Young People and Social Media

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Young People and Social Media
Today, social media is a mainstay in everyday life. In almost about every activity at work, school and home, social media has come define how people work, socialize and get information. The ubiquity of social media is, of course, attributed in part to a parallel ubiquity of mobile phones and, in part, to a growing need at a global scale for more connectivity and communication. Indeed, social media has invaded, literally, almost every sphere of everyday life so much so experts and critics are starting to raise red flags about addictive behaviors detrimental to mental and physical health. This is particularly so for young people who are among most active users of social media platforms and applications. In fact, social media is often associated with young people who, in many countries worldwide, are born digital (and hence “digital natives” designation) as opposed to earlier generations whose usability patterns are of late adopters and lesser social media activity. There are as many angles to approach young people's use of social media. Given issue's vast scope and complexity, young people's participation in social media is discussed in an exploratory way. That is, instead of a narrow angle, or a condensed focus on one social media-related issue, a wide discussion of select issues is included. This essay aims, accordingly, to explore young people's participation in social media from news consumption, overall well-being and support perspectives in order to showcase challenges of critical significance for your young people.
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Traditionally, new consumption has been performed using conventional news sources such as newspapers, TV and radio. The exponential growth of social media in recent years has, however, opened up news production and consumption space in numerous, unexpected ways. For instance, major news organizations, usually publishing breaking news in print and on official websites, are now increasingly publishing breaking news simultaneously on different social media platforms, particularly Twitter. The underlying rationale is obvious: reaching out for as many news readers as possible at a global scale within a matter of seconds. Unsurprisingly, young people, particularly so called Generations Y and Z, are most active and exposed users to news published on social media. Indeed, a growing body of research shows young people consume news much less in ways similar to conventional (and more focused) ways f consuming news among older generations and much more as part of overall social media experience (Boczkowski, Mitchelstein and Matassi). This way of consuming news, argue Boczkowski, Mitchelstein and Matassi, has far-reaching implications for actual new engagement and, more importantly, becoming informed. Thus, further research is needed to examine in more depth to understand why such pattern occurs among young people using social media actively.
Moreover, constant activity on social media extracts certain usability habits which, given social media's ubiquity, catch fire among millions of young users. Consid...