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Social Networking: The Devils Network
Students are engaging more and more in social networking everyday. Staying up
all night on the phone or laptop scrolling through the newsfeed at five in the morning
instead of doing the paper thats due that same day. When you walk around campus you
will notice that every student you see walking around campus will have a cell phone
glued to his or her hand. Students always fail classes and I say always because there is no
graduating class that has all its students graduate in four years without failing a single
class. Distractions are a bigger reason than laziness when it comes to students failing.
Social networking is meant to distract your attention away from the stuff that matters.
The Internet was created in order to provide people with extra information, not so girls
can upload selfies and not so guys can upload pictures of themselves without a shirt on,
after the gym.
Social Networking is The Devils Network because it is meant to distract you
from the stuff that matters. You can easily be isolated from the rest of the real world just
by becoming addicted to the Internet. Once you become addicted you will do everything
to make it feel like you have friends and like some people might even live another life
behind the screen. Social networking may have been created for good intentions but these
good intentions have unwillingly become bad creations. It is easy for people to see the
bad effects of social networking but there have really never been any positive affects
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Comment [AP1]: Yikes, too hyperbolic?
Comment [AP2]: While this might be true,
this seems like too much conjecture.
Comment [AP3]: But isnt the devil
responsible for temptation more so than
distractions?
Comment [AP4]: How are you defining
this word? Also, Im not getting a sense of
what this paper is going to be about. Youre
talking about distractions and then
addictions in the same paragraph, which, I
think, are two separate discussions.
when it comes to social networking. In contrast staying glued to a screen can lead to
health problems as well. 50 years from now people who were born in the 90s will most
likely suffer from carpel tunnel syndrome and loss of vision.
There is a lot of risk that comes with social networking and media sites. In
Everetts article, she addresses the issue by stating what can be done to prevent
exploitation and anonymity (Everett 9). In the article she talks about twitter and the
anonymity regarding twitter. One example she used to exemplify the anonymity of
Twitter is the links that are sent by followers. Once these hyperlinks are clicked, users
become infected quickly and data leakage can occur. Data leakage leads to self-
exploitation and the risk of physical harm. The sending of inappropriate pictures is an
example of data leakage. In todays day and age, there are a lot of issues surrounding
sexting. McBride states in her article the disadvantages and risks that come with
sexting and exploitation (McBride 499). For example, Jennette McCurdy, one of the
main characters from the hit television series iCarly unfortunately experienced the
negative effect of data leakage. McCurdy was seen as a role model to many young girls
and guys; however, after the picture leaked her image of being an innocent girl was
stained. As a result of this unfortunate event, she publicly stated that she would not be
attending the Nickelodeons Kid Choice Awards, which every nickelodeon star always
attends.
There is no sense of privacy regarding social media. There are many different
ways to get around the privacy settings, which lead to exploiting an individual for the
wrong reasons. Shinton addresses the issue by talking about the consequences that come
with exploiting the certain individual. She states that with exploitation comes cyber
Comment [AP5]: Where does this
information come from? Are you failing to
use in-text citation? or are you just making
large assumptions?
Comment [AP6]: This sounds like an
annotation as opposed to synthesizing your
research with your opinion. You should be
engaging the conversation, not simply
summarizing a source.
bullying and depression (Shinton 402). Cyber bullying is growing more and more kids on
social networks are being threatened and harassed whether it is sexual or not sexual. Not
being able to see the person behind the other screen and continuous annoyance can lead
people to committing suicide. An example of the attempt to commit suicide due to cyber
bullying is the daughter of the late Michael Jackson, Paris Jackson. She attempted to kill
herself by swallowing twenty pills and cutting her wrists after being plagued by Internet
trolls and bullies after the death of her father. Her and her family experienced the crowds
of paparazzi everywhere they went. Once the information of the death of Michael
Jackson leaked to the public, the no longer felt safe and virtually had no privacy what so
ever. Exploitation and cyber bullying are extremely detrimental in an individuals life.
Social media brings a lot of dependency among the younger generation, more
specifically college students. In Wang, Tchernev, and Solloways article they created a
four-week study among college students that examined the dynamic uses and
gratifications of social media. Within the study, they made the college students
participate in tests to examine the relationship between the needs, social media, and the
self-sustaining effects that come with it. The authors state that social media is driven by
four categories of needs, which include emotional, social, cognitive and habitual needs.
The authors concluded that college students are prone to putting full dependency on
social media that they forget about reality and live inside their own little world (Wang,
Tchernev, Solloway 1836). Furthermore, it is stated that solitude and interpersonal
support increases the use of social media as well moderates the effects of needs on the
usage of social media. Social media makes teenagers oblivious to what is around them
and makes them turn into walking zombies. It is apparent in todays society when
Comment [AP7]: Okay, so while youre
giving this example, which is okay, you are
making a lot of assumptions. We really cant
know for sure all of the details about her
circumstance. So try to use language that
admits this. So you could say, according to
the news media know what I mean? Also,
I think, you could probably find much more
credible and authentic stories in local news
than a celebrity story that is filled with
conjecture.
walking around a college campus. All you can see is students walking around campus
with their handheld devices attached to them. The dependency of social media brings out
mostly negative effects among teenagers rather than bringing in positive effects.
Social networking and media sites form a risk by the creation of cyber-threats.
Cosoi stated that people should take extra precautions when using the internet. Some of
the precautions he includes in his article are carefully reading the terms and conditions
agreement, looking over the privacy settings, and reading over the privacy policy (Cosoi
14). However, these precautions do not always protect the users. Cosoi states that it will
not protect internet users from the dangers of cyber-criminals and the activities they
partake in. Types of cyber-criminals include hackers and identity thefts. The author says
that people should limit themselves on what they post, more specifically, not posting their
social security numbers, birthdate, etc. A risk that Cosoi states with the risk regarding
cyber threats is the exploitation of the contact list within businesses, corporations, and
individuals. An example he gives in his article is the acceptance of a friend request from
a stranger that they have never talked to and associate with. That stranger has the ability
to look through the other individuals friends list and add others and get a grasp of their
email addresses, personal information, etc. Being able to add others gives the stranger the
opportunity to gain more knowledge of the person by asking around about their personal
life.
In summation, social media and social networking sites do provide positive
effects however it also provides negativity. The Internet was created in order to provide
us with information and not pornography. It is The Devils Network because all of
these dangers on the Internet seem to be works of the Devil as God would never create
anything like this in order to harm us. The negative effects of social media and
networking sites include self-exploitation, cyber threats, dependency, cyber bullying, and
depression. In todays generation, there is a lot of exploitation that ensues especially
among celebrities that are role models for young children. Not only are there emotional
effects that come with social media and networking sites, physical harm comes with it as
well. Poor vision, carpel tunnel syndrome, and the possibility of suicide definitely come
with it. In order to decrease the detrimental effects of social media sites, it is strongly
suggested that individuals must take extra precautions regarding the use of social
networking sites.
Roberto,
I like a lot of the issues you bring to the table, but I think you rely too much on
conjecture. The Paris Jackson story is notable, because Im sure you could find a news
article on Lexis Nexus that covers a local kid attempting suicide as a result of
cyberbullying that is much more verifiable. Also, you seem to cover too many disparate
topics. You discuss cyberbullying, wasting time, internet addiction all in the same paper.
You need a much more clear and focused thesis and every paragraph should be dedicated
to supporting that one precise thesis.






Works Cited

Cosoi, C. "The Evolving Threat of Social Media." Computer Fraud & Security. 2011.6
(2011): 14-16. Print.
Everett, C. "Social Media: Opportunity or Risk?" Computer Fraud & Security. 2010.6
(2010): 8-10. Print.
McBride, D.L. "Risks and Benefits of Social Media for Children and
Adolescents."Journal of Pediatric Nursing. 26.5 (2011): 498-499. Print.
Shinton, Sara. "#betterconnected-a Perspective on Social Media." Analytical &
Bioanalytical Chemistry. 402.6 (2012). Print.
Wang, Z, J.M Tchernev, and T Solloway. "A Dynamic Longitudinal Examination of
Social Media Use, Needs, and Gratifications Among College Students."
Computers in Human Behavior. 28.5 (2012): 1829-1839. Print.