1. Teens and Their New
Society
Juan A. Saldivar
Argosy University

2. Abstract
In recent years social networks on the internet have grown to
extents that make it possible to be great friends with someone on
the other side of the world. These relationships have brought many
people, especially teens to lose much needed human interaction
skills and abilities. For many it may appear to be a phase they are
going through while for others it is as important as any other
addiction. The inability to concentrate and focus on tasks, damage
to personal relationships, and other symptoms similar to addictions
can occur when internet social networking is over used. This
document may also serve as a preventive measure for parents or
teens themselves to become aware of the problem and prevent the
networking “addiction” to take place. It may also help those who
may appear to have a problem overusing social networking even
though many may not feel they have a problem.

3. Teens and Their New Society
Upon review of the literature, a conclusion can be made that
there is a sub culture or society developing on the internet’s social
networking sites (Mikami 2010). These issues affect teens of all
ethnic groups and financial statuses. While reviewing the literature
for this research, many questions and arguments arose.

4. Teens and Their New Society
One of the top questions asked was whether or not any type of parental controls are being used to
manage time spent on social networking sites (Williams 2008). Without proper monitoring, an addiction like
response toward the networking sites could be possible (Williams 2008). Another question that was brought
up was whether the time spent on the networking sites would cause any type of affect when dealing with
people in the real world, face-to-face interactions (Brown 2011). Although technology is becoming more
widely used, the ability to have healthy interactions with people on a personal level is also of importance. The
social networking society that can be seen taking place may be a problem not yet seen (LaPorta 2009).
Health problems are being seen resulting as the networking sites grow. One example is cyber bullying. Teens
are constantly being attacked publicly (Werner 2010). These teens may be suffering cyber bullying due to
social status, financial status, living situation, sexual preference, or any other situation which causes them not
to be socially accepted (Silenzio 2009). The mental health of some teens is also in harm. Having few or no
friends on the networking site may cause self-esteem or other mental development issues. Both the health
and mental health issues that can arise from the over use of online social networking sites are real and need
to be addressed. It is difficult enough for teens at this day and age to define or find them. Online social
networks almost dictate whom they are or will be based on the groups they interact with or people they are
associated to. These interactions then overlap into the real world and cause real world issues and possibly
altercations. We are beginning to live in a world where speech is a second form of communication while
electronic messages dominate communication between individuals. This research is to educate people on the
unseen dangers of overusing internet social networking sites. The main question is how far internet social
networking will go before it is considered to be a problem. Teens will eventually turn into adults who will have
social interaction issues because of the lack of human interaction skills due to the amount of time spent on
online social sites (Williams 2008). Simply because the problem appears to be in teens does not indicate that
teens are the only age group affected by the amount of social online use. This also does not take away from
the fact that the issues gained due to online networking sites can carry on to adulthood.

5. Teens and Their New Society
The society being developed online due to
social networking sites and the over use of these
sites is growing every day. With
Facebook, Twitter, Myspace, Google and other sites
developing networking sites on a constant basis, the
battle to prevent issues from affecting actual human
interactions is becoming more difficult. By education
people on over use of these sites, we may be able
to prevent human interaction issues later in their
lifetime as well as having issues online transfer over
into the real world.

6. References
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relationships and behavior problems predict young adults' communication on social networking
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