Violence and Social Media: A Threat to Youth? - Essay Sample

Introduction

Across the world, violence, of course, is not a new concept because it has been around since the beginning of civilization. However, it seems to be a new phenomenon because of the attention that most violent crimes such as murder, rape, and assault often emanate from social media. The youth are the most affected group by social media necessitating immediate action. The child spends a great deal of hours' utilization on various social media platforms, and by far most of them have admittance to a room TV, the Internet, Personal Computer, a computer game, and a cell phone. Evidently, social media has been ingrained into the present society to a more significant extent than it is virtually impossible for individuals to take their friends seriously if they are not on any social media platform. The youth, in particular, are always in a frenzy when it comes to socializing online, which presents both negative and positive outcomes. It is, however, considered as a worrying trend among the youth because a vast majority of the famous computer games contain brutality. Therefore, the paper seeks to argue why social media contributes enormously to youth violence across the world.

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Globally, there are many social media platforms the youth can choose from; some of the popular ones include Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat. As the popularity of social media platforms keeps on spreading across the world, there have been mixed feelings on how the networks negatively affect the youth from all walks of life. It is always hard to tell whether particular kinds of events have a direct effect on youth. This is because most people associate violence among adolescents emanate from mental illnesses, poverty, child abuse, and exposure to domestic and community violence. However, the truth of the matter is that youth exposure to social media violence plays a vital role in the etiologic of violent behaviour among the youth.

What is evident is the fact that vulnerable youth have been victimized in some way, form, and shape by the social media platforms, because they tend to believe it is a solution to the problems they are experiencing. This is especially true when the youth see so many of their favourite hero's stories in the social media, which in turn resorts to violence, either as revenge or as a tool that can be used in combating evil. As a result, most of the youth tend to have a feeling that they are heroes because some people might be bullying them or hurting other people in particular social media groups; thus portrayed as bad guys (Patton, Desmond Upton, et al. 550). When they resort to what they have seen in movies, they often feel like it is okay for them to resort to some form of violence as a way of doing away with the bad guys.

The advancement in technology has led to greater access to harmful explosives and firearms, and it is even more encouraged by social media platforms, which in turn have raised serious concerns among individuals. It is important to note that social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram have been termed as the most significant drivers of violent-related crimes among the youth (DeLisi, Matt, et al. 137). People have created various social media groups; in which they can compel people into indulging in criminal activities because they have the weaponry necessary for engaging in such actions. For instance, the recent violent crimes propagated by the youth in the United States have been linked to the influence of social media platforms.

Nonetheless, more and more youth tend to feel a sense of loneliness in the world they are living in and in most cases, think that they are being overlooked by society. In most cases, they tend to have a feeling that the present society often rewards individuals for being famous, being popular, and for standing out among the rest. The youth often yearn to become celebrities to be considered necessary because social media usually gives unlimited attention to bad people doing bad things. As a result, the child sees how violent criminal-related behaviour can be regarded as the most effective way of becoming significant people in life. Knowingly, the youth will conduct crimes that aim at making the famous least forgetting the adverse effects it will have on their lives (Tripathi 5). Cyberbullying is also considered as one of the most witnessed types of violence that emanate from social media platforms. Most people have ended up committing crimes after experiencing cyberbullying because they end up feeling worthless in life.

Conclusion

Conclusively, social media has significantly contributed to youth violence because they often come to see violence as a fact of life, and over time, they end up losing the ability to empathize with both the victim and the victimizer. The social media creators never anticipated that their creations would be canter's of youth decay in terms of violent crimes. However, doing away with such platforms may not be considered detrimental to the society, but there must be a way that will ensure every individual is responsible for all gross and violent stuff that social media has exposed the youth to across the world.

Works Cited

DeLisi, Matt, et al. "Violent video games, delinquency, and youth violence: New evidence." Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 11.2 (2013): 132-142. Tripathi, Vivek.

Tripathi, Vivek. "Youth violence and social media." Journal of Social Sciences 52.1-3 (2017): 1-7.