Negative aspects of virtual social networks
2.3. Negative aspects of teenagers’ use of virtual social networks
In the Internet there are a number of dangers that await students:
Because of their gullibility teenagers may be tempted to obscene activities through social networks.
Relatively free access to the video websites for adults in the absence of software restricting access to such sites is also a potential danger.
Sites with destructive content (for example, "group of death", the nationalist sites, sites with instructions for making drugs or bombs) can negatively influence teenagers.
Passion teens network games with violence increase their aggressiveness, and contribute to the formation of other forms of deviant behavior.In addition, there is the problem of computer addiction in teenagers.
Healthy Internet users have a strict goal and spend to the implementation of a reasonable and limited amount of time, without experiencing psychological or cognitive discomfort. Healthy Internet users are able to distinguish the online communication from live communication. The Internet is a useful tool.
On the contrary, the uncontrolled use of technical devices by children causes computer addiction. The term "Internet addiction" (Internet addiction disorder) was proposed in 1996 by the American psychiatrist Ivan Goldberg, under which he understood disorder behavior as a result of the use of the Internet and computer, it has an impact on everyday, educational, social, working, family, financial, or psychological spheres of human activity.Computer addiction forms very quickly – on average within less than a year.
Until recently, computer addiction was considered to be only a kind of psychological dependence, not a disease. However, on 20 December 2017 on the site of the popular science magazine New Scientist it was published that the World Health Organization should include the game disorder in the international classification of diseases as a mental state for the first time. The latest version of this diagnostic manual will be published in 2018.
Causes of computer addiction are:
- the absence of trust relationships for the teenager in the family and at school;
- the lack of serious interests, hobbies and the availability of a large amount of free time;
- the inability of the teenager to establish contacts with their peers;
- self-doubt;
- insufficient or excessive control from the adults.
As a result,computer addiction leads to negative consequences in the psyche and health of teenagers. Among them are:
- loss of control over time spent at the computer;
- loss of interest in social life: deteriorating relationships in the family, lower grades at school, the teen neglects personal hygiene and appearance;
- vision impairment, curvature of the spine, the formation of incorrect body posture, eating disorders and sleep patterns, constant fatigue, chronic constipation;
- especially evident negative effect of computer addiction on the social-personal qualities: openness, friendliness, the desire of communication. There are also a number of studies that prove the impact of computer addiction (mainly computer games) on the level of aggressiveness and harshness of youth.
There is another issue-the negative impact of social networking on adolescent literacy. Currently, teenagers often express their thoughts on the network without complying with the rules of grammar and spelling, considering that the most important is to convey the message to the interlocutor.
In Russia, this method of communication is called "olbanian language", "padonkaf language".
This is not a purely Russian problem: in Germany there is a similar slang "Fong-Sprach" (Wong-SPRAS). Given the sharp decline in the interest of today's teens to read, they may perceive this style of communication, as the language norm.