heyday of the Beatles was supposed to be a military-oriented scheme of command and control. But as it expanded beyond the original nodes and communication centers, as well as the idea that united computers, it became possible to create a huge forum to discuss mutually interesting topics, and perhaps even get to know other people or resume old connections. In the 70th of the 20th century this process began seriously.
Social networks are gaining popularity around the world. Today it is difficult to find a person who would use the Internet, would not use social networks.
The most visited social network, and the world of Facebook. In second place is Myspace, on the third Twitter.
So, the social network, which also has a common name as a social web, chooses schoolchildren and students as its potential victims. And, unfortunately, we can not but note the fact that this segment of the population has already formed a maniacal attachment to the computer and the telephone at the physiological level. Mass introduction and production areas of computers and other electronic means of communication, processing and storage of information coincided with the restructuring of the worldview paradigm and the reform of public education. All kinds of computer technologies, mobile phones have significantly expanded the scope of both positive and negative factors of the spiritual and intellectual development of the younger generation.
Social networks are the main reason people spend more time on the Internet. Psychologists confirm the results of research and in addition, they confidently state that from the category of entertainment social networks have developed into a real psychological dependence. Instead of studying, students spend their time “searching for friends” and viewing new messages, which in turn negatively affects not only the performance of adolescents, but also the psychological state of a person. Torn between learning and virtual communication, students have a stressful state, which in turn affects the physical health. In psychology, it is common to share any Internet addiction on the stage. They include the initial stage of healthy interest in the network and pathological dependence on it, which affects the performance of a person and begins to harm his social life, undermining his mental health.
At the heart of Internet addiction, experts say, lies primarily dislike and insecurity. People suffering from a “complex of insufficiency”, unsatisfied with their appearance or little attention of others to their person, most often sit down on an “online” needle. As a rule, they are people of the humanitarian mindset, inclined to fantasies, lovers of lying “for beauty” and often giving out wish for reality.
“Network mania” has physiological signs, according to which it can be classified as a mental illness, and not just as a bad habit. This is “damp”, as in the Graves’ disease, eyes, increased sweating and chronic insomnia. The fact is that frequent “fermentation” on the Web creates in the brain an elevated level of dopamine – a substance similar to adrenaline. The dependent is experiencing excitement during chatting in chat rooms, which is akin to a player’s gambling fever.
Especially social networks, according to scientists, are dangerous for teenagers, as they form a false impression that love and friendship are easy to conquer and just as easy to destroy. In addition, adolescents who are accustomed to the rapid flow of Internet life, the reality may seem too boring, and they can try to “revive” it by making impulsive actions.
From this it follows that the main points of the negative impact of electronic technologies on the growing organism and the developing brain of the student are:
- distribution of false, obscene and coded information
- damage to physical health by the action of electromagnetic fields
- loss of real time and inactivity.
According to the results of a sociological poll conducted by me among 100 students aged 16-18 years, the following conclusions can be drawn: students of the Electromechanical College of the Voronezh branch of the MIIT, like youngest people of our time, visit social networks several times a day. This can be seen on the slide.
The main motives for using social networks for them are the search for friends, classmates, classmates and communication with them. The time spent on social networks helps most respondents organize their own leisure time, as well as prepare for exams. Some respondents noted several motives at once, therefore the figures obtained may seem too large.
Almost half of those surveyed admit that using the social network helped them in their personal lives and communicating with friends, organizing leisure and in search of interest groups, some argue that social networks did not affect their way of life in any way, and only a few acknowledged that social networks had influenced on their free time, 10% caused addiction.
Priority in using the services provided by the social network for students is the opportunity to find interesting music, movies, photos, search and exchange of information, as well as a way of communication that saves money and time.
Summing up, it should be noted that social networks, becoming an integral part of the student’s full life, took up most of his free time. Having superseded the ways of communication, they replaced the students with hobbies, verbal communication. The social network, and not the textbook and the teacher, became for them the main assistant in preparation for exams.
Paying tribute to all the positive moments in the use of social networks, such as an economical means of communication, the availability of audio and video material, the speed of searching and exchanging information, it must be emphasized that their influence on the learning process and the student’s progress in most cases becomes detrimental. The student can not penetrate, absorb and ponder the studied material.
Active users of social networks generally learn worse than those who do not visit these networks. This difference between personal perception and reality does not necessarily mean that social networks lead to a curtailment of the learning process and low scores. However, the results of the research raise other questions, for example, on what students spend time out of school: on social networks, creative realization, sports and other activities.