3.+The+Pros+and+Cons+of+Social+Media


 * Social Media and the Influence on Children **

__** ﻿﻿The Pros and Cons of Social Media's Influence on Children **__

Now that we know the meaning of social media, we will take a closer look at the pros and cons in regards to social media's influence on children today. We will begin by discussing the various positive influences of social media. **__The Pros of Social Media's Influence on Children__**:
 * School Work - allows children to collaborate with others in their classroom with group projects. For instance, children may take photos of what is going on in the classroom and make a project together.
 * //Classroom Blog// - is a great way for teachers to connect with both parents and students. Shutterfly Share and Edublogs are two examples of ways social media can influence Children. These types of website allows children to comment on the classroom pictures or artwork posted. This is a safe way children can blog under supervision by the teacher.
 * Critical Thinking - encourages strategic thinking, especially in types of games that encourage thinking, for example, certain games in WebKinz are mathemathical and literacy based.
 * Self-Expression - WebKinz, for example, is a place where young children can design rooms and outfits the way they want them to be. MySpace, is an example of teenagers (need to be 13 for this website) designing their profile in their own creative ways. They can continously change their profile to express their creativity (Livingstone & Brake, 2010).

__**The Cons of Social Media's Influence on Children:**__
 * //Social Interaction// - creates less face-to-face interaction, especially for shy withdrawn children. Also, written format has no expression, therefore, not sure how to read some messages.
 * //Inactivity// - sitting in front of the computer for long periods of time creates a sedentary lifestyle, which can be a cause to childhood obesity (Hawkins, 2010).
 * //Lack of Imagination// - is a problem for some children as they may be playing games excessively, thus taking away any creativity they may have.
 * //Privacy// - can be an issue as many children don't have the maturity to realize what is private information, therefore, they may giving information out that they are not aware of. Also, teens especially need to be careful who they accept as a "friend" on site like Facebook.
 * //Safety Issues// - are concerns to parents as the fear of online predators may target certain websites their teens are using (Gross, 2009). Also, the issue of cyberbullying is a huge concern, because at anytime people can comment or post pictures on your Facebook or MySpace accounts. These comments or pictures can be extremely hurtful. In fact, 33% of children aged 10 -15 in the U.S. were reported to being bullied through instant messaging (Livingstone & Brake, 2010).