UNIT 10. Session 5

TEENS AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Complete the questionnaire. Answer according to your daily use and engagement with social media.

Entire questionnaire here: https://blocksurvey.io/calculator/social-media-addiction-questionnaire

Read the following text of Andalusian teenagers and their use with social media.

Interactions of Young Andalusian People inside Social Networks

Using and connecting to social networks has become a new socialization environment for youth, a space for constructing one’s social identity with one’s peers, sometimes without any parental advice or control, despite the realization that youth are connecting at younger and younger ages, and below the minimum age allowed (Inteco, 2009). On the other hand, the youth themselves manage and maintain certain levels of safety and protection over the profiles they create.

Several studies on youth and social networks have generally revealed extensive usage of these Internet services, widespread access from almost any location and the special importance that the youth attach to these services in building their social relations.

Andalusian youth (betwe- en ages 13 and 19; mean age 15) as perceiving them- selves to be good students (72%), creating their first profile on a social network at the mean age of 12, beginning cell phone usage between the ages of 8 and 12 (80.1%), 62.3% connecting to Internet on a daily basis, and 69.2% connecting in order to contact their friends. The primary location for connecting to social networks is the bedroom (74.3%), followed by the living room (25.4%). More than 90% receive in excess of 1000 visits to their social network profile.

The study shows that friends, at 45.6%, are the primary communication partners on social networks, followed by acquaintances at 22.9%, while strangers take last place at 6.7%, behind family members(24.6%) and boyfriends/girlfriends (32.8%).The main use of social networks among Andalusian youth is chatting (86.7%). A form of staying in contact with one’s social reference group, chatting creates a placeholder by uploading images created by the members themselves (69.2%), when the environ- ment or event does not allow them any other option.

Finally, Andalusian youth are aware of the impor- tance of managing privacy and security on social net- works, and they give access only to their friends (84.5%), that is, to the contacts on their list, those that they have accepted or those that they requested access to and were in turn accepted. Only 4.4% have set their profile to be open to all, in other words, to all who use the same service and even to those who do not. As one young woman said, «What are they going to get into my account for, I don’t have anything. If they break into some account, it would be a bank or somet- hing that’s worth money». Another girl argued, «If they wanted to screw me, what would bother me the most is if they started to insult me or post crappy photos of me». In the second case, it is usually classmates, friends or acquaintances that get hold of passwords either due to carelessness or excessive familiarity; they usually give them back to the same people that they steal them from. Therefore, the con- cern of the youth, and what they pursue when mana- ging their profiles, is proper safekeeping of the image they have constructed, of the relationships established, and in general their own position within the network.

Vocabulary

Do you think Andalusian teenagers behave the same way than other teenagers around the world? Watch this video.

Now, write your own 'FOR AND AGAINST' text answering to the question: 'Should teenagers reduce the use of social media and invest their time in outdoors cultural activities'? Follow the template if necessary.

Should teenagers reduce the use of social media and invest their time in outdoors cultural activities?